Drive-in and online options for Christmas Eve
Wilshire will offer two in-person outdoor services plus an online-only worship option on Christmas Eve, Thursday, Dec. 24. Two identical drive-in Christmas Eve services will be held in the north parking lot at 4:45 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. The services will feel similar to the recent Church in the Lot events, but different in one key aspect: all worshipers will remain in their vehicles. The service will be broadcast over a special FM frequency. Advance sign-up is required for the drive-in Christmas Eve services. Sign up here. In addition to the in-person option, an online Christmas Eve service will premiere on Wilshire’s YouTube channel at 7 p.m. and can be viewed anytime thereafter. This service will be more formal and liturgical in the tradition of Wilshire’s usual 11 p.m. Christmas Eve worship. Ministers will be robed and Communion will be served. Worshipers are encouraged to participate in Communion from home with whatever elements are at hand. Read More about Christmas Eve.
Cookies & Carols, Saturday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. Join us in person in the north parking lot for a safe social event with live Christmas music and treats packaged to enjoy on site or to take home. Free. Advanced registration required. Sign up here to attend.
Wilshire’s Got Talent: Holiday Edition. Saturday, Dec. 19. YouTube, 7 p.m. Will the McClung family be able to top their Hamilton routine from the summer? Will George do that whistling thing again? Find out when the Christmas version of our virtual talent show debuts Saturday night, Dec. 19. It’ll premiere on YouTube at 7, and you can join in the live chat and make it a watch party with your Wilshire friends. We’ll share the link on Facebook and in the Guide to Worship email on the 19th, but the show should be easy enough to find at youtube.com/wilshirebaptist.
Honest Advent Experience—Sunday afternoons during Advent. The Wilshire Sanctuary will be open for a guided experience each Sunday during Advent from 1 to 5 p.m. Each week, we will explore the weekly liturgical theme (Hope, Peace, Joy, Love) through art by Scott Erickson, Scripture, prayers and prompts for reflection. Each visitor will receive a postcard-sized print of one of the art pieces and a tapered candle to take home. You are encouraged to come all four weeks as materials will be refreshed weekly. The experience will take about 15 minutes to complete, and family units should move through the experience as a group. Read more here. Advance sign-up is required. Free. Sign up below (via SignUpGenius). If you’d like to come but there are no spots remaining, contact Heather Mustain via email (hmustain@wilshirebc.org). We’ll make every effort to accommodate you.
Advent Devotional Videos. Video reflections from Wilshire members on the Hopes & Fears theme will be released twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) on social media channels or email during Advent. View any Devotional Videos you may have missed on this YouTube playlist. To receive the videos in an email each Tuesday and Thursday, sign up here.
Koinonia Café resumes Jan. 13. Wilshire’s Wednesday takeout meal service, Koinonia Café To Go, will be on holiday break for the next few weeks and will resume service on Jan. 13, 2021.
Book clubs
• The WOW! Brown Bag Book Club meets on Zoom one Thursday a month at noon. On Jan. 7, the group will discuss Sejal Badani’s The Storyteller’s Secret. Contact Abbey Adcox at aadcox@wilshirebc.org or Carolyn Murray at cmurray@wilshirebc.org to sign up.
• The WOW! Tuesday Evening Book Club meets on Zoom monthly at 7 p.m. For its next meeting, Jan. 12, the club will be joined by local author Harry Hall for a discussion of his book, The Pedestriennes: America’s Forgotten Superstars. Contact Debby Burton at dburton@wilshirebc.org to sign up.
• Wilshire’s Anti-Racism Book Club will discuss White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Register at wilshirebc.org/registration.
Michael Waters book available. Copies of Stakes Is High by Michael Waters are still available for the discount price of $10. In the book, Waters, a local pastor and community leader, “blends hip-hop lyricism and social justice leadership, creating an urgent voice demanding that America listen to the suffering if it hopes to redeem its soul.” The book can be purchased at wilshirebc.org/registration.