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. Watch it here or find it at youtube.com/wilshirebaptist.
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.
Honest Advent Experience—Sunday afternoons during Advent. TThe Sanctuary will be open for “Hopes & Fears: An Honest Advent Experience” one final time from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20. The exhibit has been updated to reflect the theme for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Love. Visitors will make their way through stations featuring the work of Austin-based illustrator Scott Erickson plus Scripture, prompts for reflection and interactive elements. The experience takes about 15 minutes, and household units move through 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.
Church Office open for year-end giving. Year-end financial gifts may be brought to the church anytime before 5 p.m. on Dec. 31. The week of Dec. 28, Accounting Manager Lori Gooden will be in the office in the mornings, and Director of Business Administration David Nabors will be on-site in the afternoons. Call Lori at 972-632-7539 or David at 214-797-8799 with questions or to arrange a curbside pickup of your offering. Checks can be placed in the secure black mailbox outside the doors near the church office at anytime; please place your check in an envelope. Mailed checks must be postmarked by Dec. 31 to be credited as a 2020 gift. You may also submit gifts online, or through the Wilshire app, or by text. Find out more here.
Benevolence gift cards. If you visited the Giving Tree and took a tag for a Wilshire benevolence gift card, don’t forget to purchase the gift card and return it to the church. Gift cards can be returned at any time to the secure black mailbox outside the main church office.
100 Giving Tree wishes fulfilled. Thanks to your generosity through our annual Giving Tree program, 100 gift bags were recently delivered to our local mission partners for distribution to families they serve. Beneficiaries include Interfaith Family Services, Viola’s House at Cornerstone Baptist Church, Gateway of Grace, Wilkinson Center, Genesis Women’s Shelter, DISD’s Pershing Elementary School and CitySquare’s TRAC program.
Light up the Mat: Epiphany Yoga with Jenna . Sundays, Jan. 10 – Feb. 14, 3–4 p.m. on Zoom. Want to start 2021 off on the right foot, literally and figuratively? Join Pastoral Resident Jenna Sullivan, a certified yoga instructor, for an introductory virtual yoga class during the liturgical season of Epiphany. The six-week class is geared specifically to beginners. You will learn about the basics of yoga postures, practice stress-busting breathing techniques and see how this practice can deepen your life with God. Together, we will make room on our mats and in our lives for the Light of the world. The class is free and open to up to 25 people. Register at wilshirebc.org/registration to get the Zoom links. You will need a yoga mat and some comfortable clothes — sweatpants or pants with some stretch. An inexpensive yoga block is suggested but not required (available at Target or Amazon).
Cookies & Carols a Success. Over 100 Wilshire folks of all ages braved chilly weather to gather in the North Parking Lot on Saturday, Dec. 12, for Cookies & Carols. Attendees enjoyed Christmas cookies baked by chef Elizabeth Ferguson and a Christmas singalong led by Darren DeMent. Wilshire member Julie Owen remarked as she was leaving, “It finally feels like Christmas.”
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.