Over the last couple of weeks, I have had countless meaningful conversations with members of UBC. Many of the discussions have centered around two questions:
1) Why now; 2) How UBC will continue to thrive.
Each time the conversation has turned to “all the wonderful things you (Andy) have done here,” I quickly pivot the conversation to note in all authenticity and sincerity that all I have done is pull out and leverage what already existed within UBC’s fine people. UBC is indeed thriving because of our extraordinary people and their willingness to invest in creative Kingdom work.
So much of my sense of calling to come to UBC four years ago was discerning just how extraordinary the members of this faith community are. We sensed it in the pastor search team, thinking that if the rest of the congregation was anything like this group of people, we wanted to be a part of what was happening in Baton Rouge.
And our hunches were correct—UBC has many gifted, engaging, and wonderful people. And what makes you all so extraordinary is how you relate to one another in gracious, compassionate, and generous ways.
If you were to give an honest assessment of my time at UBC, you’d realize that all I was attempting to do was bring you all together in thoughtful and proactive ways. By bringing you together for intentional conversations, creative activities, and the spiritual discipline of having fun together, we created opportunities for relational boundaries to be torn down. By investing time together, we built the kind of mutual respect, trust, and love that lead to thriving.
UBC is thriving because God has uniquely placed this set of people together in this particular context for such time as this. UBC is thriving because you all have been willing to love God and love each other as we faithfully discover together what God is doing in and through us.
Let this be a comforting and empowering thought as you venture into the next chapter of your lives together.