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For Wilshire Baptist Church

LeAnn had an errand in downtown Dallas and I volunteered to keep the car double-parked so she could get in and out quickly without the hassles of parking and walking. As it happened, she got delayed by a cranky elevator in an old West End building, and sitting in the car for 20 minutes, I saw an interesting parade of people.

First were people walking down the sidewalk with backpacks and satchels. It was 9 a.m. and some were walking swiftly, cutting around the slower foot traffic, perhaps because they were running late. Others seemed to be in amble mode, perhaps working on a flexible schedule or going to a meeting that was yet to begin.

Continue reading “Street Life Parade”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

News feeds in recent months have been full of reports and opinions about the current state of AI (artificial intelligence) and what it means not only for the way we work and live but for the future of the human race. Some of the doom and gloomers are saying AI is throwing the assurance of the gospel ditty, “I know who holds the future,” into doubt.

With all the concern in the air, it was a perfect time for Wilshire’s Jason Woodbury to lead our Epiphany class through a two-week discussion of “Imago Dei in a Digital Age.” Jason brought us up to date on the different types of artificial intelligence and provided a quick history of how humanity’s understanding of our creation “in the image of God” has changed through human history. At the intersection of all that were theories and opinions about the complexity of our relationship with God and with each other and whether AI can rise to that level.

Continue reading “In the Image of God”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Did you notice? Probably not. But when Wilshire Winds played in worship on Sunday, I was not in my usual seat with the baritone sax. I was one seat over with a tenor sax. It was time for a change.

Before Sunday, I had never played the tenor sax with an ensemble in what might be called a “performance” setting. I had played alone at home, and the change was a very long time in coming.

Why the change? There are several reasons. The first was circumstances. When George Gagliardi passed away two years ago, he left a void in our Winds saxophone section. And then earlier this summer I learned Alan Brooks, one of our former Wilshire youth, was coming back to Dallas and was thinking about playing with the Winds. He played saxophone in school and could play different types, but baritone was his favorite. That led to a “light bulb” idea for me one night: I could hand over the baritone, which belongs to Wilshire, and take up George’s tenor, which also belongs to the church. That would fill out our section again.

Continue reading “Time for a Change”