UBC Experience: Developing Thriving Online Ministry from Scratch
In 2013, after partnering with St. Paul Community Baptist Church (SPCBC) to build our first PocketPew app, we received a call from Marcus o/b United Baptist Church (UBC), who was “card out of wallet” interested to get setup with a mobile app. He saw what we did for SPCBC and was really excited to add this tech tool to UBC.
Fast forward to a few months in, Marcus turned out to be one of the most pleasant clients we have had the privilege of working with. We were able to setup an app and text messaging plan for UBC.
You could only imagine our utmost surprise (months later), when his wife, Carmela, reached out to us (through Marcus’ church email) requesting access to the church’s app + text accounts; while letting us know that her husband had recently passed away. She indicated she was taking over his responsibility at UBC. Marcus was 41 – May his gentle soul rest in peace. .
[Tweet “See how UBC gets upgraded. From no computers to a thriving online ministry!”]
This was at 5-something in the afternoon and I was closing down for the day, when I read the support ticket. That took me back. It eventually took the entire team back a notch or two, once I shared the news. At that time, it was merely weeks before, when we worked with Marcus to redesigned UBC’s app, successfully. He loved it. We loved working with him. This was just a shocker!
The resilience of his wife though, through it all, was just amazing! Praise God for real hope; the option of life after death and the power of prayer.
But what he left behind still lives on and the progress was captured on a recent interview I did with Carmela.
Carmela wants us to remember his awesome legacy in sports, journalism but most importantly, his ministry work at church.
The minister can preach to you, but can he/she change you. You can hear the choir, buy will it change you.
— Union Baptist Church (@UBCExperience) October 25, 2015
From a 2014 Newsday article: Marcus Henry, Newsday sports journalist, dies at 41. Carmela Henry said her husband would assist at the senior ministry at Hempstead’s Union BaptistChurch.
“He was motivating them at the church to eat right and get healthy,” she said. “He loved working with the senior citizens.”
Henry’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Sedgwick V. Easley, saluted him.
“Marcus spent countless hours at the church,” Easley said. “He was gentle, always easy-going, never a bad word.This loss is indescribable and it will be years before we’ll even process the thought that Marcus Henry is gone. He will live forever in the Union Baptist Church. He loved Union.”
This story not only reflects a small snippet of his legacy but highlights his focus on people first (not tech). In the recent interview with Carmela, we highlighted many of the tech integration that started before, during and after Marcus epoch, what is involved when working for UBC, and tips on moving the entire church forward with newer tech tools (without alienating any section).
UBC Experience: Developing Thriving Online Ministry from Scratch