The CUBE is Yours!
By Luke McConnell
There are many things I really enjoy about the CUBE. There are also many things I wish were different about the CUBE. But the best part about the CUBE is how it has become part of the fabric of the community over the past 16 years.
All over the city, you can find people who know about the CUBE. Basketball players, pickleball players, volleyball families and regular folks just looking for a workout facility. God has graciously allowed the CUBE to be known in Bethany and Oklahoma City as a whole.
I love the folks who come to the CUBE after not coming in for several years. A lot of people were in middle school or high school when they first came and have since been away at college or moved away for a time before returning to OKC. They came back to the CUBE because they remember it as a safe, fun environment where they could find some good run on the basketball court or get a good lift in.
Praise God for allowing the CUBE to have a favorable reputation in the community! It reminds me of how Acts describes the early church. Acts 2:47 says the early church “enjoyed the favor of all the people.” The way they lived was admired by both believers and nonbelievers. The CUBE is very similar.
We could not do what we do at the CUBE without the steady work of our volunteers. The other staff members and I who have offices at the CUBE don’t see or speak to every person who comes in each day. But the great people who volunteer at the front desk do. They see our members every day and have built great relationships with them as well. The CUBE does not exist without our church members volunteering their time each week to ensure the CUBE stays a place where people can come and enjoy themselves.
We need more church members to step up and spend time volunteering at the CUBE. We’re stretched a bit thin right now. We have a great team of volunteers and two paid interns who help fill in the gaps and cover rental activities in the evenings, but without more, we’re limited in what we can do on a daily basis.
Like I mentioned on Sunday morning a few weeks back, volunteering at the CUBE is not a role that was assigned to our senior adults. It’s true most of our volunteers fall in that category, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it’s a bit unfair to even expect that, as volunteering does require a small bit of computer work that can be intimidating for some senior adults.
The CUBE is not a ministry of our senior adults. It’s a ministry of Council Road Baptist Church as a whole.
I would like to ask for each of you to prayerfully consider volunteering at the CUBE during the week. The building is open Monday-Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The majority of our needs are in the afternoon, but we can use whatever you have to offer. Look for reasons to say yes as opposed to thinking of all the reasons you can’t do it. Those are two completely different approaches.
It would be wrong for me to assume we’ll have a constant flow of volunteers as our church members retire and have more time on their hands. If there’s not a desire to serve now, there’s no reason to expect a desire to serve when there’s availability.
There are people who first came to the CUBE as kids who now bring their own kids to the CUBE on occasion. We’re already serving a second generation of people at the corner of NW 30th and Council. We can’t continue to do that and hope to serve a third or fourth generation without you serving with us.
Will you serve? You may never say more to some people than “hello,” but your presence matters. The CUBE’s presence in the community matters. Let’s be good stewards of what God has given us and maximize the CUBE to shine the light of Jesus in Bethany and Oklahoma City.
Author Bio
Luke serves as the CUBE Director at Council Road. He previously worked at Channel 9 as a sports writer and an account executive. He also serves as the play-by-play voice for Southern Nazarene University athletics. Luke graduated from OU in 2011. He and his wife, Mary, have been members at Council Road since 2012. They have four boys: Andrew, Logan, Jackson and Cameron. Mary teaches second grade at Wiley Post Elementary.