Prairie Fire Marathon and Half Marathon

Sunday October 11: Worship at 9 and 10:30

Sunday, October 11, is the Prairie Fire Marathon and Half Marathon. For the third year in a row runners will race past Grace starting around 8 am. We’ll be on the lawn to cheer for them as they zoom down Douglas.

Cheering, waving, and clapping for the runners is joyful, particularly when you can see the difference the encouragement makes for a person. Bring a chair or plan to stand. Our presence on the lawn is an important witness to the community.

The 9 am service worships informally on the lawn. At 10:30 am, we all gather in the sanctuary for worship. (NOTE THE TIME CHANGE.) Our music for the day is a bluegrass band, and following worship we share a BBQ lunch in the Great Room. The cost for lunch is $8 for adults and $3 for anyone 11 and under with a family cap of $19. Don’t miss this fun Sunday!

From the Pastor's Desk

From the Pastor’s Desk: September 22

Dear Grace Community,

“Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say Rejoice!” This was Paul’s message to the Philippians and a good message for us too.

This summer we introduced you to, “Rejoice,” the proposal to enhance our worship spaces at Grace. The church leadership set a goal of $65,000 in order to make updates and changes to both the Great Room and Sanctuary. I was hopeful, even confident, that we would meet the goal, but what happened was more than I expected.

We not only met the goal in gifts and pledges, we exceeded it!

Again and again the generosity of this congregation amazes me. In the coming weeks the Board of Trustees will set a timeline for these enhancements to begin and will discuss the best way to steward the gifts that are above what we requested. Know that any money received that is above what we asked for will be used for worship enhancement.

There were some projects that we did not include in this campaign because we couldn’t get good bids and confirmation of work or because they were seen as useful enhancements but not immediate needs. Now we may be able to consider some of those projects as well. We’ll keep you abreast on the progress in both spaces in the coming months.

As we continue in our common life together we do so rejoicing, and I look forward to seeing you in worship.

In Christ,

Catherine

Elizabeth Gilbert

Watermark Event: Elizabeth Gilbert October 12

We’re excited to host our neighbors Watermark Books on October 12. At 6:30 pm we welcome author Elizabeth Gilbert who will share about her new book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Gilbert is also the author of the bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love.

This is a ticketed event, however Grace is given a set of free tickets to share. First priority for tickets goes to those who volunteer. We need greeters starting at 5:45 pm and a clean-up team to break down the Great Room after the event. Look for sign up information at church or contact Catherine Neelly Burton, catherine@mygpc.org 684-5215.

 

children

Children’s Ministry Update from Jennifer Snook – September 2015

This year several friends and staff from Grace Presbyterian Church attended the Global Leadership Summit. Any time one sits for several hours and listens to others speak about effective leadership there is a possibility that one might get inspired. Well, one did. This one, heard a brief statement that she could not seem to forget.

That statement was from Bill Hybels who said, “one day, many years into ministry, after surveying our congregation, I realized that we had neglected to focus on helping our people become self-learners, and we had failed them at offering tools that would help them teach their own children about the person and life of Jesus.”

As we begin a new season of Christian education at Grace for both adults and students I pray that we will be committed to the idea of becoming self-learning, thinking Christians who will not stand for letting our children become a statistic. Barna research shows that 32% of people between the ages of 0-14 enter into a relationship with Jesus. After age 14 the percentage drops to 6%.

Children’s ministry is so very important. I say it all the time, “what we do on Sunday morning matters.” But what we do in our personal walk with the Holy matters too. How we pass on the Christian story matters, and the good news is that we have each other. We get to draw from the experience of others and offer our own unique spin as we become better connected families who are committed to raising up well-informed followers of Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to explore the classes being offered for adults and remember that the children will be learning age leveled classes on a curriculum called “Feasting on the Word,” a class that is also being extended at the adult level. The hope in doing this kind of comprehensive teaching is that adults and children are able to learn and worship the same Scripture each week in order to foster discussion at home. Grace and peace to all of you who are raising up children in the way of the Lord.