Category Archives: Church Information

Jacob's Learning Ladder

HANGING OF THE GREENS AND CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

Come one, come all to our Christmas celebration and hanging of the greens event this Saturday, December 4, from 9 am to 2 pm. Please come even if you didn’t sign up. It is a fun event to bring our congregation together to decorate, celebrate, serve, and share a meal together as we prepare for the celebration of coming of Christ.  If you want to come to all the events or just participate in one of the events, it’s your choice, and we want you to participate.  Below is the schedule for Saturday.

  • 9 am – 11:30 am: Hanging of the Greens
  • 11:30 am – 12:30 pm: Crock Pot potluck – bring a soup or chili to share for lunch.
  • 12:30 pm – 2 pm: Baking cookies and delivering cookies to local first responders.
  • All Day: We also have a craft station set up for you and your family to make an item and add to your holiday decorations.  This is for the entire family and is available all day.
irc

Refugee Team Updates

The Grace Refugee Team continues to partner with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to welcome refugees to Wichita.  Wichita will now receive refugees from Afghanistan in addition to the people we were scheduled to receive.  This means that there are lots of volunteer opportunities.  Our team is working closely with the IRC and will soon have tangible ways for you to get involved.

Right now, there continues to be a need for drivers.  When refugees arrive to Wichita, they need rides to places like the Social Security Office.  If they have children, they need rides to schools to get registered.  Members of our congregation have been volunteering in this way for years, and now the need is greater.  If you want to learn more contact Wizie Eads from Grace (contact the church for Wizie’s info).  If you’re ready to volunteer, email Mike Allred at IRC mike.allred@rescue.org

This volunteer position requires that IRC vet you. The vetting process involves a background check, and you must have your Covid vaccine.

pda

Sunday, November 14: Two Distinct Ways to Worship

On Sunday, November 14, our 9 am and 11 am worship services will be quite different, so plan to come to both, or plan for the service that works best for you.

The 9 am worship service will not include a traditional sermon. In place of the sermon, the congregation will actively participate in mission projects such as making care packages for college students, creating hygiene bags for the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and writing notes to ‘at home’ members. The service will include prayer, scripture, music, and an offering. The 11-worship service will include a traditional sermon as well as other traditional worship elements.

Gen Z and How to Talk to Teens

gen z

Some of us are podcast people. Some of us aren’t. Some of us don’t know what podcasts are.

Podcasts are conversations that you can listen to anytime. It’s a bit like a radio show on demand. In the last two years my sermon prep changed from reading to listening as two groups of Biblical Scholars I respect started making podcasts. I get to listen in on conversations about the scripture for the sermon I’ll preach. Sometimes what I hear makes it into the sermon. Sometimes it doesn’t, but I still learn.

Some of us are ‘youth’ people. Some of us claim we don’t know how to relate to youth. Some of us aren’t willing to try.

My best friend from seminary, Sara Hayden, works for the national PCUSA with new churches. She has a podcast called New Way. While she’s a dear friend, I don’t listen to all of the podcasts, but I do listen to some. The most recent is a conversation between Sara and Gina Yeager Buckley.

Gina is the head youth person for the PCUSA (not her official title).  I met Gina 20 years ago when I was 22, and she was in her 30’s.  I was helping with a national middle school conference, and she led our planning retreat.

Gina has incredible gifts for youth ministry. She never makes anything about herself but redirects the focus to the youth. She takes things that sound complicated and finds a way to make them clear. She’s someone who I’m around, and nothing she does seems that spectacular, but when it’s over, I can’t believe what she’s led a group to do.

In the podcast with Gina and Sara, they have a simple conversation about youth, particularly GenZ.  Nothing they say is particularly revolutionary, and I think that’s what makes it work  Gina never tries to do “10 tips that will make your youth group grow.” Instead, she talks about the small ways we minister to youth  You can listen below:

[button url=”https://www.newchurchnewway.org/podcast/home/2021/9/26/gina-yeager-buckley” target=”” size=”small” style=”orange” icon=”” popup=”” title=””]Listen[/button]

Most of our congregation does not live with teenagers.  For us, this is a helpful insight.

-Catherine Neelly Burton

sewing machines

Sewing Machines

There is a room on the second floor of Grace that is filled with sewing machines. In different seasons, ministry teams have used them. One sewing team iteration made tote bags for various groups. Another team made pillows. Most recently the quilting group used them.

Through our connections with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), we’ve learned that sewing machines are in demand in the local refugee community. In the refugee community, the women primarily stay home with children, and a sewing machine is of high value in the home.

Most of the sewing machines in our church were donated over the years  We plan to give away the majority of them to the IRC.  If you donated one and would like it back, please let the church know, 316-684-5215.  We  donate machines by November 1, if we do not hear from anyone.