November 28, 2022
Dear Grace Community,
Earlier I shared a note with you about a decision the Grace Session made to our congregational welcome statement. You can read that letter here >
As I shared in that letter, the Session spent months on this topic with a lot of conversation. In the end, no one on the Session voted against this welcome statement. I asked volunteers to share why they thought this was important for the Session, and I share their thoughts below.
In Christ,
Catherine NB
From Ben Juhnke:
I have had several friends in the LGBTQ community who, when looking for a church home, visit our website and do not find anything on our site that welcomes them into our community. We don’t state what our stance or beliefs are, which can be confusing or misleading.
The best way to compare the hardships they face in being welcomed is to compare their search for a community to the search African Americans had following the civil rights movement. If we don’t explicitly invite, we might not be as welcoming as we say we are. And that possibility will keep a member of the community away from our doorstep. They will never even set foot inside to find out just how welcoming and inviting we, as the Grace family, are to anyone who wants to deepen their love of Christ.
From Elyse Scholl:
Dear Grace Members,
As a member of your Session, I want to share more about our new Welcome Statement. There are people in our community who are not welcomed in all churches. As a PCUSA church, we are privileged to celebrate religious freedom for all. This gives us the opportunity to share the Glory of our God with a community that is underserved and underrepresented; what a gift! To quote a phrase from the 90s, “What Would Jesus Do?” He would minister to and care for ALL. I hope that this Welcome Statement encourages members of our community that have not found a church where they can feel at home to try Grace. As members, we already know that Grace Presbyterian is a welcoming place, and this statement is our opportunity to let visitors know that they are fully welcome here regardless of race, disability, gender, sexuality, politics, or socio-economic status.
From Jody Webster
In the Internet age, many people turn to the web to scout out their church homes before even setting foot in the building. Too many churches are “welcoming” in their Mission Statement or “About Us” on their website, but those who are outliers, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, too often find an unspoken “but…” in how the church includes them in the body of Christ.
God created each one of us and gave each one of us gifts to further His kingdom. By qualifying how a potential member can contribute, we are not authentic in our welcome. I want our church to leave no doubt that we follow the teachings of Jesus detailed in Matthew 22:36-40, loving one another without conditions or exceptions, as we should love ourselves.
ShareNOV