Dear Grace Church Family,
By the time you receive this communication, my hope is we will all have weathered the storm coming our way as I write this. There are things I know even before the storm reaches land. I know we are going to be called to be the church now more than ever before. There are things I am not 100% sure about, but I’m clear that there are exciting things ahead for us, ways God is going to grow us as a church to meet the needs of our community and the world. I’m clear that there are exciting things ahead for us. Grace UMC has a lot to offer the world around us!
This Sunday, Rev. Ralph Afghan is scheduled to preach both services. Ralph is a dear, dear friend of mine from South Africa. His areas of specialty are missions & evangelism. Ralph ran the entire mission area for the Cape of Good Hope District in Cape Town. Part of my work, while I lived in South Africa for three years, was to assist him with the organizing of the mission projects. It is a huge blessing to be able to receive his leadership during a time such as this. I hope that you will make every effort to be in worship and even consider inviting a friend, so that we can share this opportunity to hear from Ralph with others.
As we consider our mission as a church, there has been resonance in all the listening sessions I participated in. In every session, someone shared a hope that we could grow in our capacity to reach the generation rising. While I was at the Leadership Institute in Kansas City, I participated in a session that was designed for just this purpose. There is a book that I am reading right now that some of you might have interest in, Growing Young Six essential strategies to help people discover and love your church. We have pretty amazing young people engaged in the life of our church and it is a gift to journey with them and prepare the way for them to rise as leaders!
There are good things in store for us! We continue one step after another in the light of God’s love!
Questions for this week:
1. Who is someone you have recognized absent from church over the last couple of weeks? Are you able to call them and ask, “How are you, just checking to make sure you are okay?
2. Who is someone you think would love participating in the life of our church? Have you considered asking them to come with you to church, the pumpkin patch, or one of our other activities?
As always,
I am so very grateful to be…
With you on the journey,
Pastor Michelle