From the Pastor’s Desk

Dear Grace Community,

Last spring Jennifer Snook, our Director of Children’s Ministries, and I began to talk about and pray about Messy Church. Messy Church is not an original idea at Grace. It started in churches in Great Britain and churches all over the world have adopted and adapted it. The idea behind Messy Church is to engage people of all ages in hands on worship experiences including art, song, play, Bible story, and a shared meal.

I had an idea of ...

Dear Grace Community,

I write with good news!

Late last year, knowing that Donna Hetrick would leave this summer, a team was formed to find leadership for our music ministry staff. Members of this team include Bruce Gealy, Charlene Randle, Janet Rhoads, Randy Routsong, and Bill Vavra. I staff the team.

Donna currently performs three functions: Director of Music, Director of Music – 9 am Service, and Organist. The team and I are excited to announce that we have selected a person ...

Dear Grace Community,

As a pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), I am not a member of a church and instead am a member of a presbytery.  This means that in addition to serving at Grace, I also serve the PCUSA in different ways.  I realize that you don’t often see or hear about this, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of this with you.

Grace is part of the Presbytery of Southern Kansas. The presbytery is ...

Dear Grace Community,

Every year Grace holds a Good Friday Prayer Vigil, and every year I ask myself, “Do I want to sign up?’”

The vigil begins at 12:30 pm at the end of our Good Friday worship service, and it ends at midnight. The time of the vigil is symbolic of the time of Jesus’ trial, beating, crucifixion, and death. Good Friday is a holy and hard day, and it is all too easy to skip over it, but spending time ...

Dear Grace Community,

February in Wichita began on a horrifying note with the report of child rape at the YMCA Kidzone.  The news impacted me as the parent of a two-year-old who has spent time in the Kidzone and as the pastor of a church with a daycare and preschool.

Immediately after the news broke, Martin Burch, our executive pastor, and I sat down with Merodee Grannis and Nancy Morrow, our Jacob’s Learning Ladder director and assistant director. I have complete trust ...