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 what Messy Church might look like at Grace, and I hoped it would be a way to connect children and their families to God, to each other, and to our church. We spent the summer planning and recruiting, and we kicked off Grace Messy Church in September 2017. By following the lead of the Holy Spirit and our incredible planning team, what I originally imagined as Messy Church ended up becoming something much different, and I’m so glad for what it became and continues to become.

Throughout the year we engaged a growing number of families both from within our congregation and from the community. All of this was possible because of the support of the congregation. We were blessed with a committed planning team and with many willing volunteers, and we were blessed with the financial resources to make this happen.

We’re excited about what God will do through Messy Church at Grace during the next school year, and we would love to connect more of our congregation to this growing ministry. If you want to be involved in an active way, contact me or Jennifer Snook. Also know that you are welcome to attend Messy Church any time.  We’d love for you to come and join us.

In Christ,

Catherine

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 to fill the roles of Director of Music and Director of Music – 9 am Service, and that the Session enthusiastically supports our decision.

The team followed a consistent and thorough process with all the candidates and exercised due diligence in our selection activity.

We first reviewed and revised the existing job descriptions to bring them up to date. We posted job notices for these positions with ‘Indeed’, WSU, Friends, Newman, KU, PC-USA, and some others. We received about 10 resumes, and we interviewed six people. Five interviews were done in person and one by Skype. Finally, we selected two candidates for a second interview and contacted their references prior to the interview.

The name of the person we selected is Sean Foster. Sean is not new to Grace having served as our Choir Accompanist for the past seven years and having played in the band. Sean is a graduate of Wichita State with a degree in Vocal Performance. In addition to his work at Grace, he works at Goddard High School as the Choir Accompanist and teaches voice lessons.

Sean is tentatively scheduled to start the week of July 15 and overlaps with Donna Hetrick for two weeks. We are still searching for an organist and accompanist, who ideally would be the same person. Sean will be involved in this search. We welcome your prayers and your referrals. As we get closer to Sean’s start date you will hear from me and the search team about ways to welcome him to his new position.

In Christ,
Catherine