Whether it’s online, in person, or some combination, it’s back to school time! This Sunday we bless backpacks in our 10 am morning service and at our 7 pm evening prayer service. If you attend the evening service, bring your backpack with you, and have yours with you for worship in your home on Sunday morning. Our congregation looks forward to celebrating students, teachers, and school staff!
We miss you, and we know you miss seeing each other for worship. You may tune into Facebook live for worship at 10 am on Sunday, August 16, and Sunday, August 23, and then come to the Grace Parking lot for an evening prayer service. The evening service lasts about 30 minutes and includes piano music, scripture, and prayer.
If you come, please bring your own chair and mask! We invite you to set up your chairs in a socially distanced fashion.
It’s time for the Grace All Church Retreat! In 2019 over 50 of us gathered at a camp near Arkansas City for a weekend retreat. This year that is not possible, so instead of a retreat at one location, we’re having a retreat at many locations. We call it the Satellite All Church Retreat.
Members of our congregation welcome small groups to their backyards for a scaled-down retreat on Sunday, August 30 from 9-11 am. Each retreat location has a leader who guides the group through the morning. (The host and leader may or may not be the same person.) The focus for the retreat is the Lord’s Prayer. Participants will explore the Lord’s Prayer in a variety of ways.
How do you participate? Good question! See the locations below then call the Grace office, 684-5215, and talk to Teresa to sign up. Or you may email her at Teresa@mygpc.org
On the morning of the retreat, you go to your location and bring a water bottle, chair, Bible, and mask. Children are welcome at all locations, but there is one that is designated specifically for our youngest children.
For those who do not participate in the retreat, there is a Grace Sanctuary worship option, which is also focused on the Lord’s Prayer.
Retreat Locations:
- Buteyn Family – West Wichita
- Bruce and Trish Gealy – Bel Air
- Jim and Pam Head’s house – near Grace
- Randle Family – Woodlawn and 21st area of Wichita
- White Family – near Grace (Location reserved for people with children 2nd grade and younger)
When we fill up these locations we’ll add more!
Grace is again an early voting site. You may early vote at Grace on Thursday, July 30 ,and Friday, July 31, from 10 am – 7 pm and on Saturday, August 1, from 9 am – 4 pm. You may early vote at Grace even if this is not your assigned voting location. On Tuesday, August 4, voting at Grace is held all day but is only for those assigned to this location.
If you come to vote (or come to the church for another reason), know that the only door that is open on voting days is door six by the sanctuary/Douglas parking lot. All other doors are locked.
Masks are not required for people to vote. The Session discussed this and how to best protect our Jacob’s Learning Ladder (JLL) teachers and families. Door 1 (the north door that JLL uses) will be locked, but JLL families and staff will have access with their badges. JLL families have never had access to this before but because of our controlled access we can make this work for a few days. Anyone not here for JLL will not be allowed access to Door 6 (this includes voters and you). We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Dear Grace Community,
For the last two Sundays I’ve spoken about the tension and unrest in our country and community around race and racism. I acknowledge my failure to challenge us to talk more about this until now. Yes, we’ve had conversations in groups, and we’ve studied things in groups, but on the whole, we haven’t talked about race and racism. As your pastor, I haven’t pushed this because it’s hard and uncomfortable.
I was also misguided by my desire to keep peace. I was reminded recently that while the church should never be partisan, it’s impossible not to be political. Political doesn’t mean a party. It means that we exist in the public realm, as did Jesus. Ignoring this isn’t keeping peace; it’s avoiding what’s happening in our world.
I’m writing now because this moment calls for it. I believe that our church must engage with the pain in the world. We need to have hard conversations, not because we’re a racist church, but because racism exists, and until we name it and learn more, we can’t be effective in being part of good change. There is no singular conversation to be had, and there is no one solution. I wish it were that simple!
Instead, I write to challenge you to start this work with me as a congregation. Your Christian Discipleship Team has put together a 2-Week Challenge for you.[1] Below you see a list of resources and a description of them. We challenge you to pick resources from this list and read/watch/listen over the next two weeks. Pick four things each week.
You will not connect with everything on this list. Some things may make you uncomfortable; they make me uncomfortable. This list is a starting point, a collection of resources curated by your Christian Discipleship team, and it is no way exhaustive nor perfect.
We are in an uncomfortable time, and if we don’t engage and educate ourselves, we miss an opportunity. If you choose to take this challenge, please register so that we can encourage one another.
In Christ,
Catherine
[raw]
2-Week Challenge Chart
[1] This idea comes from Eddie Moore’s 21-Day Challenge and variations of it that many churches are doing right now.
