The Colors of Gratitude

The cool autumn nights this week have encouraged the leaves on my street to begin to change. Bursts of red, orange, and yellow are appearing in the trees, giving me another reason to pause and enjoy my favorite season.

Here at Grace, another tree has been filling with color. Our Gratitude Tree, on the bulletin board in the hallway by the sanctuary, has become a beautiful collection of green, yellow, orange, and red paper leaves. Throughout our stewardship season, you have added leaves naming the things for which you are grateful: family, health, music, creative worship, friends, answered prayers, and the service we do together. Each leaf offers a glimpse of God’s grace at work in our lives.

Last Sunday, we were encouraged to add more leaves, this time naming how we might respond to that gratitude. Your responses included helping our preschool families, sharing gifts through the church’s music ministry, giving our time, being less judgmental, practicing patience, growing in the Spirit, and supporting our mission partners. Together, these leaves tell a story of gratitude taking root and generosity growing. Our tree has become a colorful picture of what God is doing in our midst and how we hope to join that work.

We set an ambitious goal this stewardship season: 100 pledges, up from the 83 we received last year. So far, we have received 70. I am grateful for every pledge and for all who have committed to sharing their spiritual gifts alongside their financial contributions. These commitments help us plan for the year ahead and sustain the worship, care, learning, and service we share at Grace.

If you are still discerning how God is calling you to contribute, I encourage you to begin with gratitude. What gifts have sustained you? Where have you experienced love, belonging, or hope? Then prayerfully consider how you might respond. Perhaps there is a ministry where your gifts could flourish, a neighbor who could use your care, or a financial commitment you are ready to make. Our ability to continue the ministries and missions of the church depends on the commitments each of us brings through our time, talents, and treasure.

The leaves on my street will eventually fall, but the generosity growing at Grace can continue to bear fruit throughout the year. May we keep noticing God’s gifts, giving thanks, and sharing what we have received.

See you in church!

Peace, Grace, and Love,
Pastor Kevin

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A Delivery of Grace

Sometimes grace arrives when we are busy making room for something else.

Our library renovation is nearly complete. After a roof leak brought rain inside and damaged the room, we have replaced the ceiling, added new lighting, and installed new carpet. This week, two beautiful loveseats arrived to complete the space. The old couch has already found a new home in the apartment of one of our neighbors whom we have come to know through our bus ticket ministry. Even as we refresh a room here at Grace, something from that room is helping make a home elsewhere.

But the most memorable part of the afternoon happened before the new furniture was even in place. As the two store employees delivering the loveseats walked into the building, they noticed our bulletin board with the names and pictures of our siblings in the congregation in Placetas, Cuba. Both had moved from Cuba to Wichita four years ago. One was from Havana, and the other was from a small town near Placetas. They stopped, overcome with emotion. One said he recognized a woman in the photographs. They wanted to know about the pictures and why we had them displayed in our church.

Tricia explained that people from Grace have been visiting the congregation in Placetas for several years, bringing money, medicine, and supplies for the congregation to share with the surrounding community. Both were astounded by the connection. Again and again, they thanked us for this ministry and for the compassion that has brought our congregations together. In the middle of an ordinary delivery on a busy afternoon, we found ourselves sharing something holy.

It was truly a God moment. Those photographs are familiar to many of us. We pass them on our way to worship, a meeting, or another task. Yet through the eyes of these visitors, we were reminded that every picture represents a person, a relationship, and a story. For these two men, the pictures offered an unexpected connection to their homeland. The love shared between Grace and Placetas reaches farther than we can see. This week, it reached right back into our hallway and touched the hearts of two people we had just met.

When we look at the needs of the world, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. The problems can seem so large, and what we have to offer can seem so small. But together, with God’s help, we can make a difference. We can share medicine, offer support, build friendships, and keep showing up for one another. We may never know all the ways those acts of care matter. Then, sometimes, God gives us a glimpse. Love and grace break through where we least expect them, reminding us that the work is bearing fruit.

I am grateful for everyone who has supported our ministry with Placetas through donations, time, travel, and prayer. You are helping nurture a connection that touches hearts in Cuba and here in Wichita. As we continue growing in gratitude, I give thanks for these relationships and for the unexpected moments that help us see what God is growing among us.

I’ll see you in church!

Peace, Grace, and Love,

Pastor Kevin

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A Season of Gratitude

It’s finally starting to feel like fall, my favorite season.

The angle of the sun has shifted, making the colors a little richer. Cool mornings invite me to pull out my flannel shirts, jackets, and sweaters, and pumpkin spice is in the air (for better or worse). Football season is underway (go Chiefs!), and Halloween is just around the corner. I still need to find a plastic tulip for my Calvin costume – (that’s John Calvin, the Reformation leader, not the boy with the tiger.) Meanwhile, for my kids in college, midterms are already fast approaching. The season is changing, and somehow the calendar keeps moving faster than I expect.

Here at Grace, autumn also brings stewardship season. I’m grateful to everyone who has already returned a pledge and added a leaf to our gratitude tree. Each leaf offers a glimpse of the blessings we recognize and the life we share. But our tree is still looking rather bare. We’ve received fewer than 20 pledges toward our goal of 100, and there is plenty of room for more gratitude to take root.

As you enjoy this beautiful autumn weather, I invite you to take some time this week to reflect on what you are grateful for in your own life and in the life of our congregation. Where have you experienced God’s care? Who has offered you encouragement, friendship, or hope? What ministries at Grace have helped you grow, or made a difference in the lives of our neighbors? Let that gratitude become a starting place for prayer as you consider how God is calling you to participate in our shared ministry and mission.

A pledge is more than a promise of financial support. It is an invitation to be part of what God is doing through the hands and hearts of the people at Grace. Our gifts help sustain that work, and so do our time, our talents, and our willingness to show up for one another. Together, we respond to the grace we have received by sharing it.

This Sunday, we’re also beginning our Network Discovery class at 10 AM, an opportunity to discern your gifts and discover where you might share them at Grace. For those who cannot attend on Sunday mornings, we’ll offer classes on Saturdays, November 7 and 14. Whether you already have a sense of where you are called to serve or are wondering what your next step might be, these classes offer space to explore those questions together.

The autumn months always seem to pass quickly. Before we know it, Advent will be here. So, take a little time to get outside, feel the cool air, and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. Give thanks for the gifts around you and prayerfully consider how you might share yours. Then bring back your pledge and the leaf from your stewardship packet, with something you are grateful for written on it, and add it to our gratitude tree on the bulletin board by the sanctuary. As our tree fills with leaves, may our hearts grow in gratitude and our lives in generosity.

See you in church!

Peace, Grace, and Love,
Pastor Kevin

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Pears & Pledges

Our gratitude tree is beginning to fill with leaves! As stewardship pledges arrive, colorful expressions of thanksgiving are appearing on the bulletin board, reminding us of the many gifts that nourish our life together. Thank you to everyone who picked up a stewardship packet on Sunday. You saved us quite a bit of postage! The remaining packets were mailed this week. I hope you will take time to read through the narrative budget and give thanks for the ways Grace’s ministries and missions touch lives throughout Wichita and around the world. Behind each part of that budget are people, relationships, and opportunities to make God’s love visible.

The financial commitments we make through our annual pledges help make this work possible. But stewardship also invites us to consider what we have to share beyond our financial resources. Our time, our abilities, our willingness to show up and lend a hand are gifts from God, too. And sometimes we discover just how much those gifts matter while standing beside one another, bagging pears.

On Tuesday morning, more than a dozen people from Grace joined our neighbors at the Kansas Food Bank for Hunger Awareness Day. Together, we helped “Pack the Truck” with fresh produce to be distributed across Kansas. With classic rock songs providing the soundtrack, we sorted and bagged pears, chatting as we worked. It was fun, and it gave us a chance to get to know one another while doing something useful for our neighbors. We did not solve the problem of hunger that morning. But we offered our hands and our time to work that will make a difference. Those bags of pears will find their way to tables we may never see, nourishing people we may never meet.

That morning offered a glimpse of the life God calls us to share: a life of faith, connection, and service. As we worked together, we strengthened relationships within our congregation and joined a wider community caring for our neighbors. Generosity grows into community when we put our gifts to work together. Sometimes that means making a financial pledge. Sometimes it means sharing a skill, listening to someone who needs company, teaching a child, singing in the choir, or spending a morning sorting fruit.

As you prayerfully consider your stewardship commitment, I encourage you to think about all you have to offer. What are you grateful for? What gifts might you share? Where might God be calling you to give your treasure, your time, and your talents? Each of us has something to contribute, and together our gifts help God’s love take root and grow. May we offer them with gratitude, generosity, and joy.

See you in church!

Peace, Grace, and Love,
Pastor Kevin

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What Grows from Gratitude

My office table is especially crowded this week. Boxes of narrative budget booklets, pledge cards, envelopes, and colorful paper leaves are waiting to become this year’s stewardship packets. Our Stewardship Team has spent the past couple of months discerning and planning this season, and I am grateful for the care they have brought to it. The packets will be ready for you to pick up on Sunday.

This year’s theme is “Growing in Gratitude.” We have chosen 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 as our guiding scripture, including Paul’s familiar words, “God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word translated as “cheerful” is hilaros, the source of our word “hilarious.” Paul is not suggesting that we break into belly laughs when the offering plate comes by. Paul is reminding us that giving can grow from gratitude, rather than compulsion, obligation, or guilt.

Let’s face it: the church asks for money every week of the year. Stewardship season gives us a chance to pause and see what God is doing with the time, talents, and treasure we share. One of the joys of serving as your pastor is seeing the life of this congregation throughout the week. Many of you give generously to more than one ministry, but few of us have the chance to see the full breadth of what happens here and beyond our walls.

That is why I put together the “narrative budget“. Despite its name, it is less a budget than a story. It shows what has grown from the resources we have shared: worship and learning, care for one another, service in our community, and partnerships around the world. I hope you will take time to read it and recognize your own place in that story.

As we begin this season, I invite you to give thanks for the blessings we have received, celebrate the work God is doing through Grace, and consider how you will take part in the year ahead. May gratitude continue to grow among us, and may generosity bloom from it.

See you in church!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kevin

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