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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Going Home to Winfield

This weekend, I am looking forward to returning to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. The five-day festival features internationally renowned acoustic musicians: bluegrass pickers, Gaelic fiddlers, Western swing bands, and old-time gospel performers. Four stages at the Winfield fairgrounds are packed with music from morning until late into the night.

But the music that draws me in most is found beyond the official stages, in the campgrounds. There, circles of amateur musicians gather beneath colorfully illuminated tents to play the music they love. People stroll through the campsites, joining a jam session, stopping to listen, clapping along, or dancing to the music. There are people of every age and persuasion: old-timers reminiscing over drinks tucked into koozies, families reuniting for their annual gathering, children playing, and older kids searching the campgrounds for festival friends.

It is remarkable to see nearly 20,000 people come together through their shared love of music, fun, and friendship. We have been going to Winfield since long before Rachel and I were married. We raised our children there, and for many years we camped there with my parents. It has become a special place and a sacred time for being together, sharing what we love, unplugging from our routines, and becoming present to one another.

Perhaps that is why some people describe their time at the Walnut Valley Festival as “going to church.” It is not church in the traditional sense, of course, but there is something holy about people gathering in community, sharing their gifts, welcoming strangers into the circle, and rediscovering the joy of belonging. Winfield definitely feels like going home.

This Sunday, our congregation has an opportunity to experience some of that same joy at our all-church picnic. We will gather at Edgemoor Park, 5815 E. 9th Street, beginning at 4:30 p.m., with dinner served at 5:00 p.m. It will be an opportunity to step away from our busy routines and enjoy good food, conversation, fun, and fellowship.

The church is more than a place we enter on Sunday morning. It is the community God creates among us whenever we gather, share our gifts, welcome others into the circle, and make room for joy. I hope you will join us at the picnic this Sunday. Come reconnect with old friends, make some new ones, and celebrate the grace of belonging together.

After all, gathering with the people we love can feel a lot like going home.

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Look for the Helpers

Twenty-five years later, I still remember September 11, 2001, vividly.

That morning, we were picking up a rental car in Chicago to drive to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. We were excited to see old friends and hear some great bluegrass music. When we arrived at the rental office, someone told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, but no one yet understood the full magnitude of what was happening.

We packed our belongings, including our two cats, into the car and headed out of the city. As we drove, I kept looking back at the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in Chicago, wondering whether it might also become a target. We listened to radio reports as we crossed Illinois, slowly learning about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

By the time we reached the Iowa border, the sky was eerily empty. All civilian aircraft had been grounded. About an hour later, we saw four contrails close together, moving high and fast across the empty blue sky. In the uncertainty and fear of that day, we wondered if they were missiles. I remember us saying, “At least we are all together.”

We worried about family and friends living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. We wondered what would happen next. We were frightened and confused, yet deeply grateful to be together.

That day changed countless lives forever. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, and many more died or suffered lasting harm in the wars and violence that followed. Twenty-five years later, families still carry the grief of loved ones who never came home. Survivors and first responders continue to live with the physical and emotional consequences of that day.

In the days after the attacks, people filled churches seeking comfort, answers, and some assurance that God had not abandoned us. They came carrying the same question people have asked throughout the ages: Where is God in the midst of such horror?

Following the attacks, Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers offered words of comfort to frightened children and adults. His enduring counsel was to “look for the helpers.” Do not look away from the tragedy or minimize the suffering, but also notice those who move toward danger and pain with courage and compassion.

On September 11, we saw helpers running into clouds of dust and debris to rescue strangers. We saw first responders risk, and sometimes give, their lives for neighbors they did not know. We saw people offer shelter, comfort the grieving, donate blood, share food, and hold one another through unbearable loss.

God was not the author of the hatred and violence of that day. God was present in every act of courage, compassion, sacrifice, and love. Even amid horror, we caught glimpses of the divine in our midst.

As we mark this twenty-fifth anniversary, may we remember those whose lives were taken. May we comfort those who continue to grieve and care for those who still bear wounds in body and spirit. May we also remember the unity and compassion that emerged from the devastation, resisting the fear, hatred, and prejudice that seek to divide us.

And when tragedy leaves us wondering where God can be found, may we look for the helpers. Better still, with God’s grace, may we become the helpers: people who run toward suffering, stand beside the grieving, welcome the stranger, work for peace, and answer fear with love.

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.”
—Psalm 46:1

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The Recipe of Grace

It is hard to believe that I have already been serving as your pastor for a year. It seems like only a month ago that I stood before you for my first sermon at Grace and asked, “What is your special sauce?” Over the past year, I think I have begun to discover the recipe.

Grace’s special sauce begins with a cup of compassion and care: care for the ministries and missions of this church, care for this beautiful building that generations have entrusted to us, and, most of all, care for one another. It includes a heaping helping of creativity, imagination, and passion for Spirit-filled worship. Week after week, you generously share your gifts and talents as we proclaim the good news through music, drama, art, prayer, and preaching.

There is also a dash of daring: a willingness to try new things, step beyond what is familiar, and trust that God walks with us through every celebration and every sorrow. All of this is simmered in the Spirit, who continues to fill, sustain, and nourish us whenever we come together to worship, learn, serve, laugh, grieve, and pray.

It has been a blessing and a joy to serve this congregation. During this first year, you have nurtured me on my own journey of faith. You have helped me hone the gifts I brought to ministry and leadership, encouraged me to discover new ones, and extended grace to me when I have made mistakes. I am deeply grateful for the staff and volunteers with whom I have the pleasure and privilege of serving. I am also thankful for the generous welcome and support you have shown to Rachel, our family, and me.

Grace is a special place, with so much to offer those who worship beside us and those we serve beyond our doors. As I begin my second year as your pastor, I look forward to continuing our journey together as we walk in the way of Christ, care for one another, serve our neighbors, and participate in the work God is already doing in our midst.

Thank you for welcoming me into the life of this congregation and for allowing me to share in Grace’s special sauce. I cannot wait to see what the Spirit will continue to cook up among us.

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