From the Pastor’s Desk: December 2019

Dear Grace Community,

I’ve said it many times, Advent and Christmas are my favorite times in the physical life of Grace.  The beauty of this space is somehow even more awe-inspiring with poinsettias, greenery, and lights.  I give thanks to God for the ways I catch my breath walking in the Sanctuary or the Great Room for worship.

Being inspired by beauty is a gift in this season, a gift I gratefully receive.  And like with any gift from God, I am moved to respond. The response piece is critical. When I am drawn closer to God, I am called to then share God’s love with others.

There is no exact formula for this. It’s not like I must receive X amount of God’ beauty and love before I share X amount.  Like with all matters of our faith, there is a mystery about it, a Spirit-inspired element that can’t be quantified.

What I believe is that if we pay attention, the Spirit will guide us. Our faith should never be entirely inward, about receiving, nor can it be only about giving. That’s not sustainable.

This fall your Session challenged you to read scripture each day. The scripture readings follow along with the Sunday readings, and the idea is to fill in the story during the week. I confess that I haven’t done the readings every day. I started strong, and then missed a day here or there, and then picked back up, and missed a day here or there, then picked back up. I’m always glad when I start back.

When the Session discussed this challenge, it was part of a conversation and initiative to encourage lifelong Christian discipleship in our congregation. We believe that in order to be disciples of Jesus, we must know scripture. There was some question about whether this challenge and this focus was too inward; should we also encourage some sort of outward mission?

Ultimately, we decided that knowing the Bible is one important step, and our hope is that response is the natural outgrowth of scripture reading. The hope is that as Christians we can’t just read scripture and not be changed. We read it to be transformed. We must respond to it.  In the new year I encourage you to pick up the Bible and read along in Mark with us. As you do, consider how the Spirit is moving in you to respond to God’s word.

In Christ,
Catherine

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From the Pastor’s Desk: November 25

Dear Grace Community,

While technically not a Christian Holiday, Thanksgiving has the feel of a holy day.  Many times in the Psalms we hear the words, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  God’s love endures forever.”  To set aside a day for giving thanks is a gift.  I hope it is that for you.

I am aware that Thanksgiving, or any holiday, can also be hard depending on life situations.  We’ve had 14 deaths in our congregation this year, and many of you have experienced loss.  Some of you may be spending Thanksgiving alone or without a significant person.

I hope that you have space this Thanksgiving to feel whatever it is you are feeling, be it sadness or joy.  I also invite you to our annual Silent Night Worship Service on December 9, at 6:30 pm in the sanctuary.  It is a quiet service that includes prayer and communion.

Around Grace we continue to give thanks for the Deep Roots campaign, and I want to update you on where we are.  The planned updates to Jacob’s Learning Ladder were done earlier this fall, but we’ve discovered new projects in the process. One goal of the renovations was to license a new room and re-license current room. (Licensing is with the state.)

When we went to re-license the two upstairs rooms, so that we could adapt the ages we take in those rooms, we learned that in order to get re-licensed we would have to install a new sprinkler system.  The Trustees approved this project and allocated funds from our building endowment and long-term maintenance funds.  This was not a small undertaking but is now done.

The new room downstairs is also done, but we are still in a waiting pattern with the health department and fire department.  We hope to get final approval and licensing soon and have children in there by the start of 2020.  However, it is out of our hands, and we are getting good at being patient.

The new room downstairs and new office configuration meant that we needed a new teacher work area, so we converted B-13 (formerly the gold room and also the purple room) into a workspace.  It is now up and functioning.

The extra projects (sprinklers and B-13) mean that we haven’t started on other Deep Roots projects.  Next on the list is the Parlor, and we plan to start on that soon.  Fell free to talk with me or Dr. Martin Burch with any questions you have about this process.

In Christ,

Catherine

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From the Pastor’s Desk: October 22

Dear Grace Community,

We are almost two months into our school year. This means we’re almost two months into our journey through the Bible together. This year, from September – May, we’re going through the Old and New Testaments together.  On Sunday mornings we focus on some of the big stories, and then during the week you’re invited to read scripture each day.

I know that many of you are doing this (or trying!), and I can feel the renewed energy around scripture.  A few weeks ago, one of you stopped me in the hallway to talk about scripture and the way I interpreted it in a sermon.

The person who stopped me did not agree with my interpretation, and we had a good, honest, and fun conversation about this. Neither of us was threatened. Instead, I was enlivened by the chance to dig into the word and its meaning.  What a gift to know that you are wrestling with the same scripture I am.

Hebrews 4:12 says that ‘the word of God is living and active,’ and it is. Our Presbyterian tradition says that it is best studied in community.  I give thanks for the opportunity to experience the living and active word with you.

In Christ,
Catherine

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From the Pastor’s Desk: September 2019

Dear Grace Community,

In worship on Sunday, September 8, I shared some about the Narrative Lectionary that is guiding our worship and study this year.  Below is an excerpt of what I shared.

“In worship this school year – September through May – we’re covering the Bible from Genesis to the letters, from Old to New Testaments. Our Sunday School classes for adults, youth, and older children will study these texts too.

We’re joining hundreds of other churches around the country in something called the Narrative Lectionary.  A group of Bible scholars at Luther Seminary in Minnesota created a four-year cycle of scripture that takes congregations from Old to New Testament each year.  We are jumping in on year two.

This means we’ll read and study a smattering of scripture that paints the big picture arc from Old to New Testament, but we’ll leave out a lot.  If we do this for four years, we’ll fill in more of the stories but still not the entire Bible.  So far we’re only committed to one year.

In addition to the stories we read and hear in worship, you’re encouraged to read stories that fall between Sundays.  You’ll see them listed in Grace This Week, and they’ll be posted on the Grace Facebook each Sunday afternoon.  We’re exploring an opt-in weekly email.  Next Sunday we read about Abraham and Sarah, and a lot happens between creation and their story.

As we go through this year, some of you will hear and read stories for the first time.  Others of you have some familiarity with the stories, and some of you will know these stories well.  Trust that God can, and will, use these stories to speak to you wherever you are in your Biblical knowledge and understanding.

Our theme for these nine months is ‘God’s Story, Our Story, My Story.’

When we start digging and looking at academic work, we see that the Bible isn’t all one story written by one person.  It was written by many people over many years.  It’s many stories, and yet, if we step back, we can see it as one story, God’s story, from creation – to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection – to the formation of the church.

It’s God’s story, and it’s our story.  It’s our story as Christ’s people, the church.  It forms us, re-forms us, and orders our shared life.

Then after seeing it as God’s story, and our story, I can see it as my story, and you can see it as yours.  I want you to claim this story and these stories as your own, and first you need to see them as God’s and as God’s people’s.”

I look forward to reading scripture with you.

In Christ,
Catherine

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From the Pastor’s Desk

Dear Grace Community,

It’s fun to be your pastor.  It’s fun for a lot of reasons including the interesting and passionate people in this church and that we engage in ministries that impact both our members and people outside the church walls.  I love that Jesus is at the center of all of this.

The Session and I love serving with you, and we hope for the church to be even more vital than it is.  We spent about nine months as a Session studying areas of church vitality.  As we look to the next two years, we hope for Grace to be even more vital, to be stronger, and to be an even greater witness to Christ’s love.

There’s no big program that we think can make greater vitality happen. Instead, you’ll start to notice small initiatives related to this, and you’ll also notice some bigger things.  One area that will change for the next nine months is related to worship.

From September 8 through Pentecost in May, we participate in something called the Narrative Lectionary.  The Narrative Lectionary was developed about eight years ago by faculty at Luther Seminary in Minnesota.  It’s based on the idea that Christians benefit from knowing the stories of scripture.

Often, we jump around from Old to New Testament on Sunday mornings, and we learn and grow, but it’s easy to lose track of the broad arc of scripture.  The Narrative Lectionary takes us from the Old Testament to the New Testament throughout the year.  There is no practical way to read all the Bible on Sundays, so this pulls out major stories and themes.

In the fall we focus on the Old Testament. In the winter and leading up to Easter we read from Mark, and after Easter we read from the Epistles.  Sunday School classes focus on these same stories.

There’s only so much we can focus on during a Sunday morning, so the Session has a challenge for the congregation.  Each week we provide daily scripture readings for you. We hear and study stories together on Sunday and then throughout the week read the scripture on our own.

A congregation that knows scripture is a strong congregation.  We want to know and love God’s word as a community and hope you’ll join us in this.  We’ll share the weekly readings in Grace this Week and also through our Facebook page.

Finally, it’s August, and that means that it’s my anniversary at Grace.  I am grateful for nine years of serving God with you.

In Christ,

Catherine

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