A most historic National Election occurred on Tuesday, November 5. And I’m writing this column before the polls closed. From my vantage point, there’s been more participation due to an increase in the young adult and female population. And a healthier debate on the issues.

For all of these factors I’m grateful. Remember, resting strong in the truth that you belong to God and knowing who you are in Christ matters most. 

My friends, dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. Depend on God as we move closer and closer to the election of the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC).

Here’s an update on our Journey to the New Pastor.

• The Strategic Plan (Mission Study) is presented to the Session for approval at the Stated Session Meeting, Monday, November 18.
• November 2024-January 2025 the Nominating Committee identifies Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) members.
• A Special Meeting of the Congregation for the election of the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) could be called in December or January depending on the Nominating Committee’s progress.
• Currently, the PNC slate is scheduled to be elected at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 23, 2025. The Strategic Plan is also presented.
• The PNC begins its work in January, February, or March depending on when the Congregational Meeting for the election of PNC members occurs.

Read the benediction below (benediction, in Latin literally means, “good word”) written by the late Richard Halverson, Minister of Word and Sacrament (PCUSA), and Chaplain to the United States Senate (1981- 1994). You’ll be encouraged.

You go nowhere by accident.

Wherever you go, God is sending you.

He has a purpose in your being there.

Christ who indwells you has something he wants to do through you wherever you are.

Believe this.

And go in his grace and love and power.

Amen.

Remember, nothing in your life and Grace’s is life is an accident.

On the journey of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

Today is Ingathering Sunday. Grace Presbyterian Church aspires to make fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. Resting in the truth that you belong to God and know who you are in Christ matters most. 

My friends, dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. Depend on God as you ponder your 2025 Pledge of Time and Treasure and a gift above your pledge to the operating budget. God will lead you to obedient and sacrificial.

Here’s an update on our Journey to the New Pastor.

• The Strategic Plan (Mission Study) is presented to the Session for approval at the Stated Session Meeting, Monday, November 18.
• November 2024-January 2025 the Nominating Committee identifies Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) members.
• A Special Meeting of the Congregation for the election of the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) could be called in December or January depending on the Nominating Committee’s progress.
• Currently, the PNC slate is scheduled to be elected at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 23, 2025. The Strategic Plan is also presented.
• The PNC begins its work in January, February, or March depending on when the Congregational Meeting for the election of PNC members occurs.

Friends, nothing in your life is an accident. God has purpose for each of you. Read the benediction below (benediction, in Latin literally means, “good word”) written by the late Richard Halverson, Minister of Word and Sacrament (PCUSA), and Chaplain to the United States Senate (1981- 1994). You’ll be encouraged.

You go nowhere by accident.

Wherever you go, God is sending you.

He has a purpose in your being there.

Christ who indwells you has something he wants to do through you wherever you are.

Believe this.

And go in his grace and love and power.

Amen.

Remember, nothing in your life is an accident. Nothing in Grace’s life is an accident. Everything is purposed by God!

On the journey of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

Grace Presbyterian Church aspires to make fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. Truly, each one of us belongs to God.

Succeeding and resting in the truth that you belong to God and know who you are in Christ matters most.

In this regard, Bobby Schuller in Change Your Thoughts Change Your World writes, “Bonding is my greatest need. There are people in my life who love me and want to know me better.” [1] The readings from Job and Mark remind us that participating in God’s mission through service and building personal and intimate relationships with God and others, is how we grow as followers of Jesus. 

Job 38:1-7 demonstrates that we have no understanding of God knowing each one of us from the laying of the foundation of the world. Job has characterized God’s creative purpose as a design of darkness. Job lacks understanding. But he truly wants to know why the persecution is happening to him. Job feels that he doesn’t belong to God due to the circumstances he was facing and experiencing. 

Mark 10:35-45 exhorts the community of faith to be selfless and grasp the meaning of the prediction of Jesus’ death. Jesus knows what’s ahead for his ministry and life. He doesn’t fully understand but knows the outcome. Jesus extends an invitation to enter the known and unknown of the path of Jesus. 

My friends, dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. Depend on God as you ponder your 2025 Pledge of Time and Treasure and a gift above your pledge to the operating budget. God will lead you to obedient and sacrificial behavior in the volunteering and financial aspects of your Christian discipleship.

Grace Presbyterian Church exists to demonstrate and offer others a better way to live. Jesus says, “…whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all.” Leverage your giving by spending your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially.

One final note, thank you for your prayers over the past two months. On Tuesday, I underwent a heart procedure that was successful. Dr. Farhat placed a stent in two of the left side arteries. Each was 90% blocked. The main left side artery was only 60% blocked. Stents go in when the blockage is 70% or more. There is no need for bypass surgery at this time.

On the journey of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation with you, I remain faithfully yours,

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh, Interim Pastor

[1]Bobby Schuller, Change Your Thoughts Change Your World (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Books, 2019), 191.

Remember, God does not abandon the faithful. Leveraged giving spends your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. Sacrificial and responsible giving makes the community stronger. Mike Slaughter in The Christian Wallet writes, “Responsible investing means taking all that God has placed into our hands and fully deploying it in every sense of the word toward God’s preferred future picture—both for our own lives and for the lives of others. Investing in tomorrow also requires a simultaneous trust in God’s provision for both today and tomorrow.” Leveraged giving spends your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. It is responsible investing.

Dependency on God combines God’s action and human action into experiencing the kingdom of God. According to Barna Research, U.S. teens and adults have reported that, while they have mostly positive opinions of Jesus, their perceptions of the Church and Christians as a whole have often led them to doubt Christian beliefs. Other data from Barna studies shows that the Church’s reputation in specific areas like pursuing justice and stepping up to help solve local problems is wavering among both teens and adults alike. It appears that most Christians (57%), including over seven in ten practicing Christians (76%), are at a point in their spiritual journeys where they want to help the Church refocus on what’s truly important. Christians want to help the church realign with Jesus’ priorities. (Adapted from Barna’s State of the Church Initiative, 2024). What are Jesus’ priorities? Micah 6:8 reads, “He (God) has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Let’s make justice, kindness, and humility our priorities.

Grace Presbyterian Church exists to demonstrate and offer others a better way to live. We do that by leveraging our giving. Jesus says, go, sell, give, come, and follow. Leverage your giving by spending your intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, and time capital, sacrificially. Let’s combine our action with God’s action and see Grace continue its transformation from a mindset of “doing church” into “being church.”

On the journey of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

Wow! Sunday’s Town Hall Meeting (Step 5) and luncheon was one of hope for Grace’s future.

I’m shifting gears to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) in this time of such devastating hurricanes. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is a most significant mission arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

From the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) website:

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is the emergency and refugee program of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. The core budget, including staff and administrative costs, is funded through the One Great Hour of Sharing, and its program work is additionally funded through designated gifts. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

• Focuses on the long-term recovery of disaster impacted communities.
• Provides training and disaster preparedness for presbyteries and synods.
• Works collaboratively with church partners and members of the ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together) internationally, and nationally with other faith-based responders.
• Connects partners locally and internationally with key organizations active in the response — United Nations, NVOAD (National Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster), World Food Program, Red Cross, FEMA, and others.

Participate with thousands of other Presbyterians as we partner with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) to bring out of the chaos and hope. Follow this link:

Returning to last Sunday’s Town Hall Meeting, we learned that Grace, like many mainline churches, is confronted with the category 5 chaos of the hurricanes of societal and cultural change. From my perspective as a historian and our Interim Pastor, what has worked for centuries in the Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations might not be as effective any longer. Oh, some things are important to continue. Might Grace need to rethink and organize a different way of being church when it comes to growth in membership and younger families? How about envisioning services we can provide at Grace for our increasingly aging population in Wichita?  Or how might we welcome guests and regular attenders as well as say goodbye at all our doors on Sundays. Or, what about providing seminars at Grace on parenting, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and living on a budget? Perhaps we can work on developing hearts for reaching the unchurched and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed.

On the journey of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation with you, I remain faithfully yours,

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor