This past Sunday was a remarkable day. It began with our youth leading worship and informing all of us on the work of partnering with God in mission work in Georgia. Following worship Our Interim Pastor Journey Town Hall Meeting Step 3 transpired. A very open and authentic experience was had by all in attendance, approximately 99 people. 

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The question discussed was: What are Grace’s strengths and additional challenges, along with declining attendance, as we move forward in evaluating worship services, emerging ministry emphases, and staffing transitions?

The results have been tabulated. Do pick up your packet of materials, which include the tabulation of comments and a memo concerning unexpected expenditures at the kiosk or download the packet at Grace’s website mygpc.org.

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.

As we continue our preaching series For Such A Tim As This, I encourage you to read the book of Esther. There are so many parallels in the world today with those during Esther’s time in the early sixth century BC.

Remember, nothing in your life is by 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

OUR CHURCH NEEDS YOU!! YOU ARE LOVED!!
This coming Sunday is our next Our Interim Pastor Journey Town Hall Meeting. There will be one service, the Youth leading worship on the Mission Trip in the Great Room at 10:00 am, followed by a covered dish lunch, featuring entrees, salads, and desserts from Grace’s 100^th Anniversary Cookbook, A Cup of Grace and a Pinch of Time. Water, iced tea, and coffee are available.

The question for discussion is: What are Grace’s strengths and additional challenges, along with declining attendance, as we move forward in evaluating worship services, emerging ministry emphases, and staffing transitions?

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.

This coming Sunday is not an accident. It is purposed by God. I look forward to our time together in worship, the Town Hall Meeting, and the Luncheon in the Great Room starting at 10:00 am.

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

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

Our Interim Pastor Journey Town Hall Meetings have focused on adaptive change. I introduced the following principles at Our Interim Pastor Journey Town Hall Meeting, Step 2, on Sunday, May 5. Those principles are making observations, making interpretations, asking questions, and making measured interventions. This process of making observations, making interpretations, asking questions, and making measured interventions is an excellent discernment process as we listen to God and one another for the vision and future of Grace.

Moving from the “Old Mindset” of trying harder to the “New Mindset” of making observations, making interpretations, asking questions, and making measured interventions is challenging. And yes, the process of moving from certainty and comfort to humility and discomfort is difficult.

The next Our Interim Pastor Journey Town Hall Meeting, Step 3, is Sunday, August 11. We have one service, that includes Blessing of the Backpacks and the Youth leading worship on the Mission Trip in the Great Room at 10:00 am, followed by a covered dish lunch, featuring entrees, salads, and desserts from Grace’s 100^th Anniversary Cookbook, A Cup of Grace and a Pinch of Time. Water, iced tea, and coffee will be available.

The question for discussion is: What are Grace’s strengths and additional challenges, along with declining attendance, as we move forward in evaluating worship services, emerging ministry emphases, and staffing transitions?

I look forward to our time together in worship, the Town Hall Meeting, and Luncheon on Sunday, August 11, starting at 10:00am.

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

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

The apostle John begins his gospel with these very familiar words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The Word is Jesus. He was with the Father and the Spirit from the beginning. This is important, because historic, orthodox, and apostolic Christianity affirms the preexistence of Christ. That Jesus, the Son of God, like the Father and the Holy Spirit, has been and always will be. No other world religion claims such a truth for its God or prophets. Christianity stands alone. All that has begun had its beginning in and through Jesus Christ. And familiar words from John’s gospel continue,  “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing was made. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Christianity stands alone, because it is a journey about a relationship with God and one another.

Beginnings are important. Whether we trace the beginning of a particular trip or the birth of a child, we remember beginnings. Such is true when it comes to the beginning of one’s journey as a Christian. In my particular case, I remember accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord during Communicant’s class in the seventh grade. I also remember when I began my dating relationship with Janet. It was Saturday, December 4, 1976. We went to the Spaghetti Factory in Fresno California for dinner and then to a production of “Godspell”. I remember many beginnings from my ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament August 15, 1982, to the Session asking me to serve as Grace’s Interim Pastor beginning January 15, 2024. Beginnings are markers.

Janet and I are thrilled to be in relationship with you and our Interim Pastor Journey. On Monday evening, July 15, 2024, the Session approved a process titled, The Proposed Timeframe. From Interim Pastor to Pastor. The Proposed Timeframe. From Interim Pastor to Pastor is a new beginning document and is now on its way to the Church Order Ministry Team (COMT) of the Presbytery of Southern Kansas (PSK) for its action.

Do not press Session members for answers. Know that God is in this and at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 23, 2025, the Strategic Plan (Mission Study) will be presented and the election of the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) members will occur.

It is true! A new beginning is emerging for Grace Presbyterian Church. Continue to pray as I know you have been doing.

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

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor

What should drive the Church if it claims the historical marks of the Church and the visible marks of being revealing, resolute, ready, responsive, resilient, reframed, repentant, repetitive, remembrant, receptive, refined, and reverent?

We should see a Church that is conversional and missional: a Church that is people coming to Christ and living the Great Commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 25, and the Great Commission. For this to happen, there must be unity, in the body of Christ, characterized as faithful doctrine and practice.

• If both doctrine and practice are constant, the result is dead orthodoxy.
• If both doctrine and practice are constantly changing, the result is living heresy.
• But, if doctrine is constant and practice is always changing, the result is living orthodoxy.

The Holy Spirit works with power in our lives.

• Scripture and history have repeatedly proven that the preaching and teaching of Scripture which engages Jesus and justice is transformative.
• Scripture and history have repeatedly proven that the right administration of the sacraments demonstrates the missional nature of the Church.
• Scripture and history have repeatedly proven that the practice of Church discipline protects the Church from drifting, as its members are reminded of the deadly reality of sin, convicted by the Spirit of their sin, and run to the cross where Jesus Christ accomplished the forgiveness of sins through his substitutionary death and bodily resurrection.

As followers of Jesus, we are marked to tell and live the Truth. We are marked to make a difference. Society can be transformed one individual at a time.

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

Steve

The Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

Interim Pastor