Grace Church http://gracelou.com Sat, 28 Nov 2020 22:28:50 +0000 Sat, 28 Nov 2020 22:28:50 +0000 hourly 1 3600 SnapPages.com An Update From Our Pastors http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/08/29/an-update-from-our-pastors Sun, 29 Aug 2021 15:07:38 +0000 http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/08/29/an-update-from-our-pastors

An Update From Our Pastors

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Thank you for joining us on our mission to "seek and save the Lost."

We want to share with you an update from this morning's service. You can watch the video here or read the letters from our pastors below.

A Letter from Pastor Johnny:

Dear Grace Church Members and Pastors,

It is with a heavy heart that I must submit my resignation letter for the position as Lead Pastor of Grace Church as of September 19, 2021.

I have been in prayer and have sought God’s face during these past few months and truly believe that God is moving and leading me and my family to a new assignment in Giddings, Texas.

It has been a great pleasure serving you and being your pastor these last eight years and I know that God has great days in store for this great church.

You are in good hands as we have from the beginning of my ministry, set men in place to help lead this church. I only ask that you love them and pray for them and follow them in the following weeks as they make decisions about Grace Church’s future.

Finally, I want to express my love for all of you and ask that as you walk into the future, you love Jesus more today than you did yesterday and that you would follow him with all your hearts. He truly is our Senior Pastor.

With Love in my heart always,
Pastor Johnny Spray 

A Letter from Your Pastors:

We are saddened at the news of Pastor Johnny and his family moving away to lead another church. No doubt, they will be missed. We want to make sure we take a minute to discuss how we can support and pray for Pastor Johnny and his family as they prepare to leave.

Some things you need to know about the Gospel ministry:
• A Pastor is called to gospel ministry by God.
• When a pastor is called, and accepts that call, he has to be prepared for God’s plans, and not his own plans.
• Pastor Johnny was called to Grace Church for a season and purpose.
• He is now being called by God to move on and lead another church, a call he must be faithful.
• Our responsibility toward Pastor Johnny at this time, is to pray for him, his family, and his ministry as he follows God’s calling.

In order to help us understand what this means for us, I want to share some thoughts about where we are. When Johnny was brought to us about 8 years ago, it felt very much like God was at work. After looking back over the last 8 years, we can see much of the work that God accomplished through Johnny while at Grace.

One of the first things Johnny did when he arrived, was to surround himself with other men to hold himself accountable and to help lead the church. He helped to guide us to what we believe is a more biblical model of church ministry that includes multiple pastors instead of just one man having complete control without accountability.

For those who don’t know, we currently have five pastors that serve as your leadership team here at the church, including Johnny. Any big decisions are made by this group of men, and almost always made unanimously. As a group, we are responsible for, and able to, hold each other accountable. We have given each other the right to speak as needed into our lives, even with tough issues. This has helped us to be the better leaders. We still have flaws, and the accountability and support from each other helps to fill the gaps and keep those flaws from affecting the church as a whole. We believe this is the model seen in the New Testament, and the model that Johnny helped guide us to during his time here. If you don’t know us, reach out and say hi and get to know us.

We also have pastor apprentices. These are men who feel called by God into Gospel ministry and have a desire to lead and preach. Our apprenticeship program is designed to help these men become the leaders that God is calling them to be. Part of this program is that each of them had to prepare a sermon and preach to the rest of the pastors and the apprentices on a Wednesday night. We have done this and each of these men has prepared a message, preached it, and then listened to feedback, critiques, and suggestions to help them get better. Over time, our hope is that these men will become part of the leadership team here, or maybe even somewhere else as God calls. What we want you to see from all of this, is that God is leaving us in a good place as a church, even though he is sending Johnny to his next assignment at another church. He has literally been preparing Grace Church for this moment since Johnny’s arrival 8 years ago.

So, what are the next steps for Grace Church? As your pastors, we realize that Johnny’s departure is going to leave a big void. It is a void that will have to be filled in some way. Your pastors have been aware of Johnny’s new calling for a few weeks now and have been seeking God and working together to figure out what is next.

What should you expect from your pastors?
1. We will readjust each of our responsibilities as needed to cover the void that Johnny leaves. While it may not be done exactly how Johnny would do it, we will do everything we can to take care of the church.
2. We are not going to rush to fill Johnny’s spot with just anyone. This is too important and too difficult to rush into.
3. We will seek God’s guidance, as well as, wisdom from others, to move forward. God has already been working in us and showing us some things, and we believe He will continue to do so.
4. We will make sure that God’s word is preached from the pulpit every Sunday.

I have mentioned our pastors and apprentices, but I have not mentioned our other leaders and servants in the church, and we have a lot. Just look around at the people at Grace Church, and you will see them everywhere.

What do we need from you, as members of Grace Church?
1. Pray – For Johnny, for Grace, for your Pastors, for guidance for all of us as we move forward.
2. Trust – Your pastors to follow God’s calling and prompting.
3. Serve - Continue to serve if you are serving, and if you’re not, now is a great time to start.
4. Give – Continue to support the church, we will keep moving forward, and we don’t know what all resources will be needed yet.
5. Community – Stay connected to us and each other.
6. Faith – Stay faithful as we move together towards the future at Grace Church that God is planning.

Our hope and prayer is that you will see God has been doing great things and is going to continue doing great things at Grace. We are excited about where God will take us next, and we want you to be with us.

Pastor Jamie – jamie@gracelou.com

On behalf of all your pastors
Pastor Don – don@gracelou.com
Pastor Aaron – aaron@gracelou.com
Pastor Steven – steven@gracelou.com

REMEMBER, this season will provide you opportunities to continue to fulfill the vision and mission that God has given us:
To seek and save the Lost by loving Jesus, loving people, and advancing the Gospel.

Your pastors,
Aaron, Don, Jamie, Johnny, and Steven
]]> http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/08/29/an-update-from-our-pastors#comments 0 Baby Dedication http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/04/28/baby-dedication Wed, 28 Apr 2021 09:52:23 +0000 http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/04/28/baby-dedication
When parents dedicate their child, they are showing a desire to commit their son or daughter to the Lord and His service. They are also promising to do everything in their power to help their child grow to understand Christ’s love and experience a life-giving relationship with Him.

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) 

This vow of dedication should be taken with great sincerity and commitment.   

When parents’ vows have been taken, the pastor will dedicate them to God in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and pray for them. After each child has been dedicated, the pastor will close the ceremony by speaking a blessing upon all the children and their parents.

We will be having a baby dedication service on Mother's Day - Sunday May 9th. If you would like to sign up, please fill out the form below.



Submit
]]> http://gracelou.com/blog/2021/04/28/baby-dedication#comments 0 Become a Joyful Giver http://gracelou.com/blog/2020/11/28/become-a-joyful-giver Sat, 28 Nov 2020 22:28:50 +0000 http://gracelou.com/blog/2020/11/28/become-a-joyful-giver
Have you ever reflected about being joyful givers? What is it about giving gifts that excites us so much?

As we approach the Christmas season, we celebrate the birth of Christ. The wise men were excited to bring gifts to the King of the Kings; In fact they were “filled with joy.”

“When they saw the star, they were ecstatic with joy. After they went into the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, they fell down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure sacks and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”   -Matthew 2:10-11

They didn’t worry about the years it took them to find Jesus. They didn’t rush through their time with Jesus. Instead they took their time to worship Him. They didn’t stress about what to give him or how much it would cost. They didn’t become anxious about how to present their gifts or who would be there. They were focused on worshipping Jesus.

Why is it that we lose focus of the reasons we give gifts in the first place? We focus more on ourselves and on what we have or don’t have. We forget that it’s not about buying the perfect gift, wrapping it the perfect way, hanging the perfect decorations or making the perfect moments.

Gift-giving is about the gift of redemption we’ve received in Christ.

The wise men didn’t just bring Jesus the gifts of Frankincense, Gold & Myrrh. They also gave their resources, time and talents. We should be like the wise men and come to worship Jesus, by giving all of ourselves to Him :
  • Give Our Resources – The Wise men used their wealth and other resources they had to make sure they were able to come worship Jesus. We should likewise use our finances and other material possessions to worship God. We can increase our giving, purchase items to donate, or inviting others over for a meal. 
  • Give Our Time – The Wise men took the time to make the journey to come worship Jesus. Time is valuable. We spend it every day, yet how often do we spend time with God or doing things to glorify Him? We can spend more time in prayer, more time studying His Word, or find ways to serve at church and local ministries.
  • Give Our Talents – The Wise men used their talents to find Jesus so they could worship Him. We should look for opportunities to worship Jesus using our hobbies, spiritual gifts, professions, and other God- given talents and abilities. We can serve others in our communities both locally and globally. By utilizing our God-given abilities and God will open up moments for us to share His love with others. 

The Wise men gave all of themselves to worship Jesus. They didn’t care how much it would cost or how much time it would take. They were joyful givers. Giving is an act of worship. Let’s make it our lifestyle and strive to be cheerful, joyful givers all year around.

Giving in Action

Give Our Resources
Giving Generously to Grace
Give generously towards the budget and Seed Money to forward the mission of Grace and bless our community and other ministries.

The Center for Women and Children
Grace is partnering with the Center by collecting gift cards to box stores (Walmart, Meijer, Target, Kroger, Thornton’s, etc.) so that their clients in need are able to shop for their own families.
You can also donate new, non-plush toys, games and activity sets for ages newborn to 17.

Give Our Time
Shively Area Ministries
 We are in need of individuals to shop and package gifts for the volunteers at Shively Area Ministries. The staff at Shively Area Ministries are desiring to provide their 23 consistent volunteers during COVID this year with a Christmas gift. The staff does not have the time to shop and create festive boxes/bags.

Give Our Talents
Serve at Grace
  • Join the Welcome Team 
  • Join the Cleaning Team 
  • Join the Grace Kids Team 
  • Use your gifts of construction/decorating to help beautify our
    campus

Share one way you plan on giving more to Jesus either with your resources, time or talents. Let us know how we can pray for you and encourage you as you make this new change.
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