Grace Notes Weekly Update

GRACE NOTES

January 2-8, 2024

For Worship services please visit our YouTube channel.

What's Going On At Grace

+Jan 14 - Children & Youth Sunday School resumes

+Jan 28-Feb 4 - Hosting Family Promise

Many of these events have more details in other sections. This section is updated each week, so keep checking in. You can also see the full church calendar HERE.

Dear Grace Family,

We are so grateful for the ways you have shown your love to us this Christmas season.

Your gifts, cards, warm words, and prayers have been part of making our season bright. We are touched that you thought of us in this time.

We give thanks for each of you and the opportunity to serve Christ with you in the coming year!

Peace in Christ, Pastors and Staff of Grace

Thank you to our 100th Anniversary Committee

and all who helped in celebrating 100 years of ministry as Grace Lutheran Church!

We shared an amazing year with history by the decade, a celebration dinner, musical and intergenerational events, and concert finale that will stay in our memories for a long time to come!

Theresa Miller shared a heartfelt 'thank you' on Sunday, which we think sums it up well!

You can see that Thank You here.

Epiphany Chalking and Blessing

January 6^th is Epiphany – the day we celebrate the three Wise Men who followed a star to see the baby Jesus, marking the beginning of something new and holy. This is also a day that the Christian Church uses for blessing and reflecting one where we are being led

For centuries, Christians have marked the outside of their main doorway with an inscription that serves as a blessing and a reminder. This year, we write “20 + CMB + 24". The numbers change each year, reminding us of how many years ago (this year, 2024), the Wise Men came to find Christ. The center letters stay the same. They represent the traditional names of the Wise Men: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. They also stand for the Latin phrase "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which means “Christ bless this home.”

Chalking the door is a blessing, as we ask Christ to bless us. It also serves as a reminder to us of how we are to live. We remember that Christ and his family would have welcomed the Wise Men – following their example, we also want to offer hospitality to others. We invite Christ into our homes and our hearts– we want to live surrounded and filled by Christ. We remember that we are called to live as God’s people, in our homes and outside them. We recall all these things each time we catch sight of the blessing marked on our door.

We invite you to take part in this holy tradition this Saturday and chalk your own home! For a short blessing liturgy, click HERE. If you do chalk your home, we'd love to see a photo!

2023 ANNUAL REPORTS are due January 31st

ALL COMMITTEE CHAIRS, please submit your report by January 31.

Contact the church office with any questions or if you need a form.

OUTREACH UPDATES

Grace Outreach Partnerships

Click on the buttons below to learn more about our 2023 partners and how you can offer support through volunteering and donations

Life House Women's Shelter

Bethel Shelters

Palmetto Community Health Care

Biggest needs this week at HOPE:

Pull-ups 4,5,6, breakfast items (cereal, grits, oatmeal, pancake mix/syrup), jelly, baking items, broth, tomato sauce, spaghetti/sauce.

Grace donated 300 pounds of food/supplies in December, thank you!

Congregation Connections

Click here for our current Prayer List

Click here to submit your prayer requests

Click here for our Memorials & Honor Gifts

Click here for our January Birthdays

The Sanctuary Candle for the month of January is

available to be sponsored.

The Altar Flowers for January 7th are available to be sponsored

Click HERE for the Current Worship Assistant Schedule.

Click HERE to sign up to sponsor Altar Flowers.

2024 Altar Flower and Sanctuary Candle Signups are now open

Grace keeps our Sanctuary Candle burning every week, a sign of the continuing presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. Members are able to sponsor the candle in memory or honor of someone. The cost of the candle is $25.

Please click HERE to sign up.

It has been a long-standing tradition at Grace for members to sponsor the weekly altar flowers. The cost is $45.00 for one (1) or $90.00 for both (2) vases. Each date on the sign-up form has two (2) spaces, check the number of vases you wish to sponsor, please check both if you are signing up for both vases.

Please click HERE to sign up.

Can we get a ride?

We have several members of Grace who would love to come to worship on Sunday mornings, but can't drive themselves.

We are creating a list of those who would be willing to give someone a ride to and from church, so that those members can be in touch and be with us in person! If you'd be willing to give a member a ride, please let the church office know HERE.

Offering Our Gifts to God

Your gifts to Grace allow our ministry to happen! You can give in several ways:

Give via the offering plate in worship
Give online by clicking HERE (you have the option to offset the cost of giving online)
Set up giving though your bank
Mail your offering to the church office.

Thank you for continued faithful giving!

Click HERE for the November Treasurer's Report