• Click here to edit title.
    Click here to edit text.
< >

One of the best invitations I have ever heard is simply, "Come and See."  It is one of my favorite invitations in the Bible.  So I extend an invitation for you to "Come and See" what God is doing at Grace Presbyterian Church.


Grace Presbyterian Church is a warm and welcoming congregation that is open to all those who are seeking a life of faith.  Wherever you are on your journey, come as you are to Grace Presbyterian Church.  Come and See!


Rev. Thom Lamb

Join us for Worship on Sunday

      9:00 am - Contemporary Service

    10:00 am - Sunday School for all ages

    11:00 am - Traditional Service

Every 5th Sunday, we worship together at a combined 10 am Worship with a potluck fellowship to follow!


"Come grow with us!"

Dear Friends,

The Session met on Sunday and made the following determinations for our response to the COVID 19 virus:As of today, March 15, all in-person meetings, fellowship events (Book Club) and all gatherings of the confirmation class, youth fellowships and children’s activities are either canceled or postponed until further notice.

    • Worship will be live-streamed electronically on March 22 at 10:00 AM. (There will be no public worship on March 22). Further cancellation of public worship will be determined on a week to week basis.
    • The building will be locked down for all outside groups using the facility, with the exception of our two AA groups and Meals on Wheels. The building will also be locked down on Sunday mornings.
    • Meals on Wheels will continue to prepare and deliver meals using necessary precautions such as using gloves for the preparation of the meals and delivery. It is understood that if you have a cough or are running a fever please stay home.
    • If you are at a “high risk” for the virus and in a place where you should not be out in public, we are setting up a system by which you can request someone to pick up groceries, medications or other necessities. If you would like to volunteer to assist, please contact the church office.
    • The office will remain open at this time. Thom, Sharon and Adele will continue to be available.
    • All hourly employees will continue to be paid during the shut down, regardless if they are working or not.

We will abide by the guidelines established by Bell County and the State of Texas. Dr. Janice Smith will be monitoring the situation and providing us with updates as this crisis unfolds.

Please continue to be in prayer for our congregation and our community. Stay connected! If you would like to have the Lenten Devotional (available in the weekly messenger) mailed to you please contact the church office. 

You can help in the following ways:
  • Use common sense and your best judgment in protecting your own health and the health of others. Reduce unnecessary travel, touch and contact to avoid placing yourself or others at greater risk. If you are feeling ill or have recently experienced symptoms of an infectious disease, we ask that you stay home and/or keep a safe distance from others to limit contagion. Even if you believe you are not sick, but are coughing or sneezing, be mindful of the anxiety this may cause in others around you.
  • Please find ways to stay in touch — through the prayer ministry, fellowship groups, elders and deacons, social media, or emails and phone calls. We don’t want to create situations where those who are ill also feel lonely, isolated or outcast. We want to pray for you and provide other forms of assistance and care as needed.

May the Peace of Christ surround us and may we all know that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Peace,
Thom Lamb
My former colleague The Rev. Karen Chakoian, Pastor at First Presbyterian, Granville, OH, wrote these suggestions for optimizing your worship experience at home:
Creating Space
Since God is everywhere, we can even make worshipping through a screen feel sacred! Before worship starts, try creating a meaningful space for your worship. Ideas:
  • Find a beautiful spot by a window
  • Layout a special table cloth
  • Find your Bible
  • Light a candle
Community
We are still the body of Christ! Worship is space we connect with others in the presence of God.

Participating
Make a joyful noise and lift up your voice in song and prayer while you worship. We won't hear you but God will!
Come and worship with us on the Grace Presbyterian Church Facebook page.
Jan Fall (GPC Elder) found this short essay by C.S. Lewis that he wrote regarding the threat of the atomic bomb. Lewis wrote this in the light of the international panic over the increasing fear of nuclear war. If you replace the phrase “atomic Bomb” with “Coronavirus,” it helps to put things in perspective:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb (REPLACE WITH CORONAVIRUS). “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

NEW MEMBER CLASSES

Our next New Member Class will be May 17, September 20 and January 17, 2021. All classes are at 10 am in the Fellowship Hall and include a light breakfast for to those attending.  If you are interested in knowing more about our church and/or becoming a member of Grace Presbyterian, we encourage you to attend.  If you are interested in membership before our next class, email Rev. Thom Lamb. Register below by filling out one per person attending.  

Thank you for signing up for New Member Class. We look forward to seeing you on October 20. Please make sure to register one per person (not per couple). Thank you!
Oops. An error occurred.
Click here to try again.

THE BOOK OF THE EVERY OTHER MONTH CLUB


Several folks have asked for a book study, so in response we want to offer an installment of the Book of the Every Other Month Club. We will begin reading right away and the first meeting will be in March. Sign up in the church office. All of the books are available on Amazon. If that poses a problem, we can order books through the church office - let us know if you need a book. The cost of the books will range from $11- $15. We will meet at my home (Thom Lamb) for ‘coffee,’ dessert and a discussion of the first book. Here are the first four books that have been selected.


March 20 at 6:30 pm - CANCELLED OR POSTPONED!

The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look and Listen to Life, by Frederick Buechner ($11)

Based on a series of mostly unpublished lectures, Frederick Buechner reveals how to stop, look, and listen to your life. He reflects on how both art and faith teach us how to pay attention to the remarkableness right in front of us, to watch for the greatness in the ordinary, and to use our imaginations to see the greatness in others and love them well. As you learn to listen to your life and what God is doing in it, you will uncover the plot of your life’s story and the sacred opportunity to connect with the Divine in each moment.


May 22, 6:30 PM

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, by Henri J. M. Nouwen ($13)

The bestselling Henri Nouwen title of all time! Over a million copies sold worldwide. For all who ask, “Where has my
struggle led me?” or for those “on the road” who have had the courage to embark on the journey but seek the illumination, this work will inspire. A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on a long spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell.


July 17, 6:30 PM

A Gospel of Hope, by Walter Brueggemann ($14)

Beloved and respected by scholars, preachers, and laity alike, Walter Brueggemann offers penetrating insights on Scripture and prophetic diagnoses of our culture. Instead of maintaining what is safe and routine, A Gospel of Hope encourages readers to embrace the audacity required to live out one’s faith. This must-have volume gathers Brueggemann’s wisdom on topics ranging from anxiety and abundance to partisanship and the role of faith in public life.


September 18, 6:30 PM

The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis ($12)

C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.