Sunday Morning is Hectic, But...

If you are like us, you can become a little overwhelmed when you look at your calendars and to-do lists. Days covered up with work, sporting events, community functions, family obligations, and a whole host of other demands leaves little room for moments of fellowship with your GCC family. As often happens, the idea of adding another event, even a wonderful fellowship opportunity, can lead to frustration rather than refreshment. We all know that time together is vital to the health of our church body, but we also know that many of us struggle with consistently carving out the time needed to develop relationships with the entire GCC family.

What if I told you that you have an opportunity to fellowship with your GCC family weekly with very little change to your already established routine? All it takes is arriving at the library at 10:00 rather than 10:30 for corporate worship. This small adjustment to your weekly schedule can reap big benefits. Our family has grown to love arriving for worship on Sunday mornings at 10:00 rather than 10:30. Yes, it is can be difficult to arrive early, and no, we certainly aren’t there at 10:00 each week. However, we have made it our aim as a family to arrive early to spend time in fellowship with those who are there and to prepare our hearts for corporate worship.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I don't have a green thumb. Actually, we can't really be sure if that's even true. To test it, I would have to do some gardening...which I don't. But I know some gardeners. I know some people who love it. My mother-in-law can pick up a stick in the yard, jab it into the ground, and in a year, it'll be some flowering bush. My wife's love for gardening is, therefore, perfectly understandable. 

Gardening is serious business. Just consider all the work that goes into cultivating a nice, healthy, lush garden.

We Aren't Deists...Are We?

Deism. It's a philosophy, a worldview that says God is not actually involved and active in his creation. He put it together much the way a watch maker puts together the parts of a watch, seals it up, and sends it on its way never to see it again, never to interact with it again, never to be involved in it again. There were some fairly famous deists among our nation's founding fathers.

We, however, are not like them. We believe in the doctrine of providence, God's ordering all things according to the counsel of his will, and that he is very much active in his creation.

The Crown and Christian Parenting

The British monarchy seems to be all the rage.  PBS is in season 2 of Victoria.  There are two seasons of The Crown* available on Netflix.  Many of you men are left to watch the Olympics alone because your wife and daughter would rather binge watch these stories of royalty.

Well, in Season 1, Episode 7 of The Crown, we get a glimpse into the education that Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth received as a young girl.  The audience learns, even as she does, that her education is different, drastically different, from that of other pupils.  “Shouldn’t I know all of this too?” she asks as she thumbs through a stack of, what does appear to be, Algebra exam papers.

No other child in the entire kingdom received the same kind of training she did, not even her own sister, Margaret.

Slow Learners, Unite!

If I tell you something three times, you can bet that it's either important or I'm convinced you didn't hear me the first time and second times.

If I tell you something three times, you can...OK, I won't,

While you can accuse me of many things, being charismatic isn't one of them. And, yet, I'm convinced God is trying to tell me something. The last three sermons I've heard all traced the same theme.

Ministry Teams

Quick, what’s our mission?  Can you remember it?  “The whole…something?”  The mission of Grace Covenant Church is to proclaim the whole gospel for the whole person through the whole city to the whole world.

I know, that sounds like a tall order, perhaps even impossible.  Is it measurable?  Definable?

How will we know that we are accomplishing our mission?  Well, we have four goals – Worship, Growth in Grace, Fellowship and Service, and Evangelism and Missions.  While you could probably figure out what we mean by these four goals, eventually we’ll discuss each of them.  For now, however, I want to focus on Fellowship & Service.