Posts by Seth Starkey

Dear Grace Family, As you are reading this, I’m likely sitting on a screened porch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful place on earth. I’d love to tell y’all that I’ve been able to unplug from all things Grace and Starkville, while I’m away to get the maximum benefit of a vacation. I’d be lying, however, if I said that. I’m afraid that’s not how my brain works.…

Dear Grace Family, This past Monday night, your Session and Diaconate met to discuss where we are as a church from a facilities, finances, and programming standpoint at the halfway mark of 2023. Let me say that the overall outlook of your officers is one of great hope, optimism, and encouragement. We continue to see God grow us as individuals, and us as a church collectively. The common consent was that God is doing something “special” in our midst, especially…

Dear Grace Family, I’m sitting here with writer’s block unable to come up with anything new or inspiring for y’all on a Thursday. Having a holiday during the week has thrown my rhythms off in a bad way. I also think the heat has gotten to me and sapped all my energy and vitality away from me. Ha! So, what should one write about when there’s no obvious inspiration? I’m going to go with simply communicating thankfulness and thanksgiving. I…

Dear Grace Family, Our hymn of adoration this Lord’s Day morning will be “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The words were written in 1826, while the tune was written in 1861. This is one of those time-tested hymns that has crossed nearly every denominational boundary. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but historically it has always been #1 in Baptist hymnals, signifying the great importance of its treatment of the Triune God in His holiness. I always pause when we…

Dear Grace Family, A week ago, the PCA celebrated its 50th anniversary as we held our annual general assembly in Memphis. Jonathan Barlow and I were the representatives from Grace this year. Just by way of reminder, the PCA is made up of 3 levels of church courts. The Session of every local congregation makes up the “lowest” court of the denomination. In the middle, 88 Presbyteries make up the “middle” court. Finally, the “highest” court of the PCA is…

Dear Grace Family, As much as I missed y’all this past Sunday, being away often gives me a renewed sense of perspective and appreciation for our beloved church. It’s easy for me (and most of us) to look at the various areas of our lives in terms of what we want to see change/grow/improve. It can be harder, though, to simply be thankful for what the Lord has done and is doing in one area of our lives or another.…

Dear Grace Family, Our month off from Sunday school and Wednesday night activities has quickly passed us. As we dive back in this coming week, I wanted to let y’all know what this summer will look like for us. The adults will be in the fellowship hall together in one class from June 4 – August 13. We’ll be working through a series that can best be titled something like, “why we are the way we are -or- why we…

Dear Grace Family, The more ground we cover in Genesis and Acts, the more the similarities are rising to the surface between the earliest stages of the “proto” Church of the patriarchs and the infant Church in Acts. People called to drop everything they were doing and reexamine everything they thought for the sake of the Triune God. For most of us, even if we haven’t been Christians from our earliest memories, we’ve at least had a close acquaintance with…

Dear Grace Family, Please consider the following article and reflect on it as we both prepare for this coming Sunday, but also think about all of our Sundays. I was convicted and challenged. Humbly yours, Seth The Ministry of the Pew: Sunday Morning for Normal ChristiansArticle by Greg Morse The first step is to survive the coordinated attacks from the children. An ex-nihilo stain suddenly appears on my daughter’s dress. An episode from my son responding to his sister’s “help.”…

Dear Grace Family, I wanted to keep y’all in the loop on a few things, as we are in the yearly transitional phase of school year to summer break. First, I wanted to let y’all know that rather than coming back on the diaconate from his sabbatical, Tom Jackson has decided to step away from the diaconate at this time. Tom is being a dutiful son and son-in-law to his mom and mother-in-law. He is serving them by taking them…

Dear Grace Family, How do you spend your downtime? Or are you like me and respond to that question with, “what is downtime?” As far as the life of our church goes, May is a month of downtime. We have a limited number of volunteers pulling off an exhaustive amount of ministry, so May, August, and Christmas are natural times we’ve built into our life together to take a break. However, not all of you are at the age/stage in…

Dear Grace Family, Between last Lord’s Day and the one coming up, we’ve been able to celebrate nearly all the hallmarks of church life together! This past Sunday evening we feasted together at the Lord’s Table reminding one another and being reminded by the feast that “Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again.” We also had the privilege of receiving new members into our church family. It’s always special when we can time it where the sacraments…