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 do the things we do.” We’re going to look at why the PCA was formed, why RUF was formed, why Grace was formed, what role the higher courts (Presbytery and General Assembly) play in our denomination, how Teaching and Ruling Elders are alike/different, the role of our Session, the role of our Diaconate, the role of our membership, the responsibility of our church to Starkville, the responsibility of our church to RUF (and vice versa), and the question of why we spend so much of our energy and resources on our Lord’s Day worship services. Some of you might know all these answers already. I suspect,however, that this summer will be informative to most as it will put all of us“in the know” on how we got here, who we are, and why we do the things we do.The youth group will be thematically working through Proverbs this summer while the children’s ministry will continue to use the curriculum from our denominational publishing company.
On Wednesday nights this summer, the men and women will be together for prayer meeting. I am going to pick up at Psalm 38, where I left off preaching in evening worship a while back. We’ll spend 5-7 minutes taking a devotional look at each Psalm, setting our hearts and minds up to spend the rest of the evening in prayer. Remember, it’s Wednesday night prayer meeting, not Wednesday night Bible study. While I love the way we have utilized (and will again in the fall) Wednesday nights to develop our men’s and women’s ministries, I am looking forward to having everyone together for a short season in the hopes that we will teach each other how to pray. Much like Psalm singing in evening worship, this is a way for us travel back down the ancient paths and approach God in a way we think is both biblical and faithful to our theological heritage. The youth will be working through the Psalms of Ascent in a discussion-based format and really digging into what it looks like to live a life of worship on a pilgrim journey. Our children’s ministry will be diving into the fruit of the Spirit and doing various crafts in support of our connection with Operation Christmas Child.
It might be summer, but there will still be ample opportunities to learn and learn together. I’m looking forward to all of it!
Humbly yours,
Seth