This Week in Worship

Advent is in full swing at Grace, and we have a full weekend of activities. Tomorrow is the Living Nativity and it looks like the weather will cooperate.

Angel House advent missions focus, Blue Christmas service Dec 1, Living Nativity Dec 7, Grace Angel Tree, Silver Set Lunch Dec 8

Thanksgiving worship & office hours, angel tree, hanging of the greens, living nativity, and blue Christmas worship

I think we can all admit that we don’t always feel thankful. Sometimes life knocks the wind out of us, and we just struggle to breathe, let alone say thank you, God. Yet, that may be the most important time in our life to find gratitude. Gratitude is a doorway to God’s grace which in turn is a doorway back to gratitude. Or as Anne Lamott writes, “The movement of grace toward gratitude brings us from the package of self-obsessed madness to a spiritual awakening. Gratitude is peace.”

This Sunday in worship we will take a deeper dive into the power of prayer and living lives of thanksgiving.

As I sat at the prayer breakfast, I could not help but think about our next sermon series on prayer. Ann Lamont wrote a book a few years ago called “Help, Thanks, Wow!” Her premise is that all of our prayers fall into one of these three categories. For the next three weeks, we are going to explore what these prayers look like and how we can live them out. I invite you to come with an open spirit as we learn together.

In the United Methodist Church, we designate the first Sunday after Halloween as All Saints Sunday to lift up and remember the members of our church who have died in the past year. We will read 25 names in worship this Sunday.