Better Together: Body Builders, 1 Corinthians 12

 Sunday’s message “Body Builders”

Bottom line: God sovereignly arranges the body of Christ with his spiritual gifts for the common good.

links and notes are now up on our website:

https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast/2020/9/15/body-builders-better-together-1-corinthians-12

“I am thankful for 2020”

 This is from-the-heart video is by our good friend Dee McGinnis. She calls it, “I am thankful for 2020.”

I encourage you to check out her Prayer Zoom. This happens Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:00 PM EST. Go to https://www.pray4sc.com/ for more info.

She mentioned her church which is Grace Christian Fellowship in Ladson, SC: https://www.gracetoday.net/

"We Can Do Better" - an open letter

God is Working. Are you paying attention?

God has been at work in and through our people the past ten weeks of COVID-mania.

Here's a list of some of the things happening in the life of Grace the last ten weeks:

• 5 PM Deacon Prayer Calls - we launched this to help us check on our people early and often
• 8 AM Morning Prayer Calls - we launched this back in Dec. to practice more dependency on God
• Pray4SC.com was launched recently by one of our members 
• Groups and Sundays transitioned to online zoom chats
• Neighborhood care packages delivered (Amy & Kate) to Frankie Lane residents (Ladson)
• Memory Verse cards delivered to children and families
• 6 friends of Grace attended Starting Point (Whittington, Wright, Mather, LaDuke)
• 2 weddings of our members
• 3 drive-by parades (Caleb & Shyanne, Spencer & Ana, Lyndsey)
• 2 distant drives to get college students home safely (Jenny & Kara)
• 4 times helping people move (Edwards, Leckie, Mather, Black)
• 3 lost jobs but got new jobs (Byron, Peter C, Tricia C)
• 2 families were assisted in yard work
• 2 babies on the way (Lizzie E & Taylor C)
• 1 COVID-19 case
• Lots of meals shared

I share these things from our small church to help you see that God is at work in and around us all of the time. 

God is working in and around your life too.  

Are you paying attention?

What do we call people who leave our church?

I don't like it when people leave our church. 

It grieves me. Even when they leave for legitimate reasons. Like when they move to Illinois. (Yes, that really happened. I know) I miss them. Admittedly, some more than others)

Then they officially become "former members." That means they used to be members of our church.

People I considered to one degree or another like family. More or less depending on how long they stayed, how connected they were, how much skin they had in the game, etc.

I don't like to call them former members. That feels like it minimizes what they contributed to our church family and the overall mission of the global Church of which they (in most cases) are still an active part of.

So I am trying on calling them "alumni" instead. 

I'm an alumn of Clemson University. I left after four glorious years. Ok, it was 4-1/2. But who's counting?

I like being part of the Clemson University alumni. I feel like I'm still a part of what's happening there. Because I am! (I go to football games, I read their emails, I send them money) Ok, I don't really send them money. Well, I do pay for our daughter's tuition. That counts, right?

Anyway, I want our former members, er, alumni to feel like they were and are a special part of what God is doing in and through Grace Christian Fellowship (our church). Because GCF is like it is (in part) because they invested finances, creativity, time and energy, and relational and spiritual energy in and through us. And that means a whole lot in my book.

And something tells me that matters a whole lot to God as well.

Here's something we've done to validate their time with us.

We've created a Facebook Group where our GCF Alumni can stay connected to members (past, present and future) here. They can join here.