Many thanks to the children of Grace for sharing the Good News with us on Christmas Eve, they worked very hard to make this year’s play a very special part of our celebration!
Join your Grace Family for the Ground Breaking Celebration!
We will mark the beginning of construction with a ground breaking celebration on Sunday, March 24th following the late service. Join Pastor, along with members of the Capital Campaign, Renovation Team, Marotta/Main and CHE Construction for this exciting start to our project. Bring the whole family to this joyous celebration!Refreshments will be served in Fellowship Hall following the ground breaking.
Music at Grace Concert – March 24, 2019 3:00 p.m.
The Lancaster Chamber Singers
The Lancaster Chamber Singers, conducted by Jay W. Risser, has played a major role in quality performances of choral masterpieces in central Pennsylvania and beyond since the group’s founding in 1978. The select group consists of 35 to 40 auditioned vocalists from varied walks of life. In addition to performing a capella, the group performs with Lancaster area instrumentalists and chamber ensembles.
Save the Date! Saturday, April 6, 2019
“Preparing to be Dust” 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 750 Greenfield Rd, Lancaster, PA 17601
Please join members of Grace Lutheran Church and The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on April 6th, 2019 for our Lenten Retreat where we will explore how we can have both a good life and a good death. Participants are encouraged to read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, prior to the retreat. Copies of the book can be purchased through Grace Lutheran for $11 (please let us know by March 1st), available in e-book form, and available at the Lancaster County Library. We will be taking time to fill out Five Wishes Forms and funeral templates for our respective congregations. A representative from Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory will join us in the morning to speak about the services they offer. In the afternoon we will have presentation from Hospice & Community Care titled “Making Your Wishes Known: A Living Will is Not Enough.”
A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Cost per participant is $10.
Easter Flower Orders Due Friday, April 12
Order forms are available in the Narthex and outside of St. Peter Chapel. The cost is $10.00 per plant. Plants may be picked up following the Easter Sunday (10:30 a.m.) service. Plants that are not picked up will be taken to our homebound members.
Fountain Flowers
Opportunities to share plants and flowers for the fountain will be available beginning Sunday, April 28th and continuing through June 2nd. Families may buy plants and flowers to decorate the Fountain on the Sunday they choose, delivering them to church on Saturday and following Sunday services, take their plants home. Please call the church office @ 397-2748 with questions or to sign up.
Annual Spring Clean Up Saturday April 13
Your help is needed! Please come for all or part of the day. Lots of jobs to do!Fun for the entire family! Inside, outside, all around the church! This is a wonderful opportunity for a family service project! Jobs for every age and ability! Join our property team for a day of service. Many hands make quick work! We hope to see you there!
Summer Garden Planning
Spring begins Wednesday, March 20th! It’s time to think about our church veggie garden and flower beds. If you are interested in helping with the veggie garden, and/or weeding and watering the flower beds, please contact the church office at 397-2748 We welcome any amount of time you are able to offer.
Stewardship Snippets
March 24, 2019 (3rd Sunday in Lent, Year C)
Isaiah 55:2 – Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Stewardship is about making wise choices in life – choices that promote health, wellbeing and faithful living. Isaiah asks the key questions and provides wise advice.
Our Grace Family
Dear Members of Grace,
We give thanks for the life and witness of Mary Lou Givens, mother of Beth Rowland. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to Beth, Tommy and their family and friends. We also give thanks for the life and witness of Larry W. Smith, father of Memory D’Agostino. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to Memory, Ray, Anthony, and Janae, their family and their friends. Please keep them in your prayers.
Pat and I want to thank our church family, the prayer group and Pastor for the loving kindness and care expressed toward us during the last few weeks while I was hospitalized. It’s good to be back home. I look forward to again worshiping together with all of you at Grace.Warmly, Scott Oberholtzer
Return to the Lord Your God
By Angela N. Smith, MDiv, MA
How many of you have been to a family reunion? I don’t mean a few people getting together for dinner, I mean a family reunion. You know the ones where generations come together, where someone insists on taking a group photo but inevitably someone is left out because someone must take the photo, and some poor little kid has their cheeks pinched by an older relative. Chances are we’ve all been to one of these a time or two. Maybe you’re the person that looks forward to planning the reunion every year or maybe you’re the kid questioning why you had to go spend time with people that you didn’t really know and saw once a year.
If the church is our home, and we take the idea of a family of faith seriously, then each week is a family reunion. The church functions much like any family. There are those that want to keep peace, those that want to push their boundaries, those that don’t seem bothered by anything that is happening around them, and those that want what is best for the whole and those that want what is good for a few. That doesn’t exactly sound like something you would want to come home to. I get it; life together is tough. We don’t always get along. We don’t always use our words when we are upset about something. We hurt each other sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.
Life together is messy, but it’s also beautiful. Not in the times when everything looks nice for a picture but in the times that it is messy. Grace abounds at Grace, always, even when it feels like we need more grace at Grace. At no point are we promised that life together will be easy, what we are promised is that no matter how messy things get, Christ died for us. On our good days, on our bad days, and all the days in between, Christ died for us.
Return home, because even though we don’t always get it right, we need you. As a family we need your ideas, your passions, your hopes and dreams, your fears and concerns. We need you. We need each other. We return home time and time again to be reminded of who we are and to whom we belong. Return home to the beautiful mess from which you came and be reminded that no matter how messy things get, there is a place for you at this table. Our family history is messy, but at it’s core is God and his steadfast love for his children. Amen.
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