Over the past several months, the pastors have been meeting to assess the encroaching needs of our congregation in our gathered meetings on Sunday morning. While we grieve over the loss of several families in recent months due to the economy and relocation, God has continued to bless Grace with an increase of 35-40 more in attendance compared to last year. While the importance of this issue has not gone unnoticed, the urgency of it became acutely aware when extra chairs were necessary to seat guests during the month of August, a summer month with typically lower-than-average attendance.

Not only has seating capacity been an issue, we are also needing to address traffic flow, restroom availability, and parking availability. These practical reasons were addressed on Wednesday, October 7 by Pastor Tom. Here are the downloadable resources for your use:

* Practical Considerations (13-page PDF)

On Wednesday, October 14, Pastor Tom (along with pastors Ken and Tim) will address the theological considerations and in particular how adding an additional service plays a part in facilitating what God is doing at Grace through the blessing of new attenders, believers, and members. A PDF and MP3 of that presentation will likely be made available as well.

The recommended Sunday morning schedule will change slightly with the addition of a new service. The pastors are recommending that beginning Sunday, November 1, 2009, the Sunday morning schedule change to the following:

8:00AM-9:15AM Early Worship
9:30AM-10:30AM Sunday School
10:45AM-12:15PM Late Worship
11:00AM-12:00PM Spanish Sunday School
12:15PM-1:45PM Spanish Worship Service

As you can imagine, there will be several opportunities to serve among the various ministry teams in both services including the nursery, greeting team, welcoming team, media team, ushers, and parking team. A survey will be made available to you on Wednesday, October 14th to discover the ways in which God may be leading you to serve in any of these areas. On the following Wednesday, October 21, we will hold our annual members’ meeting and vote on adding another Sunday morning service.

We ask that all members of Grace continue to pray and participate in this important process to discern God’s will as we seek to be faithful stewards of all His wonderful blessings, not the least of which are the people from our community who are coming to hear the gospel preached through the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is an exciting time in the life of our church, and the pastors look forward to carefully lead in a manner that faces the future in faith by addressing the present opportunities with a passion for God’s glory in the advance of His church.