What's Happening Now

What's Happening Now

Welcome to Grace's What’s Happening Now Page! Here you'll find a comprehensive showcase of all the exciting happenings currently unfolding within our vibrant community. From worship services to special gatherings, volunteer opportunities to outreach initiatives, this page is your go-to resource for staying connected and engaged with everything Grace Church has to offer. Check back frequently for updates and join us as we journey together in faith and fellowship.

Click here to pledge your commitment for 2026 today!

We are living in chaotic and turbulent times. As individuals, we do what we can – provide financial assistance to those in need, sign petitions, and attend protests. Yet we feel powerless, like we are shouting into the void. Together, though, we can join forces and help make positive and impactful change. How do we do that in a way that is spiritually-led and heart-based? Attend this year’s GBC Retreat sponsored by the Adult Ed Commission and find out!

At this intergenerational retreat, guest speaker Heather Shafter will help us start this work through the SACRED path process. By exploring our values as a congregation, we can identify and collaborate with others in our community who are addressing the issues that are important to us. We can learn how to engage with those who have differing viewpoints so that we can focus on our commonalities, not our differences. 

In addition to this exploration, we will also have time to bond, hike, sit around a campfire together, and enjoy other leisure activities Camp Crossroads has to offer. Best of all, we will have the opportunity to strengthen our bonds with each other and have a great time!

Bring your cut flowers on Easter Sunday to help our children flower the cross during worship! Water buckets will be provided near entrances before worship for you to place your flowers.

Join us each Wednesday at 12:00 pm for Midweek Manna, in the Gathering Place, where we’ll gather for spiritual nourishment and meaningful conversation. Currently, Rev. Mary Ann Googins is leading a series based on Dr. A.J. Levine’s, A Child is Born: A Beginner's Guide to Nativity Stories.

First Wednesdays: A Dinner & Bible Study Series


The Adult Education Commission invites you to join us for "First Wednesdays" which is a time to share a simple dinner together, have fellowship and Bible study.  Dinner will be served starting by 5:30 pm. and we will begin Bible study at 5:45 while we share dinner together. We will end at 6:30 pm. The next dinner date will be April 1. Sign up in our weekly newsletter or outside the Church Office.

Important notes: 

Dinner will be simple such as subs and salads.  $8 for adults and $5 for children. Dinner sign-ups will be open for the two weeks before and close on the Sunday before so that food can be purchased. 

Childcare will be provided.

We are hoping that through our fellowship and Bible study we experience scripture in new ways.  We will base this on Professor Anna Carter Florence's ideas around rehearsing scripture--like someone in theater practices scripts.  

Florence believes every faith community is its own repertory theater company. What does she mean?

Florence shares:
A repertory theater is a residential company that lives together, or at least in the same community, and puts on a number of productions over the course of a season.

Faith communities, when we’re at our best, do much the same work. When we enter texts -- Scripture -- together over time with people with whom we share a life, space and a community, we’re able to do the work better. We’re able to enter the text more deeply and ask harder questions and hang in there with each other better than we would if we entered the text just from a positional or a doctrinal standpoint.

For me, it has been a helpful metaphor, because it describes what I try to do as a teacher when I’m in a classroom or leading a workshop. It’s to create a space where, before we decide what we think a text means, all of us can gather around it as a group interested in what it might show us. Before we do that work, we have to be willing to experiment and hang in there and open doors and explore what’s possible.

That’s work that happens best over time in a community.

We hope that you will join us as we look for new ways to experience the spirit with each other.

Nursery Volunteers Needed

One of the exciting parts of having so many births in this season is that we are preparing for our new babies to join us in the nursery! If you’d like to help care for our youngest, please reach out to Katie Rogers (katie@rvagrace.org).

Join Our Team of Ushers at Grace!

Do you love greeting folks on Sunday morning? Are you always offering a helping hand to those who need assistance? Do you take great pride in Grace's authentic welcome to all? Then, you may have a calling to be an usher at Grace!
 
The Worship Commission is looking for new ushers to be a part of our ushering team. We have several slots open where we need permanent folks (a once a month commitment)  and volunteers to serve on an as needed basis. As an usher, you would be responsible for ushering one Sunday a month. Duties include welcoming all to Grace with a genuine smile, offering bulletins, assisting folks, as needed, in finding a seat in the pews, and helping to collect and lift up our offerings to God during worship. 
 
If this is something that you feel called to do, please contact Theresa Steward, Church Administrator at office@rvagrace.org. Training will be provided.