ushers and welcome team

Grace Presbyterian Church's ushers and welcome team work together to provide a warm friendly greeting on Sundays.

Contact: Jason Greene or Wil Ngan

Values: The ushers and welcome team work together to provide a warm friendly greeting on Sundays. The welcome team provides an outwardly joyful greeting, information and opportunities for connection into the church family. The ushers provide a welcome (to regulars and visitors), and assistance during the worship service so that people are well seated, programs are given, the offering and communion is distributed, and questions are answered. A warm welcome greatly enhances worship and community even before the worship service begins. For newcomers, it is the first impression that people have about how friendly our church body truly is. The simple message that they provide is: "all are welcome in the presence of God's people!"

Ways to get involved:

• Usher Team Weekly Captains / Coordinator
• Usher Weekly Teams
• Welcome Table Team / Coordinator

communion team

The Communion team prepares the weekly elements (unleavened bread and wine) for the Lord's Table.

Contact: Krista Featherstone

Values: Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is a tangible display of the Gospel - Jesus Christ's substitution of his life for our life and his death for our death. We are united into his life and death by his grace through faith. It is a sacrament commanded by Jesus, an act that is mysteriously more than a mere remembrance but that accomplishes that which it signifies. Through the Lord's Supper, Jesus nourishes the souls of his followers. It is the high point of worship. At Grace Presbyterian Church, we highly value the sacraments, and share in the historic, Biblical practice of weekly Communion. A secondary benefit of weekly communion is the constant call for people to choose Christ or not as the Table is explained. This is a weekly call to faith.

Ways to get involved:

• Weekly Preparation and Cleanup: Volunteer Team

sound and audio

Grace Presbyterian Church's sound team exists to make worship and preaching available to a large group of people.

Contact: Michael Bloem or Jonathan Zempel

Values: Enabling God's word, the music and the liturgy to be heard well is a form of hospitality. It creates an open environment for people to intelligibly grow in Christ and to see him with greater clarity. Sermons available on the website are low-commitment ways for Christians to encourage their friends to hear God's Word and to explore the gospel.

Making audio recordings available to Christians (on CD or web) enables them to explore God's Word wherever they are during the week. It allows for multiple opportunities to study and meditate.

Sound systems enable other worship leaders like musicians, preachers, etc. to fulfill their gifts and callings. A well-crafted and managed sound system (within our resources) enhances the beauty of worship, likewise a poorly done sound system detracts from otherwise artistic worship. Sound team participants serve as a way of expressing their gifts and talents to God much like a medieval craftsman built a cathedral. They serve for Christ's glory, not their own and therefore are neither prideful nor defensive when people comment about the sound system.

Ways to get involved: 

Sound Team: sets up and runs the sound system on Sunday morning worship services

Audio: digital recordings of sermons and classes available on CD or web

grace resources

Grace Resources provides recommended books and other means of understanding the Christian truth more deeply and applying the gospel more faithfully. We best serve those who are exploring Christianity, new Christians and those who are growing in their desire to minister.

Contact: Scott Garl or Steve Sysum

Values: Well selected books enhance a Christian's understanding and application of the truths of the Gospel. Likewise, many less faithful popular Christian books detract from a profoundly distinctive Christian life. They can (often unintentionally) replace growth in grace with a subtle form of works righteousness. At Grace Presbyterian Church, we value Christian thinking and worldview. We encourage our participants to explore, to challenge and to question, with a view toward placing all things in line with the gospel. Therefore, we provide a selection of resources on Sunday and a selection of resources on our website. Our aim is not mere intellectual pursuit, but to combine knowledge with practice, enhancing the mission of the Kingdom.

Ways to get involved:

• Sunday Resource Table
• Staffed by volunteers
• Website Bookstore (Amazon affiliated)

hospitality

Sunday Hospitality provides food and beverages during worship services to welcome people and provide time for friendships to develop.

Contact: Jenn Davis

Values. Hospitality is literally "love of strangers" and is a tangible expression of the gospel. Thos who are strangers to God, outside his family, are invited into his love. As people share refreshments together, it allows old friendships to be deepened and new friendships to be created. We invest resources into local food businesses as a way of being salt and light into the world.

Ways to get involved:

• Setup and cleanup the hospitality tables
• Bring extra food: fruit, homemade items

facilities and setup

Sunday Worship Facilities and Setup exists to provide a welcoming and honoring worship environment.

Contact: jesse@gracepres.com

Values: Worship facilities are an expression of gospel hospitality. They warmly welcome worship participants (members, new visitors, children) by providing an accessible, understandable and livable environment. We do not own our own facility, which allows Grace Presbyterian Church to be in the midst of the people who we reach, adapting public space for worship purposes. This provides great opportunities to display the grace of Jesus to people who interact with our church body.

Facilities and architecture are not neutral. They express through visual and environmental means about a person's relationship to the world, to other people, and toward God. Given our limited ability to adapt space that is not owned by the church, we will reshape the space into a better suited worship atmosphere. Signs, people-flow, temperature, orientation are all ways to adapt space.

Ways to get involved

• Paid part-time setup crew
• Volunteer setup help (signs, info tables, etc)
• Special needs - building, moving