Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father
for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
~Ephesians 5:19-20
POINSETTIA SALE 2021
Sponsored by the Christian Education Committee
Proceeds to Vacation Bible School 2022
$10 per plant
Order forms can be found in the back of the sanctuary or outside the office.
Deadline for orders is December 12, 2021
Contact Connie Thomas with any questions 419.242.9340
I thank everyone for the kind sentiments and generous gift regarding my time serving God and Grace as Choir Director and Handbell Choir Director. It was my joy to serve the Lord in these positions. May God keep you in his care. ~Peter Kramp
Many thanks to all who offered prayers, gave personal sympathy messages, sent cards, or made phone calls to Gretchen and I upon the passing of my brother, Russell. We felt the prayers, and appreciated the other forms of reaching out to us in our time of grief. Rest assured that Russell knew his Lord Jesus and was in his words, “Ok if I recover, and if not, I’ll be spending a lot of time with Jesus.” His wife Clara told us when he was admitted to the hospital and put into Covid isolation, he asked for two things…… His Bible, …… and his reading glasses! Even as difficult as it is to loose him, it is also comforting to know, he knew his Lord and looked forward to his new home.
It’s times like this when you really, REALLY appreciate our Grace Church family! And Thank You Pastor Abts for reaching out. We are blessed.
Ron & Gretchen Hiatt
Worship Opportunities at Grace
November 28 9:30 & 11:30 a.m. – First Sunday of Advent
November 29 11:00 a.m. – Monday Gathering/Lunch
December 5 9:30 & 11:30 a.m. – Second Sunday of Advent
December 6 11:00 a.m. – Monday Gathering/Lunch
December 12 9:30 & 11:30 a.m. – Third Sunday of Advent
December 13 11:00 a.m. – Monday Gathering/Lunch
December 19 9:30 a.m. & 11:30 a.m. – Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20 11:00 a.m. – Monday Gathering/Lunch
December 21 6:30 p.m. – Blue Christmas Service
December 24 3:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. – Christmas Eve Services
December 26 9:30 a.m. & 11:30 a.m. Sunday Services
Please join us for Fellowship Hour during the months of
November and December
Thank you to the following people for signing up to hostess!
November 28 – Brenda Holderman and Janet & Callie Moore
December 5 – Debbie Downs and Grace Peterson
December 12th – Jan Dustman and Karlene Jaquillard
December 19th- Christmas Cookie Fellowship –
Attn: Grace Bakers – We would like to have a variety of Christmas Cookies for fellowship. If you would be interested in donating 1or 2 dozen on this day, please call Sue Wagner at 419.475.8972 by Sunday, December 12th.
December 26th – No Fellowship Hour
So people get ready there’s a train a comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord
Advent at Grace
The Worship and Music Committee and the Outreach Committee at Grace are offering Grace Members two opportunities to prepare their hearts and minds for Jesus’ birth. Our focus for Advent is ELCA World Hunger.
Every Monday of Advent (November 29, December 6, December 13, and December 20) a gathering will be held at 11 a.m. in Fellowship Hall to expand on the stories read during the lighting of the Advent wreath on Sundays with a short discussion to follow. These stories relate how ELCA World Hunger impacts lives. A light lunch will be served after the story and discussion.
Our Outreach focus will be on ELCA Good Gifts, a division of ELCA World Hunger. On November 21, November 28, and December 7, piggy banks will be available in the sanctuary for members to take home and then bring back on December 19 and placed at the front of the church. These banks can be filled with loose change, paper bills, or a check to be used to purchase piglets through the ELCA Good Gifts program. Each piglet costs $30 and are given to people to raise.
Grace’s goal is to purchase 20 piglets. Please give if you are able and whatever amount you can. At our Christmas Eve services and on Sunday, December 26, an announcement will be made with the number of piglets Grace is able to purchase. This will be included in the announcements as well.
Let us at Grace prepare for Jesus’ birth!
Ushers are urgently needed for the 9:30 a.m. service.
If you have not ushered and would be willing to serve in this ministry,
please contact Mary Schneider at 419.262.0730.
To watch our live streamed services at 9:30 am and 11:30 am on Sunday mornings, go to gracelutherantoledo.org and scroll to the bottom of the home page. There is a link to connect you to the live services and also all previous recorded services. Join us online!
Me yelling at squirrels in the street to move so they don’t die is probably the same feeling God has watching me live my life most days!
Food for Toledo Update
by Mary Schneider
In a two week period 165 pounds of food was collected and delivered to Aldersgate United Methodist Church. Aldersgate calculated that the food given to people through their bi-weekly food pantry supplies 1200 meals a month! There is an immediate need for canned meat and jelly. Though Aldersgate does distribute frozen meat to their clients not everyone has access to a freezer or refrigerator to store the meat.
Besides the grandparents that are raising their grandchildren, the Aldersgate Food Pantry is also an important resource for Race for Recovery clients. Race for Recovery is a residential addiction rehabilitation program. Those in the Race for Recovery program must stock their own refrigerators and many do not have the resources or support to do this. In return those that receive food from the food pantry volunteer at Aldersgate Food Pantry.
It has been my pleasure to volunteer in this important Grace ministry and I will continue to do so. If you would have any questions regarding Grace’s Food for Toledo program or Aldergate’s food pantry, please feel free to contact me.
Today you could be standing next to someone who is trying their best not to fall apart. So whatever you do today, do it with kindness in your heart.
Behind the scenes at Grace…by Gretchen
- The Sylvania Advantage had a great article about the Toledo Symphony Fundraiser held on October 19th. Our own Judy Helm was featured (including a picture) of the group who provided musical entertainment. Wonderful Judy! Check out the picture and article on the Community Bulletin Boards.
- The church Fire Alarm batteries have been replaced so we are up to date. If you did not replace your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector batteries last weekend, please do now. You may have only 3 – 4 minutes to get out a burning structure so the more time you have with being alerted the better. Carbon Monoxide is the silent killer as we cannot see or smell it.
- Oink!
- Check out the white tree in the Narthex! It is a tree of …… Oink!
- Remember: Grace is not the building but the people of Grace carrying out God’s mission !
What Got Left Out of the Sermon
(This is another in an occasional series of pieces that serve to protect those who attend Sunday morning worship from longer, more tiresome sermons. It’s a win for the pastor, who feels less compelled to cram in still more material on Sunday, since he has this outlet. And it’s a win for you, dear reader, since you can skip right past it if you wish. What’s not to like?)
You’ve heard the one about the fourth-century theologians who went into a bar, right? They sat down, ordered beers, and talked about what they could do to baffle the rest of the folks in the church. “I know!” said one of them. “Let’s invent the Doctrine of the Trinity!”
Well, it’s not true. It didn’t happen that way. The idea that there is one God, who is three Persons, emerged gradually, over time. The earliest Christians were not at all clear that, in (a small portion of) the words of the Athanasian Creed, “We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.”
Two of the readings for Christ the King Sunday, November 21 this year, seem to point to steps in the development of our understanding of God.
The reading from Daniel 7 was seen by some in the early church as a hint to the coming Messiah, Jesus. “… an Ancient One took his throne,” and “one like a human being … came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” At first blush, it sounds sort of like God the Father and God the Son. Not quite, though. God the Son was not like a human being. He was a human being. And it sounds as if Daniel’s vision was not of two who were equal in glory and majesty, but of one who was greater than the other. And where’s the Holy Spirit? It is suggestive, though. A step in a good direction.
The introduction of God in the reading from Revelation 1 gets us a few steps closer. “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” First is God the Father, “who is and who was and who is to come.” Third is Jesus Christ, briefly and accurately described. Second, though, God the Holy Spirit, the author sees as plural: seven spirits. Perhaps he’s influenced by Isaiah 11, where the prophet sees, resting on the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the spirit – spirits? – of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and delight in the Lord. Seven characteristics. Seven gifts. Seven spirits? Maybe it’s not such a big problem to think of God the Spirit that way.
While we’re being thankful this week, I think it might be good to thank God for those who, over centuries, have thought carefully and deeply about what we have seen of God, how we can best understand God.
What do you think?
The Candle of Hope.
Hope is a light shining in a dark place. …
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit
~Romans 15:13
Grace Anatomy! (Not Gray’s)
Do you know what and where the Narthex is at Grace?
What is the Narthex? The Narthex is the place of gathering and entering. It is the place of transitioning from the outside and everyday life. It is the place for people to great each other and prepare for worship. It also has important liturgical functions as it is used for the formation of liturgical processions prior to the entrance hymn, and for wedding and burial processions. Receiving lines after weddings and other services often form in the Narthex. The Narthex may also be refereed to as the “Gathering Space”.
Where is the Narthex(s) at Grace? For the main church it is the area you enter from Monroe Street and includes the space up to the brick wall. The Chapel does not have a space in the back but the area right outside the doors could be referred to as the Narthex.
What is in the Narthex? A table with bulletins, Christ in Our Home booklets, Communion Wafers. Our Prayer Board and Prayer Box. The Sound System and Chimes. Chairs and Personal Protective Equipment. In preparation for All Saints Sunday there is a table with a tablecloth for people to write names on, with this cloth then being placed on the alter. For Advent this year you may find a table with piglet banks and a Christmas Tree with pigs on it!
What else should we be doing in the Narthex? We all should be greeting people –those we know and those we do not!
**** AN oops from last week’s anatomy lesson – the Sacristy is also a safe place in a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning as there are no windows.
Check out the Anatomical Drawing of Grace outside the Narthex in the Hallway!
What is in name?
Did you know that there are groups of nouns that have been around for hundreds of years? Check these out and challenge people at dinner on Thanksgiving to see of they can guess the group – it is a great conversation starter!
What is a group of turkeys called? A rafter
What is a group of alligators called? A congregation
What is a group of pelicans called? A squadron
What is a group of owls called? A parliament
What can a group of butterflies be called? A kaleidoscope
Switch A Word!
Did you know that the majority of conversations in the US include a complaint! Scott Bea a psychologist at The Cleveland Clinic says that one of our most common phrases is “I have too….”. If this is how we view something we have to do like grocery shopping, exercising, eating good stuff it is a negative feeling. Per Bea we can make a simple word switch to “trick” our brains into feeling more positive. Instead of “have to” try using “get to”.
Saying “I have to.” sounds like a burden while saying “I get to” is an opportunity. It brings a chance to be more positive and is more welcoming than negative opportunity. Per Bea “very few people are up for a good threat and most of us are up for a good challenge or opportunity”.
Positive thinking has been proven to grow and nourish gratitude in our hearts, which is always positive. “Gratitude forces you to start looking for things you are grateful for” says Bea.
So, I have to eat leftover turkey vs I get to (have the opportunity and may be even a challenge if you have a hugeamongous turkey) definitely is more positive and opportunity to be grateful . Now getting to do exercise to use up all the pie calories vs having to exercise is definitely a challenge.
This is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
~Psalm 118:24
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