A new vision for Spirit of Grace Church in 2019

Dear Spirit of Grace Church,

I’m writing to let you know about exciting new opportunities and important changes coming to our church in 2019. As we look forward to moving from “congregation under development” status to being a full-fledged congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in just under six months, God has given us the opportunity to take stock of our blessings, marvel at how far we have come in our nearly eight years of existence, and take proactive steps to address future challenges. To set the stage, I would like to share with you what I see as four distinct stages of our life together so far as Spirit of Grace Church:

The first, of course, began as a concerned group of Lutherans wanted to remain a part of the ELCA when their church became embroiled in conflict. From that crucible experience emerged a weary but determined root that eventually became known as Spirit of Grace. That first phase is what I would call our “Upper Room” experience, from the first service at Holdrege Memorial Homes on January 2, 2011, to the half-year of ministry from Pastor Tom Wilson, to my coming to Holdrege in July, and onward to the end of that year. Like the disciples, huddled together in the upper room after the death of Jesus, we shared a time of mourning and healing.

Like those first disciples, there was a lot of fear and wondering about the future. But heeding Christ’s call to “Go, make disciples,” at the turn of 2012 we began to strike out on our own in the second phase of our life together. We began to make preparations to move from the comfortable environs of the nursing home to a place of our own. There was still so much that we didn’t know about where God was leading us, but a few things were clear: we knew that God was calling us to mission and service in our community, we were dedicated to making sure that everyone who walked through our doors felt welcomed and loved, and we were confident that God was calling us, in the words of Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, to “take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

The third stage of our life together was a time of maturing in the Christian faith. Like so many other churches, we knew that we wanted to follow Jesus, but we lacked a clear vision of where God was leading us together. Through the leadership and financial support of the ELCA Churchwide office and our Mission Investment Fund, in 2013 we undertook a process of consultation, discernment, and training designed to help us know who God was calling us to be. Out of this work came some of our most beloved ministries across our community: SpiritSprouts and SpiritKids, Sanctuary youth, the Halloween Spooktacular, and more. It also helped us to discern and solidify our congregation’s unique identity: we learned that our mission is “to reach Holdrege and the surrounding community with the hope of Jesus Christ.” We committed to a bold vision for the future, we became known as the church that strives to be “Great Neighbors to Holdrege,” and we laid claim to our core values: radical hospitality, worship, service, and community. We began to deepen our spiritual lives, engage in small group discipleship, and stretch to reach new families with the Gospel. As a pastor (still!) in my first call, I feel like this time was when I came into my own in ministry.

In September 2014, we moved into the fourth stage of our budding congregation’s story as we launched our Connexion worship service and embraced a life of ongoing, intentional outreach and service directed towards people with less church background. By this point, our multi-faceted ministry was taking shape, and we began building new relationships, meeting new friends, and learning how to serve our community well. This has been our biggest all-out, all-hands-on-deck effort to live out God’s mission towards our community with faith and integrity. We have learned how to coordinate ourselves on a larger scale, how to be a church centered on our Lutheran heritage while reaching out in love, and what it means to be a laboratory for ministry. During this stage we have become known as a congregation bucking the trends, taking risks, trying new ministries, and serving as a beacon of hope across the Nebraska Synod — and even beyond! As I reflect on this time of growth, it has been gratifying for me to see people with little or no church background grow into fully-committed disciples, to see young people I knew as children graduate high school as faith-filled adults, and to watch as we have established new traditions and built up the strong bones and ligaments of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Now, in 2019, it is time for us to embrace a bold new step as we move into the fifth stage of our mutual ministry of hope. There are a number of factors that your Leadership team and I have been considering as we discern our future together:

• Seeking Unity — We are looking ahead with joy to our celebration of becoming an organized congregation with the visit of Bishop Brian Maas to Spirit of Grace on Sunday, May 5, 2019. As part of our preparations, now seems to be a wise time for us to concentrate on the united nature of our identity as Spirit of Grace Church.
• Ministry Network — We have been discussing for some time now the idea of engaging in the new concept of a “ministry network,” an intentionally decentralized, technology-facilitated way of being one church across many different locations in the twenty-first century. While no final decisions on this have been made, making some changes to better facilitate this ministry will put us on firm ground for this future possibility.
• Stewardship of our Volunteers — With the departure of several of our musicians due to their high school graduations in August, our faithful and talented musicians have borne a larger share of the burden of producing two high-quality worship services every week. It would be profoundly unwise to continue to overtax their vital contribution to our weekly worship life.
• Desire to Deepen our Discipleship — The Lean-In discipleship initiative is beginning to show us that deepened discipleship in Christ is both very needed and very wanted across all age groups and both adult services. We are hoping to meet this need in the coming year.
• Financial Challenges — It is no secret that 2018 has been a challenging year for Spirit of Grace financially, and our balance sheet shows it. Now is the time to make changes to correct course and grow in our financial stewardship in 2019.

After much prayerful discernment and deliberation, we feel that God has led us to these changes:

Starting on Sunday, January 6, 2019, we will switch out our two current worship services (Classic and Connexion) for one newly envisioned worship service. This new service will combine the best of the depth of the liturgy and tradition that our 9:03am Classic service represents with the spontaneity, joy, and positive energy of our 10:33am Connexion service. While we’re still working on many of the details, here are some we can share:

• The service will be scheduled run from 10:03am to 11:13am every Sunday. Our goal will be to have our service end, barring special occasions or unforeseen difficulties, no later than about 11:15am.
• SpiritKids and SpiritSprouts will be offered every Sunday, year-round, concurrent with this service at 10:03am. SpiritKids will still be structured as our more-than-Sunday School, worship-centered experience, but SpiritKids students and volunteers will celebrate communion upstairs with the whole church community at the end of each Sunday service.
• Our musical style will aim for what is sometimes called, “ancient-future,” combining the depth of ancient texts and hymns with modern musical interpretations.
• We will eliminate the two staff worship leader positions in favor of a single new worship leader position for the new service. I am extremely grateful to our talented and faithful worship staff, Mary Hock and Calena Ohlson, for agreeing to share this position.

We are calling this new service SOG Oasis. Life in the desert is often a struggle, and it’s rare to be able to survive it alone. That’s why desert travelers navigated between lush, fertile places where food and water was present in abundance: the oasis. Oases were a source of life in a landscape marred by drying-out and death. One remarkable feature of the oasis is the way that it created cross-cultural connections between travelers passing through. This name brings so much meaning to our church! We are seeking to be a landmark where fellow travelers can receive the spiritual food of Christ, reconnect to the waters of baptism, and mingle with people from different backgrounds as we draw nourishment from the Source of life.

There is one more minor change that is coming at the start of the year: we will be discontinuing the Spirit of Grace app, which has not garnered the traction or usefulness for which we had hoped, in favor of making good use of email, texting, and our church’s website for online communications.

Your Leadership Team and I believe that, as a results of these changes, we can hope for:

• A renewed sense of unity in the congregation around our shared “DNA” — our mission, vision, core values, and covenants.
• Opportunities to build new relationships, especially between participants at our two services who right now seldom cross paths.
• New vigor for participants to step forward and offer themselves in service to the whole church community.
• A renewed commitment to spiritual depth in worship that will offer hope to the many people in our community tired of shallow answers to deep questions.
• Strengthened cross-generational connections between our elders and our children and youth.
• Simpler and clearer communications about the services that Spirit of Grace offers on Sundays.
• Reduced costs to the congregation in terms of staffing levels and supplies leading to healthier financial fundamentals.

I realize that, with a significant change like this, there will be significant questions. For that reason, we will be holding two listening sessions this month that the entire congregation is invited to attend. Dates for these meetings will be provided in a following email. In the meantime, please direct your questions to any member of our Leadership Team: myself, Russ Edeal, Bob Drews, Erica Gnuse, Brandi Buckley, Melissa Boutwell, and Sara Stevens-Stehl.

Remember to place the best possible construction on these decisions. Pray for your leaders in ministry in the coming weeks as we work to implement these changes. Honor your commitment as a participant at Spirit of Grace to the covenant of discipleship that we have all committed to. And, most of all, look forward with eager anticipation to the joyful new worship life that we will share together. I am convinced that the best is yet to come!

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Ted Carnahan