Staying Connected during COVID-19

EXCERPT from Father Jay's March 17 Letter:


I believe it is likely that in the near future we will extend the suspension of Grace gatherings beyond April 4.


This does not mean, however, that our mission has been cancelled. Nor does it mean our ministry is on hold. Our ministry has been changed, not ended. We have developed immediate responses for this week. And our staff and leaders are creating additional responses for the coming weeks.

  • WE WILL WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY. But we will worship online with streaming video. I will lead us in Morning Prayer at 10:35am. 
  • WE WILL HAVE SPIRITUAL FORMATION. Most of our story groups have opted to suspend their groups. So we have added 3 new online Story Groups for anyone at Grace Church (and beyond) to attend.
  • WE WILL HAVE CHILDREN'S MINISTRY. Lancy will be sending out some at-home ministry options for parents to lead for their little ones.
  • WE WILL HAVE FELLOWSHIP. Not in person. But we are creating new ways to gather online with facebook, videos, chat sessions, and more.

Join together with your Grace community as we learn and experiment

in ways to stay connected with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our First Virtual Connection Event!

Zoom Happy Hour!  Join our Fellowship Minister Kerry Green on Thursdays from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm as she helps us connect with our Grace family for a new online opportunity.


It's like an online open house where you can drop in for 3 minutes or 30 minutes to hand out and visit.  Best part, no driving required!


Logon to ZOOM Thursday at 5:00 at https://zoom.us/j/833376341.

Pastoral Care Plan

We are committed to caring for and connecting with our Grace family during this time. We have added several Grace staff to the Pastoral Care Team for the time being. This increases our team to 7 members:

 

We are dividing the Grace families among ourselves to insure that each family has a care provider assigned to it.

 

Starting next week, your pastoral care provider will be responsible for contacting your family via FaceTime or phone call each week until the corona crisis is past.

 

We are also working on a method for us to share pastoral needs safely and privately within our Grace community. We hope to have that available by March 25.

 

You can help by sharing any immediate pastoral needs or concerns with us. Contact your care provider or Lisa DeHart (lisa@gracechurchsa.org).

 

Please share your prayer concerns with your Grace community by posting them on the Prayer Wall (Homepage "Prayer" tile lower right corner with Mike Monroe's pic) in the Grace app.

Grace Communication

Website and App – Our plan is to update the website and app 2-3 times per week. These are the places we will use to post updates and changes.We have added new pages to both the website and our Grace app:

1.  COVID-19 UPDATE 

  • Website = Welcome/COVID-19
  • APP = "World" icon beside home button on bottom

2. GRACE LIVE ONLINE (For live streaming of Morning Prayer on Sundays, and the three online Story Group Bible Studies)

  • Website = Worship/Grace Live Online
  • APP = More/Grace FB Group

3. Connecting During COVID-19 - Continually expanding ways to connect to our Grace Church family.

  • Website = Connect/Connecting During COVID-19 (you're here!)
  • APP = from Home page click the Connect tile upper right corner

 

Facebook Live and Streaming Content – We will provide live streaming content 3 times per week via Facebook live in our Grace Church SA Facebook group. We will live stream our Morning Prayer worship service on Facebook Live, on our website /worship/grace-live-online, and on our YouTube channel (coming soon).


 

Text - We will send out text alerts to let you know when we have updated our website and our app. We will also send out text alerts with links to streaming content.

 

Email – Anybody else sick to death of emails detailing how the shoe store in a mall you’ve never been too is responding to the corona outbreak? Us too. So we are committed to sending out only 1 email per week with updates, information, new formation content, and links to all the online content we are creating. You’re welcome.