"…to the praise of the glory of His grace…" Ephesians 1:6

Sunday Information and Prayer Needs

Dear Springs of Grace Church Family,

Grace to you and peace. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, we will come to the end of Jesus’ teaching on the last night with His disciples. We began this section (chapters 13-16) about four months ago and this Sunday’s message – at least in measure serves as a summary of the last words Jesus said to His disciples before He went to the cross. Would you join me in praying for our time together tomorrow?

I hope you have spent some time contemplating last Sunday’s message. What an amazing expression of God’s kind providence to have us in a text that was so timely for us. I am very thankful to get to be a part of a church family that believes we can walk in unity without uniformity and it was encouraging to my heart to be reminded from Jesus’ words that it is a part of His plan that we have some lack of clarity now, as we walk by faith, trusting His goodness.

It is easy to grow weary and numb to the numbers surrounding the pandemic. It is sad to me how politicized it has become. Regardless of what you think about it – I want to remind you that the leadership at Springs of Grace has been striving to make decisions that reflect our confidence in God and our love for our neighbors. We are not choosing based on fear or pursuit of our own safety and comfort over others. There are many difficult decisions that all of us are having to make in regard to the pandemic and I would encourage you to continue to do so prayerfully, lovingly and graciously towards others. It is certainly an area where Christians have the freedom to make different decisions.
Oklahoma has experienced a 24% rise in deaths due to COVID over the past 2 weeks and have the highest number of hospitalizations that we have had. There are many other impacts from the virus that are also serious and highly consequential to mental and emotional health, other physical health issues, relational health, etc. As those who have a better and abiding possession, we should lead the way in weeping with those who are suffering and extending ourselves in love towards others. May the Lord help us to excel still more.

Please continue to pray for our elder candidates. If you have any particular concerns about an elder candidate that you would like to share, you may pass those on to one of our current elders (Joe Blankenship at b2himglory@gmail.com or Jared McCoy at JMcCoy@metroca.com ). The elder candidates are available for questions individually at our community groups and before or after services over the next few weeks, if you have follow up questions or additional ones. You will also be hearing from each of our elder candidates through a 10-minute life testimony and some written comments that we will be posting to our website soon. Gabe’s and Tim’s are already available.

Continue to pray for these men and their families: Nate Boone, Tim Condie, Gabe Graham, Ryan McNeill, and Fred Sabatini – as we work through this process.

Please join us for worship at 10:30 am tomorrow outdoors or by livestream. You can find the link to this week’s livestream service at our website – www.springsofgrace.church or here: https://youtu.be/2N3u1_AZGTY

Make sure you mark your calendar for our FALL FESTIVAL FELLOWSHIP planned for the evening of November 1st. Community Groups will be October 25th and we are beginning a study through Side by Side together (if you need a book, let me know.) Sunday morning, October 25th it will be our privilege to send out Shawn and Hae-Jean Peters as missionaries from our church to Albania.

Please continue to pray for Sergey and Nina and their family as they minister in Eastern Ukraine. Pray for those in our church body who can’t join us regularly for our services.

We rejoice over the new visitors God has been bringing. Consider taking one of these families to lunch with you and hearing about God’s work in their lives.

Keep checking on one another. Love each other well and may that love for one another stir us towards risky love for others.

If you have questions or needs, please let us know. Striving to be His church, by His grace, for His glory.

Love you very much,
Pastor Joe

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