Grace Community's Blog

OnePrayer Missions Offering

Bill Glick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:59:41 +0000

Currently 1480 churches representing 830,000 people in 27 countries are standing together sharing their One Prayer for the church. This coming weekend is the official weekend we will be receiving an offering (in addition to our regular offering). Together we will support four international organizations in planting 500 new churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China! The local church is the hope of the world, and these churches will be able to make a sustainable, lasting and eternal impact on these four strategic regions. The OnePrayer network explored many great causes and organizations that we could collectively support, but the vision of local churches from around the world uniting to invest in planting churches was the most synergistic with the vision of One Prayer.

100% of all funds collected for the One Prayer offering will be distributed to four international church planting organizations. These organizations will plant 500 new churches in the geographical regions of Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China.

Lots more details and resources are available at http://www.oneprayer.com/missions/.

Are You Giving Up Something and Praying With Us?

Bill Glick — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:55:26 +0000

One of the action steps of our current One Prayer series is to fast. Fasting generally means to give up eating for a specific time in order to focus more clearly upon God. We’re encouraging everyone to fast each Tuesday in June and to join hundreds of thousands in prayer for the Church.

If you’re like me, giving up an entire day’s food is a huge step. So, maybe you want to consider giving up something specific for the rest of this month. Then throughout the month when you crave whatever you gave up, you can use that as a reminder to pray. I’ve heard several people around Grace throwing out ideas for this sort of fast. Here are some ideas I’ve heard of things to fast from this month: sweets, fast food, soda, coffee, television, sex, movies, snacks, french fries.

Here’s a video with some more advice on fasting from JT Moody, the Campus Pastor at the Stillwater campus of LifeChurch.tv:

Check out our website each Tuesday morning for tips on what we can pray for as the Church. Today’s prayer topic is for salvation of people we know.

Are you joining us in this fast? Have any suggestions of things to give up this month to help you focus on prayer? Share your stories.

Leadership Summit - Aug 7-8

Bill Glick — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:49:51 +0000

You are a leader. Learn to lead better where you are!

Craig Groeschel will be speaking at a huge conference in August called The Leadership Summit that will be broadcast live around the world. You can hear one of his most inspiring talks along with talks by other great leaders in the Church and Business worlds. Northwoods Community Church in Peoria will host this event, and you can attend for a deeply discounted price of $95 through June ( and $135 thereafter). The normal rates for this conference are $195-$265, so this is a great price.

For more info:

Contact info@findinggrace.com if you’re interested in attending this conference.

We Hired Jerris…

Bill Glick — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:42:53 +0000

We are excited to announce that we have hired Jerris Duncan to be the new Lead Pastor at Grace Community Church. Jerris is expected to start working at Grace on July 1, 2008. Jerris, his wife Lisa, daughter Marybeth, and son Trey seem like a natural fit at Grace and a direct answer to our prayers over the past 4 months.

Jerris has been a visionary leader and pastor at The Gathering, a service for young adults at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene, TX. He brings about 20 years of church leadership experience, including serving as a Youth Pastor, College Pastor, and Team Teacher. His main strengths are in leadership development, authentic relationship, and focused ministry. Besides his passion for God and the local church, Jerris also enjoys bass fishing, golf, and any sport involving a ball.

We heard overwhelming excitement from people at Grace about the Duncans during their visit this past weekend. If you weren’t able to join us in person this past Sunday, video of Jerris’ message is available online:

http://findinggrace.com/messages/Fanatic-TrueWorshipers.php

Jerris and Lisa are excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to be here at Grace. Please join us in praying that their house in Texas sells quickly so that their move is not delayed.

Here’s a quick note from Jerris:

Hey Grace family,
Thank you so much for your overwhelming response this past Sunday. Lisa, Marybeth, Trey and I felt so at home! I can’t wait to get back to Champaign to get started. Several years ago I told some of my close friends that I would love to pastor a church but didn’t feel that preaching 50 plus sermons a year was very appealing — they thought I was crazy. Praise God for a Church that is willing to allow it’s pastor to focus on relationships and leadership without the pressure of weekly sermon prep. I’m am truly excited to join Grace as we continue to develop a relationship with LifeChurch.tv and discover all that God has for us in the coming days.

See you in a few weeks,
Jerris

We are really excited as God has so clearly and quickly directed this hiring process. We can’t wait to see how God continues to move at Grace through the Duncans and each of us serving at Grace Community. God has big desires for us in the months and years to come!

Mike, Bunney, Bill, & Becky
the Grace board

Have You Been in Awe Recently?

Bill Glick — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:35:12 +0000

This past Sunday’s message really got me thinking about the last time I was in complete awe before God. When was I last totally overwhelmed with who God is? Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen often enough in my life.

Why am I not completely consumed by things I’ve experienced, like those that are expressed in Psalm 96?

His salvation
His glory
His marvelous deeds
His greatness
His creation
His strength
His splendorous holiness
His judgement and equality
His righteousness

Normally a place that puts me in awe is when I’m out enjoying nature. But today I was out in the woods along a gorgeous river and I totally missed God. Why did I miss Him?

Here’s the video we were going to end with on Sunday…

How would you like to grow in awe, abandonment, and intimacy with God?

Photos From Hensleigh Reception

Bill Glick — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:18:39 +0000

Here are some photos from the reception we had for the Hensleighs on April 20.

View Album

Get your own

Here’s a note from them:

A big “THANK YOU!” to all at Grace for a warm and loving send off last weekend. Your gifts, personal notes, your kind words were all deeply appreciated.
from Dave, Debbie, & Joel

I Am a Warrior

Bill Glick — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:30:17 +0000

Here’s a clip from this past Sunday’s message, which concluded The Warrior series.

One cool thing about this clip is that these are the campus pastors at LifeChurch.tv’s 12 campuses.

In what ways have you become a warrior in the past few weeks? Are you becoming that man?

God’s Creative Eye

Bill Glick — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:16:14 +0000

This morning I stopped by the Grace building and noticed that our Grace ducks have returned and are hanging out around the flower bed in front of the building. I don’t know why they choose to hang out here, since we don’t have any water anywhere near our building, but these 2 ducks have been there in the spring for the past several years.

Anyway, ducks always amaze me. Have you seen how colorful some of their feathers are? Why are they so vibrant and detailed? I’ll tell you why… we have a creative God who creates beauty with a wild imagination.

I’d encourage you to make a point of enjoying this time of year when the trees are budding, flowers are blooming, and birds are singing. It gives us just a small glimpse of just how amazing God is.

Where are you noticing God this spring?

Habakkuk… When God Seems Unfair

Bill Glick — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:30:32 +0000

You see it every day. Bad people taking advantage of the weak. Good people down on their luck. Innocent people suffering. War. Injustice. Ever get the feeling God isn’t fair? Discover how an Old Testament prophet can inspire a modern day faith in God’s Promises.

Join us April 27, May 4, and May 11 at 10:00a to learn from this Old Testament prophet.

We’re Hiring…

Bill Glick — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:46:09 +0000

As you may already know, our founding pastor resigned this spring. His last Sunday working at Grace Community was March 27. We’ve been working with a consultant to help us find the right pastor to lead Grace forward in the years to come so that many more people in our community will be able to find and experience God. If you know of someone who might be a good candidate, or if you’re just curious, here’s a link to the position description and application process for this new pastor:

Campus Lead Pastor, Champaign, IL

We appreciate your prayers and encouragement for Grace Community during this time of transition.