Grace happens

We joined the church today. Actually, I guess we should say we "transferred our membership"--I have been Methodist since birth, Danny since marriage. We had to take a 7 week New Member class that consisted of STEP training. Spiritual gifts, Traits, Experiences, and Passions=STEP. It is a curriculum designed to help members "plug into" the church, discovering what makes them CRAZY for God and how they can serve within the church. It is a great class, and Danny and I learned a lot...about ourselves and about each other. For instance, I put down that I LOVE to organize and decorate, and just this week I got a call from the ladies who are planning to decorate the church for Christmas. They had seen my "passion" listed on the sheet I turned in and wanted to invite me to help! Very cool! Sooooooo...we took this class and have now joined the United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd on 96th and N. Oak in Kansas City, MO. We had to stand up in front of the congregation and said some "I wills" and I dos"...promising to support the ministries of the church with "our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service". We brought the kids along for the ride, figured they outta get in on this commitment too. Grace was dressed in the most darling black velvet dress, Sam in a little blue button up shirt and some blue dress pants--very cute, very darling, what a lovely family we have...BUT WAIT...as we stood before some 200-odd people and BOTH pastors, pledging to support the church and confirming that we do, in fact, believe that Jesus Christ not only takes our sins away, but is ruler of our lives--GRACE happened. And I'm not talking about the grace that God gives....no, no, no...I'm talking about Grace Ellen Farris. She put her liddle fingers up on either side of her face, in a sort of "horn-ish" fashion, and began to make crazy faces. Ah, yes...this congregation has NO idea what they've gotten into...let's just start praying for her youth pastor RIGHT NOW.