Welcome to Grace at Home. Below are worship resources to sustain and strengthen our faith. Click on the pictures below to access the video content. Scriptures and prayers are located below the links. Due to the rise in COVID-19 positivity rates, Grace Community Christian Church will only share in worship online. The building will not be open for in person worship. We will only offer virtual worship in the coming weeks, and look forward to gathering again in person when it is safe to do so.
Advent 2020
At the end of November, Christians across the United States and Canada, begin a new church year that starts with the season of Advent. The Christian year begins with a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ in our celebration of his birth at Christmas. The state of our minds often mirrors the state of our world. We juggle hyperactive schedules and hypertensive pressures. We worry about our children, we agonize over how to care for our parents, and no job seems secure. Our choices of antacid are outnumbered only by our spiritual options. Stress is often the name of our days. And we do so long for peace.
Today we light the candle of peace. Surely the peace of our world starts with the peace of a heart. We are reminded that there is a peace of God which passes all understanding. At the core of each of us, if we will only listen, there is a still, small voice which can calm our fears, quiet our lives, and dispel our desperation. At the heart of each of us, if we only seek it, there is a spirit that rests in the grace of God. An assurance at the center of our lives that can tame the chaos at the edges.
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"Finding Jesus"
(Inspiring video)
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"Prepare the Way"
(Opening song - sing along, clap at home)
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Children's song and lesson |
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"O Come, O Come Emmanuel"
sing along
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"Disciples of Christ"
(Video about identity and community)
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"Peace: Begin Again"
Rev. Yvonne Gilmore
(Communion and sermon)
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"The world of the generous gets larger and larger"
--- Proverbs 11:24 (The Message)
Thank you in advance for sharing your gifts, tithes, and offerings with Grace Community Christian Church. You may give online below, mail in a check, or drop off your offering to the church.
Offering prayer
God of all good gifts, thank you for all who are faithful, whether that’s John the Baptist, a little child, or someone in the ninth decade of life. Thank you for the gifts offered today. Help them be signs of Good News in this congregation, in our ministries beyond these walls, and for the sake of the world to which you continue to send “the one more powerful than I.” Amen
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Click here to give online give using Paypal or your credit card
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Opening Prayer
God of all time, we’ve come to worship you this second Sunday of Advent, grateful for the opportunity to turn the page to the last month of 2020.
It’s not an easy or comfortable time, but all who have ever moved through a pregnancy (in our own body, or in the body of someone we love) know the mix of anxiety and peace which muddles in us as we anticipate Jesus’ birth.
In this complex time, help us focus and truly yearn for the One who is to come. Stir us to eagerness for new life, new energy, renewed peace in our lives and in the world. With grateful hearts, we praise your name! Amen.
Prayer of Peace
December is upon us, Lord, and we are on the "greased slide to Christmas." Help us to take time to see your beam of direction which shines in our path, leading us to peace and hope. Clear our spirits of the frustrations and anxieties of this season, so that the Light which you are sending into the world will truly shine in and through us to others.
We lift up names and situations of grief and joy to you for your blessing, for healing, and for your comforting love (silently or aloud)
We also bring our lives, our selves for your care and mercy. Help us remember that you always care for us. You have sent us your very best, not in a greeting card, but in the person of Jesus, your beloved Son, that we might come out of our darkness and into the light of your Kingdom. Heal and protect us, gracious Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Scripture
Mark 1:1-8 (The Message)
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1 1-3 The good news of Jesus Christ—the Message!—begins here, following to the letter the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Watch closely: I’m sending my preacher ahead of you; He’ll make the road smooth for you. Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
4-6 John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey. 7-8 As he preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.”
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Grace Community Christian Church
2770 Montgomery Road
Aurora, IL 60504
www.graceccc.org
630.898.7990
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