Togetherness
Our gatherings are spiritual, yet ironically, they’re spiritual (at least in part) because they’re physical. God has always meant for his people to be physically gathered together. This is evident in why he created Adam and Eve with physical bodies and proceeded to walk with them in the garden. And perhaps the clearest demonstration of God’s desire for togetherness is manifested in the incarnation of His Son.
People Gathered Together
Sometimes we like to say that “a church is a people, not a place.” However, it might be more helpful to say that a church is a people gathered together in a place. Regularly gathering together is necessary for a church to be a church, just like a team has to gather together to play in order to be a team.
Making togetherness a priority requires shifting our question from “Should we go to church today?" to instead become, “How can we make the most of our church gathering?”
We Need All Of Us
Check out Tony Merida’s book “Love Your Church” available at the church bookstore. And for a shorter read, try Gavin Ortlund’s article “Make Sundays the Sweetest” published on Desiring God.
Lord’s Prayer
We are in the middle of our series on the Lord’s Prayer and for those of you who would love to dig deeper into our study, we have provided a few resources you can look into and explore.
Recommended Books
The Lord's Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray - Kevin DeYoung
Praying with Jesus: Getting to the Heart of the Lord’s Prayer - Adriel Sanchez
Praying the Lord's Prayer – J. I. Packer
Another Man’s Wife
Husbands, imagine you knew you would be leaving your wife behind to be cared for by someone else, who would you choose to watch over her and why? And wives, if you knew your husband would be gone on a long journey, who would you want to check in on you, look after your needs?
A local Lake Country pastor said quite well, that our role as pastors is to be a “steward of another man’s wife.” Who is this man you may ask, it is Jesus the Christ, Son of the living God. And who is this wife of His? The bride, His church.
Caring For His Bride
Your Pastors are called to imitate Jesus in the task of caring, guiding, teaching, and serving His bride, his church. This is why the author of Hebrews acknowledges your leaders have the deep responsibility of “keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. ”
Please pray for you pastors as they endeavor to care for another man’s wife, his bride, the church, the men and women of Grace Hill.
Helps / Classifieds
We are launching two new groups on The Hill (Church Center). These two groups are intended to help facilitate connectivity in our community while addressing some common needs more regularly and efficiently.
Helps
The Grace Hill Helps Group is a place to offer and request practical help within our community. Whether you need an extra hand or have time to lend one, this group is here to connect people with real needs and real support. Need help moving? Want to provide or receive a meal? Looking for occasional childcare? Need a hand with yard work or home tasks? This is the space to ask, offer, and serve one another with joy and kindness. No task is too small — and every act of help matters.
Classifieds
The Grace Hill Classifieds Group is a community space for buying, selling, trading, and giving away personal items. Whether you're decluttering, searching for a good deal, or offering something useful to others, this is the place!
Youth Fishing Frenzy
Our next youth event will be Saturday, August 9th from 12-6pm at Pike Lake. There will be a boat for fishing and and a boat for swimming, tubing, and other water sports. We will grill out on the shore and study God’s Word near the beach.
Saturday, August 9th | 12-6pm
We currently meet once a month to learn and grow. Every meeting is different. Sometimes it's a party. Sometimes it's a service project. Often we have deep theological conversations. 7th-12th graders from inside and outside the church are welcome to join.
Evenings In Our Cities
Venture out into your local community for the annual “National Night Out” events happening in early August. This is one of the few moments throughout the year where our neighbors gather together for food and flair. If you’ve ever wanted to experience night life in Merton, Sussex, Hartland or Hartford, then these are the evenings to explore and engage with your neighbors.
Merton | August 5th | 6pm
Sussex | August 6th | 6pm
Hartland | August 7th | 6pm
Hartford | August 13th | 5pm
Grab a friend from church and/or your neighbor and come see what’s happening in the community. There will be food, community representatives, and entertainment. This is a phenomenal time to interact with people from the community and remind our neighbors that Grace Hill Church is here to serve.
Gen Z for Jesus
This past Tuesday evening, several students from Lake Country gathered to praise and worship our great Savior. A summer evening spent together singing praises to their King. Throughout the evening they were led by the Spirit to pray for one another, to pray for their schools, and to pray for lost souls to be saved by the blood of Christ.
Gen Z for Jesus
Continue to pray for these students. Pray for the leaders of the Jesus Clubs at the local High Schools (Arrowhead, Oconomowoc, Kettle Morraine). Pray that God would raise up more Jesus Clubs (Hamilton, Pewaukee, Hartford). Pray for students throughout Lake Country to come to faith in Jesus!
Pray Then Like This
Beginning the first Sunday in August we will be taking a five week break from our series in the Gospel of Mark to work through a brief series on the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13. Five weeks to pause and carefully consider the importance and necessity of prayer in the lives of believers.
Pray Like Jesus
The Trinity Fellowship Catechism answers the quesiton, “What is prayer?” with the following answer: “Prayer is an offering of our hearts to God to lay before him our desires, needs, sins, thanksgivings, and adoration, all in the name of Christ and according to his will.” Our desire is to pursue Christ together through the unity of His Holy Spirit as we endeavor to grow in His grace through prayer. May we be a church that never tires of talking to our Father.
The Lords’ Prayer
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:9–13
Tested Pastors
The pastors of Grace Hill are heading down the final home stretch of their Trinity Fellowship ordination exams. The reason the pastors are voluntarily subjecting themselves to this rigorous course of study and examination is because they firmly believe this evaluation will not only better equip them for ministry, but also better serve the church for years to come. Once formal partnership with Trinity Fellowship is complete, your leaders will have several layers of accountability that have never existed before. This gives us great joy knowing that we will be stepping into a season of meaningful partnership where your leaders are held accountable and encouraged to serve together for the glory of Jesus.
Testing To The Glory Of God
We rejoice that God has graciously appointed a plurality of pastors to lead His local church. Remarkably, with few exceptions, elders are always plural in the New Testament, and the concept of a single senior (or lead) pastor is entirely foreign to Scripture. However, there remains only one reference to a pastor who is given an elevated position above all other elders - and that is found when Peter (a fellow elder) identifies Jesus as our Chief Shepherd, our senior pastor.
From Who is your Pastor, to Who is your Savior.
Your elders’ primary desire should only and always be to help you follow Christ - not follow themselves. Grace Hill Church endeavors to further establish a culture that moves far beyond the thought of: “Who is your pastor?” towards the thought: “Who is your great Savior?!” May we continue to grow less enthralled with a certain pastor, as we become increasingly impressed by Jesus!
Please pray for your pastors as they continue to study and navigate their way through these final exams. Please pray for Grace Hill as we press into this next season with eager expectation to follow our Senior Pastor, Jesus Christ.