Two Year
Ministry Plan

One of our ministry partners is JUMPSTART—a gospel-centered organization that disciples current and former prisoners and assists with re-entry to society. Recently, we have had an opportunity to partner with JUMPSTART on an exciting new avenue to share the gospel with inmates throughout the state of South Carolina.

Comeback Stories: A Prisoner No More is a new devotional telling the stories of how God transformed the lives of 30 men and women through the redemptive power of the gospel while they were incarcerated. The idea for this devotional originated this summer as two Grace members served as JUMPSTART interns. They interviewed several graduates of the JUMPSTART program. As the project developed, Grace staff and volunteers were able to come alongside to help with the writing, editing, and design of this book.

This week, throughout the state of South Carolina—16,500 adult prisoners, hundreds of staff members, and 500+ in the Department of Juvenile Justice will receive a copy of Comeback Stories. Wow! We are beyond thrilled and thankful for God’s redemption, for those who shared God’s transformative work in their lives, and for those who worked sacrificially to make this publication possible.

To hear JUMPSTART Inside Program Director Cary Sanders tell more about how this book came to be, watch this video. You can also purchase a copy of Comeback Stories: A Prisoner No More using the link below.

While the limitations of the pandemic have been difficult for all of us, they have presented particularly isolating challenges for our Senior Honor members. Senior Honor is our elder care ministry, and many individuals have not been able to spend quality time in-person with their families for months now.

However, we have a new and exciting opportunity to help our Senior Honor members connect with their families! As a church, we are providing three SafeHug windows for our partner assisted living facilities—The Gardens, The Woodlands, and Eden Terrace. In addition, volunteers and members connected to The Woodlands and our Travelers Rest campus have donated funds to purchase two additional windows for this facility.

What a blessing for loved ones to be able to safely embrace one another during this season! We hope you will join us in praising God for his provision and praying for continued opportunities to serve those around us. To learn more about Senior Honor, click below.

What is your job title? Care and Recovery Coordinator (for kids and teens)

How did you get to Grace? My family and I moved to Greenville in 2016 to be near family. My husband, Asa, visited Grace first. What stood out to him was the teaching, humility of the church, and the Mosaic ministry. Our son has disabilities, and we had been churching separately for three years so one of us could stay home with him. After attending the first time with my husband, it was clear Grace was where we were supposed to be and now our whole family attends church together, grows together, and serves together. It is a wonderful blessing.

What do you enjoy most about your job? My favorite part of my job is seeing the ways in which God uses leaders, stretches them and seeing the ways in which they grow closer to Christ because they are serving.

What campus do you attend and what is your favorite thing about it? We attend the Pelham campus. My favorite things about this campus is the community we have built and serving in Mosaic Grouplife.

What are you most excited about right now? The way the Lord is working in the hearts of leaders, kids and students through the care and recovery ministry.

What is one interesting thing about you? I have moved to 10 different cities. Eight of those were in different states.

One of our ministry partners is Jasmine Road—a two-year residential program for adult women survivors of human trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. These women receive hope through housing, a meaningful work experience, and a loving community of support.

We were recently able to partner with Jasmine Road on an exciting project! This year, three women celebrated graduation from the program at the annual Jasmine Road luncheon. While the limitations of the pandemic made their traditional luncheon impossible, Grace was able to come alongside and make a virtual event happen. Our A/V and communications teams, along with other volunteers, helped provide resources so that those who support Jasmine Road could hear stories of life change and celebrate God’s faithfulness.

Please join us in not only praising God for this life change, but also pray for continued growth. To watch a video that captures some stories of life change from Jasmine Road, click below.

The pandemic and E-learning have presented challenges for many families, particularly those with single parents or parents who are teachers. One way we are supporting these families is by facilitating an education pod at our Pelham campus! Grace has hired qualified teachers to assist children with E-learning while their parents are at work. We also have volunteers who are serving as reading buddies to help homework go more smoothly.

28 students across 17 families have been able to participate. Although this is just one way we are seeking to serve the body of Christ, it is worth celebrating! If you are interested in volunteering, please email Taylor Frick. To learn more about all our Outreach opportunities, click below!

In a year when we have had to spend a lot of time apart, we are thrilled that over 1,300 Grace students and leaders were able to come together for Fallstar Game! This event featured opportunities for Fusion, 24Seven, and Forge students to hear biblical teaching, meet with their small groups, worship together, and enjoy some fun.

Our Fusion students considered the question, “am I a follower of Christ?” Students in 24Seven discussed what biblical expectations look like, and Forge students were able to hear a biblical perspective on the topic of anxiety. We are so thankful that each student could hear godly leaders unpack relevant and meaningful ideas to equip them as believers. We hope you’ll celebrate with us, and ask a student you know what they learned at Fallstar Game!

To learn more about student ministry at Grace, click below.

Senior Honor is our elder care ministry, and it has certainly looked different this year! However, after seven months of “no in-person contact” with our Senior Honor members at The Woodlands at Furman, we were recently able to host an outdoor service. Over 30 residents and several staff members attended, and it was life-giving to see our friends in person once again. Senior Honor members were able to worship together and sit under the truth of Biblical teaching.

We hope you will join us in praying that we can continue outdoor services and find new, creative ways to connect with our Senior Honor community. Please pray that God would continue to provide a way for us to make disciples in a changing world.

To learn more about Senior Honor, click below!

Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” One way we are seeking to defend the cause of orphans is through OVC Kenya—a partnership program that provides sustainable support and promotes long-term relationships with orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya.

Through OVC Kenya, individuals and families can become advocates for children in need. Each advocate not only contributes financially to help provide for their child, but they also send letters of encouragement and support. We have found this to be an amazing way to build relationships, get outside ourselves, and even create discipleship opportunities with our families.

Recently, we hosted an OVC Kenya Vision Night to give our advocates an update. 71 kids have been supported by advocates at Grace Church, and five of them recently graduated. It was exciting to hear their stories and how the program has helped equip them financially, emotionally, and spiritually. We hope you will join us in prayer and celebration around this ministry. To learn more about OVC Kenya, click below!

One of our goals at Grace is to build and strengthen healthy families. We all know that we live in a broken world, and this has affected many families in our community whose children have gone into DSS care. We have a unique opportunity to help with reunification efforts for these families by offering a parenting class—Families Count.

This six-week gospel-centered class is state approved, and it helps biological parents meet requirements to reunite with their children. In addition to offering the class, we are providing childcare, transportation if needed, a meal, and a mentor for each parent if they would like. What an amazing opportunity to show God’s love in a concrete way to those in need. We want each participant to be treated with dignity and know that they are valued.

If you or your community group are interested in providing a meal or being a mentor, please contact Beth Drake at [email protected].

To learn more about our outreach ministries and opportunities, click below!

Night of Prayer looked a little different during this season, but it was a sweet time of fellowship across multiple campuses. Many of us heard stories of life change, our Greer campus did a prayer walk, our Powdersville campus celebrated baptism, and other campuses found unique ways to come together. In all, 1,485 people were able to participate!

The purpose of this time is to unite in prayer and express our dependence on God in every facet of our lives. We certainly need to find our stability in God now more than ever. What a blessing to praise God as a body of believers!

To learn more about how to get connected to community at Grace Church, click below.

Our partnership with local churches in Allendale county is about much more than summer camp programs. One unique way we’ve been able to support the local church is by helping coordinate the Farmers to Families initiative—a grant that funds distribution of food directly from local farmers to families in need. We worked with the Allendale County School District to organize the drop-off and distribution of over 1600 boxes of fresh produce, allowing every student and staff member within Allendale County Schools to receive a food box.

What an amazing opportunity to help be the hands and feet of the Church! We hope you will continue to pray for our partnership in Allendale county. To learn about volunteer opportunities in all our Outreach ministries, click below!

Our Dignified Crisis Housing Ministry is a 2-year program designed to help individuals and families in crisis build a firm foundation with the goals of continued sobriety, gainful employment, financial independence, and spiritual maturity. We know that the individuals coming into our program are coming out of crisis, recovery, abuse, poverty, and neglect, and we want to give them a clean, safe, warm environment that validates their worth and invokes a sense of dignity and pride as they move into this next chapter of their lives.

One facet of this ministry is collecting donations and setting up a home or apartment for incoming families. Grace members and individuals from our community are donating everything from furniture to silverware, and it’s all stored in a warehouse in Greer. Once we learn of a need, we will find out the size of the family, children’s ages, favorite colors, activities, and any preferred styles—we then work with volunteers to pull donated items together, create a cohesive design plan for the entire home, and move everything in!

This is a beautiful, tangible way that we can serve our community. If you have donations for this ministry or are interested in volunteering, please email [email protected]

What a journey the past six weeks have been! Many of us practiced the spiritual discipline of fasting for the first time, and it has been exciting to see God work in our hearts. The focus of our Call to Pray & Fast was to grow in dependence on God and in unity as a church. We hope you have grown in awareness of your need for God in every facet of life.

Although our focused time of prayer and fasting has drawn to a close, we must continue to practice these disciplines with faith and in community. May God continue to unite us in praying with one heart for each other, our communities, and the advancement of his kingdom.

If you missed any of the pastoral devotionals or want more resources on prayer and fasting, click below to visit our resource page!

As summer comes to a close, we want to celebrate the harvest of fresh produce from the community garden at our Taylors campus! Throughout the summer, many volunteers have helped plant, weed, and manage the garden, and we are so thankful for their faithfulness. As a result, over 500 pounds of fresh vegetables have been harvested! Many in our community have benefited from this produce—Miracle Hill Boys Home, those in our Dignified Crisis Housing, families impacted by COVID-19, and many others.

Currently, volunteers are working on canning and freezing vegetables so we can continue to support our community, and others are planting cool weather crops. We hope you’ll join us in prayer around this ministry. If you’re interested in volunteering, please email Fran Williams at [email protected]. To learn more about outreach opportunities, click below!

Did you know that September 13-19 is National Assisted Living Week? As part of our celebration of those who serve in assisted living facilities, we want to highlight Senior Honor—our elder care ministry! We love that Grace is able to serve those in assisted living through prayer, words of encouragement, and acts of kindness.

One of our Senior Honor volunteers, Downtown member Rachel Belk, says this about her experience:

“It has grown my faith in learning how to listen and in being more open-minded. A lot of the time, these people are just so hungry to share their stories and have someone listen. Open-mindedness comes with understanding that each resident is in a different place mentally, physically, and spiritually. Sometimes loving the residents as Jesus wants me to looks like helping them tie their shoes, put on their jacket, or getting them a glass of water during the worship service. Senior Honor has taught me to be interruptible and to walk the halls asking God to make me present for whoever needs him at that time.”

“I always get an inexplicable boost of joy when I serve at Senior Honor; you get to care for others and at the same time gain so much wisdom from those who have walked through many more hardships, victories, and times with Jesus than we have.”

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating National Assisted Living week and praying for our Senior Honor ministry. If you’re interested in volunteering for Senior Honor, please email Julia Eldred at [email protected] To learn more about Senior Honor, click below!

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected students in particular—many are learning virtually and no longer have the same extra-curricular opportunities. However, we have found ways to get creative for Student Kickoff this year! Forge, 24Seven, and Fusion have all begun a new semester, and we are so excited to see students meeting with their small groups and hearing teaching from God’s Word. This semester, students are addressing topics of Creation | Fall, Choices, and The Hard Sayings of Jesus. We hope you will join us in prayer for our students, their families, and their leaders as they navigate this season together. Click below to learn more about Grace Students.

The limitations of the pandemic have been especially challenging for our families who have children with special needs. Mosaic—our special needs and disabilities ministry—has been able to support these families by hosting a Mom’s Night Out. These women gathered for a time of fellowship and fun as they took a painting class together led by Joy Foster, member of our Pelham campus! This kind of opportunity to connect with other women is invaluable to our Mosaic moms.

To learn more about Mosaic, click below. If you’re interested in volunteering for Mosaic, please email [email protected]

One way we’ve adapted to life in a pandemic is by holding outdoor services. Many campuses now have large tents that can accommodate a service in the fresh air. What a blessing to be able to join together in worship and sit under the teaching of God’s Word! As the weather cools down, we hope you’ll consider joining us for an outdoor service.

To learn more about our small worship gatherings, or to register, click below!