Burns Was Right

The Scottish poet Robbie Burns is well known for his line -
'Tis such a gift if God would gi' us
To see ourselves as others see us
That's one thing I've really wanted to be able to do at Grace - see ourselves as others see us. Since we're geared up for receiving guests on Sundays, some honest feedback would help us know if we were hitting our target.

When Sarah Hartmann from the Long Island Advance visited us a few weeks ago, I wondered whether she might give us some insights as to how someone totally new to our church and our style viewed our Sunday morning services. I was also a little nervous in case she tore us to shreds!

What was eventually published in her paper was as good a promotional piece for Grace Church as anyone could have asked for. Given the fact she was trying to report objectively, I am taking her article to confirm that we are doing a lot of things right.

Here are a few of her statements, under the headline -

BASED IN THE BIBLE, DRIVEN BY SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
With seats nearly filled, the lights go dim, the music begins to swell, and the members of Grace Church ... begin to take part in a lively down-to-earth service that most traditional churches cannot begin to match.

Despite the incongruity of its setting and maybe because of it, Grace Church's service at the movies is fun.

Like all church services, the program ends with a pastor-led prayer and a song. Unlike many church services, however, that at Grace Church has been engaging and uplifting enough to have caused two hours to evaporate.

We'll have copies of the full article available again next Sunday and will be looking into getting permission to reproduce it on our website. It's a great piece and above all it sounds as though one particular visitor really did get a grasp of what we are all about.