During the 2022 season of Lent, our worship will focus on the series Good Enough: Embracing the Imperfections of Life and Faith. Here is what the series is about.

We live in a culture bent on definitions of a good life as continuous upward mobility– climbing ladders of prosperity with increasingly fabulous experiences that we can post to ever-more-likable social media accounts. We may comb the shelves of the self-help section in search of just the right formula to gain success. Perhaps we even gravitate towards spiritual leaders who promise great rewards if we only do “the right thing.” But life happens, right? Most times we are not moving upward but trying to repair the rung we’ve just slipped from. So what if we stopped climbing and started fertilizing, watering, and blooming right where we find ourselves? Welcome to a Lent of affirming a faith in which we are blessed, regardless, and where we can lean into embracing our “good enough” lives.

In addition to our worship series, you can also check out our devotion book we are reading through as a congregation.

• Tuesday, March 1, 9am - Shrove Tuesday Breakfast - Register Here
  • Everyone is invited to join us at the church for a Shrove Tuesday breakfast. Registration is required so that we will know how many to prepare for. You can do so via Realm or by calling the office. We need to know by Friday, February 25.
  • Breakfast will be served beginning at 9am. The 10am book study will be a hybrid study that day, so anyone who wants to can stick around to participate in the study at church.
• Wednesday, March 2, 7pm - Ash Wednesday Service - Live Stream available if unable to attend
• Sunday, March 6, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 1 - Ordinary lives can be holy.
  • We find ourselves hungry for many things that we believe will bring us satisfaction. The devil lays a bet that Jesus will jump at the chance for glory, fame, and the quick fix. Who wouldn’t? But Jesus keeps up the pithy one-liners long enough that the Tempster just has to slink away. What are the temptations that catch your ear, singing out promises that your life should be more special than it is? What if ordinary life is already holy–as is?
• Sunday, March 13, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 2 - So much is out of our control.
  • Even Jesus got dang frustrated when folks didn’t behave as he would have liked. We probably aren’t receiving death threats from Herod as Jesus was, but our well being could be threatened by the idea that if we just try hard enough, are nice enough, say just the right thing, life will always go our way. We run around in so many directions, trying to herd the chicks into some imagined semblance of perfect formation (have you ever tried to herd chicks?). What if we could let go of needing all things and all people to be “just so” and instead learn to dance with the unfolding of that which is not ours to control?
• Sunday, March 20, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 3 - Lots of things can be medicine.
  • Oh, the shame of the unproductive fig tree. Cut it down! Make room for a more dedicated and hard-working fig tree! Who among us is living up to our fullest potential? The productivity experts these days can diagnose what’s wrong and sell us the antidote in 3 amazing sessions for a low-low price that is guaranteed to turn our lives around. But the gardener offers an alternative medicine–nurture it slowly, letting it soak in the manure all around until it can get the good stuff out of it. Lying fallow and getting fertilized with laughter and tears at the crappy stuff of life can help heal what ails us and
    that is sometimes productive enough.
• Sunday, March 27, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 4 - We often believe we are the problem.
  • The Prodigal Son lives high on the hog and then famine strikes in the land of his dream vacation. And so he heads home, tail between his legs, expecting that he has lost it all. To his surprise, his extravagant failure is met with extravagant love and grace. We can be pretty hard on ourselves when things don’t go as planned. Guilt, shame, and fear of being seen as a failure can leave us wallowing in the pig pen. Our delusions of a perfectible life keep us disappointed in ourselves. Truth is, life is a big ole risk every single day and facing whatever each day holds is not only good enough, but worthy of love and grace.
• Sunday, April 3, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 5 - We are fragile.
  • Jesus speaks the words no one wanted to admit: he was not always going to be around. “Oh, don’t say that,” so many of us have said to a loved one who speaks the truth about the fragility of life. Perhaps we get uncomfortable because it reveals the precious nature of the present moment, laying bare the beauty and horror of it all. The indescribable pain we know we will one day face invades our senses like a pervasive perfume, inescapable. What if we stopped denying the limited nature of our lives and breathed in deeply the fragrance of vulnerability?
• Sunday, April 10, 8:00 & 10:15 - Lent 6 - Palm Sunday - You are a group project.
  • Jesus orchestrated a low-budget parade into a city where he knew his days were numbered. “Get me a colt,” he said. Not a steed. Not a float. A young, green donkey (not the color, that’s horse-speak for not-ridden-alot-yet). And folks gathered and his friends started some liturgical shouting that ticked off the local priests. Life is hard and we all need friends and sometimes big, loud, praying that will not be messed with. We are created for interdependence. So all our hiding and pretending that we are “perfectly fine” all on our own just won’t work. Get on the donkey when you need to and let people lay down their cloaks for you and make some noise for you. ‘Cause you know you’ll do it for them too when the chips are down.
• Thursday, April 14, 7pm - Maundy Thursday - We are blessed, regardless.
  • The mid-20th century brought a particular shift as televangelists began to speak of blessing as a “pact” with God in which our good works (mostly our good wallets) would multiply the prosperity in our lives. But for Jesus, this moment in the Upper Room was full of trouble, danger, deception, and uncertainty. Surely Jesus, Son of God, had enough blessing capital to out-maneuver this set of circumstances! In the midst of the pain of his moment, Jesus defines the real blessing pact–washing feet, breaking the bread, lifting the cup, sharing even with those who are about to betray him. Love that cannot be quantified reminds us that each and every person is blessed, always, regardless of who we are, how we’ve failed, or what we’ve accomplished.
• Friday, April 15, Noon - Good Friday Service at Unity Presbyterian Church
  • Grace and Unity will combine to hold a community Good Friday service at Unity Presbyterian Church. We hope you will come to this meaningful service.
• Saturday, April 16, 11:00 - Easter Egg Hunt at Pastor Joanne's House. - RSVP via Realm
  • Pastor Joanne is hosting the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Please bring a dozen eggs with a treat in them to be hidden. A hot dog lunch will be provided Please RSVP so we’ll know how many to expect.
• Sunday, April 17, 7:00am - Sunrise Service at Windjammer Park in Tega Cay
• Sunday, April 17, 10:15 - Easter Sunday Service
  • Easter is tricky when it comes to faith. We come for the happy ending–the “and then they lived happily ever after.” The resurrection story proclaims hope over despair and life over death, yet we know that life continued, and continues for us, as a story of spiking heartbreak moments that are not forever fixed. The nature of being created for love is that we will always hunger for more, that there is never enough life and love to satisfy. And endings are often too soon. But perhaps a good enough faith is one that moves through the chronic nature of being incurably human with an eye for resurrection moments that assure us that this good enough life is worthy of our amazement.