Blog


Let’s Rumble and Let’s RISE STRONG!

By Pastor Chad
September 09, 2022
“Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Ha, that was a phrase I heard from my childhood when the WWF wrestling would be aired on TV.  We had three whole channels and WWF occupied one of the time slots on Saturday morning.  What a w...

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Congregational Meeting Sunday August 7th

By GLC Board, Jason Hervin
July 22, 2022
Hello Congregation!  Hoping you have experienced some moments of the long awaited and much anticipated summer sunshine.  We are reaching out to you for your attendance, support and participation in an important upcoming Congregational Meeting Sunday August 7th immed...

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A Prayer for Lamenting Gun Violence

By Pastor Chad
May 25, 2022
Comfort, comfort, O my people. A moment of prayer for the senseless violence and loss of life at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, and all those places today where hate and violence destroyed life: God, giver of life, you intend for humans to live ...

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GLC No Longer Requiring Face Masks

By Pastor Chad
March 14, 2022
Dear family of Grace, Grace and peace to you in the resurrection hope of Jesus! In conversation with the Health and Safety Team, the GLC Board, and Staff, surrounding the recent updates by the CDC and Washington State Governor’s office regarding Covid restrictions,&nb...

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An Important Note from the Health and Safety Team

By Health and Safety Team
January 06, 2022
An Important Note from the Health and Safety Team, Church Board, and Staff of Grace. As you all know, the Covid numbers in our community are not moving in the right direction. This is causing great stress on every segment of society. Dear and beloved families at Grace are d...

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Can you give a special year-end gift today?

By Pastor Chad
December 30, 2021
On this day, with the voices, names, ministries, relationships, and experiences shared as the church in 2021, a hearty thank you! God’s hug of grace extends both here and around the world!  We sit together at one great big table of grace.  The family of faith r...

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Shine Brightly in 2022

By Pastor Chad
December 28, 2021
We are closing in on the final hours of 2021 and the full launch into 2022.  As fellow children of God, we write the final words of one chapter and start anew.   These words below are a great reminder of the grace notes that we write to God and each other with the ...

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The Blessing of Christmas

By Pastor Chad
December 21, 2021
On this day we wish everyone a hope-filled Merry Christmas! We hope you will be able to join in the opportunities for Christmas worship, either online or in person, on Friday, December 24th Sunday, December 26th, and Wednesday, Dec 29th.    A reminder that ...

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Impact. Transformation. Grace. And You. (Year-End Giving)

By Pastor Chad
December 15, 2021
Impact. Transformation. Grace. New life. Deep worship. Thriving relationships. First fruits generosity.  This is the work of the local church. For over sixty-five years the heart-beat of God has been strengthened through all those who li...

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Year End Giving

By Pastor Chad
December 08, 2021
Dear hope-filled Grace family! Thank you for the walking the road of faith together in 2021!  Our shared life together as the church has been a great blessing.  Indeed, we all are blessed to be a blessing! This is not just a random concept but an eternal truth...

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ReJesus

By Pastor Chad
September 23, 2021
Throughout the fall worship series we are exploring the theme of ReJesus. We know that Isaiah was a primary background for Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom.  Through exploration of those themes through Jesus’ own life and teachings in the Gospels, we see “...

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The Humanitarian Crisis in Haiti: And How to Help Provide Hope

By HTF International Leadership Team - Haitian Timoun
July 16, 2021
Dear Friends, The situation in Haiti has devolved into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. The brutal assassination of President Jovenel Moise has exacerbated already critical circumstances. In the past three years, gang violence has wreaked havoc across the country ...

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Where did you experience God in the midst of the storm?

By Pastor Chad
June 02, 2021
What storms have you experienced in your life? What storms have you experienced in your life? Whoa, that question unleashes a whole storm of thoughts and memories doesn’t it?! Can you name a few out loud? So many storms... We have two Bible texts to dig into today, one f...

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Retirement Letter from Debbie O'Neal (GLC Preschool)

By Debbie O'Neal
May 12, 2021
Dear Grace, In August of 1983, John and I traveled from St. Paul Minnesota to Des Moines Washington for his interview as Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church.  As a graduate from PLU in Tacoma, and a teacher in the University Place School District, I had been hired as an Ele...

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Dislocation

By Pastor Chad
April 29, 2021
Who among us has not felt the deep sense of dislocation over these past many months. As we emerge in different ways as the vaccinations ramp up in the United States, finding a way through that disorientation of dislocation, we need a Holy Spirit presence to navigate every step fo...

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Experiencing Resurrection Power (Holy Week 2021)

By Pastor Chad
March 31, 2021
Holy Week Greetings GLC!   As we engage again and anew in the gospel story of the three days, we are invited to peer into the depths of the heart of God.  What does it all mean?  What does God hope to accomplish?What new life will emerge from the deep sadne...

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March Covid Update

By Pastor Chad
March 05, 2021
Grace and peace to the entire body of Grace!  March is here. We are deep into the season of Lent. Holy Week plans are being finalized for online worship. A Saturday drive-thru Easter egg event, with Easter breakfast kits, and a 24-hour prayer vigil, are all o...

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Strength to Endure

By Pastor Chad Johnson
January 21, 2021
With each new day, the pictures of folks we know and love receiving their Covid vaccinations brings relief to weary hearts and minds.  We need more days and more moments filled with these stories.  Those days are surely coming.  And yet, we know we have a l...

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In This Place

By Debbie Trafton O'Neal
December 09, 2020
How are you doing?  I hope you didn’t just say, fine and move on.  No really – HOW ARE YOU DOING? If you’re like me, you’re vacillating between moments of resignation, hopefulness, uncertainty, sleeplessness and positivity.  Yes, w...

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The Roses Are Blooming

By Pastor Chad Johnson
December 03, 2020
Our home in Federal Way has a beautiful row of roses in a raised rock wall bed....they seem to bloom almost all year round.  Even now...within the chill...in unexpected seasons...we seek to bloom too.   This poem speaks to that yearning within.     ...

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Anticipation

By Steve LeQuire
November 29, 2020
Did you ever watch a four-year-old ponder going down a big slide for the first time? She clambers up stairs to the top and hesitates when she looks down to see how steep it is. She wants to slide down but hangs back warily with furrowed brow. It’s not abject fear she&rs...

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Keep Awake: The First Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2020
KEEP AWAKE Week 1      Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 I Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37 1) Where have you found hope in the past year? 2) How can or has hope for the future motivated you to work for justice in the present? 3) What is you...

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As We Forgive Those ...

By Steve LeQuire
November 02, 2020
I am having a problem with forgiveness. I think I have always had it. Ironically, there is no one in my past that I have felt I had to forgive for any wrong done to me. No one. I am lucky there. But from my earliest coming of age I can remember being completely hardhearte...

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We Can Make a Difference

October 13, 2020
The challenges of Covid-19 continue to wreak havoc both here and all around the world.  Just when we think we are ahead and things are improving, another hot spot and outbreak resurfaces.  The more people you know the more you find out just how widespread and damagi...

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In the Midst

By Pastor Chad Johnson
September 11, 2020
In the midst of terror, in the midst of tremendous pain and loss, a people were summoned to rise to pour out their lives.   They ran into the places of need.   They asked not the cost to themselves but rather what will happen to my fellow human beings if I do noth...

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Your Immune System and You

By Sybel Johnson, RN, FCN
September 04, 2020
How is everyone doing out there? Doing your best to adjust to the strangeness of life right now?  I hope you’re feeling well. And that would be because your immune system is working properly. Did you know your immunity is a system of the body? This system is a...

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The World I Want To Live In

By Rand Barnard
August 12, 2020
I was raised in a middle class all Caucasian neighborhood My father grew up in St Louis, Missouri and my mom grew up in Hope, North Dakota. My father’s racial views reflected more of a southern upraising. My mom’s and the rest of our family was a naïve ...

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Lift Someone Up

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 17, 2020
Encourage one another and build one another up.       I Thessalonians 5:11 Each day, the morning comes, and with it another opportunity to encourage one another and build one another up.  Rise up in the morning to greet the new day saying, “Th...

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People matter. Lives matter.

By Tessa Krippaehne, GLC Board Secretary
July 09, 2020
People matter. Lives matter. When people in our local communities couldn’t get enough to eat, how did we as a church respond? We worked with local food banks and offered community meals. Our church stood up and said people in poverty matter. When refugees impa...

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The Power of Words

By Lindsay O'Neal Lombardo
July 02, 2020
Test. Mask. Closed. Cancer. Racism. Infertility. Prayer. Pandemic. Family. Love. Lately I have been thinking about the power of words. Each of the words above has been spoken into my world in just the last few months. My guess is that each one of us has some type of emotio...

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Repentance Must Come First

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
In the flurry of overt racism that has been streaming before us, many are asking, “What am I to do?”  Some are living out of the belief that they had no idea how bad this systemic problem is.  Some just want to rush past the protest and hit the mute but...

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A pastoral note in response to those upset with Black Lives Matter in our GLC media

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
Grace and peace to you from God our Father. To be clear, Black Lives Matter is not a political statement.  Black Lives Matter on our sign, website and in social media is not a vote of missional support for the Black Lives Matter organization.  While some may directl...

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Number the Days

By Debbie Trafton O'Neal
July 01, 2020
Numbering the Days 153. One hundred fifty-three.  That is the number of days on a little yellow post-it note by my front door.  Today. Tomorrow, that number will be rewritten – 152.  The day after that, it will be 151. I don’t know about you, ...

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Waking Up White

By Lindsay O'Neal Lombardo, PhD, NBCT
July 01, 2020
One of the key aspects of white privilege is that, as a white person, I am not required to think about or consider my racial identity. I could navigate my world without giving my whiteness a second thought. But while I do not have to think about my race, it is important ...

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Jesus Gets Passionate

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
In 2015, I was blessed to hear Dr. Mark Allan Powell present on the driving concerns that determined Jesus life (and death).   Dr. Powell was one of my seminary professors and one who leaks the Jesus spirit wherever he goes! Dr. Powell addressed a han...

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The Perfect Storm

By Pastor John O'Neal
July 01, 2020
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, Last week, as if one pandemic was not enough, another one collided with it creating feelings of anger, sadness, and despair for so many.  Two pandemics colliding creating the perfect storm.  What now? As many of us were...

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Dear Church

By Jenna Crodiskey-Wiebe
July 01, 2020
Like all of us at Grace, I was shocked and horrified by the slaughter of the Charleston Nine five years ago. I became even more grieved when I learned that the killer, Dylann Roof, had been raised in the ELCA. What went wrong? What did his parents and his pastor fail to do?...

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A Plea for Black Lives Matter

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
Our hearts and minds have been gripped by the murder of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis.  A cry for justice has erupted throughout the streets of America.  What are we to do?  A pastor friend of mine, Pastor Kai Nilsen,  wrote these words and I f...

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The Vision That God Has Given Us

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
Grace Lutheran Church has a vision.  Which is to say the people of God who are gathered as Grace and sent as Grace have a vision.  The vision drives us as a movement who live and serve out there in this great big world.  Did you catch that – “a m...

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Radical Relationships

By Pastor Chad Johnson
July 01, 2020
Jesus is radical in relationship - revolutionary in overturning systems of injustice - and reckless in grace.   This last weekend my family participated in the Timoun Trot for the Haitian Timoun Foundation.  The funds are helping to raise support for children and...

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