Grace Baptist Church of Statesville, NC

09/04/2026

youtube.com/watch?v=102wwbXdkxA&si=LBGPScQ5FijBqlY4&fbclid=IwY2xjawUHhshwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAGJyaWQRMXp6azNXa3lBNXl5aDVtUkZzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEetsBWa0O9Wgscos52OYWIAJB9Js4MotUWWBY1Q-VXu5tKSVTj53B2BO775Vk_aem_q9GXt6pnRxtT2QREFhbfTg

Our Summer Davis lecturer is speaking on her more recent book, "Liv...

08/27/2026

Beginning Sunday, September 13th, Sunday School will be at 9am followed by Worship at 10am.

August 30th & September 6th are the last two Sundays of the Season of Grace, with breakfast at 9:30am and Worship at 10am.

08/27/2026

Carrilea's Corner

Dear Grace Family,
A little update about our Sunday morning rhythm!

As our summer Seasons of Grace schedule comes to an end, we’ve been talking about whether to return to our previous worship time or continue gathering earlier.

We surveyed those who were at church on Sunday, and the Church Cabinet spent some time on Monday evening talking through the responses and the different possibilities.

The majority of those surveyed preferred the earlier worship time, several wanted our regular schedule to resume, and quite a few indicated that they didn’t have particularly strong feelings either way. So, after considering the feedback, the Cabinet decided that we’re going to give the earlier schedule a try:

9:00 a.m. — Sunday School
10:00 a.m. — Worship

Committee meetings that need to happen on Sundays will likely meet around 11:00, although each committee can determine what works best for them.

And then—we’ll see how it goes!

The nice thing about a change like this is that it doesn’t have to be permanent. We can try it, live with it for a while, and pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.

Honestly there is a part of me that likes slower Sunday mornings in my pjs, but the other part of me really likes the idea of being done early so the rest of the day is more open! So before you make up your mind that it is a terrible idea (or a great idea), let’s give it at least through September. Then, as we’ve had some time to experience the new rhythm, you can begin offering feedback through the Cabinet or the boards and committees you serve on so that we can continue the conversation together.

One of the things I appreciate about Grace is that we don’t have to have everything figured out before we try something. We can listen, experiment, pay attention, and adjust along the way.

See you Sunday for our last breakfast gathering for the Seasons of Grace!

Carrilea

08/20/2026

https://www.iredellfreenews.com/perspectives/2026/viewpoint-will-the-real-jesus-please-stand-up/?fbclid=IwdGRjcATz4M5jbGNrBPPgw3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe4PxMXY9rPKPEZJ3aace-X18qAu_EQ_oi0fe3N1Ia6A4lDnQtxIJyt68VONA_aem_gjTaAMiz8A4P39lnFRG6EQ

BY H. Stephen Shoemaker “To Tell The Truth” was a popular quiz show in the 1950s. Three guests would appear on the show, each claiming to be the same person. They would seek to tell of themselves c…

08/20/2026

Carrilea's Corner:

Dear Grace
What is something you have changed your mind about recently, or perhaps in the last 10 years?

I know I once thought going to bed before 10 was incredibly lame. I have now seen the light.

I remember when COVID first started. And masks were just starting to become a thing. I was like I am absolutely not wearing a mask. My mom was sewing and making some and I was like nope. But then probably 2 weeks later when I learned more about what was happening, I changed my mind.

I’ve been thinking about changing our minds since our conversation on Sunday about moral and spiritual development.

Sometimes I think we’ve been taught to be suspicious of changing our minds

We expect children to grow and develop. We expect their understanding of right and wrong to become more nuanced. We expect them to learn from experience. Why would we stop expecting that of ourselves simply because we’ve reached adulthood?

Over the course of a life, we encounter people we didn’t know before. We experience things we couldn’t have understood from a distance. We suffer. We love. We lose people. We read. We listen. We discover that some of the categories we inherited aren’t big enough for the lives we actually encounter.

And sometimes, if we’re paying attention, we change our minds.

That doesn’t mean every new idea is better than the old one, or that convictions don’t matter. But I do think there is something spiritually important about remaining open to the possibility that we still have something to learn.

What have you changed your mind about along the way?

Who or what helped you see differently?

Perhaps one sign that we have actually been on a journey is that we don’t see the world from exactly the same place we did when we started.

And I hope I’m not done changing my mind yet.

Carrilea

08/15/2026

We are excited to present New York Times bestselling author Kristin Kobes Du Mez for our summer installment of the Davis Lectures Series. A writer, scholar and speaker, Du Mez will explore the intersection of politics, gender and religion, speaking on themes from her newest book, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made. This book will be available for purchase at the Davis Lectures. More info is available at gracestatesville.org.

08/13/2026

08/07/2026

Steve Shoemaker's Latest Article:

A person close to me who is an ardent follower of Jesus and pretty cynical about church asked me recently, “Can the church practice the virtues it teaches, for example, contentment?” The question set me thinking: Are we ever content in the church we are part of? Contentment is a deep form of hap...

08/06/2026

Carrilea's Corner

Dear Grace
One thing that travel always reminds me is how small my world actually is.

Not in a diminishing way.

In a freeing way.

One of the gifts of travel is that it loosens our grip on the idea that our way is the only way.

In traveling these past few weeks I’m reminded that there are millions of people waking up to lives that look very different from mine.

Different food.

Different rhythms.

Different family structures.

Different schools.

Different churches.

Different assumptions about what makes a good life.

And yet…

People still laugh and play.

Parents still delight in their children.

Friends still gather around tables.

People still grieve.

People still hope.

Interacting with other cultures helps to illuminate what is merely cultural and what is deeply human.

I’ve often wondered why learning about other cultures feels so life-giving to me, while for others it seems to evoke fear or suspicion. Maybe it’s because travel asks us to loosen our grip on certainty. It reminds us that there are many ways to organize a family, share a meal, educate children, celebrate milestones, or practice hospitality.

Across the world, we seem to be living through a moment when many people are increasingly anxious about difference. It is easy to assume that what is unfamiliar is somehow threatening. But every time I travel, I come home believing the opposite. Difference is not the enemy. In Scripture, again and again, God meets people across borders, cultures, and journeys.

This Sunday we are going to be thinking about migration —people leaving one place and making a home in another. When you start looking for it, you realize how much of Scripture is a story of migration!

Gratefully,

Carrilea

07/30/2026

Voices of Grace Corner

Dear Grace
A few weeks ago Carrilea asked us the question, “What if the future is not a fixed itinerary that God is hiding from us, but a living story that unfolds as God journeys with God’s people?”.

Years ago I was in Athens, Greece with two friends. The hotel gave me a map of Athens, hotel circled, and a business card with its address on it. This was before the time we all had cell phones, so a map was essential. I felt comfortable that I had all the tools I needed for a great day of sightseeing. I was quite proud of myself for thinking to ask for them.

There was a public bus stop outside the hotel and my friends and I took the bus to an area of Athens we wanted to explore. We enjoyed hours of walking around town - seeing the sights, eating the food, and shopping the markets. When we decided it was time to go back to the hotel, I realized we had walked randomly for a long time and I was not quite sure where we were. I pulled out the map, and tried to get my bearings. To my horror I realized they gave me a map with everything written in English. All of the road signs were only in Greek.

My sense of direction is variable. Some days I can find my way back to places regardless of all kinds of twists and turns taken. This did not seem like one of those days. My friends kept looking at me to find our way out of this dilemma. I got scared.

So OK - I decided we could break my “only public transportation” travel rule and take a cab. I hailed one, and handed the driver the hotel’s card. He shook his head, handed me the card back, practically shoved me from his taxi, and drove quickly away. After walking farther, looking for anything that looked familiar, I tried another taxi. The same thing happened. (I still have no idea why).

People I asked either didn’t speak English or had no clue how to help us get there.

Frustrated, I finally picked a direction and just started walking. It was purely a guess, but we had to do something. To my surprise, in only a few minutes I recognized a landmark I knew was in the direction of our bus stop. I found the bus stop easily after that.

In only a few minutes I went from being the most lost I have ever been to being safely on the way back to our hotel.

Sometimes it seems all is working against us. Sometimes we will not be comfortable or feel we have the necessary skills to address a problem. Sometimes the people around us don’t seem to speak our language. Whatever the roadblock, perhaps God is walking beside us through it all - cheering us on and proud we’re hanging in there and eventually figuring it out. Perhaps our faith is growing stronger as we do - and that is the point of the journey.

Kim McKinney