Serving here starts with whatever you already have.

OUTREACH AT GRACE

Outreach at Grace Chapel in Bedminster, New Jersey: serving teams, meals for households in a hard week, and missions partners near and far.

Ten teams keep Grace running, from the welcome desk to parking to the sound booth. Helping Hands cooks for people in the middle of something. And the church supports partner families and ministries, some a few towns away and some on the other side of the world.

Serving

Ten teams, and each one has someone to email.
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Meals

Dinner for a household in the middle of something.
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Missions

Partners a few towns away and across the world.
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For an hour or a skill

Serving Teams

Ten teams keep Grace running, and between them they cover most of what a Sunday needs: the welcome desk and ushers, safety and parking, Grace Kids and the nursery, refreshments and cleanup, worship, and the audio and livestream booth. Beyond Sunday there is PlusOne Youth, the team that runs the summer VBS week, the Missions Committee, and Helping Hands.

Nobody is handed more than they offered. Every team has a director you can email directly, so you can ask what it actually involves, and how often, before you agree to anything.
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For a household in a hard week

Helping Hands

Helping Hands cooks for people in the middle of something: an illness, a recovery, a new baby just home. It is the least ceremonious thing on this page and often the most immediately useful, because what a household in that week actually needs is dinner they did not have to think about.

It runs in both directions. You can cook, and you can ask for a meal, and asking does not require a good enough reason. Katie coordinates it, and she is the one to contact either way.
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For here and a long way from here

Missions & Partners

Roughly a tenth of everything given at Grace goes to missionaries and missions partners, automatically, without anyone having to designate it. That is the clearest statement of priority the church makes with its budget.

Some of those partners are close by: a church planter reaching Bangladeshi neighbours in New York, campus ministry in the Lehigh Valley, addiction recovery work in northern New Jersey, and standing partnerships with Bedminster Fire and Rescue, the Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management. Others are a long way out, in Mozambique, Germany, the Holy Land and across Asia. The Missions Committee is how the congregation stays connected to them rather than only funding them.
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Before you sign up

Questions people ask

I do not have much time. Is that worth offering?
Yes. Several of these teams run on a rota, so serving might mean one Sunday in four or one in six. Tell the director what you actually have and they will either fit it or tell you honestly that this team needs more.
What if I do not have an obvious skill?
Most of the teams need presence more than skill: holding a door, directing a car, carrying a tray, restacking chairs, watching a room of three year olds. The two that need a specific ability, worship and the audio booth, say so.
Do I have to commit for a year?
No. Nobody is handed more than they offered. Ask the director what the smallest useful commitment is and start there.
Can I ask for a meal instead of cooking one?
Yes, and you should. Helping Hands exists for households in a hard week, and asking does not require a good enough reason. Katie coordinates it in both directions.
Do I have to be a member to serve?
No. Anyone serving with children clears a background check first, which is standard and is about the children rather than about you.
Where does missions giving actually go?
Roughly a tenth of everything given goes to missions partners automatically. Some are local, in New York, Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. Others are in Mozambique, Germany, the Holy Land and across Asia. The Missions Committee can tell you about any of them.