
Pastors: Why I Don’t Endorse or Denouce Politicians

I’m also not afraid to share what I believe or to speak the truth in love. If you want to ask me a specific question about what I believe to be true, I’ll answer. I am well aware it could cost me members, friendships, and even my job because of the current political climate. I don’t understand how this became our reality today. If my convictions cause the loss of friendships or employment, I will be sad, but I will shake the dust off my shoes and move on. I much prefer to speak about theology than politics. That is my area of expertise, my passion, and my calling.
I don’t endorse or denounce political leaders for the following reasons:
- I have and continue to serve as pastor to republicans and democrats, libertarians, green party members, you name it. I love you all, as I have vowed to do. If I denounce your candidate, you may assume I don’t love you and that is not acceptable to me. You may think that I will not care for you or help you or value your gifts. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I love you. It’s not weak or a lack of principles. It’s my calling to love and care for my whole flock.
- Facebook, or any other social media site, is not the place to have these conversations, so removed from other people, so unaccountable to who we hurt, so full of misinformation. These conversations need to be held in person, eyeball to eyeball, in an atmosphere of love and respect.
- As important as the political process is I follow Jesus, not a political leader. I won’t follow an influencer, or pop psychologist, or cultural icon. My allegiance is not to any religious leader. It is to Jesus alone I owe everything. It is to Him only that I have pledged my soul, my life, my all.
- Jesus loves even my political enemies. And his love is the only thing that can or will change them. Not name calling or insults. Not threats or persecution. The love of Christ is the most powerful force in the universe. I will proclaim the love of Christ for all people with my words and actions, to the best of my ability, until my dying breath. Yes, this has profound political implications. We each must work those out.

Mission: 2024 in Review

Grace Presbyterian Mission Ministry Summary for 2024
GPC Mission was busy during 2024 in its commitment to further the vision of our church as stated in our Vision 2030 document.
Serving as the hands and feet of Jesus in our community we sponsored regular Minnie’s Food Pantry workdays. We sponsored quarterly blood drives in conjunction with Carter Blood Care. Grace members served at Austin Street Center and we hosted refugees at Grace Place. Mission sponsored successful food, book and school supply drives for Minnie’s, PCHAS and Carpenter Middle School respectively. Throughout the year donations have been received, and members have volunteered to keep our Little Free Pantry stocked. All of these events relied on the wonderful generosity of our members.

Some of the City House Donations
Mission collaborated with the Women of Grace for a yarn drive and a household items collection for City House. With Children’s Ministry we supported Beaty Elementary. Financial support was given to our ESL and Prison ministries.
We even celebrated by having a Solar Eclipse party.

April Eclipse
To help tell our story, Mission launched a blog directed towards Grace members and the broader community. Other Grace ministries have joined in with their own posts

Mission: Saving Lives Through Blood Donations

One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Two seconds. That’s how often someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. There are so many lives saved through blood donations – an accident victim, a patient with a disease requiring a lifetime of transfusions, someone with a scheduled surgical procedure, or perhaps a family member battling cancer, like my brother. It’s pretty straight forward. When you donate blood, you save lives.

Carter BloodCare needs 1,500 blood donors each day to meet the requirements of the patients in the fifty-seven counties they serve in North, Central, and East Texas. According to Carter BloodCare, sixty percent of the local blood supply is typically collected at blood drives. To keep up with the demand, at least 700 blood drives must be hosted monthly throughout our region. I am so grateful to the members of Grace who have faithfully given blood during one of our drives or at another donation center. In the past two years, we have donated enough blood to save more than 200 lives!
So, get ready to roll up your sleeve in 2025. We will host 4 blood drives next year. Mark your calendar for January 19, 2025, April 27, 2025, August 24, 2025, and November 9, 2025 to donate at Grace and give the gift of life. If you are unable to make one of the drives hosted on our campus, please share the sponsor number for Grace Presbyterian Church when you donate at a Carter BloodCare location. The sponsor number is SPON105217. Your donation will be recorded as a donation from our church and shows our commitment to saving lives.

Pastors: Exegesis and Bible Commentaries

Many of you have heard me use terms like “exegesis” and “bible commentaries” when I preach. The other day, I was thinking about how I need to further explain what I’m talking about when I throw around those terms in my sermons because someone approached me after worship to ask what “exegesis” means. When I led an exegetical study on Philippians last year, I defined exegesis in its most basic sense as a critical interpretation of our scriptures. One engaged in exegetical study uses history, culture, and language among other context clues in our canonical texts to discern their intended meaning. It’s helpful to have an awareness of this process because for many pastors this is the starting point for the sermon writing process. Usually, when I start exegeting a bible passage or forming my own understanding of a passage’s meaning through critical interpretation and study, I begin with bible commentaries. Bible commentaries help those tasked with preaching to begin to further explore the text. I have my personal favorites, but there are a substantial number of different bible commentaries that are put together by experts in the field of biblical scholarship. You can find all sorts of different perspectives in each commentary along with helpful facts about the original Greek and Hebrew, dating information on when it’s believed that a particular text was produced, and important context about who may have written the text and why they felt compelled to write in the first place. After that, I usually turn to the original languages and search to see if I can learn anything that the modern English isn’t communicating in our scriptures. One cool piece of information is that you don’t have to be a pastor writing a sermon or a world-class bible scholar to use these tools. They are helpful for personal study and many of them are available for free. We actually have the full set of the Interpretation commentary series in the library located in the parlor. This series is published by our denomination and is a terrific resource to use if you encounter a question about a complicated passage. Another fun place to explore is Biblehub.com’s interlinear tool. You can use this tool to see the precise meaning of each individual word in the Old Testament’s Hebrew or the New Testament’s Greek. I encourage you to check these resources out and see what new things God might teach you about our holy scriptures!

Interlinear Bible

Mission: Austin Street Center


Grace crew – New Years Eve 2023

Pastors: Building Church Community through Fantasy Football



Fellowship: I scream, you scream…

Our world is divided right now, our country is divided, our state is divided, and even our church is divided. Around our country, things are getting ugly politically and we are all feeling it, no matter with which side of the aisle you identify. Finding things we can all agree on has always been difficult, but if feels almost impossible right now. A few Sundays ago, we all agreed that ice cream for breakfast can bring us together. You might think that cappuccino crunch is the best and I might think that cookies and cream is the best, but we can agree that ice cream, specifically Tongue and Cheek’s delicious, rich flavors, is scrumptious. As I watched a line form and members chatting with other members, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I feel certain that God was smiling down on GPC’s east parking lot. We put our differences aside and ate ice cream together.
Many years ago, I participated in a Mom’s Bible study at GPC. One of my favorite studies was focused on Christian hospitality. I love to throw a party (and attend them too). In fact, I am sure that love of hospitality is what landed me in this role as Fellowship Elder. As I stood and watched brothers and sisters standing around outside, eating ice cream together, I was reminded of this verse: Romans 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. May we as a church family continue to find new ways to show hospitality, even in these divided times.
We all scream for ice cream!
Ann Boles


Property & Grounds: Welcome


2024 Property Committee

Adult Christian Formation: Growth




So. Many. Options.
It’s September. What are you doing RIGHT NOW to grow your faith?

Mission: Clothes Closet
