Why Grace Church rarely cancels Sunday Services for Snow

One of Grace Church's reputations is that we rarely cancel Sunday Services for snow storms. I think we have an interesting approach to snowstorms, though it's often misunderstood.

First and foremost, based on past attendance, there is a segment of our congregation that want to worship on Sunday morning. Whether they're crazy to be out on the roads or maybe they live close enough to walk to church, it's clear there is a group of our congregation that shows up in spite of the weather. If there's a group that wants to worship, we want to give them that opportunity.

From our experience, other churches have similar groups. When their church cancels and we still meet, some of them worship with us that Sunday simply because we are open. We have no intention of "stealing" attenders from other churches, but we think a snowy Sunday presents some unique ministry opportunities for us to serve the church universal.

Combined with that, most of our staff live within a few miles of the church, so it's not difficult for us to get here.

I can't stress enough that we trust and we need every attender to use common judgment on whether it is safe for them to be traveling. Our congregation is spread widely enough that we can't determine the safety conditions for each attender. While we aren't supposed to give up worshipping together, missing a Sunday or two because of the weather is understandable. Just because we don't cancel services, doesn't mean we expect everyone to be at church. Our expectation is actually to the contrary...

We expect a smaller crowd on a snowy Sunday. With that comes a unique worship atmosphere unlike our regular services. We recognize that Sunday School teachers, childcare workers and all of the others that support a regular service may be unable to get to the church, so we take a casual approach. We throw the normal plans out the window and work with what we have. Children can worship in the Auditorium with their families and we can sing without instruments or song words, each of us in our flannel shirts and snow boots. The volunteers who support Sunday morning services should not feel pressured to get to the church if we don't cancel. We'll flex with what we have/who shows-up and have fun in the process.

I should stress that during really bad weather, dress appropriately if you are coming to church. We can't always keep the sidewalks and parking lot clear if a ton of snow is falling, so dress appropriately, wear your boots and leave the patent leather shoes at home.

We will rarely cancel Sunday services the night or day before and here's why... Nothing against Doug Allen or any other Meteorologist, but their track record shows that they aren't able to exactly predict the weather. Therefore, we want to delay the decision until we have a much better idea of what the weather will be.

How can you find out if services are cancelled? Listen to WDAC 94.5 FM or WJTL 90.3 FM on Sunday morning. Our cancellation will be announced on those stations. If you have to, you can call the church (626.2155) and press option 6 for the cancellation notices - be advised that the phone system can handle a limited number of calls, if it is overwhelmed you will be cutoff. Listening to the radio is your best bet.

So the next time you wake up on a Sunday morning and Grace Church is still meeting for worship and you deem it safe to go out, pull on your snow gear and worship with a few of the frozen chosen at Grace!