When overnight temperatures reach 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below Grace Church opens our fellowship hall for our homeless friends to stay warm. Volunteers are needed at a variety of times from early in the evening as we welcome guests, overnight and early morning for clean up. Contact our Cold Night Coordinator, Harry Ruhsam for more information and to volunteer.

The Missing Voices Project

Rise Against Hunger Food Packaging Event


Serving Across Generations

“It will change your life.” That’s what she said would happen if I ordered the UFO at the Taco Shop on St Augustine Beach. No one had ever said that to me about food before. That’s a heavy promise. I wondered, what could be in this thing?! It was enough to make me try it. And it was good. Not sure it changed my life. But I will tell you something that has, getting involved with God through serving others. 


I remember getting involved with God through serving before I really believed in God. God is pretty generous and gracious like that. God doesn’t require us to have great faith to get involved. In fact, in my experience, getting involved is precisely the way I grew in my faith. It was getting involved that showed me what love in action can do. Give hope. Make peace. Teach patience. Generate joy. Spread kindness. All signs that God’s Spirit is present. All increased my trust in God, and yes, changed my life.


Check out this Serve Menu. We hope it helps you get involved with God through serving. In so doing, we hope and pray that your life is changed as you see what love in action can do.


Click here for a list of ministry team leaders at Grace UMC.

Dining with Dignity happens every third Friday of the month. Volunteers prepare a delicious meal and serve our homeless friends "to-go" style while we are in the midst of this COVID pandemic. If you would like to help make the meal, serve it or clean up afterward, please contact Mike Osgood. All are welcome. On the third Friday of December, we have a memorial service before dinner to remember our homeless neighbors who have died in the last year. Click here to read this year's message from that service.

Stephen Ministry

Grace Church became a Stephen Ministry enrolled congregation in January, 2016, and commissioned our first 7 Stephen Ministers in May 2017. Today we have 8 active Stephen Ministers and 4 Stephen Leaders who support and train them.  We are excited to be offering a dynamic lay caring ministry to persons within our church and surrounding community!


Stephen Ministry is a one-to-one lay caring ministry that takes place in congregations that use the Stephen Series system developed by the Rev Dr. Kenneth Haugk in 1975. Stephen Ministry congregations equip and empower lay caregivers—called Stephen Ministers—to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting. A Stephen Minister (also known as a “care-giver”) and one who is going through a crisis or struggle in life (a “care-receiver”) typically meet together for about one hour a week for as long as it takes to work through the concerns of the care-receiver.


To learn much more about Stephen Ministries, click here. In addition, an excellent video clip describing this ministry is a PBS Special on Religion and Ethics highlighting Stephen Ministry, click here to watch.

Meet Our Stephen Leaders

  • roger carlson

    Roger Carlson is a recently retired United Methodist minister who served churches in Maryland for thirty-seven years. Roger, as a trained Stephen Leader, helped to bring Stephen Ministry to the congregation he served as pastor in 1994, and has since been supportive of Stephen Ministry programs in subsequent pastorates. He’s experienced first-hand how Stephen Ministry supports busy pastors in reaching out to those persons experiencing a crisis or challenging place in life, as well as providing a wonderful outlet for lay persons with a heart for caring ministry to put their passion to work in the parish. Roger is married to Cyndy, and they together have three grown children – Kent, a Maryland resident, and twins Jessamyn and Benjamin of St. Augustine. The Carlson family has been attending Grace UMC since April, 2014. Contact Roger @ 240-483-7183 or by email.