Worshippers received Grace Cards after hearing a sermon on 'do all the good you can.'.

COURTESY JEFF SLATER

Grace Cards inspire kindness

After anonymously doing a good deed, members of Trinity United Methodist Church in Great Bend, Kan., often leave behind a small card, which states: You've just received a random act of grace. Pass it on.

"It's a way to encourage people to do good intentionally in the name of God, to share their faith along with the good deed," explained the Rev. Jeff Slater. He designed the cards and offered them to members at the end of a sermon on John Wesley's General Rule to "do all the good you can."

"The idea just took off," he said.

Now when Myrna Holthaus drives through for coffee, she often pays the bill for the car behind her, leaves a Grace Card with the cashier, and drives off. "One day a teenage boy was hanging half out of his car window, waving his thanks while honking his horn and flashing his lights," Holthaus recalled. "It was so much fun!"

Trinity teenagers put coins into parking meters, and left Grace Cards on the windshields. One woman secretly bought a Bible for someone who didn't own one.

Two medical professionals discovered young medical students seated nearby in a restaurant. They paid for the couple's meal and left a card. "No one can believe how free grace is," one said. "These cards illustrate that."

The cards do not carry information about the church. "I didn't want it to be about attracting members to the church, but about sharing faith," Slater said.

Diane G. H. Kilmer, freelance writer, Nashville, Tenn.

At A Glance Trinity United Methodist Church | 5700 Broadway Ave., Great Bend, KS 67530 | (620) 793-6016 | gbtrinumc@tumc.kscoxmail.com | gbtrinityumc.org | Pastor: Rev. Jeffrey Slater | Average Worship Attendance: 88 | Kansas West Conference