Mercy Ministries, Mercy Update | by Pastor Justin Keogh

March 28, 2025

The Mercy Ministry Updates are a regular snapshot of our Mercy Ministries in DCC, where we are working to serve and uphold the value and dignity of God’s most vulnerable image-bearers in our city.

GOSPEL FRAMEWORK

As God’s inspired Word, the Bible displays God’s good design and our radical need for a savior, found only in Jesus, and calls us to live out our new identity in Christ as we engage the world around us.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:13-14

In Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes adamantly to articulate salvation by faith alone, and not by works. But what is the believers’ response to God’s free grace? It is a life of loving devotion to God and service to others (aka “good works”), or as he puts it here in chapter 5, “serving one another through love.” The order is essential so that we don’t miss the free grace of God as our center and source of life, but the connection is also essential as the response to God’s grace as demonstrated in our lives is the evidence that our faith is genuine (cf. James 2:14-17, 1 John 3:14). And who are we to serve in love? Those in our spiritual family (the “one another”) and those in need around us (the “neighbor”), each as we have opportunity (Gal 6:9-10).

Our Mercy Ministries help us put this call to love our neighbor as ourselves into action, through tangible acts of service where we can both declare the good news and demonstrate the impact of that good news to the most vulnerable image-bearers in our city. Learn more about our current Mercy Ministry efforts below, and join us in loving service to others in one of our upcoming events.

NEW! BELLTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP

As a church, we’ve long served our city in tangible ways through cleaning and beautification projects, often joining with our neighbors for the good of our city. As we continue to settle into our new permanent home on 1st & Broad, we’re launching a new Mercy Focus Group to help us stay informed of the needs and opportunities to serve locally (join here). Our next event will be serving alongside Together Washington and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce for a clean-up in Denny Park on Saturday, April 26 (register here).

HOMELESSNESS

We continue to serve in various ways through our partnership with Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. DCC has begun to serve a meal monthly – on the 4th Saturday of the month – at Hope Place, UGM’s women’s shelter in Rainier Valley. Register here to join for the Saturday, April 26 meal (or a future meal).

REFUGEES

We partner with World Relief Western Washington to serve refugees and asylees here in the greater Seattle area. Though the recent administration changes have drastically impacted the resettlement of new refugees, there is still much that can be done for those already here as sojourners and neighbors. We’re hoping to get DCC players (or even a full team!) to join the “World Relief Cup,” a fundraising soccer tournament on Saturday, June 28. Learn more and sign up here.

FAMILY ADVOCACY MINISTRY

Our FAM focus area partners with CareNet of Puget Sound (pro-life medical services), OliveCrest (Christian adoption & foster care), and the Foster Support Faith Alliance (network of local churches serving foster youth + families). This year, we’ve been working to build wrap-around “care communities” for foster families, and we’re prayerfully considering restarting a Foster Support Group (something we did pre-COVID). Learn more in our FAM Group.

STAY CONNECTED

These events are just a snapshot of the ways in which we serve throughout the year. You can learn more through our Mercy Ministries webpage, and consider joining our ongoing focus area groups in Church Center to hear more regular updates, events, and opportunities to serve:

• Mercy Focus: Belltown Neighborhood Group
• Mercy Focus: Family Advocacy
• Mercy Focus: Homelessness
• Mercy Focus: Refugees

For the Kingdom,
Pastor Justin

Care Ministry | by Pastor Luke Davis

March 20, 2025

This note is a snapshot of our Care Ministry in DCC, where we work to foster a discipleship culture of mutually encouraging relationships in our life together.

GOSPEL FRAMEWORK

Our Lord designed the local church to be a body that seeks the well-being of its various members:

Brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:1-2

These two verses capture the scope of our troubles in this life – sin and suffering. Our fallen nature permeates our thinking, emotions, and behavior. Every part of who we are has been marred by sin. And our fallen world is rife with sufferings of every kind, from unexpected tragedy to the slow wearing out of our bodies. How are we to find life, much less abundant life, in this sin-sick world?

The gospel tells us that in our union with Christ, we have likewise been united to a body of believers. These brothers and sisters, invested with Christ’s Spirit and guided by his word, are deployed to be watchful caregivers. In other words, we, the church, are sent with Christ’s riches to be caregivers to one another – correcting sinners with gentleness and love, comforting sufferers with hope and resilient grace. The Care ministry is here to help you in this God-given endeavor.

BIBLICAL CARE
Our approach to care is shaped by a Christ-centered view of human life as found in the Scriptures, an approach which takes seriously the spiritual, physical, social, psychological, and developmental nature of our difficulties. We believe that people can change, grow, and find restoration as they come to understand their lives in light of the transforming gospel of Christ. Learn more about our foundations in our Guiding Theology for Biblical Care.

REQUEST CARE
Primarily, our Care Ministry serves and counsels through individual meetings. We have a team of trained counselors who are ready to get together over 4–6 sessions, or longer, to carefully listen, aid, and point to the teachings of Christ our Cornerstone. For example, our team of peer counselors would love to help you endure grief, take steps to put a persistent sin to death, come out from under the domination of anxiety, and much more, by allowing God’s word to shape how we face challenges. To learn more about meeting with a Care Team member or to request care, click here.

CHURCH CENTER GROUP
The DCC Care group on Church Center serves as a hub for Care Ministry communication and resources for those seeking to help others know and experience joy in God and obedience to Him amidst our struggles. Request to join the Care Group.

MINI-BOOKS 
Our ministry supplies over 50 booklets that offer biblical wisdom for everyday challenges. Titles range from I’m Exhausted: What to Do When You’re Always Tired to Domestic Abuse: Help for the Sufferer. These accessible titles are available at the lobby desk just outside the auditorium for a $3 donation or as a free gift. We also have about a dozen titles related to parenting in the CKids lobby downstairs.

If you have any questions about our Care Ministry, come find me or Ashley Garbelman, deacon of Care Administration.

For the Kingdom,
Pastor Luke

Pastoral Note | by Pastor Luke Davis

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together… And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Rom 8:22-23

The death of a beloved DCC member has rightly led to an outpouring of grief. We are groaning and lamenting with the family, ourselves as friends, and among our whole church body. As we eagerly await the final redemption of our bodies, we get to grow in our personal stewardship of grief and our relationships with others who are grieving. To that end, I would like to share a few helpful points about walking in grief.

• Affirm the impact – The way in which people process death can vary widely, but it is uniform in that it makes an impact. Whether a person feels shaky, angry, morose, or any other combination of emotions, we can validate the extreme feelings with which we meet death because it is alien to God’s original creation plan. Don’t try to deny or simply dismiss this grief as silly or unnecessary. Death is wrong. It shouldn’t feel right.

• Draw near – Facing the death of a dear one is startling. We can easily withdraw from others in our grief or from those who are grieving. But this is neither healthy nor in line with God’s design. He wants us to weep together (Rom 12:15). What can you do in these circumstances? Draw out a grieving person’s memories and connections to the person who is gone. Or, if you’re grieving, find someone to whom you can honestly talk out what you are feeling. Processing aloud will likely lead to tears, but it is good and healthy. It will also protect against grief “stagnating.” And in Christ, we are not ever really alone. Ps 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Turn to him in prayer. Grieve with God, not apart from him.

• Resist grief’s temptations – Each person grieves differently, but there are some temptations which are common to grief: doubt in God’s goodness or presence, anger over God’s providence that leads to distance from him, and self-pity as we allow pain to orient all of life around ourselves instead of God.
  The ministrations of the Spirit, fellowship of his people, and the passing of time help with these. Nonetheless, be on the lookout for these temptations in yourself and brothers and sisters around you.
  Grieve in the Gospel – Gently remind yourselves and others that Christians have an abiding hope beyond death (1 Thes 4:13). Our eternal life has already begun in Jesus. Death is a portal to access a new, richer phase of that everlasting life. Death should never be seen as right, but in Christ, it is the last trial to endure before faith becomes sight.

• Be patient – Grief is weird. Some aspects are predictable, others are not. A person can swing wildly from one intense state to another, or arrive at a place of stability out of the blue. Unfortunately, this can mean that friends pull away from someone in the throes of grief. But that’s not the way the church is to act. Grief is often an opportunity for us to “bear with one another in love” (Eph 4:2).

Dear ones, let’s look to and lean on Jesus, together, as we mourn our beloved member’s death. Allow this stanza from Katharina von Schlegel’s “Be Still My Soul” to give shape to your heart:

Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shall you better know his love, his heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.
Be still, my soul! your Jesus can repay
From his own fullness all he takes away.

PS. If you find yourself “stuck” or debilitated by grief, I encourage you to reach out for help to our Care Ministry. Members, you should also feel encouraged to reach out to your shepherding elder with any questions or needs.

For the Kingdom,
Pastor Luke