Community Outreach & Local Mission
Grace with sleeves rolled up.
These ministries take our mission beyond our walls and into the neighborhood. Feeding people, welcoming strangers, supporting neighbors in need, and making visible the love of God in our local community. This is where faith becomes action.
Do you feel called to serve your neighbors in practical, hands-on ways?
Ministries in this category
Community DinnersPull up a chair. Stay as long as you want.
Once a month, around 80 neighbors and church family sit down to a shared meal. Nobody’s in a hurry. Some of our favorite regulars are the ones who stick around longest, long after the plates are cleared.
“I knew it mattered to me when one person, instead of staying 10 minutes, stayed to the end enjoying his new friends. It is really exciting to see people sitting together and sharing food and conversation.”
Food Bank PartnershipNeighbors feeding neighbors, no questions asked.
Grace partners with and sends volunteers to support the Des Moines Area Food Bank, practical help for practical need, right here in our own community.
“The first time I helped a mother with several kids find her way into the food bank for help, I was hooked. She was so grateful, and the kids gave me big smiles as they emerged from the bread and produce room with a cart full of fresh food. I remembered my own sister and her child, wishing I’d known about the food bank in the years she wasn’t able to afford groceries.”
Grace in ActionFaith with its sleeves rolled up.
You don’t have to feel ready to help someone. Grace in Action shows up where there’s a real need, a yard that needs clearing, kids who need school supplies, people who need a meal. Nobody here has it all figured out. We just show up anyway, because that’s usually enough.
“I knew this ministry mattered because I had participated in a Grace in Action day a few years prior. It was so rewarding and uplifting that I wanted to see that it continued to happen.”
Refugee ResettlementWalking alongside refugees, from first steps to full life.
Our Refugee Resettlement Ministry welcomes refugee families by providing practical support, meaningful relationships, and a network of care as they begin life in a new home. Working alongside local resettlement partners, volunteers help families navigate the challenges of starting over, furnishing apartments, grocery shopping, enrolling children in school, attending appointments, and connecting with community resources. But true welcome happens through relationship, not just meeting needs. We walk alongside families beyond their first days and weeks, creating opportunities for friendship, celebration, and connection through meals, gatherings, and everyday acts of care, so every family knows they are not alone.
“This ministry gives us the opportunity to live out Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger. Not simply by helping families start over but by walking alongside them as they build a new life. What begins as strangers meeting for the first time over a cup of tea, grows into real relationship. Shared meals, shared struggles, shared trust.”
Ways you can serve
- Providing transportation to appointments
- Helping with apartment set up
- Grocery and supply shopping and delivery
- Tutoring and education support
- Relational visits
12-Step ProgramA safe room, one day at a time.
The 12-Step ministry offers an honest, judgment-free space for anyone wrestling with addictive or compulsive behavior—no faith or belief required, just a desire to heal. Participants walk alongside one another toward healing and stronger relationships with themselves, others, and their higher power.
“I recently had someone ask me if we were anything like a support group—they thought we were pushing a rigid set of rules as the only way to break free from addiction. I told them 12-Step is more like the most honest support group you’ll ever attend, with no overzealous expectations or requirements—just an honest desire for a better life.”
LWR QuiltingA blanket, a stranger, and fifty-plus years of showing up.
Since 1968, this group has made mission quilts bound for people around the world they’ll never meet and never hear thanks from. You don’t need to know how to sew, there’s a job for whoever walks in, even one you can do from your kitchen table.
“I have liked to sew for most of my life and have done many kinds of sewing, especially clothing for myself and my family. Soon after a group of women started Quilting for Lutheran World Relief at Grace Lutheran in 1968, I knew that I wanted to participate in some way. I began sewing quilt parts at home, even before I could participate regularly at church. It is a joy to be able to bless others with the gifts of quilts, a way to express love for neighbors we will never know.”
Fidget Quilts & Memory HeartsWhere fabric becomes comfort, and comfort becomes care.
Fidget Quilts & Memory Hearts is a hands-on ministry that creates comfort items for patients living with Alzheimer’s and dementia, along with their families. Volunteers regularly gather at Grace (or work independently at home) to design, cut, assemble, and sew quilts and hearts that are delivered locally to hospice and palliative care patients. It’s a low-barrier, high-creativity ministry that welcomes both skilled sewers and those who simply want to lend a hand.
Ways you can serve
Lead Volunteer
~6 hrs/month · 1st & 3rd Thursdays, 9–12
- Coordinate with Franciscan Hospice & Palliative Care on requests and delivery
- Lead twice-monthly work sessions at Grace — cutting, designing, assembling, sewing
- Train new volunteers and help source donated materials
For someone who sews (or wants to learn), enjoys leading a hands-on group, and wants to bring people together around work that reaches Alzheimer’s and dementia patients — and their families — directly.
Volunteer
~3 hrs, 2x/month · at Grace or at home
- Work alongside others at Grace, twice a month — cutting, designing, assembling, sewing
- Or work independently at home, on your own schedule
No sewing required — there’s real work here for non-sewers too. A relaxed, few-rules way to make a tangible difference for hospice patients, and a good chance to meet people you might not otherwise cross paths with at Grace.