by Joseph Back

“Everyone knows this is a new church,” Pastor Joe Jiskra said on Super Bowl Sunday in the space formerly occupied by Calvary Covenant Tabernacle on South Broadway Street, “so people are probably wondering ‘what do you believe?”’ In a phrase, ‘Jesus is the standard,” Jiskra shared, making reference to the ‘perfect work’ of Christ on the Cross as he preached from Ephesians 4 to a packed, non-socially distanced house with masked and unmasked alike welcome, an ethanol-based foaming hand sanitizer available to those desiring it in the lobby. Though meant to welcome all, the mostly unmasked reality in the mask or no mask ‘everyone is welcome’ Sunday environment (two masks were observed total, one on this writer and the other a youth) made it difficult and finally impossible for staff to cover the entirety of the service, as any potential health impact on either end could have proved disastrous. The service at Grace Community service wasn’t over yet, though, and Jiskra went on.

“We do have children’s church today, so if you kids want to follow her out,” Jiskra said of the little ones present, heading off to a room with ‘SPARK’ displayed on the wall as inside the adult sanctuary Pastor Jiskra continued his sermon.

Going into the radio drama ‘Unshackled’ put out through the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Jiskra shared the story of a little boy named Timmy who wanted his mom to attend church. Timmy prayed for someone to come along that might get his mom to do so, and a grumpy old man came, “who wasn’t very nice to Timmy.” One day, Timmy and this man began to discuss the story of Jonah and the whale: Did Timmy really believe this, the man asked.

“Well, it doesn’t say it was a whale,” Timmy said in reply. “It says it was a big fish.” In other words, be open to learning, like a little child. Jiskra then went on to quote from Ephesians 4, which is thought to contain an early creed in reverse order: Spirit—Son—Father.

“The interesting thing about the book of Ephesians is that it’s a prison epistle,” Jiskra said, alluding to having been written when the Apostle Paul was in prison. That wasn’t all, though.

The Greek word for ‘worthy’ is ‘axios,’ Jiskra shared. “’Axios’ means equal weight or balance.” Touching on the virtue of humility, Jiskra contrasted how believers are meant to be (humble, gentle and patient) as opposed to ancient Greek culture, where “Humility was practiced by slaves” while others got a pass for pride. Humility, gentleness, and patience promote unity among Christians,” Jiskra said, while pride fostered the opposite. Christ was the supreme example of humility, he said, making reference to Romans 3:23 and the universality of sin, with the broader context addressing Justification by Faith, the doctrine touching on how sinners are declared and/or made righteous in the sight of God. Jesus had redeemed sinful people and given them as gifts to the church, Jiskra said.

“The ultimate goal of all believers is to be more like Jesus,” he said.

Jiskra then went into standards asking if there were any machinists present, to which nobody responded or raised their hand. Going on in spite of this, Jiskra talked of how his non-pastor related side job and that of machinists demanded standards, while the closed indoor space and general failure to follow health guidelines made further press coverage impossible.

Many area churches have complied with mask and social distance protocols put in place by health authorities for general safety purposes, though others not exclusive to Grace Community (citing area anecdote), have not.

Several attempts to contact Grace Community for story comment were unsuccessful.

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mask on, mask off everyone is welcome

At left, a door sign at Grace Community on February 7. At right, hand sanitizer was made available in the lobby at the first service as well. Above center, Pastor Joe Jiskra preaches at the initial February 7 service. Staff photos.