Tis the season… it’s ALWAYS the season, unfortunately… for Pastor Scams. If you receive a text message or email that claims to be from one of the pastors asking for “a favor” and urging you to “text/email me back,” please double check the contact information/email address. If it’s not the email or phone number for the pastor it’s claiming to be from (they’re listed in the announcement bulletin/Grace Notes), then it’s an attempt to draw you into a conversation that will try to convince you to purchase online gift cards (or whatever else scammers get up to). This could be a straightforward attempt to part you from your money, or a more nefarious attempt to steal your credit card information. In any case, do not respond to these messages, it will just lead to headaches. The way this happens is that your email or phone number has at some point in the past or present been listed as contact information for a group or ministry at Grace, and the pastors’ names are of course listed everywhere. There isn’t much we can do to prevent this annoying scam attempt; a good rule of thumb for strange emails and texts is that if it seems weird, it probably is!