Meaningful Church Growth

New Members

This past Sunday we welcomed seven new members to our church. They’ve committed to us and we’ve committed to them. We will follow Christ and serve him for his glory, our good, and the spread of the gospel.

During the service, we heard from two of those new members, Steve and Gina. Read below, in their own words, the ways God met them through you as they got to know our church.

Good morning Sovereign Grace Church. We are some of the COVID congregants. We began attending the church in November. We had been a part of a church plant in Orange a few years back that had closed down. We first heard about Sovereign Grace when several former members of the church were attending after our church plant closed. We began attending a church closer to our home in Fullerton. We had been feeling that the gospel was missing and began looking for a church that would clearly and boldly preach the gospel regardless of any distractions. We looked around our hometown, but there wasn’t much. It was at the height of COVID in November and most churches weren’t meeting. I remembered that Sovereign Grace was in Orange, so we began to participate in services online. Every week we were reminded of the gospel, but we were still at home. We began to attend in person in December. 

What we first noticed was how genuine everyone we met at the church was toward us and to one another. Before and after the service, we would overhear conversations of brothers and sisters truly caring for one another.  I am naturally cynical and kept waiting for them to show their fake side, but it never happened. There was no show, the evidence of God’s grace was in the people of this body. They welcomed us in, invited us to have coffee, a meal, and even to join their small groups. We attended our small group and the transparency was evident there as well.  We have watched this body mourn the loss of a member and truly care for one another.  We have witnessed a prayerful church calling out to God on behalf of those in need, and we have seen the Bible opened, the word preached, and the good news of the gospel proclaimed. 

We are grateful to God that we are becoming members of Sovereign Grace. We have seen the “one anothers” at work in this body and want to be a part of it. My heart naturally defaults to isolation, so I am grateful to be known, pursued, and welcomed into this family.

 We are grateful to be a part of this church because we have been welcomed and our children have been cared for and included. We are grateful to have brothers and sisters in Christ check in with us each week and to have opportunities to check in on others and care for them.  God calls his people to live in community with one another and to care for one another and we have experienced that here and feel the call of God to be part of and serve this community.