The church plant in Santa Ana celebrated their first baptisms this past Sunday. Thank you for sending your friends, offering your prayers, and giving your support. God is using all of it to advance the gospel among people who we would never reach in Orange.
On Sunday Pastor Eric preached from Romans 14:13-23. He reminded us that Jesus has made us free. We are free to do all kinds of things that bring us joy and please Him. But our freedoms can hurt our brothers and sisters. When they do, we are free to love them by restricting ourselves. We no longer ask, "What can I get away with?" We ask, "How can I glorify God while doing good to those for whom Christ died?"
This past Sunday we welcomed new members. Two of them, Wes and Natalie, shared about their experience joining our church. Here it is in their own words:
Wes: We’re so blessed to be up here today before you; and excited, we’ve honestly been looking forward to this for a while. It’s already been such a gift being a part of this fellowship for some time, so it really means a lot to us that we can now be official members.
We moved to Orange last June from Huntington Beach. I work in Orange as well, as a project manager for a construction company. Natalie has battled some chronic illnesses over the years, so she’s busy being an awesome wife and taking care of herself. We moved to Orange mainly to find a bigger place to hopefully grow a family someday, and it made sense both for my work and that it’s about halfway between our parents.
I stumbled on Sovereign Grace Music sometime back and I ended up looking the ministry up, because I’m like that, and saw that there was a church in Orange. So when we were moving, it was definitely one of our top choices to check out. We came here on the first Sunday after we moved, although that wasn’t totally the plan. That morning we started out for another church since it was closer, and we were probably running behind. We prayed on the short drive that God would guide us that day. And as we pulled into the parking lot of this other church, it seemed kind of like a ghost town. There was like one car in the parking lot and not a soul in sight. Not to fault that church at all, but we felt a little strange. It was around 10:25 or so, and we decided, “Let’s go to Sovereign Grace instead; we can make it.”
Natalie: We had written in a journal of mine some time back that we were praying for a church family. We’ve gone to a few other churches before, but nothing has ever felt like home quite like Sovereign Grace. The second Sunday we came, we met Holly and Grant, sat down, and not long after Grant was tapping on my shoulder, inviting us to lunch. It was so refreshing, not only having people introduce themselves to us, but genuinely want to welcome us and get to know us. We met Eric soon after, plenty of others, and really felt like we were part of a family from day one. Not to mention the teaching and music; it’s just been a huge blessing to be a part of this body. Thanks to all of you for your kindness, authenticity, and your example of faith. We look forward to getting to know all of you more and living this life with you.
The church plant in Santa Ana is moving their service to 10:30am on Sunday mornings. They began as a small group two years ago, started evening services in November 2017, and now are moving to Sunday mornings.
This move will only better equip them to reach their neighbors. Pray for their efforts.
This Sunday you are invited to visit our Santa Ana church plant for their evening service. Then stick around for tacos from a local food truck. Encourage and reunite with the friends who you've sent there to establish a new church.
The fun starts at 5pm on Sunday at Heninger Elementary.