No doubt you've seen the news. The Philippines was recently hit by Typhoon Haiyan, causing massive amounts of destruction.

What you probably don't know is that we have strong ties to a group of churches there and just recently held a WorshipGod conference in Cebu. Like last month! And our closest sister church (Sovereign Grace Church Pasadena) has been traveling there to support and encourage these churches for years.

Please pray for Pastors Nilo and Pete and their churches.

Please consider contributing to Pasadena's Relief Fund.

More info and directions to make donations can be found here.

A few times a year the pastors assemble a group of men from the church to talk leadership. They are friends invited to offer counsel, perspective, and accountability to the pastoral team. 

Please join us in praying in praying for our Leadership Counsel this Saturday morning. On the agenda is a wide range of topics:

• Our partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries
• The Ministry of Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-6)
• Church Finances
• A proposed Deaconate Ministry
• Church Planting Strategies for Orange County

Look who just landed on the front cover of Sovereign Grace Ministries' blog!

Get to Know Sovereign Grace Church (Orange, CA)

Enjoy reading about you, because you are living proof that God is alive and active in Orange County.

Congratulations to Redeeming Grace Church and David Palmer. May this be the first of many Sundays in which you celebrate the liberating power of God's gospel!

David Palmer and friends out in Indio, CA are preparing for their first official Sunday Service. Let's cheer so loud in Orange that they can hear us in Cochella Valley.

Redeeming Grace Church

We love weddings at Sovereign Grace. They combine all kinds of great things we are passionate about...love, romance, family, sacrifice, commitment, community, beauty, the gospel, Jesus, fancy dresses, pretty decorations, food, friends, a party, and cake. Not necessarily in that order, but you get the idea. 

Marriage is God's idea.

Our pastors (and intern) have been busy officiating a number of wedding ceremonies and things only appear to be getting busier going forward. And on top of this, we've been praying for open doors to do more weddings outside our congregation. There's no reason we can't play a part in people getting married in our city!

God designed marriage to say something about Christ and His church and the wedding day is a great opportunity to proclaim this mystery.

Excellence.

In order to perform more weddings with excellence, Geneva Enge has volunteered to become our Wedding Coordinator. She'll be assisting the Pastoral Team, tracking with engaged couples and ensuring things go smoothly on the big day. She won't be a substitute for the traditional wedding planner's role...think of her as more of a liaison between the church and the wedding party.

Please join us in praying for Geneva. This is an important opportunity for our church and she brings real strengths to the table. Pray God would bless her work, bring us lots more weddings to officiate, and that our witness to Orange would expand!

We are thrilled to inform you that David Christensen's internship is now fully funded and set to begin September 1, 2013. Thank you church and thank you friends of our church. Your generosity is further proof of God's grace at work in you and God's love and care for his saints in Orange County.

Join us in praying that David's internship proves fruitful as God's word advances in our church and city.

Lots has changed with Sovereign Grace Ministries over the past few months, and we anticipate even more change in the coming years.

You might say we are always reforming. 

This is true of Sovereign Grace Ministries. This is true of our church. This is true of each and every one of us. We grow. We fix. We adapt. We try, test, evaluate, and reset. 

However, some things are just a part of who we are. Part of what makes us a family of churches (a denomination). Things that never change, or rarely change, or only get tweaked. Not deleted.

Our 7 shared values. 

The following list was adopted in the new SGM Book of Church Order. It's what one has called "the DNA of our family of churches."

1. Reformed soteriology
2. Gospel-centered doctrine and preaching
3. Continuationist pneumatology
4. Complementarian leadership in the home and church
5. Elder-governed and -led churches
6. National and international outreach and church planting
7. A family of interdependent churches united in fellowship, mission, and governance.

Learn more about each of these values and more here.