Jason and Christine's new member testimony from last Sunday...
Our story begins back in college, where we met and dated and were married. That church was theologically solid and we had a network of Christ-centered relationships that sustained, encouraged, and challenged us spiritually.
We didn’t know how good we had it.
After our wedding, we moved to Long Beach and began searching for a new church. We wanted to find a church as soon as possible, and so set to work using the 9Marks church directory. We drew a ten-mile radius around our home and, in God’s providence, Sovereign Grace Church didn’t make the cut.
We made our list.
On our first try, we visited a church twenty minutes from our house. We loved the preaching and the people were kind toward us and so we decided to stay. Not knowing anyone, we figured that in time we'd experience the same kinds of community and relationships we had enjoyed in the past.
However, a year and a half later and it still wasn't happening. God was teaching us how dependent our spiritual well-being is on being part of a local church. We decided to start searching again and a friend recommended you.
God had a plan.
We initially assumed you were too far away, but by this point we were ready to try anything. As it turns out, our drive to Sovereign Grace is almost exactly the same as the drive to our previous church. Double the distance, equal in time. God had hidden you from us for a reason.
Our first Sunday began by welcoming new members. Scott and Rachel shared a testimony of how quickly they were integrated into meaningful relationships. When describing how purposeful everyone was in reaching out to them, Scott said “we probably just had big targets on our backs.” We were struck to the heart.
That same Sunday Lucas and Geneva invited us to dinner, Les had written down our contact info, Grace invited us to lunch, and Pastor Eric had answered some insanely specific and probably annoying questions.
And you didn’t stop.
Before we knew it, we were in a small group designed to build relationships and promote fellowship. We could share and pray with others. We could enjoy life together. We could focus on Christ and keep the emphasis on Him, not our minor theological perspectives and disagreements.
Thank you for welcoming us. We thank God for you.
