Bananna-Mei ART

This Sunday

Immediately Following the Service

BYO Lunch

All church members and regular attenders are requested to participate in this 75 minute meeting. Please plan on greeting guests, packing gear, and heading out into the Woman's Club Gardens for a time of updates, testimonies, and information you need to be awesome.

You eat, the pastors talk, the church grows stronger. Here's our agenda:

State of the Church Address

Church Member Rolls

Testimonies

New Church Partnership Agreement

Proposed Statement and Policy on Pastoral Ministry

"singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart"

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward."

Last Sunday we celebrated the honor of motherhood, the gift of children, and prayed for one of our "first" families. The one on the left is the oldest...you can tell because she knows what a risky thing it is to give a microphone to her father :) 

Bananna-Mei Art

From Thom S. Rainer.

1. “You are sitting in my pew/seat.” This sentence was actually said to me when I was a visiting preacher in a church. The entitled church member did not realize I was preaching that day. I had the carnal joy of watching her turn red when I was introduced. And, yes, I did move. She scared me.
2. “Is your husband/wife with you?” This question is rightly perceived as, “We really don’t want single adults in our church.” Members see their church as family friendly as long as “family” meets their definition.
3. “Are those your children?” This question is becoming more common with the growth in the adoption of children who are not the same race or ethnicity as their parents. One parent with an adopted child was asked if he got to choose how dark his child would be. I’m serious.
4. “The service has already begun.” This sentence is rightly understood to mean, “You are late, and you will be disrupting the service.” I saw that happen recently. The family left. I was late too, but I stayed since I was preaching.
5. “There is not enough room for your family to sit together.” I was visiting a church a few weeks ago that did just the opposite. When larger families came in the service, members actually gave up their seats to accommodate them. Now that’s true servanthood! I bragged on the members when I spoke that morning.
6. “You will need to step over these people to get to your seat.” No! Please request those seated to move to the center. It’s a church worship service, not a movie theater.
7. “That’s not the way we do it here.” Of course, you can’t have a worship service where any behavior is acceptable. Most of the time, however, the varieties of worship expressions are absolutely fine. I heard from a lay leader recently who witnessed that sentence spoken to a guest who raised her hand during the worship music. She never returned. What a surprise.
8. “You don’t look like you are a member here.” Perhaps when this sentence was spoken, the church member meant to convey, “Are you visiting us?” But to the guest it sounded like, “You don’t belong at this place.”
9. “Have you considered attending the church down the street?” I’m not kidding. Someone shared that comment with me on social media. She was new in town and was visiting churches. She had no idea why the man in the church said that to her, but she never returned to the church.
10. “The nursery is real full.” To the young parent, this sentence is interpreted one of two ways: “There is not enough room for your child” or “Your child probably won’t get good care."

Worship that proceeds from the heart must be informed by the mind. That's why on Sundays at Sovereign Grace Church, we choose songs according to a pattern used throughout church history:

Adoration
Confession
Assurance of Pardon
Thanksgiving
Celebration

The song content has a gospel shape, reminding us of the regular pattern by which we first experience God in conversion and how we continue to experience Him in worship. It's not rote and there is always room to be flexible, but we want to be thoughtful and reverent as we approach our awe-inspiring God.

This Sunday, we will teach you a new song of confession: Our Only Hope is You. You can hear the song by clicking play on the video below. Come ready to sing about the sure hope we have in our Savior!

VERSE 1   
Our mouths were open graves
Full of broken vows we made
Our hearts ran wild
Our tongues could not be tamed

VERSE 2   
What darkness had concealed
Your law has now revealed
Our guilt was great
Our bitter fate was sealed

CHORUS 1    
Our only hope
Our only hope is You, Lord
Our only hope 
Our only hope is You

VERSE 3   
Though hypocrites and fools
You draw us to the truth
For Your own glory
You make all things new

CHORUS 2    
Our only hope
Our only hope is You, Lord
Our only hope 
Our only hope is You, Lord

BRIDGE    
The bridges we had burned You have restored
You gave us hope when there was none before
You paid the debt that we could not afford
And cast away our guilt forevermore

VERSE 4   
So, when our days are through
Our hope will rest in You    
For we can trust 
Your promises are true

"But We Had Hoped" 

Luke 24:13-35, 44-47

Steve Shank, Western U.S. Regional Leader for our denomination, is with us this weekend.

He has been a friend of our church since the very beginning and we are eager to introduce him to you.

This would be a great Sunday to come learn what it means to be part of something bigger than 1 local church.

We originally moved here from Washington D.C. for a 3-4 month work assignment. We planned to explore California, complete my work, and return home. However, 3 months became 6. 6 months became 12. And now, 18 months, 2 kids, and 1 incredible church later, we stand before you amazed.

We are humbled and grateful to God.

Our church back in D.C. was an excellent one, and as we began our search for a place to worship during our time in California, our hopes of finding a good church were tempered by the idea that we probably wouldn't find a body we enjoyed quite as much. We could not have been more wrong.

Our experience from day one was like many of yours. The doctrine was sound, the teaching was excellent and gospel-centered, but what knocked our socks off was the honesty with which this church loves people.

Your love for us was immediate and without conditions.

One visit and we had people ready to bring us meals and help us with the birth of our first child. We hadn’t made any commitments to you. We weren't settled on making you our new church. Apparently that didn’t matter. You saw a couple far from family and friends and met our needs.

Since then we have seen you do this over and over and over again. You invest your lives in people with no strings attached. We've learned from the humility with which you serve, often sacrificing for those who are in no position to return the favor. It's caused us to grow closer to Jesus.

Keep doing this.

We’re so grateful to join you in this shared life and ministry.  We want to partner with you and serve with you for Jesus.

This past Sunday we celebrated our newest church members. They are gifts from God to us, people who will enrich our lives and make us a stronger. May Jesus be glorified as we love one another as the family of God.

From left to right:

Ashely and Dominic (with Harrison)

Whitney and Luke (engaged)

Rachael and Peter (with Piper and Reagan)

Tanner

Kara

Miguel

Rosario

Jerry