Being a musician in our church is a delight. There's nothing more rewarding than leading people in song who love to sing. And Sovereign Grace Church loves to sing.

We make music for the glory of God.
We make musicians who glorify God.

Our aim on the worship team is to make musicians who exhibit "undistracting excellence" as they offer their talents to bring God glory and build His church. Musicians who get maximum joy when they hear God's people sing.

If you have musical talent, we want to hear from you.

If you are a member or a regular attender pursuing membership, fill out the form below and we will be in touch about having you audition for the team. The commitment is for 1 year beginning in September.

*The deadline to sign-up is August 17th, so please fill out the form ASAP.

"It doesn't do any good to be stricter than God!"

Our study through Romans has brought us to a famous section in chapters 14-15 on how to deal with disagreements between Christians. Some Christians understand that they are free in Christ to do all sorts of things. Some feel bound by their conscience to restrict themselves. This makes for clashes.

For those who want to dive deeper into this issue, the Pastoral Team recommends the book Conscience: What It Is, How To Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ. This book will help you understand what your conscience is, why God has given it to you, and how to relate to other Christians whose consciences are different than yours.

Below is a sampling of some of the best quotes from the book:

"A church that thinks it has gotten beyond last generation’s debates over music and wine will find that this generation’s debates over recycling and child discipline are just as divisive."

"The conscience is your consciousness of what you believe is right and wrong."

"Only the cross can fill that ever-widening gap between your consciousness of what you ought to be and your actual obedience."

"Feeding excuses to your conscience is like feeding sleeping pills to a watchdog."

"A regular diet of Scripture will strengthen a weak conscience or restrain an overactive one."

THE FRONT DOOR OF OUR CHURCH

These days the front door of the church is online. People find us and engage with us on the internet before they ever set foot in a service. Much of our communication as a community takes place online as well (like what you're reading right now). As a church, we need to be good stewards of our online presence for the glory of God and good of the church.

JULIA IS HELPING US TELL OUR STORY

Julia and her husband Jon have been members for a few years and already serve in a variety of ways, including as small group leaders. Now, Julia has volunteered to manage Sovereign Grace Church's social media accounts. If you notice us posting more often and posting better stuff, it's a direct result of Julia's influence. We are so grateful for her expertise and her labors.

THANK YOU JULIA!

Join us in fasting on the first Friday of every month in 2018. Church members who fast for all 12 Fridays will be invited to a year-end party to celebrate the answers to our prayers.

If fasting is new to you, here are some instructions.

SUNDAY MORNINGS

Our prayer focus for August is our Sunday morning services. The importance of these 52 meetings each year cannot be overstated. We need God to meet us every time we meet.

• Pray that our church would look to these meetings with eager anticipation because they are experiencing God's goodness, presence, and care as we gather.
• Pray that God would give the pastors wisdom as they plan and lead our services.
• Pray that the many volunteers -- setup/teardown, musicians, children's ministry, hospitality, greeting -- would be blessed and strengthened in their service.
• Pray that God would use our preaching of the gospel to refresh the church and gather the lost.
• Pray for our preachers -- our pastors, members, and guests -- that they would declare God's word boldly and clearly for our good.
• Pray for the work of the Spirit to be evident in our meetings.
• Pray for our singing to continue to be gospel-centered, God-centered, joyful, and loud.
• Pray for those who are struggling to attend regularly, that God would work in their hearts and their circumstances to enable them to join us.

On Sunday we heard from Chris and Wendy. Our church started in their living room. After a few years away they are back. And we are very glad. 

Here's what they shared:

Good morning church. Our names are Chris and Wendy. We've been part of this church for 8 years, although not consecutively. We were asked if we would share a little about this journey we're calling “There and Back Again.”

Our involvement with the church began when we joined a small group of people in the fall of 2006 to go through a study called The Peacemaker. By God's amazing grace and through a sequence of events that only He could orchestrate, this church, Sovereign Grace Orange, grew out of that small group, and for that we are very grateful.

We were active members here until the summer of 2014, when - after 7 ½ years of building relationships, serving, being reminded of the gospel and being encouraged in our faith - we made a decision to attend a larger church with a more established youth ministry which our youngest son desired to be involved in.

Even though we expected to only be there for a season, we knew we needed to get involved so we did. Out of a group of 15 strangers, God knit together a small group not of strangers, but friends. We were also blessed to become part of an after-school tutoring ministry in Santa Ana. Our son, Zach, was involved in a small group and one of the friends he made ended up being his roommate his first year at college. God's kindness displayed.

So our son did go off to college and we felt our time at Mariners was coming to a close. After 3 ½ years of being away, we remembered the community and fellowship we had at Sovereign Grace - there's no place like home so here we are, back again. While we were gone, we were blessed to have Pastor Eric check in with us every now and then. We've been blessed by a small group that welcomed us back like we had just been away at college. We are blessed by relationships that can pick right up where we left off. Truly we have been blessed and we are grateful for God's kindness to us in Christ.

SUPPORTING THOSE WHO MAKE SACRIFICES

On Saturday, volunteers from Sovereign Grace Church hosted a BBQ for foster and adoptive families from Olive Crest. These families are making huge sacrifices to care for children in our neighborhoods who need a stable and loving home. They are doing it for the glory of God. We wanted to bless them for doing it.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOLUNTEERS

You could've been doing anything else on a Saturday, but you chose to serve. God is bearing fruit in your lives. Thank you for making Him look good.

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO DYLAN FOR LEADING

Dylan made this happen. He connected with Olive Crest. He planned. He recruited. We are grateful for his leadership.

GOD IS SAVING PEOPLE IN SANTA ANA

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.

PRAY THAT THIS WOULD ONLY BE THE BEGINNING

For God's Sake

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?"

Listen to the sermon.