“There’s more to personal ministry and fellowship than talk.”
Guest speaker and biblical counselor Andy Farmer is joining us for the evening. We are providing childcare and light refreshments.
Be there for God. Be there for your friends. Be there for your own growth in godliness.
This summer we are partnering with Lord’s Grace Church of Seoul, South Korea and Grace Church of Clarksburg, Maryland for a short-term ministry opportunity. You will build relationships with our Korean brothers and sisters, serve them during their annual Family Camp, and even have a couple days to explore the area.
Here are the details:
June 3-11, 2019
Cost: $1700 (includes airfare, lodging, and reasonable budget for food)
Deadline to commit and purchase your plane ticket is Sunday 3/10/2019
To support this opportunity, the church is offering four $500 grants that will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. But you’ll have to act quickly.
On Sunday Pastor Eric mentioned resources for further study on the discussion surrounding the ‘days’ of Genesis 1 & 2. Here they are:
If after reading these articles you still aren’t sure what to think, then you’re in good company:
“When people ask me how old the earth is, I tell them I don’t know—because I don’t.”
-RC Sproul
On Sunday we said goodbye to Derek and Roxann and their two boys, Ezra and Asher. This is part of church life. We have to be just as good at sending people off as we are at welcoming them.
Derek shared about the ways God has used your lives and ministry to impact his family. Here’s what he said:
My wife, Roxann, and I and our two sons Ezra and Asher are so blessed to be here to share our time and experiences during our 2 year stretch at this wonderful church.
We moved down to Anaheim from the inland empire about 2 years back as my work brought us to the area. We prayerfully asked the Lord to plug us into a solid community of believers for his purposes and our joy. We visited a church very close to our home, then Sovereign Frace next which was a bit further but much closer to home so to speak. Right away we were immersed with the family-style welcoming we see in the scriptures. Good ol’ Deacon Dave, who incidentally keeps the books for my company now and showed me how no to do accounting, greeted us with warmth after the first service we attended and after our second service we were convinced this is where God wanted us to be.
We discovered that Sovereign Grace of Orange was doing big things for the kingdom. Santa Ana church plant on the horizon, solid doctrinally-sound expositional preaching and teaching....great worship team with wonderful music, fell in love with the culture, and we were excited to be a part of this body of believers.
We were 1 kid deep at the time with one on the way and in need of the safe haven of a good church and by God’s good grace he blessed us here in immeasurable ways. We're so grateful for his mercy. We plugged into our small group and He surrounded us with a community that loved him. I met with Lucas on a few of occasions and received loving pastoral care and made great friends along the way. Relationships that we're so grateful for. Truly this is what a healthy body looks like.
As New Mexico natives our journey in southern California was one that was intended to be temporary and by God’s good grace he is fulfilling his plans for us to head back home. We've made wonderful connections here and we love you all as our fellow sojourners and look forward to an eternity of glory together with Him. We intend on fulfilling our membership commitment of joining a Bible-believing local church back home and will miss this place and miss you all. We're grateful to have a church home here and plan to visit very soon.
Thank you very much for being our brothers and sisters in Christ, I encourage you all to continue loving one another and welcoming new people into the fold as you had so graciously with us. May God continue to bless Sovereign Grace of Orange with love for one another, new additions to the church, and continued praise and honor of our precious savior the Lord Jesus.
Our friend and partner, Dave Taylor, is inviting you to learn more about our brothers and sisters doing ministry in other parts of the world.
The monthly Emerging Nations newsletter will provide you with updates and prayer requests. Let your faith be strengthened as you watch the gospel progress in other countries.
On Sunday Pastor Eric preached from Genesis 1:2-31. What do we believe about the genesis of the cosmos? Were the days of creation literal or metaphorical? Is the earth billions or thousands of years old? There’s room in our hearts and on our bookshelves for different answers to these questions. Here’s what we must believe: God created all of it from nothing, He delights in everything, and He invests His very likeness into mankind.
We scratched the “10” because why bother limiting it to 10?
Guest speaker and biblical counselor Andy Farmer is joining us for the evening. We are providing childcare and light refreshments.
Be there for God. Be there for your friends. Be there for your own growth in godliness.
Small Groups are not one ministry in the life of our church, they are the ministry. Like breathing, these groups provide oxygen to our relationships with one another. They facilitate discipleship. They provide a context for us to help one another become more like Jesus.
We’ve begun a short series on the question, “Why small groups?” This is the next installment.
Small groups are the perfect place to make new people a part of your life.
Healthy small groups, filled with people experiencing the sweetness of biblical fellowship, have an outward impulse. As much as they love their group, they can’t help but want others to join in on it.
This means sacrifice. It means inviting new people into your group, into your life, and into your heart. Everybody would love to join a group and have that group be the same for the next 30 years. No major changes. Nobody coming and nobody going.
But fellowship that doesn’t overflow to others, isn’t true fellowship. We must avoid becoming ingrown.
Christianity grows. It moves toward the fringes. The gospel drives us toward the outcasts to make them part of the family.
Our hearts should be filled with love for our fellow small group members while keeping plenty of room for new people.