Every Tuesday we publish a blog post to lay out in one place what’s going in the life of the church for the upcoming week. Below we’ve got a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
Basketball in the Park
6:00pm - El Camino Park
Reach out to Manny for more info
Sunday Gathering at the Ebell Club
10:00am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
Carols in the Park
6:00pm- French Park Grass Area
Invite your neighbors with the digital flyer
Registration for the 2026 RELAY Conference is still open! This year’s theme is The Church: The Dearest Place on Earth.
If you’re a young adult (age 16-30), we encourage you to attend the 3rd-annual RELAY Conference taking place in Glen Mills, PA, January, 5-7. You’ll be encouraged to live for the glory of Christ. You’ll be inspired to make your own and carry forward the doctrine, values, and mission that we hold so dear as Sovereign Grace Churches. You’ll experience a rich time of teaching, singing, and relational building designed to strengthen us for decades to come. Whether you’re new to our family of churches or you’ve been around a while, don’t miss this opportunity get to enjoy what God is doing among us and form relationships with brothers and sisters dedicated to the same mission across the globe!
Planning on attending? RSVP with Pastor Jeff.
In Exodus 5, Moses arrives in Egypt, marches into Pharaoh's palace, and says "Let my people go." The time for salvation has come! The people are ready to be delivered! The mumbling, reluctant, former shepherd of Midian finally obeys God’s call…and it all seems to backfire. Pharaoh responds to the request for the Israel’s freedom by laying even heavier burdens upon them. The work gets harder. Their treatment becomes harsher. And they seem more enslaved than ever! So why does God write the story this way? Why in Exodus 5 and in the stories of our lives do things get worse before they get better? As we follow God’s call and obey God’s will things often become messier, more complex, and more difficult than they were before. Causing us to cry out, “O Lord, why?” “Why is it so hard?” “Why did I ever bother with this?” But God writes the story this way to show us more grace. To prove to us time and time again that where sin, difficulty, trouble, and all kinds of evil abound, grace really does abound all the more.
Celebrate the joy and wonder of the Christmas season with us at Cross of Grace Church! This December, we invite you to join us for Christmas Carols in the Park and our traditional Candlelight Christmas Eve Service as we gather in song, community, and worship to experience the true hope of Christmas together.
All are welcome to join in these special moments of rejoicing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Invite whoever you’re spending Christmas with to come along as we share in the joy that Jesus was born to bring! We’ve got 2 opportunities for your friends, family, and neighbors to participate in the celebration:
Carols in the Park, 12/14 - 6pm in French Park
Share the digital flyer
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, 12/24 - 5pm at the Ebell Club
Share the digital flyer
Every six months, we hold a members’ meeting after service which usually lasts about 30-40 minutes. This meeting is mandatory for all members, but guests are welcome as well. It’s a time to communicate what we wouldn’t communicate on a typical Sunday morning. We’ll look back on what God has graciously done in the last 6 months and look forward to where he’s taking us in 2026. Come eager to hear what God is up to in our church.
Every Tuesday we publish a blog post to lay out in one place what’s going in the life of the church for the upcoming week. Below we’ve got a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
Basketball in the Park
6:00pm - El Camino Park
Reach out to Manny for more info
Sunday Gathering at the Ebell Club
10:00am - Meeting Room: Ballroom
Member’s Meeting
12:00pm- Ebell Club
In the world of agriculture, soil must remain “fallow” once every few years to maintain its fertility for years to come. To lie fallow is to lie unplowed and unplanted for a time in order for nutrients to be restored. In the month of December, we let our church calendar lie fallow. Taking a rest now for the sake of a greater harvest to come.
We cancel everything aside from our Sunday gatherings and special Christmas events. Why? Not so that you can pull away from the life of the church, but instead to press into natural and more intimate opportunities to relate to your church family and neighbors. The holiday season is notoriously one of the busiest times of the year. We want to help you to take advantage of the few free moments you have to spend unhurried, unscheduled time with one another and with family for the grand purpose of allowing your heart to be refreshed by the work of Christ, fellowship with the saints, and cultivating friendships with unbelieving neighbors.
Regular Sunday Services
Carols in the Park, 12/14 - 6pm in French Park
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, 12/24 - 5pm at the Ebell Club
If you have any questions about church events, check out the church calendar. It’s kept up to date to reflect changes to meetings or events.
Subscribe to the church calendar here.
This year as the pastors and wives of Sovereign Grace Churches gathered for our annual conference, we were well-served by faithful, joyful, and timely gospel preaching. Your pastoral team encourages you to listen to all 4 of these main sessions, and take some time to explore all the resources available. They’ll bless your soul, build you up, and fuel your faith to live for the glory of Christ.
All the messages are rich, but if we had to pick just one, we’d encourage you to listen to The Pastor as Biblical Counselor by Josh Blount. A message that will equip all of us - not just pastors - to counsel one another, speak about every situation like God is in the mix, and serve our neighbors in the midst of our current cultural moment. A moment in which we’re in the thick of “a war of words,” and “a battle over identity.”
Oftentimes in stories, the journey is just as important, if not more important than the destination. Now, when it comes to the story of Exodus, the destination is pretty important! This thing is going somewhere! It’s not just about Moses finding himself along the way. God’s salvation is breaking into the world! That said, in stories, in Scripture, and in life - journeys matter. They are meant to teach us, shape us, and prepare us for the destination we’re headed toward. In Exodus 4:18-31, Moses’ journey back to Egypt is purposeful and preparatory for what he’ll experience in Egypt. It helps to shape our stories as well. Teaching us to finish well as we move from one chapter to another, to put God's promises in our pocket and take them with us as we go, to be faithful even in the littlest of things, and, most importantly, to worship even while we're waiting to get to where we’re going.
This Sunday marks the start of the Advent season! A time of year in which the Church has historically celebrated the “advent” or coming of Christ. Looking backward to his humble birth & forward to his glorious return. Over the next 4 Sundays, we’ll remember and anticipate as we worship the One who came from heaven to earth and is coming back to usher in a new heavens and earth.
Get ready to celebrate the Savior as we sing well-loved songs, enjoy a season of rest and festivity, enjoy events like Carols in the Park, and top it all off with a traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service.
As we prepare our hearts to enter into this time which is so full of so many wonderful things, would we prioritize the most wonderful of them all: Jesus Christ who was born for us. Prioritize the Christ of Christmas this season and prepare your heart to celebrate his birth by:
Studying the birth of Christ - As an individual or a family. Open up God’s word, study the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, walk through a Christmas devotional as you count down the days to Christmas, light candles around an Advent wreath, and fix your hearts and minds on Christ. Here are a few suggested resources:
Children
Prepare Him Room by Marty Machowski
Promises Made Promises Kept by Marty Machowski
Adult Devotionals
Christ Our Glory by Sovereign Grace pastor, Jon Payne
God With Us: Reflections on the Incarnation by Charles Spurgeon
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus by Nancy Guthrie
A Weary World Rejoices by Melissa Kruger
Singing the birth of Christ - Not just on Sunday mornings, but throughout the entire season! Fill your mind and heart with songs that celebrate the coming of Christ and sharpen your affections for him. Add the following to your Christmas mix:
Heaven Has Come by Sovereign Grace Music
Prepare Him Room by Sovereign Grace Music
Spending time with brothers and sisters in Christ - This Christmas season, prioritize Christ by prioritizing his people. Take advantage of our December “Fallow Month” by prioritizing fellowship with one another in the church. Use the times during the week we’d normally meet as a church to: participate in seasonal festivities in DTSA, have a game night, host another family for dinner, or do whatever you enjoy with other members in the church.
Sharing the good news of the birth of Christ - Make your joy in Christ more full by sharing it with others. Pray for opportunities to share the good news of Christ’s birth with those in your life who have yet to receive him this Christmas season. Plan on inviting your friends, families, and neighbors to our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service at 5pm on 12/24.
We can’t make too big a deal of what’s bound up in our Advent celebration. We can’t exhaust the riches of God’s grace in giving us his Son. We can’t plumb the depth of the wonder that heaven came down for sinners like us. We agree with the words of Charles Spurgeon and carry them into our time of celebration:
“It is an astonishing thing that there should have been a Christ at all: the Incarnation is the miracle of miracles; that he who is Infinite should become an infant, that he who made the worlds should be wrapt in swaddling bands, remains a fact out of which, as from a hive, new wonders continually fly forth.”
