Listen to this brief message to our church regarding how we can love the Lord, our Santa Ana neighbors and your neighbors wherever you are during the riots and protests in our city.
Last week we announced that our regularly scheduled mid week programs would begin meeting in person again, following careful guidelines to ensure the health of all attendees. These meetings will occur outdoors until further notice, with 6 feet of social distance between each member present, masks required and in observance of CA Guidelines. Childcare will not be provided.
We have seating spaced out for families, hand sanitizer available and masks available for those that don’t have one. If you are not quite comfortable joining us in person yet, we will have a “Zoom In” option available for all.
If you have any questions or concerns about small groups or need an address, please send an email to office@sovgracesantaana.org.
After months plumbing the depths of truth and grace contained in the pages of Paul’s first letter to the church in Thesslonica, we encountered his final words to the church. These last four verses reflect Paul’s friendship toward these brothers and sisters and teach us something about a subject very infrequently taught in churches - Christian friendship. We find that Christians should be the best kind of friends, because we’ve been befriended by the very best Friend Himself.
Listen to this week’s sermon here.
There will be no all-church Zoom Call this Friday evening since it is the 5th Friday on the month. We encourage you to spend tonight perhaps having a Zoom or socially distanced dinner with another family or spend time together as a family.
We will see you on Facebook Livestream this Sunday at 10:30am!
On Tuesday we announced that out regularly scheduled mid week programs would begin meeting in person again, following careful guidelines to ensure the health of all attendees. The meetings will occur outdoors until further notice, with 6 feet of social distance between each member present, masks required and in observance of CA Guidelines. Childcare will not be provided.
If you have any questions about this meeting or need the address, please email krista@sovgracesantaana.org
Thank you for responding and sending them. We’re so used to knowing one another’s needs through experiencing regular fellowship. We talk to one another on Sunday morning. We share life together at small group. We host one another in our homes. We can’t do any of that right now. It’s important to know, however, how to pray for one another and to ask the Lord to guide us, sustain us and encourage us each individually in this season. Here are the prayer requests from this past week (anonymity is maintained):
Pray for wisdom for pastors and leaders in our church and our sister churches as they move forward with making decisions about meeting based on Govenor Newsom’s Monday announcement .
Continue to pray for wisdom and godly motivation for our federal, state and local leaders as they continue to work together to determine the best way forward.
Continue to pray for first responders and essential services workers.
Continue to pray for little Simon as he continues to battle cancer and prepares for the next steps of treatment.
Praise God for providing work for Seth after time spent interviewing and finding the right fit.
Pray for the Houlton family as they prepare to bring a little one into their home on Monday.
Pray for the requests of individuals who have shared them on our church Slack prayer channel. If you have questions about how to be added to this, email office@sovgracesantaana.org
KEEP SENDING PRAYER REQUESTS TO PRAYERS@SOVGRACESANTAANA.ORG.
Yesterday, May 25, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that churches may resume gatherings, provided that gatherings do not exceed 25% of a building’s capacity or a maximum of 100 people. This order, however, comes with detailed, stringent and extensive health and safety guidelines. Since we are eager to be together again, will be meeting in a new venue, learning how to apply and execute these guidelines and considering the safety and health of church members and neighbors, we’ll resume in-person midweek meetings immediately, yet follow a phased approach to resuming our in-person Sunday gatherings. This is due, in part, to the fact that Governor Newsom and the state of California will be reviewing the order to open churches on June 15 and may, in fact repeal the order if the evidence shows that infections are spiking. Thus, the following is Sovereign Grace Church of Santa Ana’s current reopening plan:
Effective immediately, regularly-scheduled mens, womens and small group meetings will begin meeting in person. These meetings will occur outdoors until further notice, with 6 feet of social distance between each member present and in observance of CA Guidelines. Childcare will not be provided.
Sunday, May 31: Final “Living Room” Livestream
Our final livestream at the Houlton Home as we conclude our series in 1 Thessalonians series. This decision has been made so as not to “jump the gun”; we want to maintain the impression with our neighbors that we’re concerned for their health.
Since gathering for worship is now allowed however, if you do choose to gather with one or two families from the church to watch the service together at someone’s home, please be mindful of and observe the California Guidelines set in place.
6/7: Livestream From The Ebell - Public Worship Team and Team Leads Only
This will be our first Sunday in the Ebell Club of Santa Ana, yet it will still be live-streamed. All Sunday team leads will be on-site (7-10 people total), however, to learn about Sunday setup in the new venue and about implementation of the extensive measures needed to implement CA Guidelines. Again, if you watch the service with one or two other families from the church, please observe the guidelines.
6/14: “Training Sunday” - Livestream From The Ebell With All Sunday Teams
While this service will again be live-streamed from the Ebell, all Sunday Team members (15-20 people total) will be invited to join in person for the sake of training on implementation of CA Guidelines. Again, if you’re not a member of a Sunday team and choose to watch the service with one or two other families from the church, please observe the guidelines.
6/21: “Reunion” Sunday - Our First Full In-Person Service
Oh joyous day.
This will be our first completely open, everybody is invited, in-person Sunday service. All Sunday team members will be trained and equipped to ensure that our gathering is as safe as possible. What a delight this will be to finally be together and to do so with confidence that we’re able to do so safely and compassionately.
Please submit any questions or concerns to kyle@sovgracesantaana.org and continue to pray for your leaders as we seek to hold in balance the preciousness of our meetings, the health of our neighbors, our submission to governing authorities, all while seeking to honor our Lord.
God will do what you can’t to get you to where you want to be. While you and I are called to follow the directives of 1 Thess. 5:12-22 with vigor and sincerity, at the end of the day, no amount of obedience will get us to the end. Only God, working by His Spirit, through the finished work of His Son, will bring us to the end. Our ultimate hope is in Him. And 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 poignantly reminds us of this. Listen to this last Sunday’s sermon from Christopher Erkelens to learn how God secures us until the end.
Listen to this week’s sermon here.
Since this Friday is a fourth Friday, we’ll be gathering - all of us; the entire church! - on a Zoom call to share updates, pray with each other and have a bit of fun.
This week we’ll also be discussing our process for “reopening” as a church, so please make it a priority to join the call.
For security purposes, the Zoom link will no longer be publicly posted on the blog. If you need the call information, it will be made available on Slack or it can be acquired by emailing us at office@sovgracesantaana.org
During this time of quarantine, we wanted to find a way to continue to help you disciple and teach your children, so we launched our online Children’s ministry! For the past 5 weeks, we have been posting video lessons recorded by one of our volunteers and a parent resource guide to give you additional tools to use during the week.
If you are interested in joining our video teaching team, please send an email to Krista Alvarez at krista@sovgracesantaana.org.
