This past weekend, many of us gathered with our sister churches Sovereign Grace Church of Orange and Sovereign Grace Church of Pasadena, for the 2022 Celebration California Retreat. We sang loudly, made new friends, enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation and listened to gospel-centered preaching.
Enjoy some pictures from the weekend! You can check out the full album here (special thanks to Karla Martinez for capturing great photos!).
By God’s grace and for God’s glory, Cross of Grace Santa Ana is turning FIVE years old! Because it would be inappropriate to respond to such grace without a celebration, we’re definitely throwing a party for this milestone anniversary!
Plan on heading over to the Houlton’s home after Sunday service for food and our 5th annual kickball game. Make sure to wear or bring some sort of active clothing. There will be activities for the kiddos, including a piñata! Invite your friends and neighbors.
This Friday, our small groups will be meeting for the first Friday in October. The Roenicke and Erkelens small groups will be meeting at their regular locations at 7pm.
The Houlton small group, however, will be taking the OC Rescue Mission Chili Van out into our city to share a meal - and the Gospel - with our homeless neighbors. They’re going into our city to speak to our city. If you’re not a member of the Houlton small group, but would like to join the Chili Van outreach this month, let your small group leader and Pastor Jeff know.
And as we ask God to make disciples through this outreach, we’re asking him to mature disciples through our small group meetings. As you prepare for Friday, whichever activity you’re engaging in, please pray for God to work among us and through us for His glory.
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. See below for a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
6:00pm - Chili Van Outreach (Houlton Small Group)
7:00 pm - Small Groups (Schlieder or Erkelens Home)
10:00 am - Meeting Room: Theater
Throughout our Mark Sermon series, we have explored some of the most important questions we can ask about Jesus, and we will continue to ask those important questions as the weeks progress into our series. This is why our October Book of the Month is a great compliment to our study in the book of Mark. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons to answer the all-important question: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die?
We will be giving you a copy of this book out for FREE this Sunday!
Celebration 2022 is here! As we prepare for the weekend, we invite you to pray with us. Specifically, you can pray for the following:
Ask God to deepen the relationships within our church and among our sister churches.
Ask God to bless us and change us as we sing and study together.
Ask God to use the Celebration Kids volunteers and curriculum to teach our children about Jesus.
We believe the Lord will meet us at Celebration. We’re expecting good things, and we’re excited that we get to experience it together. If you need a welcome packet, you can find it here. As a reminder, we will not have a Sunday Service at the Ebell Club on 10/2.
Of all the blessings we anticipate at Celebration 2022, we expect the singing to be a big one. It thrills and strengthens our souls to hear other saints singing to the same Savior as us. That happens every Sunday. But it will be even more special to sing with two other churches.
We’ve put together a Spotify playlist with all the songs the worship team will be drawing from this weekend. There are even a few new ones. So put this on and sing through the songs while you’re driving. It’ll be the perfect preparation for your heart and your vocal cords.
We’ll see you and sing with you in Idyllwild!
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. See below for a snapshot of what’s on the calendar this week:
Idyllwild, Ca
Idyllwild, Ca
Idyllwild, Ca
Sunday service will take place in Idyllwild, CA
In Mark 4:35-41, Jesus’ disciples tremble in fear and awe as they witness Jesus exert His power of nature itself. Until this point, Jesus was still a stranger to His disciples. They thought they knew and understood Him, but a moment of revelation makes them suddenly realize that the God of the universe very well may be with them in the boat. Is Jesus still a stranger to you? Do you tend to tremble in awe and fear at circumstances and the natural world instead of the Lord over nature? Listen to last Sunday's sermon to dive deeper into this incredible passage from the Gospel of Mark.
If you missed out on the Holy Spirit seminar at Sovereign Grace Orange, don’t worry. We’ve got everything you need to make you feel like you were there. You can find the notes and a summary of the seminar, along with the audio and video recordings below.
Pneumatology (i.e., the study of the Holy Spirit) is a vital aspect of the Christian faith. From one’s moment of salvation to one’s daily Christian walk, the Holy Spirit—and hence, our pneumatology—pervades all of life. We need to have an understanding of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we brought in Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology of Sovereign Grace Churches.
Jeff discussed our denomination’s beliefs on pneumatology and what these beliefs mean for our lives. One of the defining values of Sovereign Grace Churches is a continuationist pneumatology. You can read more about what that means by checking out our 7 shared values or reading our Statement of Faith on the Holy Spirit. Likewise, our understanding of the Holy Spirit affects how we live. For example, we don’t want a narrow pneumatology. We want our understanding to be robust, expectant, and defined by Scripture. We also don’t want an untethered pneumatology. We believe that the focus and aim of the Spirit’s work in the believer today is to exalt Christ, make Christ’s saving work effective in our lives, and make Christ’s presence an experienced and operative reality. Finally, we don’t want a neglected pneumatology. We want an intentional, conscious, and continual trust and dependence on the Holy Spirit. By learning more about the Holy Spirit and addressing these errors, we hope to know and experience the wonder and joy of the Spirit. To help do this, we’ve included a few resources below:
For those unable to attend, here’s the outline from the seminar.
The Mystery of the Holy Spirit by R.C. Sproul. In his discussion of the Spirit, Sproul makes deep theology accessible and shows you how to apply these truths to your life and the church. If you want to know more about the Spirit, this is a great place to start.
He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit by Graham Cole. If you really want to get into the weeds and you’re willing to put in the time, this detailed work will help you dive deep into a study of the Spirit.
If you’re looking for something shorter, try starting here for a few good resources on various aspects of the Spirit.
As always, if you’ve got questions, feel free to contact the church office to get in touch with a pastor. We’re here for you and want to help you however we can!
*Blog post excerpted from Sovereign Grace Church of Orange’s blog
