Life in the Church

Loving Our Neighbor, the third part in our vision statement, is something I have been encouraged to see our church grow in over the years....we have many members whose heart for the poor, the suffering, and the lost is an encouragement and an inspiration, like Jim Bastic.

Loving One Another, the second part of our vision statement, is an emphasis my family and I have been blessed by in big and small ways by the body of Christ at SGC over the years. Perhaps you have been too. But it's easy to forget when life gets busy or when we're struggling.

When Mark Prater preached on Gospel Growth a few weeks ago, he mentioned our church vision: Loving God, Loving One Another, Loving Our Neighbor. As Mark talked about our vision statement, I was filled with an intense reminder of how much this church means to me and why.

The college group (CG) is an outreach-focused small group within Sovereign Grace Church. We believe that as young men and women we are called to "go and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19).

Carl Trueman on the anonymous, faithful members of the body of Christ throughout the ages who make the church what it is.

Last week a few of us from SGC went to the SG Worship God East conference, Called to Be Faithful, with about a thousand other people from inside and outside of Sovereign Grace Ministries....The conference was a great time of instruction, fellowship, worship, and all the joys a 9-hour road trip can bring!

Michelle Alston wrote a testimony that wonderfully captures how God meets us in a variety of ways through the body of Christ. Sometimes that grace comes to us through a counselor, sometimes a patient friend, sometimes a friend who gives an afternoon to fix our car, and sometimes through singing hymns with our brothers and sisters in Christ. All of that is the body of Christ in action and the grace that comes from it!

Over the last months, and years, our youth leaders and pastors have been prayerfully considering changes to our youth ministries to make them more effective. This includes our Sunday children's ministry and our youth group(s). We believe we have found the will of the Lord for our church for the foreseeable future.

Clarifying a church vision is like carving a statue. You start with a huge block of stone and cut away all that doesn't belong to the final product. You trim away the excess, anything that prevents the statue from having all the lines and clarity you want. Finally, the statue is left, much smaller than the original block, but communicating much more at the same time.

I hope you have enjoyed the recent installation of Jermaine Powell’s painting of the communion elements in our church lobby. His talent needs no exposition: it is obvious and the painting speaks of it loudly....But we don’t incorporate art into our church life thoughtlessly. And there are more questions at stake than simply “does it look nice?”