A message from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta:

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Dear Church, 

It's with great excitement and faith for our future that I present to you our Go Forward Fund (GFF) for 2024-2025.

Over the last four years we’ve run our Go Forward Fund, and your participation in it has been incredible! We’ve always been able to punch above our weight as a church, and so much ministry and mission has been done as a result, all for the glorious name of Christ. Thank you! 

We’re eager to continue with the Go Forward Fund this year, and we’re excited to see what the Lord wants to do in and through us again. So, on the 3rd March we’ll be taking up this year’s collection. Whether our pledges consist of one-off gifts or monthly commitments, the 3rd of March will be our big day to Go Forward.

There’s absolutely NO pressure to give to the GFF. We want to remind/inform you that it's an opportunity to give above and beyond on top of your usual tithes and offerings, but if your heart is stirred to do so, here’s what we’re going to be collecting for this year:

BUILDING LOCALLY

1. Church Planting

We're excited to be looking forward to sending out and planting another Sovereign Grace Church in Australia. As you know, it’s our hope that we can train up and send out Joel and Jamie Seric; they're a faith-filled, joyful, encouraging, and passionate couple. Nothing is definite in terms of timing or location (Blacktown?) but the next step in the journey is to get them ready for a lifetime of Pastoral ministry by sending them to Louisville, Kentucky, in the USA to our Sovereign Grace Churches Pastor’s College (https://sgcpastorscollege.com). This is where Maddie and I went and had the most transformative year of our lives. Truly. Over 10 months Joel will study under great pastor-theologians, and Jamie will be invested in by the wives program and their family will be immersed in a gospel-centered church led by CJ Mahaney, Bob Kauflin, Jeff Purswell and other great pastors. This is an awesome opportunity, one that I believe is worth the massive financial and life investment. Would you consider giving to help make this happen?

2. Future Leaders

It’s only because of the Future Leaders fund that we're in the position of having Joel and Richard train to be pastors. It's one of our great hopes and needs to invest in, raise up, and train future leaders within our church, and even to be looking out to how we can continue raising up and sending out future church plants. To do this, we need to be setting aside finances to cover wages, education, and fellowship experiences (like SG Pastors Conference) so that we raise up the next generation of not merely ‘leaders’ but Sovereign Grace Leaders who share our vision and values. Portions of this fund will be used to finalise Richard Song’s Pastoral Training, so that we can see him ordained and installed as our second elder at SG Parra, God willing.

HELPING GLOBALLY

3. Sovereign Grace Churches - Global Missions

Sovereign Grace Churches is our family of Churches. A family who partners together to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, seeking to fulfil our mission by planting and strengthening churches, training pastors, producing gospel-centered resources, and engaging in missions throughout the world. We’re presently enjoying playing our part of gospel work in over 40 different countries, including places like the USA, Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, UK, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Philippines, South Korea, Nepal, Thailand, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Liberia, Zambia, Sierra Leonne and India. It’s a big world out there and we’re definitely thrilled to play our part! Yet we have more gospel opportunities than we have the ability to fund.

That’s why we want to once again give to the global mission in our family of churches. Sovereign Grace has two churches in Australia because other churches gave so generously, and we at Sovereign Grace Parramatta now have the opportunity to play our part in the story of others across the globe, all for the glory of God.

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Friends, thank you for always considering opportunities to give so diligently and enthusiastically. I truly feel privileged and blessed to be a part of this church, and, as ever, I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in the hearts and lives of people as a result.

P.S. perhaps this is a good time consider again how you are stewarding the financial resources the Lord has blessed you with and to think how you can be giving generously and sacrificially, investing in heaven, and reaping spiritual fruit? This article from Chad Haygood from our SGC Journal may help you: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ee11731cf55ff4280d6d7c2/t/636162d280bd275cf853054b/1667326675012/6.+Generosity_Haygood.pdf

For Jesus, For Parra, For Each Other…and in light of the GFF, For the World!