This week, we will be having our monthly Prayer & Praise Night in lieu of Life Groups.
When: 7:30PM, Wed 28 Feb for a 7.45pm start
Where: Iron St Hall (27 Iron St, North Parramatta)
We will be spending our time in worship through song and in corporate prayer. All are welcome to this event - wherever you may be in your prayer life! We look forward to seeing you there!
As part of our church’s vision to know, apply and proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be running a few Saturday morning teaching sessions to equip us in applying the Gospel through different seasons of life.
The first of these will be on Gospel Centered Parenting and is coming up THIS SATURDAY, the 2nd of March. This event is open to all and will be held at the Iron St Hall.
If you are interested in attending, it’s not too late to RSVP: admin@sgparra.org.au.
(We are hoping to provide some child-minding for those who are unable to find a sitter for the morning. If this is you, please let us know in your RSVP. Thankyou!)
This year, we will be holding an SG Aus Women’s Conferences for our family of churches here in Australia!
There will be more details to come, but for now, please save these dates in your calendars!
SG Aus Women’s Conference:
Friday Evening 3rd May - All Day Saturday 4th May
We have the privilege of having Trish Donohue (from Covenant Fellowship Church in Philadelphia) coming out to teach us at this event!
If you are interested in helping out at this event, please contact Rebs (admin@sgparra.org.au).
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:
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.
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!
If you’re interested in getting baptised, we will be holding a class this Sunday, 3 March at 9am at church before the service. This will be an opportunity for you to find out more about what we believe the Bible says about baptism and why it is a significant moment in the life of a Christian.
If you’d like to sign up for the class, please contact Riley at rs@sgparra.org.au.
A message from the Deacon Team:
Further to what Daven shared at Envision, we believe God has gifted our church with the skills, capacity and love to meet one another's various needs. SG Parra is gathering a pool of volunteers we deacons can ask for help with urgent or specific needs within our church (mostly short-term/one-off).
So if you have gifts (you do!) and a little bit of capacity you'd like to invest into people in need, please speak with your Life Group Leader to express your interest.
Fear not: You aren't signing your life away: we will only ever ask you to serve within your *actual capacity*! God is ultimately the one who carries his People. Thank you for the way you already serve so faithfully!
Gal 6:9–10 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
As part of our church’s vision to know, apply and proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be running a few Saturday morning teaching sessions to equip us in applying the Gospel through different seasons of life.
The first of these will be on Gospel Centered Parenting and is coming up on the 2nd of March. This event is open to all and will be held at the Iron St Hall.
If you are interested in attending, please save the date and RSVP to admin@sgparra.org.au.
(We are hoping to provide some child-minding for those who are unable to find a sitter for the morning. If this is you, please let us know in your RSVP. Thankyou!)
In the lead up to Easter this year, we will be heading out to Doyle Park each Sunday after church to do some walk-up evangelism.
This is open to everyone - the more the merrier!
Date: Every Sunday starting 10 March
Time: 2-3PM
Location: Doyle Park (12 Buller St, North Parramatta NSW 2151)
Please speak to Richard Song (richard@sgparra.org.au) if you are interested.
If you’re interested in getting baptised, we will be holding a class on Sunday 3 March at 9am at church before the service. This will be an opportunity for you to find out more about what we believe the Bible says about baptism and why it is a significant moment in the life of a Christian.
If you’d like to sign up for the class, please contact Riley at rs@sgparra.org.au.
It’s Ladies Growth Groups this week! Your LG leader will have all the details you need.