A book about Christian living.

Join us as we read 12 books in 12 months.  This month we are reading a book about Christian living. Here are a few recommendations:

Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions In The Christian Life by Brian S. Borgman

Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach To Finding God's Will by Kevin DeYoung

God At Work: Your Christian Vocation In All Of Life by Gene Edward Veith Jr.

Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges

Young readers might enjoy Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris (Forward by Chuck Norris!)

We want to make an investment in you.

We are offering every adult member of our church a FREE ACCOUNT with Covenant Eyes. We will pay the bill if you will use the service.

Covenant Eyes is an internet accountability service. It monitors your usage and sends reports to someone you trust. It makes it easy to invite your friends and family into your digital world.

You pick your accountability partners.

The church pays the fee.

Why are we doing this? Because we want to pursue purity within our church. Not everyone needs a service like this and Covenant Eyes is definitely not the end-all solution to every internet problem. You may not even be experiencing any problems. That's fine. Don't sign up. Praise God!

However, many people find the anonymous nature of the internet a source of temptation. They struggle with laziness, unhelpful speech, coveting the lives of others, and lust. The list goes on. Covenant Eyes is one small way you can invite others into your life online.

Why are we doing this? Because we are committed to equipping you to live your digital life for the glory of God. Don't be a lone-ranger when it comes to the online world. Buddy up and live your life in community.

Learn more and sign up today.

This Sunday we continued our sermon series through 1 Corinthians, addressing the mandate given to the church in Chapter 5 to "purge the evil person from among you."

Working from our official statement on church discipline, Pastor Eric said that this has nothing to do with “shunning” a person. It involves first confronting in love and gentleness and then, if unsuccessful, withholding fellowship. It is not rejection of a relationship but a change in the nature of a relationship.

If a person under discipline is not factious or disruptive or a harmful influence, he is welcomed to attend all church meetings that are open to unbelievers with the exception of small groups that meet for the purpose of fellowship.

Once the church leadership makes a sin publicly known, they commit as well to inform the church of repentance and restoration to fellowship as appropriate to the situation and the good of the church.

Read the entire statement here.

Listen to the sermon here.

If you watch closely, you'll see Nate Stiff from Redeeming Grace Church in Palm Desert. He led worship at our Sunday service a few weeks ago. Jonathan Baird from our sister church in Pasadena is also there.

A biography.

Looking for a good biography to read this month? Here are a few recommendations. And don't forget to register for our 2016 Book Reading Challenge here.

Spurgeon: A Biography by Arnold A. Dalimore

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland H. Bainton

Truman by David McCullough

Anne Bradstreet: The Guided Tour of the Life and Thought of a Puritan Poet by Heidi L. Nichols

Young readers might find the Christian Biographies for Young Readers series helpful.

The drive to be respected and well thought of by outsiders isn't new. And it's not all bad either. However, we must never forget that our message and our fellowship appear foolish to the world. We will never be the cool kids. We are christians.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

As Pastor Eric has been preaching through 1 Corinthians 1, he's referenced Hipster Christianity by Brett McCracken a few times. This is a great treatment of the topic and temptations we face as a church. And bonus points for all the research on a number of churches in Southern California.

"perhaps Christianity is hopelessly unhip, maybe even the anticool. What if it turns out that Christianity’s endurance comes from the fact that it is, has been, and continues to be the antithesis and antidote to the intoxicating and exhausting drive in our human nature for cool..."

Buy the book.

Here is the one must-see sermon from the 2015 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference.

"We must teach our churches not only how to rejoice together, but how to grieve together." CJ Mahaney

The doctrine of the trinity is the "governing center of all Christian belief" (Michael Reeves)