A Spirit of Love

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” —2 Timothy 1:7

It’s a new year, a fresh start, and a chance for new life in Jesus by living out his promises. Here at Saddleback, we’re always encouraging people to take their next step, whether that’s spiritual, relational, missional, or financial. It’s our desire to create an environment where we can grow as a church family and thrive no matter what stage we’re in our journey with Christ. 

That’s why nearly three years ago we launched Daring Faith—a church wide campaign to take mighty steps of faith. Taking a step of faith may seem impossible right now, especially with so much hopelessness in our broken world.

But it’s through these acts of faith that God brings all the pieces together. God's timing teaches us to wait patiently for the fulfillment of his promises. How do we recognize God’s timing? We have to wait for it! When God says, “Go,” we move into action. At that point, we have to take a step of faith and believe that God is working.

This month, God proved that he is working—in our lives, in our community, and in our church! Check out some of the ways he is working through YOUR Daring Faith.

F – Fill God's house with 40,000 worshipers at our weekend services by our 40th anniversary (2020).

Growth for Saddleback Buenos Aires, Corona, and South Manila

A key component to meeting the “F” goal is expanding our reach to new communities as we strive to advance God’s kingdom. This often means being fast, fluid, and flexible to change, even if that requires relocating campuses, upgrading facilities, or expanding locations.

Illustrating this are several of our campuses that are expanding facilities to reach more people for Christ. Saddleback Buenos Aires is currently moving forward with an aggressive Daring Faith expansion project to their existing building. Our Corona campus is upgrading their new facility during a three-phase process. Now, on a similar quest, Saddleback South Manila is actively looking to expand and secure more land. Click HERE to read about all these new Daring Faith projects and how you can help meet these goals!

A – Assist 250,000 needy people through our local PEACE Plan.

Irvine South PEACE Center Helps Struggling Families Become the Hero

Through Daring Faith, our Saddleback family has been working toward assisting people in need through Local PEACE. That’s why the PEACE Center at our Irvine South campus recently provided gifts, fellowship, refreshments, crafts, entertainment, and most of all, a bridge of love to connect struggling families to Jesus Christ and to our church.

Over 100 volunteers dedicated 342 volunteer hours to serve 220 people and 83 families. The lasting impact has resulted in several families returning to the Food Pantry and seeking a deeper connection with God. Click HERE to read how one woman’s heart for children in need impacted hundreds of lives.

I – Interconnect our growing fellowship through new technologies.

New Recording Studio for The Purpose Driven Podcast

In 2016, Purpose Driven Pastor, Mingo Palacios, started recording road-trip conversations with church leaders in the Purpose Driven RV bus. Within those fiberglass walls was born a vision to someday take the podcast to the next level, even if that meant leaving behind the studio-on-wheels. Through that dream came a new podcast studio recently built at Saddleback Rancho Capistrano.  

Constructed over a two-week period, the studio was an attempt to step back in time with deep conversations, and step forward in interconnecting through new technology. Click HERE to find out how the new studio has taken the podcast from a place of sharing conversations to a trusted source of encouragement.

T – Train 25% of our members to be global leaders in the church and ministry, in business and the community, and in the arts and media

Release of Heart of Leadership Small Group Study

To help meet the “T” goal, our church has developed training materials and courses to equip members for ministry. Among them are Foundations—a course on core spiritual truths starting January 25, as well as Doable Discipleship, a podcast on spiritual disciplines that has received 57,000 downloads within six months of launching.

This month, our Spiritual Maturity team also completed Heart of Leadership—Part 2 of the small group series, Leading Like Jesus. Born out of Daring Faith, the study is designed for every member of our church and is considered the primary funnel for leadership development. Click HERE to learn how you can get a free copy of Heart of Leadership that speaks into the four elements necessary to lead like Christ.

H - Help take the Good News to the last 3,000 unreached tribes on earth.

PEACE Leader Training Equips Mission Leaders

In an effort to take the Good News to the last unreached tribes, nearly 40 delegates attended Saddleback’s PEACE Leader Training at our Rancho Capistrano Retreat Center. Held from January 16-18, the event equipped mission leaders in the full implementation of The PEACE Plan in and through their churches. Click HERE to read how this four-step process is changing the world, one church at a time.

Purpose Driven Church East Coast Road Trip

Members from the Purpose Driven team recently hit the road to connect with PD pastors on the East Coast. Covering four states in four days, their goal was to encourage churches that had expressed interest in partnering with African countries. You won’t believe the results! Click HERE to find out how this speedy road trip led to several church leaders committing to build Purpose Driven nations.

As we look forward to what God will do in 2018, let’s finish strong in Daring Faith. Thank you for blessing this church, serving our community, and having the compassion to see and respond to the needs of others. Your faithfulness has already helped us make tremendous progress towards our five F.A.I.T.H. goals!

To start giving to Daring Faith, make changes to your commitment, or simply learn more about how Saddleback is making a difference around the world, visit saddleback.com/daringfaith.