Now, more than ever, we need to hear the call of Jesus: “Follow Me.”
Two thousand years ago, Jesus called a group of fishermen to be His first disciples. These men heard Jesus call them and responded by leaving everything else behind: “they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed Him” (Luke 5:11). The call of Jesus was radical, requiring a whole-life commitment, a change of identity, a total transformation of values and perspective. His call was to do something completely new, to be something completely different. Jesus said, “those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:33). The fishermen chose to follow, and their lives were changed forever.
Just like those first disciples, we hear the same radical call to surrender. We face the same decision. Jesus gives us the same offer He gave the fishermen: “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). When we become His disciples, Jesus creates a new heart in us and makes us become something special. The verse literally says He will make us become fishers of men. The call to follow is a call to make disciples. Jesus is assigning us a new mission: to bring His love to a world desperately in need of hope and healing for the glory of His name.
Jesus’ call to “Follow Me” intimidates some, but in reality, it should fill our hearts with encouragement because we know Jesus is leading the way forward. He leads us to become fishers of men. He leads us to those with broken hearts and broken relationships to bring healing and restoration. He leads us into crumbling neighborhoods and families, to build them up and make them strong. He leads us to the lost and least, to the forgotten and the hopeless. Jesus leads even into hardship and persecution, to the billions of people around the world lost in spiritual darkness, because to Jesus no price is too high to save them. He leads us forward in victory and strength. Jesus leads us, and He calls us to lead others to Him.
In this brochure, you will see The Grove’s 2022 vision to respond to Jesus’ call to “Follow Me.” We want to walk in His footsteps joyfully by bringing life and healing to all people—to those without homes or families in our community and beyond, to those all over the world who need God’s truth and His word. We want to be disciples and make disciples, inviting others to follow Jesus.
In this next year, may we follow Jesus more closely than ever before. May we experience His joy as we respond to His call to give up everything for His sake and become fishers of men!
Residency Program
As we enter a year focused on following Jesus, our heart is to equip leaders who will make disciples. This year, we will launch a new Residency Program for up-and-coming leaders. We will bring two “ministry residents” on staff at The Grove to be mentored, gain broad ministry experience, practice a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship, and spend time serving with a Global Partner in an international context. The goal of this program is to raise up new leaders with the skills and heart for a life of church planting, global outreach, or church revitalization work.
Path of Life
Path of Life Ministries rescues, restores, rebuilds, and redeems the least, last, and lost in our community every single day. As an operator of homeless shelters, there is a need for a truck to help families transition from the shelter to their new place of residence. The Grove will provide them a truck to help invest in families making a fresh start!
Riverside Life Services
Riverside Life Services (RLS), California Baptist University (CBU), and The Grove are coming together to preserve the life of the unborn. RLS is working to offer no-cost medical services to underserved women and families. CBU Nursing will assist with these free clinics. We’re excited to come together to provide care for mothers and work to protect unborn lives.
Placemakers
Families that have moved out of Path of Life shelters into transitional housing are still trying to put all the pieces together. The house will have basic furniture provided, but The Grove, with a team of volunteers, will provide furnishings and decorations to help transform these houses into homes. These families will come to a home where love has been poured in through an inviting setup.
Family Promise of Riverside
Family Promise operates to end homelessness. They work with people in the local communities to house homeless families while providing job training, tutoring, counseling, and even taking care of physical needs. The Grove will partner with Family Promise of Riverside to continue fighting this battle.
Rebirth Homes
Rebirth Homes exists to combat human trafficking through education and through programming for survivors of human trafficking. In 2019, Rebirth Homes launched Freedom Shop: an online social enterprise to help teach job skills preparing them for long-term sustainability. The Grove will continue to partner with Rebirth Homes to help build this opportunity for life skills.
Serve Week
Each summer, The Grove comes together to serve Riverside and its surrounding communities. Through various projects and events, volunteers from The Grove give their time and energy to serve individuals and organizations through cleaning, building, encouraging, and so much more. This week has become instrumental for our church to share the love of Christ and be a good neighbor.
Perris Outreach
As we strive to go and make disciples in all areas, we continue pouring into our relationships in the community of Perris. Through Bible clubs, activities at the community center, and camps for children of incarcerated parents, we are working to connect others to the Gospel and to our church at The Grove Perris.
Bridge Events
One of our Core Values is that all people matter to God, so all people matter to us. By holding free community events, we pray our neighbors experience The Grove’s heart for all people and later join us for a service where they will hear the Gospel of Jesus.
Supporting Struggling Churches
Looking back over our church history, we remember where we have been and those who helped us. As we see the financial blessing we’ve been given, we want to give back to those in need; not just to individuals, but to local churches. We want to continue helping other pastors and churches fulfill their purpose of making disciples.
Easter 2022
As a community church, we aim to bring together our neighborhood. Easter weekend is one of our greatest opportunities to reach those near us. We want to maximize our impact by providing a sunrise service, outreach activities, and additional resources for the Gospel to be preached to those who have not yet made the decision to follow Jesus.
Adoption Support
God has adopted us into His family and gives us His heart to model this love for others. Through the adoption process of counseling, support, and financial assistance, we empower families to welcome new children into their lives. We want to care for God’s children and help them grow to love and follow Him.
Ministry Expansion
The Grove’s ministry has been expanding and our desire is to have spaces where all people feel welcome and at home. In this upcoming year, we will be renovating The Grove Corner, which is used by our Spanish Ministry, Deaf Ministry, Corner Pantry, and Counseling Center. These renovations will help us continue to create environments to minister in the most effective ways.
Preschool and Elementary Toys
Our toys at The Grove are beginning to show their 15-year age. Many sets are no longer complete and are missing parts; others are fading and beginning to break. This year, we want to bless our children, with new blocks, dolls, animals, puzzles, and more. This will be great blessing and joy to many children!
Debt Reduction
For the past four years, every dollar received for the Love Offering over the $1,000,000 mark was used for reducing The Grove’s debt and was matched by a generous family within our church. For the 2021 calendar year, we will have paid down over $1.4 million in debt principal! This year, the same family continues to give generously by pledging to match every dollar raised over $1,000,000. Our goal is to be debt-free by 2025!
India – Church Planters and Children’s Bible Club
Last year, The Grove partnered with Mission India to train new church planters. This year, those church planters will be sent out to underreached areas of the country! We will help support these new church planters in their evangelism and discipleship ministries. In addition, The Grove will partner with Mission India to host Bible Clubs for children to hear God’s Word and understand the Gospel.
Guatemala – Coffee Drying
Iberoamerican Ministries is a church planting and compassion-based organization working to see people, communities, and nations transformed by Christ. Our Global Partners, Dan and Danielle Hentschl, develop communities and build disciples in Guatemala. This year, we will help purchase 56 coffee drying beds to provide work and bring life change to local families.
Mongolia – Veterinary Training Center
Nomadic people groups prize and depend on their animals. Global Partners, Michael and Hillary Mincher, share Christ with Mongolians by forming a connection through training in animal care. In 2022, they want to build a veterinarian training hospital for safe, hands-on examination, with viewing areas for demonstrations, sterile surgical areas, a private training laboratory, and educational training rooms. As they teach veterinarians and students, they are building disciples to share Christ in Mongolia and beyond.
Belize – Bella Vista Refugee Homes
Many refugee families from El Salvador have been placed in the Bella Vista area of Belize. This region floods around five months out of the year, making adequate shelter a top need for the refugee community. This year, our HANDS team will partner with a local church in Belize to build two homes for refugee families.
Thailand – Remember Nhu Housing
Remember Nhu helps children in Thailand escape the darkness of human trafficking and experience a Christian environment of love and care. The Grove has supported Remember Nhu for the past six years, helping more than 30 children escape the global sex trade and learn about Jesus. This year with the help of The Grove, Remember Nhu will open a new home for at-risk children, keeping an additional 15 children out of the sex trade.
Europe – Afghan Refugee Center
Europe is currently home to over half a million refugees from Afghanistan, and that number is growing. Our Global Partner, Joni Marble, and the M2M organization are working to establish centers for Afghan refugees within Europe. M2M provides aid, training, and care for refugees and connects them with local partners.
Uganda - Church Plant
Over the past three years, The Grove has successfully helped plant a thriving church in Adjumani, Uganda. Like Adjumani, the village of Kitgum is surrounded by South Sudanese refugee camps. Pastor Edwin Onen, and his wife Evelyn, will work to plant a new church in this area and will provide training, relief, and the Gospel of Christ throughout the refugee settlements near Kitgum.
The Balkans – Church Plant
The Balkans is the least-reached, least-known, and least-represented area of Europe. Over 99% of the 42 million people in the Balkans have minimal access to the Gospel. This year, The Grove is helping our Global Partners, the “P” family, launch four new churches in this Eastern European frontier.
Central Asia – Church Plant
The Grove’s Global Partners are working to establish a church in the Himalayan Mountains. This region is economically, culturally, and spiritually one of the most restrictive and difficult in which to live. Through a local transportation business, our Global Partners build relationships with nomadic communities to spread the Gospel and disciple new believers.
Middle East – Church Plant
For several years, The Grove has partnered with Elam Ministries to bring Bibles, training, and programs to the Middle East. This year, we have the opportunity to come alongside a church planter and evangelist seeking to plant churches within the Middle East. We will be providing financial support, travel costs, space rentals, and equipment to help reach many in this country experiencing spiritual growth.
Thailand – Church Plant
Global Partners, Daniel and Katie Lamb, planted a house church in Thailand. They have premarital training, small groups, weekend outreaches, and church member’s families who are coming to Jesus. As they grow, they have an opportunity to rent the building next door. We will help pay the rent for one year, along with some furnishings, to help get the Love of Christ Church building up and running.
Southeast Asia – 4-Wheel Drive Vehicle
Our Global Partners, David and Taylor, continue to plant more churches. This year, they are going inland into less reached areas of the island. With unpaved and unmaintained roads, their current vehicle cannot make this trip. To help expand their church planting mission, The Grove will provide them with a 4-wheel drive vehicle to open up this new region for their ministry.
Belize – Young Leaders Training Program
Global Partners, John and Lisa Gotz, are building a training program for young leaders through their ministry in Belize. We will assist them by providing training materials, transportation, and food and board for the participants.
Central Asia – Mountain Shelters
Our Global Partners in an unreached area of Central Asia have a vision to construct several small structures in the mountains, providing shelter for travelers on foot through these difficult passes. The structures will be outside of villages, allowing greater freedom for our Global Partners to build relationships and share the Gospel. This year, The Grove will assist with construction of three of these mountain shelters.
Hungary – Missionary Care Online
Brad and Joyce Trottman, retired school psychologists, provide evaluation and therapy for Christian workers from around the world. Last year, The Grove was able to assist them in renovating a guest house in Budapest for Global Partner families seeking rest, counseling, and soul care. This year, we will help them develop an online platform for Global Partner care teaching and training, accessible by Christian workers worldwide.
Malawi – Agricultural Program
In 2011, Bright Vision Orphan Care started an agriculture program to cultivate staple crops and plant trees. To become self-sufficient in this area, they need additional training and equipment relating to irrigation and livestock management. They will also use this training to bring local people to Bright Vision for training and evangelism in the community.
Sudan – Arabic Audio Bible
More than 500 house fellowships meet in Sudanese refugee camps south of the Nuba Mountains. Most are from a Muslim background, having no access to a Bible, or are illiterate. This year, our Global Partners, Jim and Lui Whelchel, will coordinate distribution of 200 MP3 players loaded with an audio Bible in Arabic, which we will fund. These MP3 players will be used for house fellowships to help them grow and reach others for Christ.
Middle East – Life Center Generator
Life Community Center is a place where our Global Partners introduce Muslims to Jesus. However, electricity is very inconsistent across the city, cutting off multiple times every day. In order to run classes effectively, the center needs its own private generator for when the main power cuts off.
Belize – Church renovations
The Trio Village Church and Pastor Clemente are active in serving their community’s basic needs and sharing the Gospel. God has been bringing many more people to the church, and they want to make room for new members. We will be assisting them with the costs to extend the walls and roof of the church building.
Burkina Faso – Water Filter Project
Nearly one in ten people worldwide live without clean water. For those in isolated rural areas, women and children spend hours every day walking to collect water for their family, and the water often carries diseases. This year, we will be joining Filter of Hope and Cru to make clean water and knowing Jesus accessible to communities in Burkina Faso.
Asia – Smartphone Bible App
The current New Tibetan Bible app has no audio recordings for the New Testament, limiting access for many Tibetans who are functionally illiterate. This year, The Grove will assist our Global Partners to implement audio features for the app. Once complete for the Amdo, Kham, and Central dialects, these audio Bibles could impact over 6 million Tibetans worldwide.
Asia – Evangelism & Discipleship
Our Global Partners in this region serve in an area closed to the Gospel. This year, they will creatively connect local people with the hope of Christ through anti-abortion programs, contextualized evangelism, and biblical education curriculum for children and youth. The Grove will partner with them to help fund these new disciple-making initiatives.
Middle East – Leadership Development Program
Our Global Partners, the “M” family, operate a community center which serves as a connection point for outreach in their area. This year, they will develop a mentorship program to create opportunities to reach emerging leaders within the community. Those in the program will learn leadership skills and values and will have an opportunity to explore the Gospel.
Spain – Muslim Immigrant Farming
Refugees and immigrants who have been forced to leave their home country, or who have chosen to seek better opportunities in Europe, are encountering the Gospel and responding. Many struggle and do not continue in the faith. Mosaic Farms is a residential program designed to address obstacles for Muslim background believers through discipleship and integration by addressing issues of isolation, homelessness, unemployment, lack of linguistic and cultural understanding, and skill training.
Mexico – Otomi Deaf Ministry
Marisela Cano works within the Otomi Deaf community in Queretaro, Mexico to share the love of Jesus. She trains both the deaf children and their families to communicate using Mexican Sign Language. This year, The Grove will help her ministry as they build a kitchen and dining room to support the deaf ministry school.
San Diego – Kurdish Ministry
More than 8,000 ethnic Kurds live in the San Diego area. The Kurdish Christian Church seeks to spread the Gospel, make disciples, and plant churches. Each year they conduct a major event showcasing Kurdish food, music, dancing, and crafts, allowing Pastor Azad to build connections within the community. This year, The Grove will cover the cost of hosting this event.
Tenzin
Tenzin will focus on evangelism and discipleship ministry in an unreached area of Central Asia. One primary effort will be meeting tangible needs of widows and children in this area.
John and Naveena S.
John and Naveena will be leading a disciple-making ministry in South Asia to train up men and women and send them out as cross-cultural church planters
Stephen & Natalia T.
Stephen and Natalia will be serving in a part of Eurasia that currently has no workers sharing the Gospel. They will take steps toward planting a church to reach the people group within their city.
Paul & Tera C.
Paul and Tera are developing a core group of national partners to lead churches. Along with language learning, they will be training leaders to engage the unreached in South Asia.
God has laid before us some amazing opportunities to follow Him and to accomplish the vision He has given us to be changed by God to reach all people. Now it is up to you.How will you respond?
LOVE OFFERING GOAL = $1,000,000
On the weekend of November 13 and 14, 2021, we will receive the 2022 Love Offering that is dedicated to accomplishing these initiatives. Falling short of the goal will simply mean that the most important projects get funded, but others will have to wait.
$1,000,000 is a big goal. It will take the commitment and faith of the whole Grove team, plus God’s power and provision to make this happen. We invite you to be a part of what believe God will accomplish this year by giving in faith toward these opportunities.
ONE-TIME PLEDGE
As you pray about making a gift to the 2022 Love Offering, there are two options you might consider. The first is simply making a one-time gift. This gift can be made on the weekend of November 13 and 14 or any time up to December 31, 2021.
12-MONTH PLEDGE
The second option is to make a Faith Pledge to give over the next 12 months. You can complete a Faith Pledge Card and put it in the offering, or you can pledge online. This is a commitment to give based on your faith that God will enable you to give even if you don’t see how today. Many have found this method to work best and discovered they can actually give more when they give systematically. It is a spiritually stretching experience.
Is my Love Offering gift supposed to be in addition to my regular giving to The Grove?
We are asking everyone to consider making a Love Offering gift over and above their regular giving. Regular giving (tithe) is used to fund normal church operations and ministries. The Love Offering will fund these special opportunities that are unique to The Grove.
When should I give to the 2022 Love Offering?
During the weekend services on November 13 and 14, 2021, The Grove will receive the special Love Offering. You may make a gift at that time or any time through the remainder of the year. Each year, many in our church family choose to make a Faith Pledge and give periodically over the next 12 months. By making a pledge, you are able to give a larger amount than a one-time gift in November. There is more information on the Faith Pledge Online Form at thegrove.cc/pledge.
How much should I give?
The amount of your gift is a personal decision that should be made after seeking God in prayer. It is between you and God. We encourage you to depend on God’s ability and power to provide when you give rather than just your own ability. Experiencing His power to help you give is a faith-building event.
How should I designate my gift?
When you give online, please select “Love Offering” from the drop-down menu. Donations by mail can be labeled as “Love Offering.” This will make sure it is recorded correctly when received.
What are the different ways I can give?
In addition to giving online, you may mail a check to the church office or place your gift in the offering box at the end of an in-person service. You may also use The Grove App with your smart phone or go click here to make a one-time gift or to set up a schedule to give periodically.
What is a Faith Pledge?
As the name indicates, this is a step of faith, trusting God to provide as you stretch beyond what you can give comfortably and commit to a future amount God places on your heart. A Faith Pledge depends on God to provide for you, enabling you to fulfill the pledge. You can visit thegrove.cc/pledge to make a pledge online, or pledge cards will be available at the Welcome Counters.
What happens if we don’t reach the $1,000,000 goal?
In 2021, we were able to fulfill every opportunity because of your faithful and generous giving. We believe that in 2022 God will help us do that again. If we do fall short, the Board and staff will prioritize the projects, deciding which projects will move forward and when. Every effort will be made to complete as many of the projects as possible with the funds provided. If you have additional questions regarding the Love Offering, please contact us by emailing info@thegrove.cc or by calling (951) 571-9090.
If I have a recurring payment, will that update automatically based on my pledge card?
We do not change recurring payments. Please log in to MyGrove, go to your Profile, then to My Giving. On the left find Recurring Donations for you to edit.
This can also be done through the Church Center App (iTunes or Google Play).
Have the Text-to-Give Fund shortcuts changed with the new Love Offering?
Yes, here are the new shortcuts for Text-to-Give Fund names:
General Fund
Love Offering God With Us
Love Offering Follow Me
Benevolence
