About us
Our mission and our values demonstrate who we are and flow from what we believe.
Our History
Cross of Grace Santa Ana began as an answer to prayer. A small group of members in our sister church in Orange were asking the Lord to establish a gospel-proclaiming church in the city of Santa Ana. God answered their prayers by sending Pastor Kyle Houlton from a partner church in Tucson, AZ in the summer of 2016.
A Santa Ana small group was started, a core team of 17 adults and 9 children was formed, and in the fall of 2017 we launched our Sunday services. We’ve been in DTSA ever since, sharing in and spreading the joy of Jesus, and hope to be here for the next 100 years – and more!
Pastor Jeff was a member of this core team and labored alongside Pastor Kyle from the beginning. He began a process of pastoral assessment and equipping in 2019, and was ordained as an elder in 2021. He took on the role of Senior Pastor in 2024, and in 2025 we sent Pastor Kyle to our sister church in Orange in order to strengthen that congregation and spur on our mission to spread the joy of Jesus to every Californian. It’s our ambition that our neighbors in Santa Ana – and beyond – would come to know there’s nothing better than believing in and belonging to Jesus and enter into life with him.
Our Mission
“We exist to spread the joy of Jesus in Santa Ana.”
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We Love Our City
We strive to plant deep roots in our city of Santa Ana, and bless our neighbors through the ministry of the gospel for generations to come.
We Love What Jesus Has Done
We are a church that glorifies God as we celebrate his grace and share in the joy of Jesus through making and maturing disciples, serving our community, raising up leaders, participating in church planting, and sending out missionaries.
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We Love Our Neighbors
By God’s grace, it’s our aim that our Santa Ana neighbors would come to know and love Jesus and enter into his joy. And not only this, but that more and more Californians would come to know the joy of Jesus.
Displaying God's Mercy
One of the ways in which we love our city and our neighbors is by providing assistance to individuals with an unusual, sudden, or severe need. Learn more about our ministry, as well as other organizations in our community that provide specialized support.
Who We Are
We’re a bunch of ordinary people who have been filled with the extraordinary joy of Jesus. God has welcomed us all in Christ, so we’re excited to welcome all languages and cultures (all types of people) to join our community and share in our joy! Discover more about our church family, as well as our passion for Santa Ana.
Our Values
The core values of any organization reflect who they are and what they believe
Gospel-Centered
We believe that the gospel—the good news of God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ—is the pinnacle of His redemptive acts, the center of the Bible’s story, and the essential message for our faith, life, and witness. We are committed to preaching the gospel, singing the gospel, praying the gospel, and building our church upon the gospel.
Reformed
The Bible presents the all-glorious, triune God as the source and end of all things, sovereignly working all things according to His will. At the center of God’s purposes in the world is the exaltation of His glory through the redemption of sinners. To this end, we believe that God sovereignly chooses men and women to be saved in order to display His immeasurable grace and glory.
Continuationist
We believe the Holy Spirit desires to continually fill each believer with increased power for Christian life and witness, including the giving of His supernatural gifts for the building up of the church and for various works of ministry in the world. We are eager to pursue God’s active presence in all its breadth, that Christ may be magnified in our lives, in the church, and among the nations.
Complementarian
We believe it was God’s glorious plan to create men and women in His image, giving them equal dignity and value in His sight, while appointing differing and complementary roles for them within the home and the church.
Elder-Governed
Jesus is the leader of his Church and he has called, qualified, and gifted elders (or pastors) to imitate Him in the task of caring, guiding, teaching, and serving His people.
Missional
Our gospel-centrality entails not only treasuring the gospel personally but sharing it passionately. The risen Christ commissioned His church to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18–20).
Partnerships
A local church needs other local churches to carry out the mission which Christ has entrusted to all churches. We are part of Sovereign Grace Churches. Our union with our family of churches helps us preserve doctrinal purity, provides support in difficult circumstances, and equips us to participate in the Church’s mission to bring the gospel to all nations.
Explore Cross of Grace Santa Ana
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Read Our Beliefs
What we believe about the Bible instructs everything that we value as a church.