Three Key Points from the State of the Union Address
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our executive director. Mark, we've talked on the podcast for the last couple of weeks about the wonderful resources that are now online following the pastors conference, and so we continue to benefit from the conference even though it's been a few weeks since we were at the conference. One of the things we didn't talk about though, and that you'd like to talk about, is your State of the Union address. You begin the Council of Elders (that happens typically before the conference) with a State of the Union, a State of the Sovereign Grace Churches Union address. Why do you start the Council of Elders each year with that State of the Union address?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, first of all because the Book of Church Order requires that the executive director give a State of the Union address at the Annual Council of Elders meeting. And by the way, if you've never been to a Council of Elders meeting, that's typically on the Monday of the week of the conference. And then the conference starts Tuesday evening through Thursday and a Council of Elders meeting is sort of a denominational business meeting. Although what we've tried to do with it is make it more than that; than just a business meeting. We do business, we vote on things, we pass amendments and a lot of good business and I think that strengthens our denomination. But, the context of the Council of Elders is also very relational in nature. We take time to sing together and we have time to catch up with one another and pray for one another.
And then there's the State of the Union message that I give. And really I'm glad it's in our Book of Church Order because it gives me the opportunity once a year to convey to our pastors what has happened over the past year. And then mostly it's forward looking. It's looking into the future and just sharing some things I'm seeing about our future, I'm excited about in our future. And it also gives me an opportunity to share those things that are on my heart that I'm concerned about. In Sovereign Grace, one of the unique things about this role is you do have a viewpoint. Whether it's just because of interaction with pastors throughout the world or through travel or through interactions with conversations or emails that fills out a bigger picture, it gives me a view of Sovereign Grace that I don't know every pastor has. And I count that a real privilege and I want to make sure I steward that privilege well by sharing what I see in an encouraging way, in a way that strengthens our churches, in a way that unites us.
So this State of the Union in particular is something that I have been carrying on my heart for several months, actually. The text I sprang from this year was John 15. I read verses one through eight, but verse five in particular about abiding in Christ. If you abide in me and he abides in us, then we will bear much fruit, for we can do nothing apart from Christ, is really what that verse says. And so I was trying to emphasize our ongoing dependence upon Christ. Even though there are a number of several good things happening in Sovereign Grace, we can't lose that vital dependence upon Christ. So from that, I developed points about just the kind of fruit I was looking for us to develop. And that allowed me to share some things on my heart that I see in Sovereign Grace as executive director. And I just want to encourage pastors who were not at that meeting to listen to that State of the Union and listen to those things that are on my heart because they're intended to help serve you, serve your churches.
Benjamin Kreps:
It was a wonderful address, I so loved. Guys and gals that follow the podcast may remember you talking about how you've been meditating on that text in John for months, half the year or longer. And it showed. John Piper talks about taking scripture and placing it on your tongue like a lozenge and slowly letting it seep into your system. And clearly that happened to you. You came with a burden, you came well-informed because you are well-informed about what's going on in Sovereign Grace. You pay careful attention to our churches and we thank God for that. But you came with a full heart, exhorting us to pay attention to some things, to emphasize some things. What were the high points of what you shared?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, there's several things I shared in the State of the Union, which is why I encourage guys to listen to it. Or if you're a member of a local church, I'd encourage you to listen to it as well. By the way, it can be found on our website on the events page, click on this year's pastors conference and the State of the Union is listed there under the main messages, if I remember right. So you're welcome to listen to it.
But I want to draw out three points from the State of the Union. These things are on my heart and they continue to be on my heart. And you're going to hear more about them over the next year from me and from the guys on the leadership team.
So the first one is developing future pastors, recruiting and developing future pastors. That's real important because I shared some stats in that State of the Union message and in my main session message as well, that show us that over the next decade the first generation of pastors in Sovereign Grace are going to be transitioning primary leadership of our churches, local churches, and even on a denominational level to the second and third generation pastors. And I think it's a transition we're not really completely prepared for. So we want to be a multi-generational family of churches should God allow that and give us grace to do that. And what that means is we need to recruit and to develop men for future pastoral ministry. And I talked a little bit there about the importance of taking some risks there, some calculated risks in developing guys. And once you do that, make sure that you get them to the pastors college. The pastors college will equip pastors in a way that I don't think any other local church can. So that's one encouragement and we're going to try to give you resources to help you do that. In fact, there's leadership development pipelines. One of them I handed out at the Council of Elders meeting from the Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, their pipeline, we're going to put up on our website, the SGC pastors website where there's going to be other leadership development pipelines that you can access as a pastor. So that's the first one, taking risks to recruit and develop future pastors.
The second one is risk to plant churches here in the United States. We're enjoying some wonderful expansion throughout the world outside the United States. And a common question I've been asked by pastors is why does it seem like there's so much growth outside of the states but not in the states? And I think there's a number of reasons for that. I talk about that in the State of the Union. But what I really called us to is let's take risks to plant churches. And as we develop men for pastoral ministry, let's be thinking about church planting and let's just redouble our efforts to plant churches, not to grow Sovereign Grace, that's not the intent, but to reach the lost with the gospel because in any area of this nation, a gospel centered church and a church that proclaims the gospel consistently will have impact in that part of the United States. So just a call for our guys to do that, to take risks to plant churches. I'm so grateful for your example, Ben; you took risks this year in sending out a hundred plus people along with Jeremy Hetrick to plant and that church plant is doing well, and God is already honoring just that risk and your faith by bringing new people.
Benjamin Kreps:
They had two baptisms last week. Redeeming Grace had two baptisms last Sunday.
Mark Prater:
Oh, outstanding. Outstanding.
And then the third thing I talked about, I put it under this point, is protecting and promoting our gospel heritage as we see a transition happening from first generation to future generations of pastors. Let's not lose our gospel centrality and the gospel heritage that we have. And I think the shaping virtues in particular help us to sort of monitor that. That's why we had you teach a breakout session on our shaping virtues, at least in part because we want to build gospel centered churches. And the fruit of the gospel in any church's life, not just in Sovereign Grace, are those virtues that we talked about like joy and humility and encouragement and gratefulness and generosity are just some of those virtues that reflect the fruit of the gospel. And I shared this concern I have as the executive director that I don't think we are as strong in the virtue of encouragement as we were several years ago or maybe a decade ago. I don't quite know how to quantify the time, but I want to call us to be an encouraging people; that we would be encouraging pastors and that we would lead churches that encourage one another because that's what you see in scripture. In fact, it's one of the commands of what we're to do daily, encourage one another. Hebrews talks about that. So it's that important that we should do it daily. It's pretty important in God's eyes. And it's the fruit of the gospel when you're able to see evidences of grace in another and speaking those evidences of grace at times is very timely because they may be discouraged, they may be struggling with sin, and that brings life and it brings them hope and it brings them encouragement and it gives you an opportunity to tie them into Christ and the hope of the gospel. So let us be encouraging churches. In fact, we may do a whole podcast on that topic, Ben, because it's one that I want to continue to hold up. So those were three things in particular I wanted to draw from the State of the Union and share on this podcast.
Benjamin Kreps:
Wonderful. Well, I certainly was blessed sitting under the State of the Union address. You spoke to us passionately. You clearly had a burden that you shared with us. And certainly my faith was built and I'm confident that all the guys there, our faith was built. We were strengthened to consider the future. So thank you for the discernment that you displayed in the encouragement that you shared. And thank you for the faith building call to take risks for the advance of the gospel. Jesus is worthy of doing the hardest things. If we go down, we go down swinging for the glory of Christ. So grateful for your leadership, Mark. So thank you for sharing this. Let's check out the State of the Union if you haven't done so yet. It's on the resource page with the other conference resources. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.