Important and Encouraging Updates
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ben 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, you were telling me before we started recording that you and the leadership team met this past week and you're planning and thinking about the upcoming pastors conference and you have some updates about that that you wanted to share with us. Why don't you do that?
Mark Prater:
I do. I've got a number of updates I want to share in this podcast. The first is the Pastors Conference, and as the leadership team and I plan for the conference, we couldn't be more excited. We're eager to be together. Our faith is stirred for how God is going to work among us. The last registration report I got, which is a few weeks ago, we are at 600, probably over 600 people now. So I just can't wait to be there and greet everyone face-to-face and where I do remember names, greet them by name as well because we are a family of churches and I can't wait for our family reunion this year, is another way to say it. Just a couple of updates related to the Council of Elders meeting and the Pastors Conference.
The Council of Elders meeting will be held on Monday, November 13th, and just to remind everyone who's coming to the conference and who's coming to the Council of Elders meeting, the Council of Elders meeting is in a different hotel than the conference will be held. Erin Radano has sent an email out about this. You can look in your inbox for that or you can contact Erin, but the Council of Elders meeting will be on Monday. It'll start at one o'clock at the Hilton Buena Vista, a wonderful hotel that we actually will be at next year for the conference. So It will give you a little bit of an idea of where we're headed next year. And so if you're coming in on Sunday, you'll want to stay there Sunday night and Monday night, our conference is being held at the Wyndham where we've been the last few years. We can't check into the Windham until Tuesday because our friends known as home base are there over the weekend. They'll be checking out Monday morning, the hotel needs time to clean all the rooms, et cetera, to prepare for us to come on Tuesday afternoon.
So if you're coming to the Council of Elders meeting, you either will stay there Sunday night, Monday night, or just Monday night if you're flying in Monday morning and you can register for sleeping rooms through the link that Erin Radano sent you in the email. Any questions that you have about that, please email Erin.
And again, the conference starts on Tuesday evening, November 14th at the Windham. And please register for the conference if you haven't. Also, if you haven't registered for sleeping rooms yet, please do that. Contractually, we have an obligation to fill so many sleeping rooms. Running a little bit behind on that. So if anyone could make a reservation for a sleeping room that would help us fulfill that contract as well.
I can't wait for what we've got planned in terms of preaching topics and in terms of updates and breakout sessions. I just can't wait to see how God is going to work among us. One of the reasons, one of several reasons we hold an annual pastors conference every year, one of those reasons is because it unites us and it strengthens us in our mission as a family of churches to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world by planting and strengthening churches. And one of our hopes and one of our prayers is that we leave there knowing we're sort of linked arms with brothers and sisters in Christ who have a heart together to advance the gospel throughout the world. So I hope that's accomplished and I'm praying that's accomplished in this conference yet again this year.
Ben Kreps:
Amen. It is a sweet time of fellowship but also equipping. I remember Jared's message from last year was to me particularly impactful as he exhorted us to church planting in Sovereign Grace. And actually there are some updates about how the gospel is advancing through church planting in Sovereign Grace churches. Tell us about that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I want to give you just a couple of updates that guys may not be aware of that I have the advantage of hearing about in my role in serving Sovereign Grace. So the first one is a church plant that you sent from your church, Ben, you sent Jeremy Hetrick to lead what is now Redeeming Grace Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. And you sent a number of your best and really longtime members, good members, good leaders with him, and they had their first service the 1st of September, I believe you probably remember the date. And from what you told me, the feedback you gave me, they had 180 people at their very first service, which is really exciting. Now, some of that obviously includes guests coming to support a first Sunday service church plant. But still that's a remarkable number of folks that came and it's a wonderful start for Redeeming Grace Church. So thank you, Jeremy Hettrick, for leading that church plant. Thank you, Ben, for sending your best and sacrificially sewing into the West Bank of Harrisburg to see the gospel advance there.
Ben Kreps:
Yeah, I was corrected by Jeremy. They actually had 190 people and continue to, over the last month, continue to have guests, new folks coming, connecting with the church. So we are sad that they've gone, but we're grateful to see how God is already blessing that church and giving them increasingly some influence and some recognition in the community over there in the West Shore, Mechanicsburg. So yeah, it's a joy to watch God work.
Mark Prater:
It is, isn't it? Yeah. And it's a joy to see what's happening in Mexico as well. If you saw a recent blog post Carlos Contreras wrote on our missions website, he was talking about how they sent from Juarez two church plants, two church planting teams, one to Reynosa, Tamaulipas Mexico, which is a border town across from McAllen, Texas, and the other is in Huajuapan, Oaxaca, Mexico, another church plant there. So that was a real important day in the history of Sovereign Grace Churches, Mexico, to send out two church plants that now will be getting off the ground in the months to come. So I wanted to mention that because if you think of it, please pray. Pray for both of those church plants, one in Reynosa and one in Oaxaca, Mexico as well. So just a couple of updates for just recent and ongoing or current church plants that I thought might encourage our listeners.
Ben Kreps:
That's excellent. I continue to be profoundly impacted by what God is doing in Mexico and grateful for how we get to partner with what God is doing in Mexico. There are church plants happening by God's grace, but there are also churches that have been planted in recent years who are enjoying anniversaries.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, and I think it's important to mention these because as I mentioned in the last podcast, we want to build slow because we want to build well. And that doesn't mean we won't have failures in church planting. We don't want those, but we could have those, but we don't really want to try to aim for that, we want to build something that lasts and just some updates are evidence of that.
Valley Creek Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania, just celebrated their one year anniversary and that church is reaching its community with the gospel. Also, Redeemer Fellowship in Newark, Delaware just celebrated their five-year anniversary and that church has grown to over 300 and is reaching their area with the gospel. And then next month in October, Redeeming Grace Church in Franklin, Tennessee will celebrate its 10 year anniversary. That church has grown. That church is reaching its community with the gospel. So it's a wonderful picture. A church plans to have one year, five year, and 10 year anniversaries. And it's an evidence of God blessing each of them and giving them grace. But it's also an evidence that we want to build well and continue to do that, to build churches that will last and exist in their communities for decades. We pray so that the gospel can continue to be preached because we plant churches to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Ben Kreps:
Excellent. I believe on the Sovereign Grace Instagram feed, there was a picture that Joel's church had posted where it's just an amazing picture where the whole church has gathered, this large crowd that started with 28 people in that group and now five years later, just a crowd of happy church members at Joel's church. So we exist to plant churches and to care for churches. And in all of that, there are people looking on globally who they say, I want to be a part of that and have been exploring adoption with us. And so you actually have some updates about adoptions as well?
Mark Prater:
We do. We have a number of new churches that are pursuing adoption into Sovereign Grace. And as it relates to our polity and our global partnership plan, these are now official candidate churches that are in the process of pursuing adoption. That first step for them is for one of their elders in each of these churches to go through and complete the ordination process and become an ordained Sovereign Grace elder. So there is a church in Cochabamba, Bolivia that is now officially a candidate church. They've related to David Del Castillo who is in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and they have just developed a relationship saying we want to be a part of Sovereign Grace. In fact, they just had a conference there in Bolivia, Joselo Mercado spoke there, Abelardo Munoz, I believe and Matthew Williams from Richmond as well as Chris Deloglos from Richmond spoke at this conference that was held there by our Sovereign Grace Church, Iglesia Gracia Soberana there in Santa Cruz.
And there were a number of churches that gathered and were encouraged by that conference. Abelardo Munoz, following the conference that Sunday, actually drove four hours to Cochabamba and preached in this church that's pursuing adoption into Sovereign Grace. I talked to Abelardo this week and he was just saying, "this is going to be a wonderful church in Sovereign Grace". So that's a wonderful update and thank you for all the good work that's happening in Bolivia. Thank you to David, but also Joselo has made many trips there. Matthew Williams, Chris Deloglos, in particular, has made many trips to Bolivia and it's just wonderful to see those men's labors bear fruit for the gospel.
We also got candidate churches now in Africa, West Africa in particular, two candidate churches in Sierra Leone, both in the Freetown area, a candidate church in Guinea, and four or five churches in Liberia, all of those candidate churches are actively pursuing adoption into Sovereign Grace.
And I wanted to mention that because as we go into the pastors conference this year, especially for pastors and wives listening or reading this podcast, keep in mind you never know who's sitting around you. And I'll never forget the story that Dyonah Thomas told me when I was in Liberia just a couple months ago. He said he became aware of Sovereign Grace through the songs produced by Sovereign Grace Music, and he began to wonder, is Sovereign Grace Music connected? And he realized, oh, there's a whole family of churches. And he was interested. But he said the first conference that he went to, and in particular when he heard CJ Mahaney preach and he said, CJ's preaching, it just moves me. That was a factor, big factor, along with what I experienced with those brothers and sisters at that conference. I left there saying, this is my home. This is who I want to partner with. And there'll be guests at our pastors conference this year that may have a similar experience as Dyonah. They're looking for a home. And just a reminder to our pastors and wives, those attending, leaders attending the conference, do what you do so well. You typically do. Just reach out to those around you who you don't know and introduce yourself and get to know them and have them experience our family in Sovereign Grace. Doing that strengthens our mission.
Ben Kreps:
Yes, it does. And it is increasingly exciting to think about this countdown as we move closer to the Pastors Conference. I know a highlight for me in the past few years is I've been a part of this sort of global dinner pre-conference, and to be in a room just packed full of people from all kinds of countries and interacting with them and seeing what God is doing is just a visible expression of our expanding partnership globally. And so thanks for all the updates, Mark. The last thing that Sovereign Grace is, is stagnant. I think that's a little bit I can say in response to all of that. And so how grateful we are that God has given us the privilege to see his gospel advance, not just here in the States, but globally through our efforts. So thank you, Mark, and thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.