Mandarin Speaking Church Plant in Charleston, SC
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, those who follow along on this podcast know that Living Hope Church, the church I lead, is in the middle of planting a church, and I had an opportunity the other day to sit in on the cohort, the church planting cohort with Andy, and hear updates from several guys that are planting churches in Sovereign Grace. It's exciting that we're planting churches in the months ahead. We talk about church planting; we have a passion for planting; which begs the question, "why are we so interested in planting churches?"
Mark Prater:
It's a great question, Ben. We're interested in planting churches; not to "grow" Sovereign Grace; we're interested in planting churches because that's what you see in the New Testament: the gospel advanced, at least in part, through the planting of churches. And as those churches were planted, there were opportunities to reach people who didn't know Christ as their savior with the good news of Jesus Christ. So that's why we plant churches. And the church plants that we have planned in the coming year are really for that purpose: to establish a church in an area where we don't have any gospel opportunities, praying for and asking God to give us opportunities to reach the lost, again, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And one of the things that's interesting that's happening in our world, regardless of what nation a listener to this podcast is in; we are living in a world that's much more globally connected, more than ever.
So here in the States, we're finding these opportunities now to plant churches, not only English speaking churches, which we've primarily done historically for 41 years, but now new opportunities to plant Spanish speaking and Chinese speaking churches. So in the coming year, we've got a Chinese church plant in Charleston, South Carolina, and a Spanish speaking church plant plan for Yuma, Arizona in the coming year. Those are opportunities for us to participate in reaching the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ and fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations that Jesus commanded us to do.
Ben Kreps:
Yeah. Excellent. It was quite interesting to hear from those guys planting non-English speaking churches and you mentioned the Chinese speaking church plant in Charleston. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. Our plan is to plant a Mandarin speaking church in Charleston, South Carolina in the fall of this year, 2023. Mike Seaver, the Senior Pastor of Risen Hope Church in Somerville, South Carolina, right there in the Charleston area, tells me that there are 5,000 Chinese speaking people in the Charleston area and only one Chinese speaking church. So obviously, there is a need to plant other Chinese speaking churches to reach those that speak Mandarin with the good news of Jesus Christ.
And that church plant is going to be led by Perry Wong, a pastors college graduate who has been doing a church planting residency at Risen Hope Church with Mike Seaver. And he is excited about planting his church. He's actually chosen a name for the church, Cornerstone Church. And in Mandarin, the word is JISHI. And that is exciting to hear the name of the church in Chinese. I've also been on their website, and I’ll give that information in just a moment. And there it is. It's all in Chinese. I can't read any of it, but it's just exciting to see Sovereign Grace being involved, reaching Chinese speakers, with the good news of the gospel. Perry is going to be planting, I believe, on the north side of Charleston. And he's just beginning to have interest meetings. So anyone that would be interested in joining this church plant, can contact Perry. And one of the reasons I wanted to devote an episode on this particular church plant, is that there is a need for people who speak Mandarin. If you're a pastor who has Chinese speakers in your church, or you're listening to this podcast, or a reader of this podcast and you're a Mandarin speaker, please reach out to Perry and get more information. Maybe the Lord would have you pray about joining Perry in Charleston to help plant that church. Let me just give you Perry's contact information. Perry's email is perry@jishi.church, and the website that I mentioned, I really encourage people just to look at their website whether you plan to be a part of this church plant or not, is www.jishi.church. So, I wanted to just support what Mike is doing. Mike is not only the Senior Pastor of Risen Hope Church, but also our church planting coordinator. He's just got a real heart to see churches planted, and he's very excited about launching this team from his church. And Perry has just been working hard to prepare for this church plant. But we would love to have other Chinese speakers join Perry. So, if you're interested, please contact Perry.
Ben Kreps:
Well. Excellent. It is so encouraging. I mean, we've been planting churches for, as you said, decades, but as we continue to mature as a family of churches, the opportunities are expanding. It is quite a thrill to see what God is doing as we seek to make him known and advance the gospel around the globe and here at home as well. So thanks for the update, Mark. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.