Church Planting Update
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches to our Executive Director. Mark, in this season, it seems like everything is sort of ground to a halt. And yet the mission of Jesus continues to move forward and I understand you have some updates for us about church planning in Sovereign Grace Churches.
Mark Prater:
I do. I want our guys to know that the gospel mission is continuing even during a pandemic. And I want to talk about church planting, partly because it's just something I carry on my heart. It's something I have prayed for quite a bit. I think, in part, because I was a church planter. I planted a church in Pittsburgh a million years ago.
Benjamin Kreps:
Right.
Mark Prater:
But that only happened because the culture in Sovereign Grace, our gospel culture fueled that. And what I mean by that is it’s always been a part of our DNA. And I wanted to just keep holding that out before us in my role and call us to pray and really call us to have faith for church planting. So to inspire your faith, let me just give you some updates.
We have some church plants that are going to happen within the next several months. So Matt Turner is going to plant a church in Prattville, Alabama, we hope, sometime in the fall of this year. Obviously, the pandemic has disrupted some plans, but that’s his plan right now. And then Phillip Estrada will be sent from the church in Seguin, Texas to plant a church in San Antonio, Texas, sometime in the first quarter of 2021. And then Michael Granger, who is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, had just about ready to go public with his plant when the country shut down. So he kind of pulled back on his plans. You can pray for Michael that God would just give him wisdom, but I'm certain that probably sometime in 2021, he’ll be able to plant that church. And then as you look out beyond just kind of 2020-2021, over the next three years, we have four more potential church plants in Sovereign Grace. I want guys to know the mission is continuing.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amazing. While you're navigating through this, on the Leadership Team, you've been working with Eric Turbedsky to refine and to rethink even some things about church planning, philosophically. What are some of the things that you guys are pressing into, as you think about moving forward in church planting?
Mark Prater:
We've had some great discussions. Eric's led us through those. And he's doing just a great job in his role. And we're hoping some of the ways we're rethinking about church planting actually has the effect of kind of revitalizing church plantings. It's always been a part of our culture, but let's plant more churches, not for the sake of growth, but for reaching the lost with the gospel. So one of those philosophical shifts that we are making, and Eric’s already put into action is this: as you know, we've benefited from the evangelical church planting world that primarily is defined by a guy, a pastor, who has a burden to go plant a church, maybe even a particular area. And that's a good thing. We want guys to have burdens to do that, but we're just going to shift that a little bit and we want elderships across Sovereign Grace to feel the burden to plant a church, not just a single guy.
Because I think when an eldership owns responsibility and prays and asks God to give them opportunities to plant a church or churches, I believe God's going to answer those prayers. And I think that probably fits Sovereign Grace a little bit better. It operates within our polity a little bit better. So what Eric has done is he's already targeted I think it's five to seven elderships across Sovereign Grace and he's reached out to them and said, “Hey, I'd love to meet you about just church planting and what I can do to serve you.” And so I would say to elderships, if he hasn't reached out to you and you have a burden of plant a church, reach out to Eric, and he'll be glad to talk to you about just ways that we can come alongside of you as a Leadership Team to help you plant a church.
Benjamin Kreps:
Great. Thank you for you and Eric and all of the thinking and praying and planning that's going into this so that we can be helped to plant more churches and see the gospel spread further. Any other thoughts before we go?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, just keep in mind that there are areas that don't have gospel preaching churches in the United States and throughout the world. And I would just encourage elderships to think about those areas and pray for those areas and ask God to provide all that you need to plant. And I'm hoping that in the coming next five years, we could even plant more churches because elderships have just assumed that burden. And I've actually gotten faith and are excited about making a sacrifice for mission, which is the last thing I'll say. I think mission becomes more real when you have to sacrifice for it. Our pastors know that, but that may mean you send one of your best pastors on your team, maybe who's labored alongside of you for a number of years. And that's the guy that the Spirit makes you aware, “Oh, he’s to go.” So be ready for that kind of Spirit led faith and fused work that God's going to give you.
Benjamin Kreps:
Wonderful. So encouraging to hear about what God's doing, even in the middle of this pandemic and all of the things that are going on culturally, His mission moves forward. So thanks for your leadership, Mark. Thank you everyone for listening to the podcast and we'll see you back here real soon.