Faith for Church Planting
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, before we started recording this podcast, you were sharing with me that you've been meditating on a text in 1 Corinthians about church planting, and you wanted to encourage us from that text. Why don't you go ahead and do that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, thanks Ben. I've been looking at 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9. The context of that particular passage is Paul writing to the Corinthians about divisions in the church. You know, he writes some follow Apollos, some Paul. And so that's what he is addressing. So the text is really about that. Not so much about church planting, but there's truths in it that I think can stir our faith for church planting.
So Paul writes in verse 5, "What then is Apollos, what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth." It's interesting, he repeats that a second time. "He who plants, he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field and God's building."
So just a couple of thoughts I've been thinking about that I would just love for our pastors to maybe even take a look at that text and pray about it. It would be two things. One, in the text he says twice, as I already pointed out, that it is God that gives the growth. And, we have to have a component of faith to our church planting. That we believe our God will give the growth when we plant churches. And, when we talk about church planting, you study church planning, it's a lot about methodology and that's really good and really helpful. So we should study those things and even put some of those methods into practice because we want to plant strong churches, but we don't talk about faith to plant churches as quite as much.
And I think that's what that text stirs us to do, to believe that God will give the growth. So we will make sacrifices. We will send our best, we will give generously. We'll do all that we can humanly do, but it is God who's going to give the growth. And so, just asking pastors in churches in Sovereign Grace or maybe churches that have not planted before or haven't planted in a while to pray. Pray for a church plant and pray to the God who will give growth and pray expectantly, believing that what Paul writes here is true about God. That he will give the growth.
And then just the other thing from the text that affected me is that we are called God's fellow workers. That's stunning to me. That God would involve us in the work of his mission, but then to be called fellow workers with God, is amazing. We're obviously in another passage of scripture called Servants of God, that almost seems more appropriate, but he says, fellow workers of God. And so when we church plant, we are laboring with God in his field, planting and watering, knowing that he will give the growth. And so church planting is a privilege because we are laboring with God. We are fellow workers with God. So, just a couple of thoughts from a text that I hope stirs our guys to think about church planting more and pray about church planting, and the Lord may just lead you to plant a church in the coming year or two, believing that he will give the growth.
Ben Kreps:
That's excellent encouragement. I love that. Often, I think, when pastors are thinking about the possibility or desire to plant and the complexity and thinking we don't have someone to plant and how will we plant and do we have the resources to plant, looking at loss in that, is just the simple reality that the most important thing we can do is low hanging fruit. It's to pray and to ask God to direct our steps. And so I love that encouragement. It's a God glorifying way of going about church planting. And I'm grateful for that. We actually have a couple of church plants that are coming up in the near future. Several of them. Why don't you give us an update on that?
Mark Prater:
Let me just mention three. One is in Manila, Philippines, actually a church Jeffrey Jo planted; another church in the Manila area. And that church began either last Sunday or the Sunday before having their very first service. So he's a man who I think models for us, faith that God gives the growth, because he just continues to train men and send out church planters. And then, we have a church plant that you're sending out Ben, in just about three weeks. So, why don't you speak about that church plant?
Ben Kreps:
Yeah. It's upon us. It's getting real. So we have three Sundays left. The last Sunday in August will be the commissioning service for Redeeming Grace. They'll begin meeting the first Sunday in September. So, it's bittersweet, I guess you would say. The more and more I stare at this church plant, I realize just how many pillars of Living Hope, key servants, are going on the plant. So, we are definitely doing this in faith. I mean, we're sending out 110, 120 people, and we're not a huge church. So, we've decided to bank everything on the faithfulness of God and the promise that if we sow bountifully, we should expect to reap bountifully. And so we're expecting to reap bountifully in the wake of planting this church.
So Jeremy's done a great job. On Sunday when I came to the service, there were boxes full of invites to the new church plant that the people going on the plant were picking up, to hand out to neighbors. And, so it's exciting, and a little disconcerting, <laugh> <laugh>, but it definitely is an adventure. We started this process simply with no man to plant the church and no real plan on how to do it. But we prayed and God led the way and has provided all along the way, and has shown us so many times, his kindness, his generosity, his guidance. And so it really is, one of the sweetest things about this church plant, is that it really a God glorifying story. Not because of my stellar leadership or our clever methodologies, although Sovereign Grace, the church planting group, has provided us with so much helpful guidance and information. So if guys are thinking about planting, understand there are a ton of resources and guidance from the church planting group that are so helpful. But, yeah, we're almost there. And, we're excited and we're looking forward to it in just a few weeks, Redeeming Grace, having their first Sunday service.
Mark Prater:
And that church planter, as you already mentioned, is Jeremy. Jeremy Hetrick. He's the church planter God provided. Someone might be reading or listening to this podcast, and they may know friends and family, have friends and family members, maybe in the area where Jeremy is planting. So tell the folks where specifically he's planting his church.
Ben Kreps:
It's in an area called Mechanicsburg, near Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, which is a small city, but there's a river that runs right on the edge of the city and on the other side of the river, it's called the West Shore. We're on the East Shore in a place called Middletown. But it's 20 minutes away, and the culture is very different between Middletown on the East Shore and Mechanicsburg and the West Shore. So the folks that are going to be going there, they live generally near that area on the West Shore. So it's a wonderful opportunity to connect with West Shore folks, to see the gospel advance in that area. Because West Shore people don't typically come to the East Shore for church. It's not that common. So, yeah, Mechanicsburg area, it's near a university. It's actually a county that is exploding in growth. So we're excited to see what God's going to do as we launch Redeeming Grace here in a few weeks.
Mark Prater:
We'll be praying for that church plant. The other one I wanted to mention is happening after the turn of the year, probably January, Perry Wang is planting Jishi church, a Mandarin term, meaning Cornerstone Church, in the Charleston, South Carolina area. That will be our first Mandarin speaking church, that Perry is planting. And so, be praying for that. Mike Seaver has just done a great job of equipping him and his team there at Risen Hope Church. They'll be sending him out first of the year. We mentioned this in a earlier podcast. If you have any Mandarin speaking people in your churches who might be interested in this church plant, please contact Mike Seaver or contact Perry. I just interacted with Mike last week, and he was saying they could probably use another, one or two, Mandarin speakers for that church planting team. So, please pray about that. And maybe someone listening to this podcast, who's a Mandarin speaker, or if you're a pastor, have Mandarin speakers in your church, talk to them about church planting. Again, that's, Jishi church, Cornerstone Church, in the Charleston, South Carolina area. And, be praying for all three church plants that I just mentioned. Let's pray together that God will give the growth.
Ben Kreps:
Yes, excellent. It is exciting to see what God is doing in so many ways throughout Sovereign Grace, but specifically giving us the opportunity to continue to plant churches. And so we do so completely dependent on God, but trusting that he's good and faithful, and he will provide in all of it. So, shout out to Perry, go Perry, we'll be praying for your church plant and grateful for anybody who prays for Redeeming Grace in the days ahead. So thanks for your encouragement, Mark, and the update. Thank you everyone for watching or reading. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.