Global Leaders Building Sovereign Grace

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, anybody who's been following along with what's happening in Sovereign Grace is likely encouraged by what God is doing when it comes to expanding our family of churches globally. There's a philosophy behind that expansion that you've talked about in a number of podcasts and a number of other places as well when it comes to the end goal for identifying key leaders in different countries around the world who are interested in partnership with Sovereign Grace and the plan of how to equip them and utilize them moving forward. Can you refresh our our memory about what the plan is when it comes to global leaders in Sovereign Grace?

Mark Prater:

I would love to. I think it's even best to start with the bigger picture. Our goal is not to grow Sovereign Grace. Although, if the Lord grants that obviously we want to respond to it; the goal is to expand globally for the purpose of participating and fulfilling the great commission of reaching every tribe and tongue and nation with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. And the ultimate goal is that we would do all of that for the glory of Christ.

And God is giving us those opportunities in ways that we haven't sought or are looking for. He seems to be running ahead of us, as I've said before. And in response to those opportunities, we've seen God also give us some very good leaders and that's really important because the men on the leadership team, we don't have the capacity nor do we have the grasp of what's happening in each and every country sufficient enough to be able to lead in those nations. And so we're very grateful for the leaders that God is giving us and we're identifying them through the help and leadership of Dave Taylor in particular, and also Rich Richardson. And we're investing into those men. We just did the global leadership development retreat about a month or two ago.

And the guys from around the world that were there: Barnabas, from Nepal, Jeffrey Jo, from the Philippines, Carlos from Juarez, Mexico, Ed O'Mara who is moving to Italy as most people know, Joselo Mercado was there, he travels throughout Latin America. Those are just some of the men: Michael Granger, we're investing into who's in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and also Dyonah Thomas in Monrovia, Liberia. Just some of the leaders that God is giving us and we're actively discipling and investing into. And they're just already having a wonderful impact in Sovereign Grace and already, I see them to be men that we can learn from as Americans and it's very humbling just to labor alongside of them in the gospel, given their character and given their heart for the gospel.

Benjamin Kreps:

And so the end game then is to help these men, equip these men, serve these men, to be able to proactively begin leading in their cultural context in the country they lead because ultimately we're not trying to export Americans into other countries to become men who lead in those countries but to equip the men who are already there and the pastors who are already serving. That was a little bit more of a theoretical idea at the outset of all of this activity where so many churches and pastors have been approaching Sovereign Grace over the past few years. Of course, Dave Taylor, like you said, leading us so well, a little bit theoretical, although in Mexico, they've been ahead of us in all of this. But what was maybe more theoretical at the outset now is becoming a reality that we get to observe. So you have some updates for us about how men in other countries are now stepping into the role of leading in their context when it comes to being sort of representatives, ambassadors of Sovereign Grace. Can you tell us about those updates?

Mark Prater:

I would love to, and as you said, Ben, these men are already leading in ways that they're either already building or beginning to build Sovereign Grace in their respective nations. Let me start with Mexico, because as you said, Mexico has been doing this for years because of the leadership of Carlos Contreras. He just continues to lead so well in that nation. Carlos is a gift to our family of churches. He's building a team of men that are helping him to lead in Mexico: Abelardo Munoz, Hellman Avila, Manolo Quintal, are men that are working with him. And they're just doing a great job. So one of the things that's happening actually this month, and please pray for this is a retreat that Carlos will be leading. Rich Richardson will be there as well. A retreat in Guadalajara, Mexico. This sort of has two purposes. Part of the time together is to invest into leaders in Mexico and in Latin America that are in South America that have interest in Sovereign Grace or are already pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace. So that's gonna be wonderful. Rich led that last year, decided we need to do that again. So that'll be a component of the gathering there in Guadalajara, but also as I understand it, the guys from Mexico, really the Mexico region is gathering together and talking about and dreaming and praying about their future in Mexico. So please pray for that. And we thank God for our Mexican brothers and all that they're doing and building in Sovereign Grace in Mexico, and really they're reaching beyond, into South America.

Let me go to the Philippines because this is happening next month in June. Jeffrey Jo, who leads a church in Manila, Philippines, and is an ordained elder in Sovereign Grace, his church is an Emerging Nations church, a full partner church. Now he's traveling to a section or an area of the Philippines. I believe several hours from Manila. It's called the Mindanao region. And while serving in the middle week of June, he's going to be meeting with the 10 churches who have already signed letters of intent, and they are candidate churches in Sovereign Grace. And he's just going to spend a week with them and then get this: he's going to leave two members from his team in that region for a couple of months to continue to invest into those pastors and build into those churches as they become a part of Sovereign Grace.

It's just a wonderful investment that particular church is making. And while he's in that area, then Jeff is going to head to a neighboring province down there called Siargao, I believe. And there are 10 churches in that province who really have good interest, strong interest, in being a part of Sovereign Grace. So he'll spend some time with them as well. So Jeffrey Jo is already building Sovereign Grace churches in the Philippines, and he's very effective.

And then one other update about Italy. I mentioned that Ed O'Mara, will be moving to Italy in July. He's actually there right now, as we're recording this podcast, for a couple of reasons. First, he's looking for a home that he can rent or buy for their move, but he's in Catania, the city that he will be in initially. There's a church in that city who has interest in being a part of Sovereign Grace. And this week or this weekend, I believe he is leading a marriage conference along with Larry McCall, who is a pastor at Christ's Covenant Church in Winona Lake, Indiana, a pastor who is part of your region, Ben.

And it's just a wonderful way to begin to gather pastors in that area of Italy and expose them to our values as it relates to the gospel being applied to marriage, in this case. It's also a wonderful expression of partnership, isn't it? Larry traveling from Indiana to be with Ed so they can partner together in investing into pastors in Italy. And that'll be a good first step in building Sovereign Grace Churches of Italy. So just a few updates that you can be praying for, for those of you that are listening to this podcast or reading the transcript.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Excellent. It is deeply gratifying to see the relationships that are being built with these wonderful gifted pastors and leaders in these other countries. And then to see them become a part of Sovereign Grace and then begin to do the work there as they can do way better than we can. If we decided we were going to, for instance, go to the Philippines and get started, it might take a while. If ever <laugh>. So, how grateful we are that God is blessing the efforts of these men and that we get to be in partnership with them. So, Mark, thanks for the updates. And thank you everyone for watching or reading. We'll see you here soon, Lord willing. Bye for now.