Global Leadership Development Retreat

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, some of the guys and ladies that have been following along on this podcast might remember, I think last year, we talked about how the Leadership Team is seeking to invest in leaders. And we had a retreat last year to that end, and I actually got to participate in that, in Louisville with some guys in the states. But you also have a heart and desire to invest in and help develop leaders globally. We are a global family of churches after all, and you have a retreat that investing in that, next week. Could you tell us about that retreat?

Mark Prater:

I would love to Ben. First of all, just investing in leaders is real important because as we think about the future of Sovereign Grace, we want to pass the baton to the next generation who will be leading Sovereign Grace. And I think in many ways better than certainly I have. So I'm really excited about our efforts in leadership development. And it's maybe a reminder to our guys to be developing leaders in your church because you want to pass the baton well, I know. And so find ways to invest into young men through either formal or informal structures. As you mentioned, we've been doing leadership development for several years in Sovereign Grace, and Dave and I have been talking for a couple of years about pulling together our global leaders, those leaders outside of the states, some who live in the states actually but serve outside the states, for a leadership development course.

And so last year we actually pulled some of those guys together. We had to do it via Zoom because there were still a lot of COVID restrictions, but this year I'm happy to report that next week when this podcast drops into the inbox on Monday, I'll be on my way to Southern California, where I'll meet Dave Taylor who's traveling from Sydney, and he and I together are going to lead a global leadership development retreat face-to-face, which we're very excited about. So guys that are coming from outside of the states: obviously Dave is coming from Sydney, Australia, Jeffrey Jo is traveling from Manila, Phillippines, Barnabas is coming from Nepal, Carlos Contreras is coming from Juarez, Mexico. We had hoped Dyonah Thomas would be able to join us from Liberia, but he wasn't able to get a visa and he will be able to Zoom in some. We've also included invitations to Michael Granger but he just has too much going on in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia right now so he's not able to join us.

And there are a couple of guys from the states: Joselo Mecado, as most listeners know, Joselo serves extensively throughout Latin America. And then we have Ed O'Mara joining us as well. Ed, as most folks know, is moving to Italy in July and plans to begin a process of eventually planting a Sovereign Grace church in that nation to build Sovereign Grace Churches. So as you can hear by the names and the countries I've mentioned, these are key leaders for us that are going to be important in helping us advance the gospel throughout the world in the years to come.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that's excellent. Yeah, I did inform Ed O'Mara last year at the conference that even though I know it would be a huge sacrifice, I would be willing to go to Italy to serve him.

Mark Prater:

(Laughter) Good for you. You sacrifice for the gospel, Ben, in wonderful ways.

Benjamin Kreps:

Just who I am. That's who I am. So what a great group of guys that you're going to gather with. What kinds of things are you going to be talking about next week?

Mark Prater:

Dave's got a great plan. He and I worked it out together. Dave's really going to start the retreat by us just taking a lot of time to hear from each of the guys regarding what's happening in their nation. We want to hear about how they got connected with Sovereign Grace, what's happening presently in their nation, and what are their hopes for the future with Sovereign Grace in their nation. And we just want to take our time so that each guy is able to unpack that. And we want to do that because we want to hear what they have to say. We want to learn from them. We want to do that because it's an opportunity to build relationally with those men and for those men to build relationally together. And also just to create a list of things that we can be praying for in each of the nations represented there.

So I'm really glad that Dave is leading us in that direction. He's also asked me to talk about a few things. One is what I've learned as Executive Director, how to think like a denominational leader, so I'll do a session on that. Obviously servant leadership has been a part of our culture in Sovereign Grace for decades. And we want to make sure that is continuing to be a value that marks our leadership in the future. So I'll talk a bit about servant leadership, and then he's also asked me to just talk a little bit about the leader's relationship with Christ and how important it is for the leader to grow in his relationship with Christ. I actually think the more responsibility you have, the more vital that becomes.

So I'll be sharing some thoughts along those lines. And then Dave is going to speak about the pastor and his hope and how to be a hopeful pastor, which I'm really looking forward to hearing that. We've got Jon Payne joining us for about a day and a half or so. He's just going to talk about healthy elderships and how to build healthy elderships. And then Eric who lives in Southern California is going to join us for an afternoon and just talk a little bit about church planting. So that's a bit of an overview of what we have planned and if you're listening to this podcast or reading the transcript, please pray for our retreat, if you would.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that sounds excellent. I might try to sneak in when you're not looking.

Mark Prater:

That'd be great. It'd be great to have you.

Benjamin Kreps:

Great. Well, guys will get this while the retreat's happening. So when you get this, I encourage you. Let's be praying for what God's doing globally and with these men that God has blessed us with by connecting us to them across the globe. So God bless you and your efforts and the rest of the Leadership Team and the guys that are helping with the retreat. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.