Global Ordinations & Church Plants
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, we've talked a number of times over the last few months about a wonderful development globally in Sovereign Grace Churches; that men outside of the states are going through the ordination process and actually being ordained in Sovereign Grace. And you have some updates for us on that front.
Mark Prater:
I do. I just was on a Zoom meeting last night with Dave Taylor, who is our Director of Emerging Nations and senior pastor of the Sovereign Grace Church there in Sydney as most of you guys know, and he was telling me sort of hot off the press news that we now have two elders, two pastors in different Sovereign Grace churches in the Philippines who are now ordained.
One of them is Jeffery Jo, who is leading a church, a big church in the Manila area and Cornelio Ebo who's in Cebu City who leads a church there. Those men went through our new ordination process. They did very well on those exams that were administered by the pastors in Australia and then voted on by that region, if you can say it that way. And so those guys are now fully ordained elders in Sovereign Grace. So what that means is we have JP ordained in the Andhra Pradesh region of India, we now have Cornelio and Jeffery Jo ordained in the Philippines; we just celebrated last year, Manolo Quintal went through the new ordination process in Silao, Mexico. So there are men outside of the United States that are being ordained and now they're ordained elders in Sovereign Grace.
So the question is, how do they, as ordained elders work within our polity when the polity that we put together, the BCO in particular, is really for the US and Canada? So that really points to the global partnership plan that the Leadership Team has been working on. And now we've put those BCO amendments that put that plan into effect, that will go to the Council of Elders in less than 30 days for their review and hopefully, approval. And what it will do is it will strengthen our global efforts throughout the world and help us seize upon the global opportunities God is giving us. So any guys that are listening or reading the transcript that are Council of Elders delegates, please review those BCO amendments and let me urge you to come to approve them so we can give men like Jeffrey Jo and Cornelio just some clarity on next steps for them.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent. That's a great update to hear. And it's a special joy for me to hear that because I went to Pastors College with Nilo Ebo. So shout out to you, Nilo. Job well done.
We were talking before this recording about what some guys might be surprised to hear that actually in Sovereign Grace, there have been nine church plants within the past two years. That seems like a higher number than maybe some guys would assume. Tell us a little bit about that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, of those nine, two are in the United States: one in San Antonio, Texas, and one in Prattville, Alabama. The other seven are outside of the United States. And again, it points to why this global partnership plan is so important and the requisite BCO amendment. So we're planting, most guys know, we're planting in Parramatta, Australia, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
But we're also planting churches in places like Kingsville, Liberia; a church in Guinea; a church in Davao City, Philippines, and we're helping those planters plant the church because they're saying "we want to be in Sovereign Grace; you just tell us what we need to do; we're all in." And so what the global partnership plan does is it provides clarity for those church planters to formalize their partnership with Sovereign Grace, for example, by becoming a candidate church where that planter pursues ordination in Sovereign Grace, gets ordained, and then becomes a partner church whether that's within the states or an Emerging Nations partner church.
So there are plants happening in places throughout the world: West Africa, Philippines, Latin America, Australia. And we're just wanting to give those men clarity as they help us to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ and reach people with the good news of Jesus that we wouldn't be reaching if the Lord didn't give us these opportunities. So another sort of encouragement to our Council of Elders delegates to review those BCO amendments and come ready to approve them November 8th at our Council of Elders meeting in Orlando.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yes. Can't wait to be together with everyone in just a couple of months. So thanks Mark for that update. I've noticed on my camera that there are lights blinking on my books. It's a psychedelic effect. Maybe we should be playing Pink Floyd right now. That sets the mood. I need a different camera, I think.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, maybe next podcast we'll have a walkup song for you. That could be a Pink Floyd song for example.
Benjamin Kreps:
I'll give you a list to choose from.
Mark Prater:
All right. That'd be great.
Benjamin Kreps:
All right. Thanks Mark for the update. Thank you everyone for watching and we'll see you here next week. Lord willing, bye for now.