God's Good Work in Europe
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ben Kreps:
Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our Sovereign Grace global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, on the last podcast, those who've been following along know that you talked about your trip while in Germany when we recorded the podcast. You were in Germany for the Eckstein Conference, which means cornerstone 'cause we Googled it. You preached several times and interacted with a bunch of of folks there. Tell us how it went.
Mark Prater:
That conference went very, very well. It exceeded my expectations in terms of how God worked. During the Eckstein Conference, which was last Friday through Sunday, there were seven or 800 people registered for the conference. Pastors from not only Germany but from around Europe, Ukraine, and Belarus. And it was just a wonderful conference. The theme of the conference was Staying the Course, and all sermons were from 1 Peter. And as you know, 1st Peter is a letter written to Christians who are facing trials and suffering, opposition and persecution. And as I talked with pastors throughout the conference, I realized how appropriate that theme of the conference was because compared to the United States, Europe is probably 20 or 30 years ahead of living in a post-Christian or post-truth world. There's a further progression away from God's word that they're encountering throughout Europe.
So it was just a wonderful theme to be speaking into, to encourage them in the faith but also to talk with our brothers from both the Ukraine and Belarus. I had a chance to meet Michael Ostanin, pastor at ARK church, Dnipro Ukraine. And we've talked about him in a previous podcast. He is pastoring his church and caring for refugees who are making their way still from the east and southern part of Ukraine, trying to get to the West to find safety. And they're finding themselves in his church where they're receiving food and medical supplies or getting a place to sleep. And some of them are hearing the gospel for the very first time. So Michael is a man that is full of faith and a man who is very aware of his dependence upon God.
Jeff Purswell and I were talking to him, just asking him how he was doing. He said: "I'm just learning how weak of a man I really am and how dependent I am upon God." So God is using this to shape him as a pastor, and not only to be a pastor who relies upon God's strength, but also a pastor being used as a wonderful example to the other pastors that were there at the conference and in Sovereign Grace. I was deeply impacted by his example. And then also had a chance to talk with three pastors from Belarus. Pastors that we've been relating to. And they are facing real opposition as well, right? Many of them are living in fear that they and the members of their church are being watched, that they could be arrested. And I just left that conference thinking, I don't have any problems <laugh> because of what Michael Ostanin and what the brothers in Belarus are facing. So it was just a great conference that I think built up pastors and their wives in God's word and encouraged them to continue on with the good gospel work they're doing in different parts of Europe.
Ben Kreps:
I'm so glad that you got to serve the 700-800 people that were there. I've sometimes told my church, you talked about how they're 20 years ahead of us, but we are also in a trajectory that's moving away from any kind of Judeo Christian sort of culture. But I've often told my church that things that we believe in the scriptures like 1 Peter that are precious to us. But what we can anticipate when we're in the middle of those trials and persecution, if they should come, is depth of sweetness that's waiting for us there, and relevance. And so, those guys that are faithfully serving in those difficult contexts are experiencing sweetness and depth of the word of God. And so glad to hear that you were able to help them.
Mark Prater:
You're so right, Ben. One of the things that stood out to me, in fact I encouraged the brothers from Belarus, some of the pastors that were laughing the most and had so much exuberant joy were the pastors from Belarus and the pastors from Ukraine. So it's exactly what you just talked about.
Ben Kreps:
Wow. Pure grace. So you didn't just do the Eckstein Conferece. There was also a gathering with European pastors. How did that go?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, on Tuesday of this week Jeff Purswell and I led the first Sovereign Grace Europe pastors meeting. And it was an outstanding day. There were pastors from Germany: from the Arche Church in Hamburg, and Arche Church in Stade, a church plant that was sent from the Hamburg Church. There were pastors there from Belarus as I mentioned before, also pastors from the UK: Matt Chapman and Peter Bowley from Grace Church in Bristol. And Greg Cruz who leads Horse Castle Evangelical Church in England was there as well. Also Ed O'Mara, from Italy, most guys know, he moved there in July. He and Robin and the kids are learning the language, getting cultural training. And they hope to plant somewhere in the north part of Italy next year with a man in the pastors college by the name of Rocco and his wife Maddy.
So that was who was gathered together. And really here's what we did with our time. We just spent a lot of time getting to know one another. As you know, we are a family of churches who want to build relationally, even as we expand globally. So I just had each of the guys give an update on who they are and about their family and church, and then share with us the biggest leadership challenge you're facing. We spent most of the time doing that. It was wonderful to see the guys get to know one another and even encourage one another as that was happening.
And then we just spent some time dreaming about what could Sovereign Grace look like in Europe. And the way we approached that conversation was to hear dreams from Germany and Belarus and England or the UK and Italy. And it was interesting that there were some consistent themes that really came out from those different nations. What they were saying was, we think about our future. We want to reach the lost with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And to do that, we want to plant more churches. So Christian Wegert, who leads Arche church in Hamburg, Germany said this at the conference and said it again on Tuesday: "My dream and my prayer is that there would be a gospel preaching church in every village in Germany." That's the vision that he casts. The guys from Belarus said "We need more churches in Belarus that preach the gospel because there's many people who don't know Christ there." Same heard from the UK. And Ed O'Mara just cast a vision of saying "I want to see interdependent gospel-centered churches led by indigenous men, men from Italy in the future". And so that was a theme. Let's plant churches. And to do that we need to equip pastors theologically, we need to equip pastors in practical theological practice as well. And so we talked about how to do that through pastors colleges, through training events.
So those were two themes that the guys were talking about. And it was interesting that the guys from every nation (although for Ed, he hasn't been there as long), but for Germany, Belarus, the UK, they said our challenge is to develop young leaders. We don't have enough young leaders and men who are called to pastoral ministry. So they want to think more and pray more and talk more about how they do that, possibly do that together.
Ben Kreps:
That's excellent and so encouraging to hear about pastors with godly ambition and vision to see Christ be made known throughout Europe. And it's wonderful to hear about how we are getting to join in to potentially support them, certainly. And when you said "Horse Castle Church", I mean, clearly you didn't even have to say they were in England. <Laugh> That must be a church in England, <laugh>.
Thanks for the update, Mark. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.