Gratitude for Those in Sovereign Grace Churches

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prader podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our Executive Director.

Mark, we are recording this the day before Thanksgiving in the States. We acknowledge that Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and we have folks from all over the world that check out the podcast because we are a global family of churches. But for every Christian, certainly each day is a fresh opportunity for Thanksgiving. And one of our shaping virtues, of course, in Sovereign Grace is gratefulness. We have so much to be grateful for. But we do enjoy, in the States, this time of year where to set aside specific time to be able to think about how God has been good and faithful to us. And so we're celebrating Thanksgiving over here. You're celebrating Thanksgiving. What's that look like in your house?

Mark Prater:

Well, we gather, in fact tomorrow, on Thursday, Thanksgiving day. All of our kids and grandkids will be there, which will be a lot of fun. It'll be chaos, but it'll be a lot of fun. And one of the traditions we have is that we just go around the table and everyone has to share ways in which they thank God for his work in their life over the last year. And we just have wonderful memories from a conversation like that as a family. There are moments where we're just laughing and moments where in tears because of what is shared.

I always look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday with that tradition in view. And I'm sure other families have similar traditions. It really is just one way for Christian families, I think, to just to live out that consistent excitations to Thanksgiving throughout the New Testament and the consistent example of Paul in particular in his epistles of how he just expressed thanks generally and specifically for those he was writing too. So I love the Thanksgiving holiday for that reason. I can't wait to gather with my family tomorrow and just hear what my family members have to say.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it as well. I mean, is there anything more fitting for those that have been washed by the blood of the lamb than to be grateful and so great holiday including football, American football, and the fact for which I'm very grateful this year and that is the Cowboys stink. And so I will be celebrating as I gather with my relatives who are Cowboys fans tomorrow as we eat turkey and watch the Cowboys hopefully lose.

But on a more serious note, there is so much to be grateful for in our lives, and as we were preparing to record the podcast, you were practically bubbling over with anticipation of sharing specific things you're grateful for in Sovereign Grace Churches. So talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I first just want to express gratitude for the pastors—regardless of whether in the States or not—pastors who pastor faithfully in Sovereign Grace Churches. And I've just been thinking about them a lot this week and just carrying my brothers on my heart and truly thanking God for them just because of their godly character and their faithful labors for Christ and they're friends and I thank God for them.

There's just a long list of things I could thank God for and just praying, “Lord, how do I get this list down into a podcast form?” So three things that I thank God for the pastors of Sovereign Grace. The first is faithfully and accurately preaching God's word.

That can sound like a ho-hum sort of point. But if we believe that God inspired men to write his word, which we do, this is wholly inspired Scripture. And if we believe that when we read the word and when the word is preached to us, it is actually God speaking to us, God using men to speak to us as they faithfully and accurately preaches word, then that point becomes even a little bit more meaningful in that regard. We gather each Sunday to hear from God himself as the word is faithfully preached. I just thank God for the pastors in Sovereign Grace Churches who spend hours on sermon prep. And the reason they're doing that is they want to not be faithful but accurate in exegeting what God has said because there is a fear of the Lord that you have when you preach God's word because you are representing him. It's God speaking to us through his word. So, thank you brothers for working hard in ways that many of your members don't see as you toil over a text and as you prepare each and every week. There'll be pastors preaching this week, thinking about Sunday on the Thanksgiving holiday. So they're thinking about it throughout the week. So, thank you brothers for that sacrifice.

The second thing I thank God for the pastors of Sovereign Grace is how you lead your churches mindful of your members. And what I mean by that is we believe in elder-governed, elder-led churches. And so we feel, as pastors, a responsibility for the church that we want to lead it well, we want to protect it, care for it, and lead it in a direction that God intends. But we don't do that in a vacuum. We lead in such a way that we want to make leadership decisions that best serve the members of our churches, not that best serve us, but best serve them and best serve the church as a whole. And I think that's really important in elder-led, elder-governed polity. And I want to read a quote that can be found in our very first perspectives booklet, Who Governs the Church written by Jared Mellinger. I commend this book to our pastors, read it. You received a copy at the Council of Elders meeting. But if you're a member of one of our churches, I would encourage you to read this booklet as well. It is really, really well done. But he quotes Alexander Strauch in his book Biblical Eldership. This is what he says,

“When issues are brought to the congregation, the elders, as Spirit placed shepherds, take the lead in guiding the congregation in orderly and prayerful decision-making. As the congregation looks to its elders for wise leadership, the elders also look to the congregation, their brothers and sisters for wisdom, counsel, inspiration, creative ideas, health and prayer. Elders who understand the sacred nature and dynamic energy of the Spirit-empowered congregation, know the necessity of congregational participation in all major decisions.”

So, we lead, but we don't lead in a vacuum. And I thought Strauch captures that very well. So thank you for being men who faithfully lead your churches, mindful of your people and getting the input of the members of your church as you do.

The third thing I thank God for are all the way that you serve in ways that are just not seen by the average member of your church. And the first thing that comes to mind is how you pray—how you pray for your church, how you pray for your people, how you pray for specific individuals in your church that may be going through a difficult time that you carry on our heart. Those prayers aren't seen except by the Lord himself who hears them. Thank you for that.

And then just a late-night texts and phone calls you might have because there's a pastoral issue. I was just thinking of this last night. Jill and I were at our community group, and that's a group of pastors and wives where we gathered twice a month to have biblical fellowship. And near the end of the meeting, one of the pastors had to get on a text because there was a pastoral issue in our church. And I just thought so many of the members don't see that, but this is a faithful pastor pastoring in his church. So thank you for pastoring in all the ways that are unseen.

So just a few ways I thank God for the pastors in Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. You're not only grateful for the pastors of Sovereign Grace, you are also full of gratitude for the members of Sovereign Grace Churches. And you wanted to express some of that gratitude as well.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I do. I just love the members of our churches. As I travel around, I get to know them and they're just dear people. They're just dear believers who sincerely want to follow Christ and love the local church and want to grow in Christ. It's just wonderful to see. So just three ways that I thank the members, which is a much longer list by the way.

Benjamin Kreps:

You're restraining yourself.

Mark Prater:

I am restraining myself. Okay, three ways I thank God for the members of our churches. And, by the way, I'm not trying to be exclusive here. I think these ways mark other churches in other denominations. I just want to thank God for the members of the family of churches we belong to.

So first, and this is related to the first one I gave for the pastors: eager to learn and apply God's Word. One of the things that strikes me as I am in different Sovereign Grace Churches is how are the members of our church, they lean in during the preaching. They want to hear God's word. And they now want to understand it and learn more about it, they really have a desire to apply it desire so that the preaching of the word has this transformational effect in their hearts and souls progressively over time. And a part of the way that they do that is through fellowship and their commitment to participating in regular fellowship through small group ministry.

I mentioned I was at community group last night, and, on the way to community group, just thanking God that he calls us, even commands us, to have regular fellowship because without it we wouldn't be able to grow. And I just began to think about all the small group leaders in Sovereign Grace who are leading meetings, even maybe last night and thanking God for them. So, if you're a small group leader in a Sovereign Grace Church, thank you. Mine and Jill’s group is led by Rob and Gina Flood, and we love being in their group. We just thank God for Rob and Gina Flood. So that's the first one, eager to learn and apply God's word.

Secondly, the members of our churches serve in ways that are unseen. I mentioned that about pastors. I wanted to mention this one regarding members. Just so many ways that on a Sunday morning, if you pay attention, you'll maybe notice, maybe not because so many are serving behind the scenes. Whether that's serving with tech and sound on a Sunday morning, or in children's ministry where you drop off your children, or you're praying before the service with a group in a separate room for the service that day—those are just some of the ways that our members serve not to be seen, or noticed, or thanked, but because they love serving God and they love serving his church. So, thank you for all the ways that you serve.

And then third, there's so many things I could write about this, but thank you for your generosity. You are a generous people who give faithfully and generously each and every week to your church and maybe beyond your church. The church is able to function and do gospel ministry because of your faithful generosity, and many times sacrificial generosity. And I think that's just a remarkable evidence of grace on your life and I just thank God for you and all of those ways and more for the members of our churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, that's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that, Mark. I mean, the things you're highlighting that I love is for pastors and members in our churches. I imagine for many of them, most of them, it can just feel like, “Well, not that big of a deal. Not very meaningful; just trying to glorify God and serve and do my part.” But you're highlighting just what an evidence of grace it is in all of these things—of God's activity throughout our churches, pastors preaching God's word—that is not a given in our culture, and yet our pastors are committed to it—to serving and courageously shepherding the church. And members of our churches serving and giving in partnership together. Man, we do have so much to be grateful for, including you, Mark. So, thank you, Mark and the Leadership Team, including Jared. Thanks for the book on elder governance. We'll be checking that out. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.