Growing Faith for Church Planting

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches to our executive director. Mark, you're standing.

Mark Prater:

I am standing. Progress. Yeah, I went to physical therapy yesterday and bent it 30 degrees. It was this liberating experience. So I'm doing exercises or I have to take the brace off a couple times a day and bend at 30 degrees. So, progressively, hopefully, we just bend it more over the next several weeks.

Benjamin Kreps:

Praise God. I'm sure there's lots of us out there praying for you and so grateful to see you recovering. So last podcast, you talked about what you're learning through the testing of your faith as you've experienced the trial of severed tendon in your knee and you shared with us some wonderful insights about what God is teaching you and deepening you in your faith and your relationship with him. But on this podcast, you want to talk about a different way that God tests our faith in order to grow us in our faith and dependence on God.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I want to talk about it first of all because I think it reveals how much God loves us in Christ and because of Christ. He loves us, but because of Christ, we are his children. And that love is expressed in so many different ways, so many good ways. But one of those is he tests our faith because he loves us. He wants us to have our faith strengthened in him, which not only builds your relationship with him, but it helps you accomplish the things that he's called you to do as a pastor or as a member of a church or as a church community. And we need faith to trust God to do those things.

And so I've been thinking a little bit about that as it relates to church planting. Anybody that was at the pastor's conference last year heard me share my heart and burden that we would take risks to plant more churches here in the States. And those are the kinds of testing of faith that I want to talk about. He tests our faith in trials. James 1 talks about that, but he also tests our faith for the purpose of growing our faith by taking thoughtful risks to advance the gospel. And that includes church planting. And when it comes to church planting, we begin to think about planting a church. Maybe an eldership does or maybe a church begins to talk about it. We can go to the practicals and that's not a wrong thing to do. Many of the practicals are important. Like do we have a person to plant the church? Do we have a guy who can do it? Do we have a location? Is that a viable location? Do we have the finances? Those kind of questions are important to do, but we sometimes miss things that we see in scripture that we're to do. And those things in particular I think strengthen our faith. They test our faith and strengthen our faith.

So the first one is prayer. And I think a great example is in Acts 13, many people know this passage. In Acts 13:1 it says, "Now there were in the church at Antioch Prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who's called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean, and a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrach, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting", so they're together, they're worshiping, they're praying, they're fasting, "the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off." So that missionary journey that Barnabas and Paul took, the very first one was initiated through the process of prayer and the Spirit made it clear to them what they were to do.

So what did that do to their faith? It must have strengthened their faith. I'm certain it did; that when you pray and then you see God answer those prayers, it strengthens your faith for mission and risk to plant a church. And that's been your experience at Living Hope. You pray because you didn't have a church planter and God brought church planters and a year or two later, I forget what it was, you planted that church. And so your church's faith was strengthened because of calling the church to pray. So that's just one thing we are, I think we're called to do that tests and strengthens our faith.

Here's the other one: that is to remain dependent upon the leading and the help of the Holy Spirit. And that's just true in general I think for ministry because we as pastors are called to do things men can't do. I think it's true for every Christian, we are called to do things that we can't do. We share the gospel, but we can't bring about conversions apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. There's just a great story in Acts 16 that talks about that. This is Acts 16:6. "And then they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." So the Spirit didn't allow them to go to Asia and share the gospel there. "And when they had come to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." So they didn't go. "So, passing by Mysia, they went to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."

And it is just a great passage of what we see as the mission advances in Acts and it continues to advance today, is the help and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so we as pastors and churches want to be just mindful that we have a Spirit led mission and be mindful of what the Spirit may be saying to us and leading us. Now, I'm not saying we're going to have visions like Paul did, but the point is that there's a reliance upon the Spirit as the Spirit leads you in ministry like that, it strengthens your faith, it bolsters your faith. And I think we need that kind of confidence in God, that God will meet us in the risks that we take to plant churches.

And one of the passages that comes to mind for that is in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, now Paul here is talking about divisions in the church. He's not talking about church planting. There's a principle in these verses I think that's very important. So Paul in verse 5 says, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field in God's building." So obviously the text is making the point. Look, Apollos and Paul are just men who planted and watered. It is God who gives the growth.

And I think that principle of God giving the growth applies to church planting because it's repeated twice in that passage I just read. The point that Paul is making is that God gives the growth and God gives the growth as we send our best. It's risky; what will happen to the church and will we grow back again? Will our finances grow back again? We need to have faith that God will give the growth, but also for that plant. Will God give growth to that plant? Well, you're sowing, you're watering, you're planting, but God will give the growth. And so I think those are just steps of that we are to take in having confidence of God, steps of faith, of having confidence of God that he will give the growth. And so as I was just thinking through this a little bit more, you and I just had a recent conversation about your experience in sending out many of your best and what's happened since then. So I want you to tell that story, Ben.

Benjamin Kreps:

Oh, I'm happy to. I think your encouragement is helpful. There's lots of guys I'm sure would love to plant a church and just don't see how that could happen. And I would echo what you're saying. Here's a significant, perhaps the most significant step you'll ever take in church planting. Start a prayer meeting, start a prayer meeting and just begin praying about it. I think there was a general consensus about where we would plant. We ended up planting where we thought we would. But even in that as we started praying and I was encouraging the church, I was saying, let's just come with empty hands. Let's be willing to be surprised by God giving us or leading us in ways that we don't even anticipate that we can't even imagine yet. And so he did it in a number of ways. But even just beginning with that posture of dependence and willingness to follow the Spirit's leading, I think what you were saying is really important.

And so yeah, we did pray as a church in various ways. We had a prayer meeting where some people committed themselves to praying corporately. People were praying on Sundays, people praying in their families and so forth. Six months later, our church planter, Jeremy Hetrick walks in the door with his family, and talk about faith-building to have that kind of quick response. Now, God, of course, is sovereign over his mission and he decides where and how these kinds of things happen or if they happen at all. And it should be clear that if a church never plants a church that no one should feel condemned and that many churches will never plant a church. There are various ways, I think when you read the story of Antioch in which churches can participate in church planting; praying for other churches and church plants by perhaps sending people from their church or finances to help the church. And certainly through our giving, hopefully 10% to Sovereign Grace, we are participating in those church plant grants, and so just to establish that.

But for us, we prayed, Jeremy arrived, we began to evaluate, I call him a unicorn. And because he had been previously ordained in Sovereign Grace and had served as a pastor, had experience, was trained, an interesting guy. So when we planted, we did so in faith, we had over a hundred people over in this location or near it that could potentially be part of the church plant. We initially said we can't send everyone. I mean there seems to be a limit around 65 is what we thought. And then just at one elder meeting we decided, you know what? Let's just take that limit right off. Let's just go all in and for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the strength in planting and strength in that church. And so we did send over a hundred people, a quarter of our membership. So when we did it, we were practical. We wanted to be wise. I like how you called it thoughtful risk. Of course we don't want to be foolish, even though sometimes people might think we look foolish in our willingness to sacrifice. I'm going to be thoughtful. We need to care not only for the people that are leaving and the people that are staying of course. And so we endeavored to do all of that and practically ran the numbers.

I think one of the most helpful things, too, is the church planting group and the resources that were supplied. They just held our hands. So if anybody's out there going, well, this all just feels kind of in the ether and theoretical and how do you do it? I'm like, I didn't know how to do it. And the church planting group had all the resources and guidance that we needed so that now on the other side of this church plant, I feel confident, much more confident about it, let's do it again. Now I know what it looks like. So my faith is only grown in that. And in fact, we are evaluating two men who just became pastoral residents on our team and we feel very hopeful that they're going to be leading the next church plant. So potentially plurality.

But in immediately following the church plant, I felt a deep sense of sorrow and loss and I would mutter to myself here and there, what have I done? What have I done to this church? And so that's part of it as well. There's highs and lows and there was a conspicuous decline in attendance immediately following the plant. We took 75 chairs out of our auditorium and planned a budget that had a deficit in it for this upcoming year. Thank God we had some funds to cover that kind of thing. I can report back and say, what's happening seven months later? All the chairs are back in. You wouldn't be able to tell that we have planted. No one would guess we sent a quarter of the church away if they were visiting for the first time. God is providing in ways, the church has always excelled to the grace of giving. And so that continues, thank God, even additional gifts that have helped. And so we are not struggling financially. God has been faithful. We decided to bank everything on the faithfulness of God. That's the way I would put it when I communicated to the church I serve, and God has been faithful. I told the church, I feel a sense of confidence that God's not going to take us out because we risk to see the advance of the gospel in central Pennsylvania.

And there are so many promises connected to giving. I know sometimes guys get a little nervous around promises connecting to giving because of the prosperity gospel, they don't get to have our promises. We get to have those rich and wonderful promises that God will be faithful to us when we give. He will provide, he will replenish our seed for sowing. And so just leaning into all those marvelous promises to build our faith the days ahead. So we are a church now that we're into church planting. It's kind of addictive. So we full well plan to do it again. We're planning to do it again. We keep praying. We started a new prayer meeting this year with focus on corporate. We want to grow in corporate prayer. And so we're seeing a lot more people coming out for prayer meetings and things like that.

So yes, thoughtful risk. It means you're in for an adventure, but following Jesus oftentimes will look like an adventure, just one step in front of the other depending on him, guided by the Spirit. Who knows what will come, but all of it will glorify him and it'll be for our good. So our faith has been tested. There were moments of panic in the whole process, but we come out on the other side strengthened. We have been strengthened in our faith and resolve to endeavor, to take thoughtful risk for Jesus.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, amen. It's a wonderful story. And there are other pastors in Sovereign Grace who could tell similar stories. The pastoral team at Cornerstone Church in Knoxville, they've planted two churches and sent out their best. And God replenished. It's been our experience at Covenant Fellowship Church and church planting over the years Sovereign Grace Church of Orange where Eric Turbedsky is, they planted in Santa Ana and God replenished. So there are just stories of God's faithfulness. So whether it's the stories in scripture, that couple that I read, or the stories that we hear today like the one you just shared, they're intended to strengthen our faith, to test our faith, and to strengthen our faith so that we will take thoughtful risks to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's still fun first of all, it's just fun to do it. It is an adventure, but it is also God's love to us that he would deepen our faith to send our best and take risks to advance the gospel. He loves that and he's going to bless it.

So I want to end on that. Just let us take thoughtful risks, praying and in dependence upon the Spirit to lead us. And may it lead to the planting of churches. It's not just planting churches. I've said this over and over again. It is reaching those who don't know Christ in that area with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. There's risk and faith for those who send. We've experienced a sacrifice and perhaps even more faith and risk for those who go. But in both of these categories, those who have gone and those who have remained, all of our faith has been strengthened in various ways. And so I think we are more mature now and more eager to engage in the mission of Jesus. So thank you, Mark, for your encouragement. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.