Leadership Team & Regional Leaders Retreat

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, you have another Leadership Team retreat coming up next week. We were talking before we started recording that you gather several times a year with the Leadership Team to discuss and to pray and to plan. So grateful for the work you guys do. This time, you won't be alone at this retreat, you will have the Regional Leaders with you, isn't that right?

Mark Prater:

That's right. We gather starting Monday next week. When this podcast drops into the inbox of people that listen, that'll be the first day of our retreat. So I wanted to mention the retreat at the start, by asking for your prayers. And you'll hear specific ways that you can pray.

As a Leadership Team we currently do three retreats a year. Although we're going to take a look at our meeting schedule and rhythm that we have as a Leadership Team with Zoom meetings and retreats and take a fresh look at it. Whether we continue that same frequency or not will be up for discussion next week. But this retreat is an important retreat because all the United States Regional Leaders are going to be joining us. And we did that last year at this time. And it went so well that we wanted to do it again this year. And our Regional Leaders, as our folks that are listening to this podcast know, they are so crucial when it comes to our partnership and us advancing the gospel together as a family of churches. They really are in many ways the key leaders in Sovereign Grace and on the front lines of doing ministry in Sovereign Grace, as they serve the pastors and churches in their region.

So we've tried to plan a retreat that will encourage them and give them a chance to build relationally with one another and with the Leadership Team, because we really see ourselves as a Leadership Team that leads with the Regional Leaders, and we wanted to find some ways to equip them as well. So what we really have planned for our time with the Regional Leaders is on Monday we will start by asking them to share updates about their own lives and what's happening in their region for the opportunity to build relationally and for us to know specifically how we can pray for them from there. I'm also going to be speaking a bit about the future of Sovereign Grace, just casting some vision about what I see for the future of our family of churches, so please pray for that as I continue to finish up that.

Jon Payne, our Director of Church Development, is going to speak on the crucial role of the Regional Leader and share some thoughts and we'll have some good discussion over that. Jeff will talk about theological and evangelical trends and things that we need to be aware of as we continue to equip our pastors to protect their churches, theologically. And then Dave Taylor's coming in from Sydney which we're excited about. He wasn't able to join us last year because of the lockdowns in Sydney, but he's able to come now and came in February for that retreat. He's going to talk about building a global denomination and how our regions here in the United States participate so meaningfully in that, and new ways or new opportunities they can continue to participate in with what we're doing throughout the world.

And then Jon is going to talk a little bit about regional resources tools available to the Regional Leaders. Jon's will spend some time talking about mediation and adjudications and some lessons we've learned from. And then we're going to close that time with the Regional Leaders by asking Mickey Connolly to share something like "a father's heart for younger pastors" because Mickey models that so well. And we want our other Regional Leaders to benefit as well. So that's a bit what we have planned with the Regional Leaders. As you hear those topics, please pray for each of them and pray that the spirit would fill us and lead us during our time together.

Benjamin Kreps:

That sounds wonderful. I just love how at every level in Sovereign Grace, we build relationally. And that's just another expression of that. Sounds like a great time. Shout-out to Jace Hudson, my new Regional Leader who will be there. But they'll leave after a couple of days, and then you'll spend the rest of your time doing what, as a Leadership Team?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. Maybe take a nap after that. <laugh> not really. But yeah, we work really hard at these retreats. We have a lot of fun. We laugh together and continue to build relationships as Leadership Team. But one of the things we have planned to talk about and I may have mentioned before in a previous podcast, that for a number of really good reasons, one of those being the opportunities we're having globally to participate in mission and ministry with churches throughout the world, the Leadership Team has a growing workload that each member is experiencing and feels.

So, we've got to step back and figure out how to effectively manage all that God has given us. How do we do that in a way that we don't get pulled too much into operational and administrative management and continue to have time to lead? And how do we do that as a Leadership Team and continue to build together? So those are some big questions we're going to wrestle with. And in that conversation we'll talk about the rhythm of our meeting schedule, monthly Zoom meetings, and retreats. We're going to take a look at that.

I have another conversation that we started a couple of retreats ago. What does it mean for us as a Leadership Team to be a global Leadership Team? And we're trying to get our hands around that. So we need wisdom there, please pray for that conversation. We'll talk about global theological training. So what does it look like for us to train pastors theologically, both in the states and outside of the states? How does Jeff influence that, given that we have pastors colleges outside the states now, and will have additional pastors colleges in the future? We’ll talk a little bit about that.

Dave Taylor is going to bring a proposal for unreached people groups. And we're going to kick that around as a Leadership Team. And the purpose of it is defining where we're at on that issue. We believe in missionaries, but what about reaching the unreached people groups? And then based on that conversation, how do we effectively deploy those who may want to participate in reaching the unreached? How do we deploy them effectively in Sovereign Grace and yet maintain our theological values and our desire to build relationships? So those are some of the things we'll be talking about as a Leadership Team. And I would really appreciate your prayers, because I'm going into this retreat feeling like I really need God's wisdom. And I think we as a team, feel that collectively. Lord, please speak to us and grant us wisdom as we meet and discuss together.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent. We'll be praying for that wisdom from above that God promises to give to all who ask in faith, confident God will meet you during that week. And we're just grateful for the Leadership Team for the way that you lead on that team and for the fruitful work that's happening. The opportunities are incredible. And the future looks bright. So thank you for leading that and for all who will be involved. Thank you for watching. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.