Not Just Another Conference; A Family Gathering
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ben Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater Podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches to our Executive Director. As we record this Mark, we're just a few days away from the Council of Elders and then the Pastors Conference, which we're all looking forward to with great anticipation of what God's going to do as we gather together. But that begs the question, I think, just simply philosophically, why do we have a pastors conference each each year?
Mark Prater:
It's a great question because there's a lot of conferences in our day and age. And it can be thought, Why am I doing this? Why am I going another conference? It's a legitimate question. And if we were just doing conferences to do conferences, we would stop doing conferences, <laugh>. So we don't perpetuate doing this. We really have some good reasons for why we have an annual pastors conference every year in Sovereign Grace Churches. It is a conference that is planned and led by the Leadership Team; the privilege I have of leading that team of men. And we've put careful thought and prayer and a lot of conversation into this conference because our desire is to serve the pastors and wives of Sovereign Grace along with any of our guests and members of our churches that will join us next week.
You've got to remember, it's a conference that pastors are coming to where most of them don't have any responsibility. Most of the time when pastors are gathering with their people, they have responsibility to lead, to teach, and to give pastoral care. But this is a conference where they can just come and hopefully just receive. And so we plan with that in view. One of our goals as a Leadership Team is that this would be a spiritual, relational highlight for our pastors and their wives, as well as for our guests and members of our churches. And so we plan that way. We want to feed their souls through the preaching and teaching of God's word. We want to look for ways to pastorally care, whether it's through prayer or time of ministry. And we do that. We plan it that way. And the spirit typically leads to care for pastors and wives. And they do a great job of caring for one another which is wonderful as they relate together. So that's one reason.
The second reason is to cast a theological vision for our family of churches, which is so important as our culture drifts further away from God's word. And so we do that through preaching and teaching, but we also do that through breakout sessions and panel discussions. And then we want to cast vision for our shared mission to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ together. We do that through obviously preaching and teaching, but also through a number of updates that are occurring as we hear about what's happening throughout the world in Sovereign Grace Churches. And we do that through interest meetings like church planting interest meetings that will be happening next week.
And we also do a conference every year because we are a family. We call ourselves a family of churches. And of course, when we ratified our BCO in 2013, we officially became a denomination, but we still build relationally. We want to continue to build relationally. And so this is like one big family reunion. It what it's really all about. And our desire is for all those particular components to come together in a way, and that we would walk through next week in a way, or this coming week as this comes into your inbox, in a way that gives God glory. So there are some of the reasons we do a conference each and every year.
Ben Kreps:
Amen. So looking forward to gathering with, I think you said 700 people approximately have signed up. I know we've gone through some difficult waters, and some pastors conferences over the years that were not so joyful. But over the last couple years, it's just wonderful how our joy is heightened and really God is blessing us in a number of ways. So that's the why we do pastors conferences, what's gonna be happening. But I think some of us know sort broad strokes, You're right in the heart of finishing up your preparation for the conference. This is Thursday. But what is going to be happening at the conference that you're looking forward to?
Mark Prater:
First to start with just who's gonna be there. As you said, we've got about 700 people registered for the conference. We also expect some walk-in registrations. We have people coming from 21 different nations. So when we talk about being a family of churches, we're becoming more of a global family of churches. So think of that; 21 different nations represented at the conference. We also have about 105 people who have never been to a pastors conference before. And we just love when people come for the very first time. They don't know what to expect and we see them experience the grace of God and how God moves through our main sessions and breakout sessions is always just encouraging to see.
So that's just a little bit of an idea of who's coming this week as we do our pastors conference, and we're celebrating 40 years as a family of churches. And we want to focus on in celebrating 40 years is being grateful for God's faithfulness. We want to celebrate just really who we are. We're attempting to be a gospel-centered family of churches. So let's just talk about our gospel centrality. That's not unique to Sovereign Grace. I don't want it to sound that way, but it is a distinct work that he's done in our family of churches. And so we've planned a number of sessions that really talk about that. The opening night we've asked CJ to preach on the power of the cross, because if there's anything we want to be known for, it's preaching Christ and him crucified. And yes, he just has this unique ability to preach the cross very effectively. So I can't wait for that sermon. As we start on Tuesday night, we also have some creative elements planned that I won't share but we're looking forward to just pulling off the conference in a way that builds us together. And the goal is, first of all, that we would lead the conference saying we're doing something grand for Jesus Christ. And guess what? We're doing that together as a family of churches, regardless of what nation your church is located in. And ultimately, we do this conference so that Christ would receive all the glory. So that's the way we pray, that God would receive all the glory for what will occur this week.
Ben Kreps:
Yeah. That's excellent. So grateful for you and the Leadership Team and for your effort, your labors to prepare this conference. I know there's some secret things that are happening. You have kept your cards close to your vest, so looking forward to seeing what surprises are in store. You know another thing that I'm grateful for about the conference, it's one more expression of the gift that God has given us: that we are family. And so when I am heading into the conference, I just think, I get to go be with my people. You often hear about pastors who are lonely, who are isolated, and none of us need feel that way or have that experience because of our partnership in Sovereign Grace. So what a gift God has given us, that we have our people and we get to gather together, as Sovereign Grace Churches, next week. So thank you, Mark, for your investment, your labor on our behalf. Can't wait to see you in person in just a few days and to to see everybody else, too. So thank you all for watching or reading. Not sure if we're doing a podcast next week. We'll see. But we'll see you soon, Lord willing. Bye for now.