2022 Pastors Conference
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. By now, Mark, I imagine most of the guys, pastors in Sovereign Grace, opened their email yesterday and saw that pastors conference registration is now open, exciting stuff.
Mark Prater:
It is exciting. I've been wanting to talk about the pastors conference for a number of weeks now and have restrained myself because I wanted to get the email out first and give an opportunity for guys to register. But I can't wait for this pastors conference. There's a number of reasons why I can't wait: to see all of our pastors and greet them and their wives; and can't wait for us to greet guests who will be there, by the way. I didn't put this in the email, but Dave Taylor tells me we probably have 75 to 100 people traveling from outside the states that will be at our conference this year. And so we had a full conference last year, but many folks globally still couldn't travel because of COVID. This year, we'll have a full house and a global audience if you can say it that way, a global gathering. So I can't wait for that. I can't wait to sing to Jesus with my brothers and sisters in Christ, in Sovereign Grace, to give him glory. And I can't wait to sit beside them and benefit from all the preaching that we'll enjoy in the main sessions and the breakout sessions.
But even more than that, I can't wait because this year at our conference, we are celebrating 40 years as a family of churches. Which is a celebration of God's grace. So think about that. We'll gather together in one place and celebrate 40 years of God's grace. That's gonna be fun and that's gonna be God glorifying. So, I just can't wait.
And as we have planned the conference and just thought about what would be the best theme to mark our 40 years, we couldn't think of a better theme than the power of the cross. I just can't. I love that theme and we've asked CJ to open our conference on Tuesday night, preaching on the cross, preaching on the power of the cross. I mean, it's that preaching that CJ has faithfully done on the cross for years that has built Sovereign Grace and shaped the gospel culture that we share. So I can't wait for that sermon in particular on Tuesday evening, right? That is going to be Christ exalting, and a reminder of really who we are in Sovereign Grace.
We've also asked Jeff Purswell, Jon Payne, Jared Mellinger, and Dave Taylor to preach main sessions. We really thought through breakout sessions and have five of them. One of them is a women's breakout session topic and speaker. All the information is forthcoming, but what I can promise you now is that will be a wonderful breakout session for the ladies.
And then we've got four other breakout sessions. One on evangelism: Can my church really be evangelistic? Jim Donohue and Jon Payne, and a panel of guys. I'm leading a breakout session, entitled Overseer: The inescapable call of pastoral leadership, and I'll teach. And then a panel with Walt Alexander, Rob Flood, and Dave York; they are going to help me talk about what it means for a pastor to lead his church. And that leadership has different expressions: operational leadership, administrative leadership, pastoral leadership. We'll talk about all of those and what we're looking to cultivate is leadership that casts a theological vision for the church that I think a church consistently needs. We've got Eric Turbedsky and Bill Kittrell doing a breakout section on pastoral friendship, friendships for pastors. I think that's going to be really good. And it's a unique topic that I don't think we've addressed before. And then Josh Blount is going to talk about what wisdom literature means for pastors. And only Josh can do that well, and Josh will do that well. So that's what we've got planned. I'm so excited. I hope everyone listening will register and join us in Orlando November 1st through the third.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Excellent. The hard part about the breakout sessions is, you know, you only get to go to one, but thankfully they get recorded to listen to later. Wow. What a wonderful agenda that the Leadership Team has put together for this conference? Can't wait. I mean, just that first night alone with CJ preaching on the cross is worth the price of admission, in my opinion. We've talked before on the podcast about using the pastors conference, not just as an opportunity to be refreshed and revived in our hearts for ministry, but also as a strategic tool to actually serve people in our church and even outside of our church. Talk about that.
Mark Prater:
It's something I think our pastors, especially in the last few years have continued to excel in. Our guys are doing a really good job in this: to invite as many leaders from your church or even members of your church to the conference so that they can enjoy the conference. And one of the benefits of that is they obviously get to experience the conference with you, their pastor, but also it's a way for a member of the church to experience genuine partnership in Sovereign Grace. And the result is, from guys I've talked to who bring their leaders and members to the conference, is that it just pays dividends for the next year. They're excited about what they're called to do in serving the church and in doing that together within a family of churches. So guys, you've done that well; continue to do that. Invite your leaders and members of your church, something I believe you've done recently and somewhat consistently, Ben, if I remember, right?
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Well, we try to. I like rolling in with as many couples as we can afford to bring. I mean, the first time that we did that years ago, just to watch their experience and the joy that they felt being part of that conference is enough. I want as many people in my church to experience that as well, but also this year, we're actually inviting a local pastor who's interested in Sovereign Grace, loves Sovereign Grace. And to serve him and invest in him, we invited him to come to the conference, covering some costs there. So yeah, what a great tool and we're probably preaching to the choir here, but it's wise to consider how we can invest in our folks. And this is a key way of doing that.
Mark Prater:
Wonderful. Thanks for doing that. And by the way, I put some prayer requests in the email that I sent, so please be praying for our conference. It's so good to be together, but we want to be together with God and we want him to lead us and to meet us. And so we need to pray in the months leading up to the conference that he would do, just that.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. Well, thrilling stuff. And I trust we'll all be praying in preparation and with anticipation for the beginning of November. And so, thanks Mark. And to the Leadership Team for your work on this. Can't wait. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing next week. Bye for now.