Regional Assembly of Elders Season

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hi everyone. and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, as you well know, and most of the pastors if not all of our pastors know, we're essentially in RAE: Regional Assembly of Elders season with a number of RAE's happening throughout Sovereign Grace over the past couple of weeks. I know mine's coming up, starting on Tuesday, this upcoming Tuesday. We've been doing these for a few years now. Talk to us about regional assemblies.

Mark Prater:

When we ratified our Book of Church Order in 2013, at that moment we really became an elder-led family of churches. And elder-led gets expressed in a number of ways within our polity. One of the main ways is through the Council Of Elders meeting happening annually with an elder from every church. We meet together to make decisions; votes are taken on national committees, the budget is voted on, we make decisions about our Statement of Faith and Book Of Church Order that are the important documents that govern us and join us together theologically as a family of churches. But another expression of being elder-led is Regional Assembly of Elders meetings. Our churches here within the United States are in regions. Typically those are geographic in nature. We have nine regions here in the U.S. and at least twice a year, those Regional Assembly of Elders gather, typically once in the Spring and once in the Fall.

And that's why it's Regional Assembly of Elders season and they're so important. I was reflecting on this actually this morning. So our Book of Church Order was ratified in 2013 and we formed regions. So I think the first Regional Assembly of Elders meetings happened in 2014. So we've been doing them for eight years now and I found that they have strengthened us in a number of ways. First, just doing ministry together. So at a Regional Assembly of Elders meeting there is important business, if you can say it that way, getting done. All expressions of how elders in that region have authority to make decisions about certain things. So there'll be decisions made at Regional Assembly of Elders meetings about budgets for the upcoming year. There'll be ordination committees that will put forth elder candidates who went through our ordination process and will be voted on by their regional assembly as an affirmation that needs to be an elder in that region.

Now doing that, we still recognize the authority of the local church to ordain the man, but the region affirms that. So this week at the Northeast Regional Assembly, that I'll be a part of, we will be voting on Nick Kidwell as an elder candidate. He's passed the ordination exam and we'll vote on him, which is really, really exciting. And then the church planting committee will give a report. And if there's a church plant that's being planned or one about to happen, there'll be a decision made on that. So again, this week at the Northeast Regional Assembly, we'll be voting to give final approval for Nick Kidwell to plant a church, Valley Creek Church is the name of it in Malvern, Pennsylvania. And I say all that because it's not the Leadership Team of Sovereign Grace or Executive Committee of Sovereign Grace that makes those decisions. It's the elders that are closest to those decisions that are making them. And one other committee, the judicial review committee, always gives an update. Typically we haven't had a lot of issues where they've had adjudications, but again, another way that the region functions and it's healthy. It's really good.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. I've certainly benefited from the relationships I have with the pastors in my region. It's encouraging to see eight years in, that there is this thing that we're doing that I think will endure because the torch is being passed from one generation to the next, even as we move forward as a denomination. I know Ken Mellinger who served our region so well for seven years as a Regional Leader. Just recently, we affirmed Jace Hudson who started in July as our new Regional Leader and to see those dynamics happening. The polity was theoretical; we signed onto it; but to watch it unfold and to see the benefit to our to our denomination has been spectacular. But not just business is happening at a Regional Assembly of Elders, there are other things that are important as well. Talk to us about what else happens at a Regional Assembly.

Mark Prater:

There are a number of good things that happen. The East Central Region met last week, the West Region met last week, this week the South Central Region (the Texas region), the guys in the Southeast Region (Florida, Georgia, Alabama) are all together this week,and the Northeast Region, that I'm part of. And I believe the Midsouth Region is meeting also this week and then your region next week: the Lower Great Lakes Region. In each of those Regional Assembly of Elders there's not only business being done, as you said, but there's a lot that happens with regard to strengthening our values. The first one is just strengthening the value of building together relationally. It's just good to be together as elders within a region getting updates from one another, whether that's informal conversations, praying for one another, laughing together or doing competitions together. I know Eric had a big competition plan for his elders in the West Region last week. So I'm eager to hear what the results were from that, but it's also a time when we can benefit from each other in terms of equipping for ministry.

So there's sometimes a theological training component; a guy or two teaching on a particular area that he may be strong in, that we can benefit from. So it's just a great time to be together as brothers. And it really has this effect that we're not doing ministry in isolation, we're doing ministry with other like-minded elders. And it's a sweet thing for an elder of a local church.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah it is. And I'm sure all of us have heard about lonely pastors struggling, isolated. And thank God that the way that our polity has been set up, it actually pushes us towards one another and helps us build relationally. I know one of the things I'm looking forward to the most at our Regional Assembly, one way that Ken has led us well, is that will sing together, and we'll pray together, and there will be prophetic ministry. That's a highlight. I'm not as big on the business side. I know it's important, but <laugh>, there's a lot of other things that top that.

So Monday when the podcast drops in the afternoon, we're gonna be doing a Zoom call with a Brazilian pastor that Bert Turner's been working with, and we're doing an oral ordination exam translated in Portuguese by Bert. So if guys see this, pray for that man Fabiano and that process. But Lord willing, we will have our first ordained Brazilian pastor soon. Any other thoughts before we go?

Mark Prater:

What you just said is a wonderful way that guys here in the states, the elders of Sovereign Grace here in the states, are serving our brothers outside the United States. As you know, churches that are candidate churches like those in Brazil, they're looking to become an Emerging Nation church. That step is for them to come up with their own Book of Church Order based on the one here in the states. So they don't have a regional assembly yet for example. And so a lot of times the way that we do ordinations outside the states is that we ask an American region like yours, because Bert has a relationship with Fabiano, to do the ordination for them, or walk through the ordination process with them. So it's another way the Regional Assembly of Elders, not only strengthens us here in the states but hopefully they're serving and strengthening brothers outside the states as well.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. And I know there's a number of regions that are doing that happy work of partnership. So thanks for your thoughts and God bless everybody who is anticipating their regional assembly coming soon. We're so grateful. And we thank you for watching or reading this podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

Mark PraterComment