Regional Evangelists Retreat

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, one of the men that I admire most in Sovereign Grace, I know a man that is your friend and you admire as well, is Jim Donohue, and the many ways which he has served Sovereign Grace over the years: the Bridge course and other materials, and investing in us when it comes to evangelism, which is an area I know you want to see us grow in, in Sovereign Grace. But Jim has been working on an initiative to help us grow in the area of evangelism that was launched recently. Can you talk to us about that?

Mark Prater:

Jim is a friend and Jim is truly an evangelist. Yes, yes. I think we can say that. I think everyone that knows Jim can confirm that and he therefore is a gift to our family of churches. And he carries a burden for us as a family of churches to grow in reaching the lost with the gospel. And may we grow that way. I think it is an area that we need to grow as you mentioned, Ben. It's an area that I'm praying for. So we've asked Jim as a Leadership Team to help us in that endeavor; help Sovereign Grace grow in the area of evangelism. So there's a number of things he's been working on, but one of them I was able to drop into just yesterday. It's Thursday. I dropped into the Regional Evangelist Retreat on Wednesday that's being led by Jim.

And a Regional Evangelist Retreat is Jim's initiative to gather men in each region who have a heart for evangelism or want to see the churches in their region grow in evangelism and just begin to strategize with them and pray with them and equip them. So we had six of nine regions involved in this retreat. Jim represents the Northeast region. His brother, Bob, Bob Donohue, twin brother, by the way, represents the Mid-Atlantic region. Aaron Beane who's from Wilmington, North Carolina represents the Mid-South region. From the Southeast, Josh Murphy, many of you know is in Orlando. Matt Gray is representing the East Central region from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the South-Central region is represented by Aaron Mayfield, who is in Austin, Texas. And I was able to drop into the retreat while they were just talking and strategizing to just encourage those men for the heart they bring along with Jim to help churches grow in the regions in the area of evangelism.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that's excellent. And what a fine list of pastors to be involved in that initiative as well. I went to an interest lunch at the conference and just sat around a table with those men and heard their hearts for the lost and for the mission of Jesus and evangelism. I think they're going to be serving us well in the days ahead. What kinds of things did you go over and look at, or did they go over and look at and talk about at the retreat?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I just was just asking what they were doing. I wasn't there for the whole time. Jim's been leading it very well and had a great plan put together. So they prayed together. I'm so glad Jim emphasizes prayer when we think about reaching the lost with the gospel. And then they just spent some time strategizing together because these guys are going to go back to their regions and then reach out to the churches in their region, either with a point person, whether it's a pastor or member of a church that just has a heart to reach the lost with the gospel. And just ask, "how can we help your church grow in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ?" And so the regional evangelist guys will be doing that. And then they took some time just to evaluate current resources that are available that could be really helpful in Sovereign Grace, and helpful in our churches, to equip members and pastors to share the good news of the gospel. So that's just some of the things they were doing this week. Obviously building together relationally, as we always do in Sovereign Grace, is important because they are going to be able to share ideas across regions with one another. And so the retreat is another picture of how we do partnership in Sovereign Grace. We build relationally, we help each other. And in this case, we hope to help each other grow in sharing the gospel and to reach the lost with the gospel.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that's excellent. Any other thoughts before we conclude here about evangelism in our denomination in the days ahead?

Mark Prater:

Well, I think it's an important time for us to grow in this area for all the obvious reasons. Certainly the main one is how the culture is headed away from, very rapidly away from, God's word. And the further they head away from God's word, it seems the more hopeless they are. And we have the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we also live in a culture right now that is very polarized and very angry, and the gospel brings perspective and peace to souls that are troubled. And so the opportunity for us to share the gospel right now is just wonderful. I don't think it's very unique in history overall, but it's our moment in history. And I hope that we grow in it and I'm praying I can grow personally, and I'm praying that our churches can grow in this area.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's great. Amen. Thank you, Mark, for sharing that update. Thank you, Jim, for leading this initiative and to all the men that are involved. So grateful for all of you, and thank you for reading or watching this podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.