News: Ida Relief Fund and LT 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, last week we talked about the devastation of the hurricane in New Orleans and we encouraged guys to pray for our brothers and sisters down there. What update do you have for us about what's happening in the churches down there?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, most guys probably received an email from Jon Payne. I think it went out Sunday morning just establishing more ways that our family of churches can help support our churches. One in New Orleans: Lakeview Christian Center, and then Christ Community Church in Covington, Louisiana, both who have members who have just survived this hurricane, but have a lot of damage that we need to help with. So make sure you look at that email.

We have a website established for that: sovereigngrace.com/ida. And on that webpage you'll find three ways to participate. The first is to pray, the second is to "go" and the third is to "give". Thank you for praying. In terms of "going": to New Orleans, the Lakeview church would like to receive some teams from our family of churches that could do clean up and repairs that need to be done on homes and possibly even at the church building. I don't know if they're ready to receive those teams yet, but if you just press on the "go" button it'll probably give you some direction on when that will happen. And then third, to give. And the way we're doing it is that we've established a Hurricane Ida Fund at Lakeview Christian Center. So instead of giving to Sovereign Grace, you would just give to Lakeview Christian Center and they'll manage that relief fund. So those are three ways that our guys can make our members of our churches aware of how they can help our brothers and sisters in Louisiana.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Yeah, I know we're looking at (here in Middletown, Pennsylvania) the possibility of sending a team. I went to New Orleans three times with my wife after Katrina. And I can testify, not only is it a joy to serve folks down there, but also God does stuff in your heart when you go to serve and you see that kind of thing. So hopefully we can have some of our churches do that.

Mark, you have a Leadership Team retreat coming up next week because, of course, you don't have enough retreats.

Mark Prater:

Of course. (Laughter)

Benjamin Kreps:

But tell us about what's going to be happening next week as you head to California for the retreat.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. I want our guys to hear about the retreat because I think it's a strategic retreat for our Leadership Team. And to ask you to pray when you receive this podcast in your inbox on Monday, we'll be starting the retreat that day. So be praying for us if you would.

We've got a number of things on the agenda. The first one, which we're going to take some time with, is to have a conversation and begin to unpack "What does it mean for us to be a Global Leadership Team?" And we want to have that conversation because of the opportunities God is giving us outside of the states to partner with more churches, and to plant more churches outside of the states. And knowing that the BCO amendments regarding our global partnership plan include a structure that's very clear in pathways, that structure allows for one Leadership Team at this point.

So we just want to make sure that we're doing what we should be doing to serve all of our churches, regardless if they're here in the states or outside of the states. So we're going to talk through what that means, and we're going to talk through each of our roles and responsibilities and get an idea of how they may shift or change. And if you could be praying for that retreat. It's one of those conversations where as I prepare for it, it still feels a bit beyond me and I'm experiencing my finiteness and weakness and we really need God's power to help us in that conversation.

We're also going to have a conversation about our communications philosophy and a part of the motive behind that is I would like to transition Eric out of communications, not because he's not doing a great job, he's doing a wonderful job, but to take some responsibility off of his plate and help him focus a little bit more on church planting. I'm hoping to do that, and I don't know if that's going to happen, but I'm hoping to do that by the end of 2022. So to work back from that date we've got to decide whether we're going to hire a Director of Communications or a Manager of Communications. Different job descriptions there. And that will be based on how we want to philosophically approach our communications as an organization, as a denomination. So we got to start with the philosophical conversation. The end game is to transition Eric, at some point, out of communications, which will unburden him a little bit more.

The other thing that we have planned that we're going to talk about is, just as we talk about being a global Leadership Team, we'll have Dave Taylor join us via Zoom (he still can't get out of Australia), and he's got a number of Emerging Nations updates that he wants to walk us through, as well as revisit the conversation about using the term mission and missionary in Sovereign Grace. And if we are all on the same page with what that definition is, which will have an important ecclesiological component to it, obviously.

And then we've got Rich giving a Latin American update, and some of the work he's doing that could lead to Mexico becoming a nation by a year from now, November of 2022, for example.

Also I've got a fundraising strategy, an updated fundraising strategy I want to talk with the team about, and get their input before talking more about it, maybe on this podcast. And then at the Executive Committee retreat, I gave an updated five to ten year strategic plan that I want to walk the Leadership Team through, just some of the changes I made in it.

And then we'll take some time to just share each other's goals for the coming year. I have each of the guys establish one or two goals for the next 12 months. And we'll just take some time to discuss those so that guys working in different spheres of responsibility on the team know what else is going on, and can give them the bigger picture. So it's that, and actually so much more, that we plan to do next week. So please pray.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Well, we'll be praying for you and the Leadership Team. I personally am grateful for just the really deliberate, thoughtful, careful, humble, but zealous way that you guys approach the tasks that God has placed in front of you. So thank you, Mark. And thank you Leadership Team for the sacrificial giving of your time. Next week at the retreat, we'll be praying for you. Thank you everyone for watching, and we'll see you here next week. Lord willing, bye for now.