Sovereign Grace Music Update
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, one of the gifts, one of the wonderful gifts, God has given us in our family of churches is the gift of Bob Kauflin—his leadership, his instruction, his example his writing. You had a call with him recently and you have an update for us about some stuff that's going on in Sovereign Grace Music.
Mark Prater:
I'm excited to share this update. But first, just to echo what you said, Bob Kauflin is a unique gift to our family of churches. I thank God for him. And I know the guys that are listening to this podcast, thank God for Bob as well. So we set up a time to talk. We do that periodically. Obviously, even though he's not on the Leadership Team, he is the director of Sovereign Grace Music.
I wanted to speak with him in part, because I wanted to try to move up on his priority list the recording and production of a new Spanish album, which I think is really important as we expand throughout Latin America. Obviously, our worship music is a means that opens doors and makes people aware of our small family of churches, right? We've got a number of Spanish resources on the Sovereign Grace Music site already but looking to obviously expand those resources.
So last summer, Bob had planned a recording of a new Spanish worship album in Chicago. Because of the pandemic that had to be canceled. And so, I was trying to move that reschedule up on his list, which I believe he now has scheduled for some time in the first quarter of 2022. But in talking with him, it's always just good to hear what's going on in Sovereign Grace Music. They are producing an album on the Psalms that will be out later this year, which I'm very excited about.
And I know that Bob has really been encouraged by the quality of songs that have been written for that album. And then just looking at the first six months of our fiscal year, Sovereign Grace Music's income is exceeding budget by $54,000, which is really amazing. Some of that is attributed to the fact that the Christmas album, Heaven Has Come did really, really well. So Bob Kauflin is not only equipping us and training us. He's bringing some income to our small family of churches as well.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's great. I know I was introduced to Sovereign Grace through a little song called “Jesus, Thank You,” back about 14 years ago. I thought, “Wow, this music is wonderful! And, oh, there's actual churches too!” Incredible. So, his enduring influence and his service in many churches all throughout the world over the years is wonderful.
One of the things that we appreciate and enjoy is Bob's instruction is equipping his training. The first Sovereign Grace conference I was ever at was a Worship God Conference. Are we having Worship God this year?
Mark Prater:
No, we're not. Bob made the decision to, to cancel Worship God, primarily pandemic related. But he has a plan in place that I want the guys to hear about. Let me just first of all say, though, Bob is a very unique gift to us. He's very unique in the evangelical world to have the theological mind that he does, the gospel-centeredness that he brings to all of his life including how he leads Sovereign Grace Music, how he has led learned and led worship for decades now. And then just his musical ability. That mix is very unique, and God gave Bob Kauflin to us which we thank God for. So, we want to continue to benefit from his training and from his experience.
Instead of Worship God, he just thought, “Let me just serve the regions and just continue to train, very foundationally, our pastors and worship leaders and Sovereign Grace.” So, he's going to do three Regional Assembly of Elders meetings. This the Midwest-Northwest Regional Assembly led by Greg Dirnberger, the West region led by Eric Turbedsky and the Mid-South Region led by Mickey Connolly. And then, in addition to attending Regional Assembly of Elders, he's actually scheduled and will lead two regional conferences. One is in the East Central region. I believe that's going to be at Cornerstone in Knoxville. And one in the Northeast region, which will be at my church at Covenant Fellowship in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. And, in all of that, basically what he wants to do is to bring more training to how pastors and worship leaders think about planning and implementing our worship service. And, in particular, what he wants to do is to make sure that the Word of God is prominent throughout the service—not just the Word of God that we read before we preach, obviously, but a call to worship scripture reading, you know, potentially during the service of benediction—that the word of God is more prominent and that is more consistently seen across our churches. So that's just one of the things that he wants to accomplish. And if you're in those regions, you're going to benefit from Bob over the next several months.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. I think you sent an email out last week, as well, commending the sound in doctrine podcasts. Let me add my accommodation to that. It's wonderful to be able to benefit regularly now from Bob, especially the recent two-part conversation he had with CJ Mahaney that was hilarious and extremely helpful. So, if you haven't heard that, I encourage you to check it out. So, thank you, Bob Kauflin! We love you. And thank you everyone for watching this podcast. We'll see you here soon. Bye for now.