VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, for any who are following the podcast, they would know that the last episode that we recorded, you were encouraging us on the topic of faith and the vital need for faith, especially in the life of a pastor. Well connected to that and just to continue in this vein, we wanted to talk today about the most significant expression of faith, which is the practice of prayer. And you had a quote you wanted to share with us to encourage us.

Mark Prater:

I do. I got thinking about this quote again this morning because I opened my inbox and there were just issues there and problems that needed to be solved and they felt beyond me. And I just thought, I've got to pray, got to pray. And we all feel that as Christians and certainly pastors face things like that routinely, just issues that you are needing to lead through or help people with and they feel beyond you. And isn't it good that we have a God who hears our prayers?

And one of my favorite expository commentators is Dale Ralph Davis, and he writes this in his commentary on the book of Judges. He says, this, "Yahweh's hearing, God's hearing, is the most crucial matter for all prayer. When God listens to our voice, we must never respond with a yawn. We will trivialize prayer whenever we forget the repeated miracle. It involves the gracious condescension of the kingdom of glory, who stoops down, stoops down to listen to our verbs and nouns, our adverbs and questions, our groans and tears." That's a wonderful quote because it reminds us of this repeated miracle every time we go to God in prayer; that he stoops down and he listens to us and then he answers our prayers according to his good plans and his goodwill. That is an amazing thing that we can't trivialize, that should never become routine. The fact that God hears us and acts on our prayers in just wonderful.

And I wanted to share that because as you mentioned Ben, we talked about the vital role of faith in pastoral ministry. And one of the wonderful expressions of faith is that of prayer; we are men and we're Christians, you're a member of a church listening to this podcast, you feel that need that we have when we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you, as the Old Testament talks about. And we go to God and we go to prayer. It is a miracle every time we do because God hears us. It's amazing,

Benjamin Kreps:

Amazing. Amen. Great. Very encouraging. And as this podcast drops into whoever subscribes to the podcast in their email, it'll be coming the Monday before the Pastors Conference. So one week before the Council of Elders convenes the following Monday. And so as we prepare to gather together in Florida a week after this podcast drops, of course there's always a lot for us to pray about. So much need. We need God to work. You and the leadership team and everyone involved has worked very hard. You're putting forward your best effort. I'm confident of that. And yet at the same time, unless God meets with us, unless he moves, we labor in vain. So what are some things you would encourage us to be praying for as we head toward the conference?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, just with the conference, the Council of Elder's meeting just a week away, It's not just prayer, it's desperate prayer. It's Lord, please do what only you can do. Move in ways you can only move and work in ways that you can only work. And prayer is so important to so much of what we do in Sovereign Grace, I think to all that we do in Sovereign Grace, including our partnership. And that's what the Council of Elders meeting represents. It's an important meeting for our partnership. That'll be on Monday, November 4th. And so pray that God would give us wisdom, the pastors of Sovereign Grace, who join together to make decisions, to strengthen our partnership, pray that God would give us wisdom in those decisions. And as we debate through them and sort through them, ask the Lord to give us unity in those decisions so that it will best serve our churches and so that our mission together will glorify God. So that's on Monday, November 4th. Just a couple of ways to pray.

And then pray for the Pastors Conference, my favorite conference of the year. The leadership team and I love leading that conference because we want to focus on encouraging and equipping and caring for the pastors and wives and leaders from our churches who come to that conference. That is our heart to do, but we can't do that apart from the Lord's work, as I mentioned earlier. So pray that God would move in such a way that every pastor and wife attending, every leader and wife attending would go home encouraged and strengthened. And may we all go home with just a bigger vision of God and how good he is. Pray that all aspects of this conference would be used for the glory of God because he alone is worthy.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen, when we pray in that way and with great expectation. Looking forward to being together in Orlando very soon. Also, guys be praying for Mark in his role and the unique weight he carries as he leads that conference along with the rest of the leadership team. Before we end this conversation though, we wanted to talk a little bit more about the topic of prayer because before the podcast as we were discussing about what we wanted to talk about, really felt that the Lord was leading us in a specific direction and wanted us to zero in on the need not just generally for folks to pray, but pastors to pray. I mean all believers are invited to the great privilege of prayer, but for the pastor, there certainly is a unique calling to pray when it comes to our role in serving the church as pastors. In fact, we are called to the ministry of the Word and prayer, job description time. And so in that you want to encourage, before we're done here, you want to encourage pastors specifically about this area just a bit more when it comes to prayer.

Mark Prater:

And like you, Ben, I'm grateful the Lord led us this way. Wasn't our plan coming into this podcast, but I believe he's leading us this way to focus in on this prayer request and here's the prayer request. Father or Jesus, fill me with the Spirit. It's that reference to Ephesians 5:18, "be filled with the Spirit". Pastors know it's written in the imperative mood. So it is a command and it's written in present tense form. So it is an ongoing, daily, some I think, hourly need for us to be filled with the Spirit. And I think that's important for us as pastors because all that we do is work that only God can do. And you realize that, obviously, the longer you're in pastoral ministry.

So we need the Spirit to fill us because we need the helper's help. Jesus referred to the Spirit as the helper in his farewell discourse. We need the helper's help, divine help, in all that we do. And we need the Spirit's power. We need divine power to do what we can't as men. We're not that strong. We're not that wise, we're not that good, but the Spirit is, and we are to be filled so that we can receive divine help and divine power so we can serve the people of our church with in a way that strengthens them and in a way that brings God glory. So I just want to encourage guys; pray often, be filled with the Spirit.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Amen. I mean the reality is there are seasons in the life of pastor over the course of a life of ministry where I know what this is like. And I think some other guys can relate to this, where we're busy doing the work of pastoral ministry and freely, eagerly giving Jesus to the people that we serve; praying for them, preaching to them, while at times we can find our own souls dry, we can feel distant from God. And so your encouragement is most helpful especially for any pastors that are checking out the podcast that are like, yeah, I know Jesus is for the people I serve, having trouble feeling that personal experience with him in prayer. And so to pray and ask to be freshly filled with the Holy Spirit and to know the glory of a text like Psalm 145, which speaks of the greatness and splendor of the kingdom of God and the king overall, and in verses 18 and 19, the promise that the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on him in truth, he fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. I mean, what a wonder. I mean just apply that Dale Ralph Davis quote immediately in this text. But we do want to encourage pastors to feel and know and experience God's nearness in their work, even in seasons of challenge and critique and all manner of struggles that happen in pastoral ministry. We pray with the promise that God is near to us so near to us, he wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit. And so let that be an encouragement.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. It's one of the wonderful works of the Spirit to point us to Christ and to then treasure Christ. JI Packer has this great quote, I'm sure guys have heard it in his book, Keep in Step with the Spirit, which is basically that the Spirit works to shine a spotlight on Jesus and the Spirit never works in a way that says, look at me, come to me. He's like, no, look at him. Go to him, meaning Christ. And when our souls are dry that way we need the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit gives us power and directs our attention to him in a divinely powerful way that we all need as Christians, but certainly as pastors who can be in a place that you just described so well.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes, I mean, as a pastor going to pray in a season of distance, dryness, that simple prayer, I'm confident God responds to "Holy Spirit, show me Christ, show me more of Christ", which we know the Spirit is most eager to do in our lives. And perhaps that is the simple prayer that is most needed in a season like that in order for us to experience that nearness with God, fresh revelations of the glory of our savior as we move in prayer in pastoral ministry.

So thank you, Mark. Thank you for your consistent example and encouragement when it comes to prayer throughout the years. I can't wait to gather with everyone who's coming to the conference and to have a front row seat, to experience God answering our prayers that we will be crying out to God for his help over the next days as we head toward the conference. So thank you, Mark, for your encouragement. Thank you everybody for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our executive director. Mark, as you well know, in Sovereign Grace, as pastors in Sovereign Grace, we are not professionals to quote John Piper's classic book on pastoral ministry. We do care about things like productivity and seeing success in our endeavors, of course. But underneath all of our efforts is this vital, irreplaceable, non-negotiable need for pastoral ministry. And that is the role that faith plays when it comes to our role as pastors. And you wanted to talk to us about that today.

Mark Prater:

I do. Faith plays a vital role in pastoral ministry, I believe, and I want to talk about this today because I've had some experiences recently where I'm carrying a couple of groups of men, pastors, on my heart that I just feel like the Lord wanted to devote this episode of the podcast too.

So here's the first group. I've had some anecdotal conversations with wonderful Sovereign Grace pastors recently, men who have been faithful in planting and building and leading their church for many years. And in talking with them, some of them are just weary, they're weary, they're tired, they love what they do, but there's just a weariness that can happen over time. And of course when you get to a weary place, you can ask questions of the Lord and just wonder certain things. Your heart is vulnerable, your mind is vulnerable, vulnerable to go certain directions that you just wrestle with the Lord with. And so I just carry those men in my heart into the podcast, the weary pastor who's been laboring faithfully for years. And I thank God for that group of men.

The second is just church planters. I was just in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, the church you planted a year ago out of your church and interacting with, well, I was there at Redeeming Grace Church doing a seminar on the spiritual gifts and got a few minutes just personally with Jeremy Hetrick, the man you sent out. Ben. He has planted, done a wonderful job of planting Redeeming Grace Church. And he was just talking about some of the challenges of church planting for him. And he's responding to those well, but they're challenging and they're hard. I was just thinking about it and it made me think about our church planters like Jeremy that are in the early years of church planting and facing challenges that church planters face. No permanent meeting location, although we have a number of churches that have that challenge. You're taking, for the planter, a group of people, and you are leading and influencing and molding them into their own church. And certainly you have folks that maybe aren't Christians that haven't had a church experience, or maybe some people are joining you that have a different church experience and it's taking them and building 'em into a gospel centered church. That's not easy to do. And then of course, there's the regular preaching of God's word, which all pastors face that. But then in the church planting, you're also thinking about are we being faithful in our outreach efforts because we want to plant this church to get conversion growth and not transfer growth? And those are some of the challenges that planters face.

And then I'm thinking about the planters who are going to plant in the next two to three years in Sovereign Grace. I'm going to speak more about this at the Pastors Conference, but right now we have about 14 church plants planned for the next two to three years. I'll speak more about it, six in the US and eight outside of the United States. And those men right now are preparing for church planting. They may need to move. So they're looking for housing for them and their family. They're looking for a meeting location and the place that they're going to plant. They're hoping to build a church planting team and even wondering who will join this team if you're being sent from a church who will come with us and not knowing yet whether you've got a team, there can be a little bit of anxiety over those kind of things. These are some of the challenges that church planters face even before they officially start the church. I'm carrying church planters on my heart today, as well. And as I thought about those two groups, it is that vital role of faith and pastoral ministry that I just want to speak into during this episode.

Benjamin Kreps:

When it comes to starting something new like a church plant, a new church, a new role for a church planter, certainly there's a lot of excitement, anticipation, enthusiasm, something new is being created, but a joy. And then a church is planted, or a pastor is pastoring a church for a long, long season, year after year. And enthusiasm and excitement cannot sustain a pastor. There are so many dangerous toils and snares that we must walk through in pastoral ministry. And so what's needed most is that dependent faith being sustained by the Lord as we cast ourselves upon him in faith. But this isn't just a good idea. This is informed by God's word. And so talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, God's word speaks into it and all pastors know that. And I just want to reference one verse that I've been thinking a lot about and meditating on and reading again, again as it relates to faith. And of course it's in Hebrews 11 and it's verse six in particular that says, and without faith it is impossible to please him. Meaning to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And so for the weary pastor, for the church planter, we are in those moments when we are just thinking about anxieties or we have fears or we're weary, we're to seek God. And that actually pleases him when we do because our seeking of Him is an expression of faith. It's an expression of we believe that he exists and that he will help us. And it's that kind of faith even in your weariness and even in your anxieties, that God is pleased with, it actually pleases him, which I think is the ultimate aim in pastoral ministry. We do all that we do to please him, which is one of the reasons I think faith is so important in pastoral ministry. And I've just not only been studying that verse, there's just certain things I've been reading that I want to strengthen my own faith.

So I want to read some quotes that I hope will strengthen you as it relates to continue to grow in faith because it's vital for pastoral ministry. The first is from Charles Bridge's book, the Classic, the Christian Ministry. And if you're weak, if you're feeling weary, if your church planting team isn't put together yet, if you don't know where you're going to meet, when you form this church plant, if there's just some unknowns for you, those are wonderful places of weakness that God intends to use. And this is what Charles Bridges says. Faith links our weaknesses in immediate connection with the promises of almighty aid and enables us to say to the mountain of difficulty, who are thou? Oh, great mountain. Thus discouragements, properly sustained and carefully improved, become our most fruitful sources of eventual encouragement. While love to our work bears us on above all our difficulties.

And that is just so well said. There's a love for your work that a pastor has. It's one of the reasons I believe we're happy pastors in Sovereign Grace and that carries us above our difficulties. But in those moments of weaknesses, we can have faith that those discouragements actually that the Lord is going to use to be some of our greatest encouragement when we look back someday. That's a wonderful expression of faith.

The other thing I wanted to read is from one of Spurgeon's lectures to his students, and this particular lecture is entitled The Holy Spirit in Connection to Our Ministry. And the reason I'm mentioning this is because all that we do in ministry we can't do in man's own strength. It takes divine strength and divine power and we are in a work ultimately that we can't do. It's got to be God's work and God's doing, I mean conversion of souls, reaching the lost, for example, discipling people to grow in Christ. We don't have the kind of strength and power to do that, but God does. So an expression of faith is reliance upon the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so this is what Spurgeon says to his students. "Miracles of grace must be the seals of our ministry; who can bestow them but the Spirit of God? Convert a soul without the Spirit of God! Why, you cannot even make a fly, much less create a new heart and a right spirit lead the children of God to a higher, I believe what he means by that, Holy, life. "Without the Holy Ghost, you are an expressively more likely to conduct them in carnal security if you attempt their elevation by any method of your own ends. Our end, brothers, can never be gained if we miss the cooperation of the Spirit of the Lord." Isn't that well said?

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes.

Mark Prater:

We can't even make a fly. That's a good reminder. But the Holy Spirit does wonderful heart changing work either in conversion or growing someone in Christ. And then I just want to end with this, what I'm saying, with one more quote, this comes from a minister's fainting fits, one that I would highly recommend that lecture to weary pastors. And this is what he says between this and heaven. "There may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided by our covenant HEAD," capital HEAD, "In nothing, let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue, come fair or foul. The pulpit is our watchtower and the ministry, our warfare, be it ours when we cannot see the face of our God to trust, yes trust, under the shadow of his wings." That's comforting. Yes, it's that's faith building and that causes us to seek the Lord in faith and that pleases him.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. That is rich encouragement. Mark. Thank you. And I'm sure there's some weary pastors that are checking us out that are grateful for your care as well. That verse in Hebrews, that is a verse worth taking unhurried time to meditate on and to draw the riches of the truth it contains because there's going to be so many times in pastoral ministry where you're going to feel perhaps appropriately or not, I feel alone, to feel like there's all sorts of forces arrayed against me. I'm doing my best. And to know that by our dependent faith in God in those challenging seasons and those moments of weakness, that we can please him. And so what is more sustaining for us than to know, even in the hardest moments, I can please him and to know he has promised he is pleased with me. I don't know what to do. I'm not sure how to proceed, but I can please him. And to know that through that dependent faith God has promised, be pleased and to meet us as we work through all of the challenges of pastoral ministry.

So thank you, Mark, for your encouragement. Thank you everyone for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, the Pastors Conference is on the horizon. So many of us that are going are getting excited about gathering together as a global family of churches at the Pastors Conference. But you wanted to share some thoughts to remind those who are watching or reading the podcast or maybe for the first time, the reasoning behind why we have pastors' conferences. Why do we have a pastors' conference every year?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a great question, because as we begin to pack to go to a pastors' conference or our wives are arranging childcare for the time that we're away, we can wonder why are we going to this conference again and why do we have a pastors' conference every year? Those are common questions I think we can all have. And we hold a pastors' conference annually for, I would say, four reasons.

First, it gathers all of us together, the pastors and wives in Sovereign Grace. It gathers our guests, it gathers the leaders from our churches and it gives us an opportunity to cast a theological vision for who we are in Sovereign Grace and how we do ministry together. And any pastor listening to this podcast or reading it knows that you have to keep casting, you want to cast vision for your local church, you've got to say it over and over again. And so the Pastors Conference gives us that opportunity to cast a theological vision for Sovereign Grace churches, who we are and how we do ministry together. So that's the first reason.

The second one is that we see this as an opportunity as a leadership team to care for the pastors and wives that are attending this conference. Obviously we know best those that are in Sovereign Grace, but we want to care for pastors and wives that are coming outside of Sovereign Grace. And this is a conference that pastors and wives can attend where they don't typically have responsibility unless you're teaching a main session or a breakout session. This is a conference that you can come to and just receive. And that's one of the ways we pray as a leadership team that this conference would be both a spiritual and relational highlight for our pastors and wives because the pastors in Sovereign Grace and their wives, they labor so hard throughout the year. And so this is a time to just come and receive and be cared for. So that's the second reason we do it.

A third reason is that we want to cast vision for our mission, the mission that we do together, because we hope one of the effects of this conference is that pastors and wives leave the conference saying, I'm linked in arms with brothers and sisters who have the same heart and same desire to advance the gospel throughout the world. And it just encourages you, it emboldens you, it strengthens you not only for your local mission of your local church, but for our shared mission in Sovereign Grace. And that happens obviously through teaching and through testimonies and updates. So that's a third reason that we do it.

And I've kind of hinted at this a little bit. It's an opportunity to continue for us to build relationally. We are a family of churches and so we've said this in previous podcasts, the conference very much has the feel of a family reunion where we're together again with brothers and sisters maybe we haven't seen for a year. And we get opportunity to just sing to Jesus with them, which can be strengthening itself. We get opportunities to have meals together, to pray for one another, to catch up with one another. And that's something that we don't want to lose as we expand as a small family of churches throughout the world. So the Pastor's Conference provides that unique context and we try to design the schedule to foster that relational element. So those are the reasons that we do it. And I believe we will continue to do it annually should the Lord lead us because we want to continue to exalt God when we are together and strengthen one another relationally for the mission that Christ has given us.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Yeah, can't wait to get there and gather with you, Mark, and everybody else. I saw the new Sovereign Grace Journal dropped recently. It's all about church partnership and full of wonderful articles. And that pastors' conference is a vital piece of that partnership that we enjoy. It's a tangible expression that we enjoy together. So there's a lot of people coming. I think over 700 have signed up, something like that. And not just, of course, from the States. We are a global family of churches. So talk to us about who's coming.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I want to give you a little bit of an idea of who will be coming to the conference. I think registration is around 750. We'll have walk-ins. So we'll have more than that at the conference. And we have pastors and wives attending the conference from 22 different nations, which is really exciting and encouraging and humbling all at the same time. So let me tell you just about a few of them. Dyonah Thomas is coming from Monrovia, Liberia, I think Dyonah hasn't been to a conference for about four years. He told me there were complications in getting a visa. He's got a visa, he's going to be there. In fact, you're going to hear from him during one of our main sessions.

Benjamin Kreps:

Freshly ordained.

Mark Prater:

Freshly ordained. Yes, the first ordained Sovereign Grace elder in West Africa. So if you see Dyonah, welcome him. We also have a gentleman coming from Belarus. His name is Leonid Kovich, and he is the head of the Baptist Union there in Belarus. We've been relating to a number of churches in Belarus. They're potentially interested in pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace and they're also loosely connected with this Baptist Union. So I'm so glad that Leonid can be there and if you have a chance to greet him and meet him, thank him for coming.

We also have several churches coming from Costa Rica, two that are in the San Jose area. For example, Casa 2:42 led by Rodrigo Fournier, and then a church that just recently signed an Emerging Nations candidate church agreement; Iglesia La Gracia, which is also in San Jose, Costa Rica. So those are just some of the folks that are coming from different parts of the globe.

Also, there are a number of guests who are coming for the first time who are not a part of a Sovereign Grace Church. And those primarily are coming from within the United States. There are churches who have interest within the United States of partnering with Sovereign Grace. And so one of the ways they're exploring that partnership is coming to our conference. So what that does is it highlights our need to just reach out to those we don't know and interact with them. I mean, think about it. You go to a conference for the very first time, you don't really know many people at all, and you're trying to understand should we be a part of this or not? And so when someone reaches out and welcomes them and prays for them, or maybe even invites them to a meal, that gives 'em a glimpse of who we are and why we build relationally. So just to give you a little bit of an idea of who's coming and my encouragement to reach out to those around you that you don't know.

Benjamin Kreps:

It's very encouraging. 22 different countries represented. The more we grow as a global family of churches, the more our Pastors Conference looks like heaven when we're singing together and gathered together. So what are a couple of things that we can pray for in anticipation of the conference?

Mark Prater:

Yes. Please pray. Pray for the conference. Just first of all, pray that God would work in a way that he would glorify his name. Our first prayer request is that our time together in Orlando, both in the Council of Elders meeting and during the Pastors Conference, would please God and bring Him glory. If that happens, we'll be happy pastors and wives.

Secondly, pray for the Spirit to work and to work in a way to do things that we just haven't planned. I think some of the things that I think about in terms of past conferences and ways that God has worked and some of the ways that people were affected were areas and categories that we just didn't plan for. So pray for the Spirit's leading and for the Spirit's help. And obviously that comes through interactions with individuals. It can come in the preaching of his word through the main sessions and breakout sessions. It can come through testimonies. It can come just in announcement slots where we decide in the moment spontaneously to make a change and maybe go a specific direction. All of those things happen at a conference, but they can't happen without God's help and through the Spirit's leading and help as well. So pray for that.

And then I think thirdly, just pray that it would be a time that we are strengthened relationally and that our unity as a family of churches therefore is strengthened as well. We can't assume upon our unity. And so a conference is a wonderful opportunity for us to be strengthened together in the gospel, unified in Christ and unified therefore as a family of churches. So thanks for praying for the conference in those ways and many more. I'm grateful for your prayers.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, please do pray, and we will be praying. I just have in my mind's eye remembering our singing from last year and I am so excited for that first song on first night of the conference. I can't wait to gather with you, Mark, and everybody else for that week. So thank you, Mark for the updates. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ben Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, you're preparing tomorrow morning to get up quite early and spend all day traveling to the Philippines. Tell us why you're going to the Philippines.

Mark Prater:

I'm very excited about this trip to the Philippines. I'm going for a number of reasons, and I wanted to record this podcast this week because when folks receive it next week, I'll actually be there. And I would really appreciate your prayers, as well as Dave Taylor and Jeffrey Jo.

So, I'm going to the Philippines first of all, on Saturday, we're going to be with a group of Jeffrey Jo's leaders in the Philippines, about 120 folks, doing a leader's summit. We'll be with Jeffrey Jo's church on Sunday and will be a part of an ordination service where a couple of men are being ordained. So that's just the start of the trip. But I'm also going, because we will be adopting 10 churches this spring in the Philippines. We'll go from 2 to 12, and there are at least another 20 or more that will be adopted in the next couple of years. So, we are going to have quite a presence. Sovereign Grace will have quite a presence in the Philippines. And so it seems like this is a timely trip, a strategic trip to just go and invest into the pastors and wives who will be attending a conference.

Secondly, I'm going just to get time with Jeffrey Jo, who is a key leader. So pray for him. I thank God for him. That's a way to invest into him. I'm also taking a person with me who's given very generously to the Asia-Pacific Development Fund, and I want him to see the fruit of his generosity. And there'll be another person who's given generously to that fund from Australia. And so getting those guys together in Manila to see how their generosity is having an impact is another reason to, to go. So those are just some of the reasons that I'm going.

And, again, if you would please pray for our trip. We need your prayers. We want to be led by the spirit of God. Of course, we want to be faithful to do what we're asked to do next week, but nothing will happen of any significance, and we will not be able to give God glory, if the Spirit doesn't fill us and lead us. So please pray.

Ben Kreps:

Absolutely. The podcast will be dropping on Monday, so it'll be Monday when guys see this when you'll be there in the thick of it. The weekend will have passed. So some of these things already have happened, but yes, we will be praying. Tell us about this conference and what's going to happen there.

Mark Prater:

Yes, the Leadership Summit is on Saturday. I mentioned previously that we'll have about 120 leaders. The theme of the Leaders’ Summit, is The Joy of Gospel Partnership. Jeffrey Jo and I texted this morning and I asked how I could pray for him. And he said, could you pray that the time you're here would be used to build us together as a family in the Philippines, within the family of Sovereign Grace Churches? So that theme of the Joy of Gospel Partnership is intentional. Dave Taylor will teach on Together in Partnership; the joys and strengths and wonders of what we enjoy in partnership. And then Dave will do a second sermon on Together Around the Cross.

We just want to keep our partnerships centered in the gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ from the cross. And then I'm going to do a message on Together Abiding in Christ from John 15, that we want to be leaders who abide in Jesus, for apart from Him we can do nothing. We want to live that way with that kind of desperate abiding in Christ. And then, as I mentioned, on Sunday we'll be at Jeffrey Jo's Church. I'll be preaching that morning. And then Dave and I will be participating in ordaining two more elders there, elders who have faithfully completed the Sovereign Grace ordination process. That's going to be just a real joy. And then Dave will be preaching, and I'll go with him, to another church in Manila led by Caloy, the name of the guy who is also pursuing partnership and will soon be part of Sovereign Grace. We'll spend time with them.

And then that following week, beginning on Tuesday afternoon, is the Asia-Pacific Pastors and Wives Conference with pastors and wives from not just around the Philippines, but also from India, from Nepal, from South Korea, San Juan and Miriam will be there, for example, from Australia. And so there'll be a collection of pastors and wives from the Asia-Pacific part of the world, either pastors who lead churches that are in Sovereign Grace or pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace. And the theme of our conference is The Beauty of Pastoral Ministry. So Dave will open the session on Tuesday afternoon; The Pastor and the Cross. Again, we want to center everything we do in the gospel. On Wednesday morning, I'll be preaching on The Pastor and His Flock: Our Call to be Shepherds, as I mentioned in the last podcast.

And then that afternoon, Jeffrey Jo will be preaching on The Pastor and His Soul. And on Thursday morning, I'll be preaching on The Pastor and His Team, talking about the joys of team ministry and why team ministry is important in Sovereign Grace. And then Dave will end the conference on Thursday afternoon talking about The Pastor and Taking Risk, the right risk in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I think there's at least 300 folks, maybe more, that are coming to this conference, and I just can't wait to see what God is going to do there. My faith has been strengthened as I've prayed. My heart is happy, and I'm just looking forward to see what God is going to do. Mostly though, I hope that Dave and Jeff and I can serve our brothers and sisters who labor so faithfully in the Asia-Pacific part of the world.

Ben Kreps:

Well, thank you for the way that you do serve all over the world in investing in partnership. It is gratifying to hear about not just connection and relationship, but sturdy partnership being built globally; ordination and adoption and so forth. So thank you, Mark and Dave for your investment. Thank you, Jeffrey. I know Jeffrey checks out this podcast. So thank you brother, for the wonderful gift you are to our partnership as a key leader in the Philippines. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

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, we talk a lot on this podcast about global church planting and partnership, but we also want to be planting churches here in the states as well. And to that end the National Church Planting Group is holding an assessment weekend to help our churches plant more churches here in the U.S. Can you tell us about that?

Mark Prater:
That National Church Planter's assessment weekend is scheduled for this coming weekend. So when guys get this in their inbox on Monday, it will have been this past weekend. So it's January 22nd and 23rd and it's something we're really excited about. It's a new initiative that's being led by Eric Turbedsky and involves the National Church Planting Group. The guy in the National Church Planting Group, that's really leading this, on point for the National Church Planting assessment weekend is our own Greg Dirnberger. He's gonna do a great job. Let me just tell you a little bit about it. There's actually six couples from different churches and different regions here in the states that will be traveling to the west coast for the National Church Planter's assessment weekend. And that alone is very encouraging. Exciting. The fact that we've got six guys along with their wives who have faith and are inspired and desire to plant a Sovereign Grace church is very, very encouraging and they'll get there on Friday evening.

And then all day on Saturday will be the assessment. And then we have three couples who are the assessors: Greg and Laurie Dirnberger, John and Nancy Loftness and Dave and Mary Beth Odom. And as you hear those names you men probably know, men and women know, that each of those guys along with their wives have planted Sovereign Grace churches. And also have years of pastoral ministry experience. So I'm really excited that these church planting candidates along with their wives are going to be assessed by men and women that we trust and who have been involved in church planting and have years of pastoral ministry experience. So I just can't wait to see what this weekend produces. And then at the end of this weekend those assessments will be sent back to the sending church just as a means to serve them. It's really for any eldership, the opportunity for someone else outside of your eldership or even outside of your region to assess a church planter and just sort of determine their readiness to plant a church. So that's a little bit of an overview of what's gonna happen this weekend.

Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah, that's excellent. And we're sending a couple actually. And so when I learned who was doing the assessment, I just thought, boy, excellent, excellent pastors and their wives, that are trustworthy men. And I look forward to their evaluation. I think it's gonna serve us big time. It will be very helpful. So what's the schedule look like? What kinds of things will they be doing during the retreat?

Mark Prater:
They've got a wonderful plan mapped out and some of the things that those couples will be doing is they want to get to know them. They've got a session where they say just tell us your story, and are really asking them to just share about their life. Some of their greatest joys, some of their greatest challenges, for example. So it'll take some time to do that. They're also gonna to do what they call a marriage checkup. They want to assess and determine how strong the marriage is and where they can encourage them and where they can help them. That's so important in a church planter's life, for their marriage to be continuing to grow in Christ. So I'm glad that's a part of it.

They're going to ask them to share the gospel. They want to ensure that a church planter knows the gospel, he and his wife, and can effectively share the gospel. So that's a portion of the time. And then they're gonna take some time and just ask the couple to share their vision for their church plant, which I would just love to sit there and hear those guys share their vision, as their wives are a part of that and will chime in, I'm sure, their vision for their church. So those are just a few of the things they're going to be doing over the weekend and will be part of the assessment that these three assessing couples we'll put together.

Benjamin Kreps:
That's wonderful. That sounds like a fruitful time. I love how it gets at how we love to build and grow relationally and that marriages are being invested in. And all of that just sounds wonderful. So any other thoughts about church planting before we end?

Mark Prater:
Well, in my State of the Union that I gave to the Council of Elders, I was calling us to take the right risks for the cause of Christ. And I think this is a right risk for us to take; to plant churches. Not to grow Sovereign Grace. It's not about that at all. It's really about planting churches to reach the lost with the gospel. And that's why we plant churches. We want to reach men and women who don't know Christ, and may of our church planting efforts result in people being saved and more people joining us around the throne on that great day singing "worthy is the lamb".

Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. Well, thanks to the faithful men and women that will be leading this time, this weekend. Thanks to all of you. Thank you, Eric, for leading the National Church Planting Group. And it's wonderful to see the investment being made into couples here that are exploring church planting. So thank you Mark, for the update. Thank you all for watching or reading, and we'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

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, I think one of the most encouraging things in Sovereign Grace Churches are the opportunities that are expanding in Latin America. And in fact, you traveled to Colombia just last week to explore some of those opportunities. Tell us about that.

Mark Prater:

I did. I traveled with my friend Joselo Mercado that most of our listeners know. I also brought a couple of members from two different Sovereign Grace churches: Bob Wright from Covenant Fellowship Church and Victor Ko from Risen Hope Church in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania. And we traveled to Barranquilla, where we flew into, and met with a pastoral team and a church in that city who has some interest in potentially joining Sovereign Grace. We had a wonderful meeting with the pastoral team and then met with the church on Friday and just had a wonderful time with them. They've actually doubled in size during the pandemic, which is a story I'm hearing over and over again. Not only here in the states, but obviously in Colombia and it's just a wonderful gospel centered church. And so that was just a joy to be with them.

And then we traveled to Santa Marta. It's about a two-hour drive and spent time with Iglesia Biblica Soberana Gracia led by Jacobis Aldana. And that is actually a candidate church in Sovereign Grace because Jacobis who is the lead pastor is in our ordination process and hopes to complete his ordination exams in the spring of 2022. And Joselo and I taught a men's meeting on biblical manhood on Saturday. And then obviously we met with the church on Sunday; before the service I taught on our seven shared values. And then Joselo preached a wonderful sermon on suffering on that particular Sunday. And they were actually celebrating their six year anniversary as a church. And that is a church that has also grown during the pandemic. But the striking thing about that church is they are clearly imbibing our values and they get gospel centrality. Part of the way you see that is how the gospel outworks in their lives.

You see joy and Thanksgiving, and generosity and encouragement. And it's just a church that understands gospel centrality. So should they be formally a part of Sovereign Grace? They're just going to strengthen us. Let me just say one other thing. It is it is a joy to watch Joselo Mercado work in Latin America. He is a gift to our family of churches, and the way that he leads and preaches and cares for pastors and wives and members of churches. He really is very effective in what he does in that context. And I just thank God for him and the way he is serving Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. I mean, he's really a rock star down there, right?

Mark Prater:

He is. I just carry his bags.

Benjamin Kreps:

So thankful for Joselo. So you met with some pastors that are moving towards actual partnership officially in Sovereign Grace, but you also met with another man from Venezuela who actually overcame great obstacles and travel barriers to come and meet with you.

Mark Prater:

He did. Eduardo is his name, he's a pastor in Venezuela. I'm not going to give the name of the city, just partly for his own security and protection, but he traveled from Venezuela by bus. I don't know how many buses he was on, but I asked him, okay, just for the one way trip, how many hours were you on a bus? And he said 24 hours.

Benjamin Kreps:

Unbelievable.

Mark Prater:

And that was just very humbling. He traveled that far first to Barranquilla and then over to Santa Marta, just to spend time with Joselo and me. And he leads a church in Venezuela that has formerly requested adoption into Sovereign Grace. And just getting to know this man was in itself worth the trip. He's one of the more godly men I've ever met. And yet one of the most joyful men.

And you have to understand how amazing that is because of the context he's in, in Venezuela. As most people know, the economy is bad. There's also a fuel shortage of all places in Venezuela and Eduardo was telling me he's had to find different ways to lead and care for his church because he's in a city where people were traveling from different parts of the city to attend the Sunday service and with the fuel shortage, they're not able to get to the Sunday service. It's just too far to walk. So he's had to take the approach of establishing cell groups throughout the city, and then try to get to them to preach and to pastor and to care for them. So that's just one of the obstacles that this pastor is facing. And yet he is one of the most joyful men I've met. And if you're listening to this or reading a transcript, pray for Eduardo and his church in Venezuela.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Well, what a wonderful opportunity to partner with men like that, and the guys that you met with over the past week. It's also wonderful to remember that even though we are in different parts of the globe, we all share the same gospel that God is working in and through to transform his people. And we get to watch and participate in all of that. So thank you Joselo and Mark for your work last week in Colombia and meeting with the Venezuelan man, pastor. And thank you all for watching. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.

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, folks probably noticed that they did not have a podcast in their inbox this past week because we were at the pastors conference and we had full schedules, especially you, but what a time it was at the conference. We worshiped, we feasted and fellowshipped with friends, we rejoiced in Christ. One of the ladies that came along, a couple that we brought with us, she said for her it was like a taste of heaven on earth. And I agree with that. So everyone there experienced a lot of life, a lot of joy, a lot of Jesus. We come back happy pastors. You have some highlights for us though, including you had mentioned during the conference that there were a number of brothers and sisters that were live-streaming the event globally, that couldn't make it into the country for the conference. Tell us a little bit about that.

Mark Prater:

I'd love to. First of all, God smiled upon our conference and did more than we could ask or even think to ask as Ephesians 3 talks about when we plan and when we pray for the conference. He was just so good to us. I did mention at the conference that there were a number of pastors along with their wives who couldn't travel into the states this year either because of COVID restrictions or because of immigration issues. Some of those immigration issues, really is a backlog because of COVID. So it points back to the pandemic. So we arranged for them to watch the conference via live-stream. And off the top of my head, I believe we had pastors and wives watching from at least 10 different nations, which was so encouraging. And one of the things we did is we had the conference translated in Spanish, not only for pastors who were at the conference who only spoke Spanish, but also for those from Latin America that were watching the live stream.

Jorge Pardot is a member of Covenant Fellowship Church, where I attend. He leads a small group. He's Puerto Rican born and speaks Spanish fluently, obviously English, and French. He's a real guy when it comes to languages. And the feedback I got, actually from a pastor in Costa Rica who was watching the live stream was like "his translation was really good". So just to celebrate that, that even though they couldn't come to the states, there were brothers and sisters throughout the world that were benefiting from the conference live-stream.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Now back a little bit ago, when we were preparing to go to the conference, you talked about how there were some Chinese brothers that were going to be joining us at the conference. I actually had the pleasure of having dinner at the global dinner, sitting at a table with some of these brothers, getting to know them; remarkable, impressive men and their wives as well. You met with them. Tell us about what happened.

Mark Prater:

Met with them on Wednesday evening for dinner after the last main session. I met with them along with Brian Chesemore and Mike Seaver, and we had seven, I think, or eight. I can't remember exactly, seven or eight Chinese pastors there, along with their wives. And just to echo what you just said, Ben, they are impressive. They are godly, they are humble. They are very bright. And they were a lot of fun actually to be with as well. We laughed a lot. And the purpose of that meeting was just to hear from them about their desire to plant Sovereign Grace Chinese speaking churches both here in the states and in mainland China. And so what Brian and Mike and I did was really do a lot of listening to them and draw them out of what that might look like and what they would need. We just took a bunch of notes. So the next step is for Mike and Brian and I to meet via Zoom and try to assemble some sort of plan, if that's the right word to use. And then we'll follow up with those Chinese brothers and kind of continue the conversation. So if you're listening to this podcast, watching it, or reading the transcript, please pray that God would give us wisdom and next steps to see what would be wonderful; Sovereign Grace planting Chinese speaking churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

It really would be wonderful to see that happen. One more thing, at the Council of Elders, we happily passed the Global Partnership Plan. During the Council of Elders this was a happy moment. But you actually have some news that coincides with our passing of that plan.

Mark Prater:

I do. There were many happy moments, by the way, in the Council of Elders meeting, weren't there? This was just such a good Council of Elders meeting. The day before our conference started we, the council, did approve as you just said, the Global Partnership Plan BCO amendments. And when I was urging the council to approve them before the vote was taken, I actually did that in my state of the union message, I said that there were pastors throughout the world that were watching this council and the decisions they would make on that day regarding these amendments. And the illustration I used was pastors representing 19 different churches in the Philippines were watching this decision because they're ready to act and formally become a candidate church. Well guess what? Yesterday morning, I got a text from Dave Taylor. It had a picture of a screen where he's having a Zoom meeting. He and Dave York are leading a Zoom meeting with a number of Filipino pastors who are saying, okay, we know the BCO amendments passed, what do we do to become a candidate church? And all of those guys and more, are going to step into the ordination process as well. So really already, they wasted no time. Dave Taylor wasted no time. Our brothers in the Philippines wasted no time in acting on the council's decision to become candidate churches. So that was just exciting for me to get that text. And I wanted to share it with all of our listeners on this podcast.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's just wonderful news. We're so grateful for our brothers in the Philippines. So now for me, it was a pleasure to hear about Nilo Ebo being ordained, because I went to the Pastors College with him. So praise God for what he's doing there in the Philippines. Thank you, Mark, for leading the conference, you did an excellent job. And for those who don't know, Erin Radano actually edits this podcast. And so thank you, Erin, for we know that a conference like that doesn't happen without your administration and help. It was so good to be with everyone at the conference. Happy also to return home to our local churches, where we continue to celebrate the savior with those whom we love the most. So thanks everyone for watching. We'll see you here soon. Bye for now.

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, as we record this podcast, we're just a few days away from the Pastors Conference and something we've enjoyed over the years is having a number of pastors and guests come in from other countries to our Pastors Conference here in the states. It's a little more limited because of shutdowns and things going on with the pandemic, but there are people coming aren't there?

Mark Prater:

There are. I'm so excited to be together. And it's amazing to me that we have pastors and and wives and guests that are traveling from at least 11 different countries from outside the United States to Orlando to be with us at our conference. And that's an amazing number because many of our brothers and sisters in the Asia Pacific part of the world simply can't make it to the states primarily due to COVID restrictions. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're an American, when you see these brothers and sisters traveling to our conference and you greet them at the conference from other nations, please welcome them and thank them for making the long trip to be together with us in Orlando.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that will be wonderful. In just a few days when it all goes down. Yeah, I can't wait. Another thing though, you have an update for us. Those of us who've been following along with Michael Granger and the Pannells and the church plant in Ethiopia have probably been watching the headlines telling us about unrest in Ethiopia. You have an update for us about what's going on there.

Mark Prater:

I do. I got an email from Michael Granger yesterday, actually. And if you're following the news, as you said Ben, there's war happening in Ethiopia between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF, I believe that's the Tigray People's Liberation Front. And they took a city about 250 miles north of Addis Ababa just this week. And so the prime minister of Ethiopia, from what Michael told me, declared a state of emergency and said to the Ethiopian citizens, be prepared to defend yourselves. The U S government designated Ethiopia as a level 4 travel advisory, which basically means do not travel to Ethiopia. And then the embassy, the US Embassy there in Ethiopia recommended that US citizens consider evacuating the country using commercial airlines.

So they're in Ethiopia. Michael obviously is an American, Josh Pannell and his family, and there's another American family there, the Thomases. What Michael told me, at least the plan right now, was for the Pannells and the Thomases to temporarily leave the country. Josh was headed to the Pastors Conference anyway, Michael was as well, but he's decided to stay. What Michael's going to do is evacuate his family temporarily and then stay with the church there in Addis Ababa. There are about 120 people that are gathering at Trinity Fellowship on Sunday. So he wants to stay there and be with his people. And it's an amazing thing. It really reveals not only to us, but more importantly to the members of that church, Michael's pastoral heart for them. And he plans to remain there in Addis Ababa unless American citizens are somehow targeted in violence, or if the Ethiopian government orders US citizens to leave. In that case, he would, but the plan is for him to stay and he won't be at the Pastors Conference.

So I wanted to share that for a couple of reasons. First of all, please pray for Ethiopia. Pray for that nation. Pray for Trinity Fellowship Church, that God would protect that church and then pray for the Grangers and the Pannells and the Thomases just asking God to give them wisdom if they do travel or evacuate temporarily, that they could do that safely. The second reason I'm bringing that up is because as we partner with brothers and sisters and with churches throughout the world, we're going to hear these kinds of stories, whether it's a war or whether it's persecution.

And I think for us that are in churches here in the states, as Americans, when we hear that it should put things in perspective. First of all, when I hear about what's happening in Ethiopia, the challenges I'm facing suddenly seem very small. And so that's one thing. And I think, secondly, it's just going to shape who we are as a family of churches in the future; that we're going to find ways as Americans to pray for, partner with, support, encourage and love those who may be facing challenges like the Grangers are facing, and the Pannells are facing, or the persecution that some of our brothers and sisters are currently facing throughout the world. And that'll shape us as a family of churches. And another reason why I wanted folks to hear this is to just give an update on what's happening in Ethiopia.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Well, thanks for the update. I'm confident many, many people in Sovereign Grace will be praying for all involved in Ethiopia as we look forward to peace coming back into that country, Lord willing. So thanks, Mark. And thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here soon. Bye for now.