Transcript:

Ben Kreps:

So we're welcoming everybody to another episode of Mark Prater's video podcast. I should comment for the small group of faithful pastors who've been following your podcast that the podcast has a new host, which is me, and my name is Ben Kreps. I'm the lead pastor of Living Hope Church in Middletown, Pennsylvania. It's been a Sovereign Grace Church for 30-something years. 

I don't know if guys are aware (I imagine they are) that Eric Turbedsky was hosting this. He's a fairly busy guy with a number of responsibilities. And so, I have a little bit of experience hosting a podcast of my own called The Gospel Culture Podcast. You can Google it (you'd find it with my name) for about half a year or so, and we thought, why not give it a shot and free Eric up and I can host it. So here we are. How are you Mark?

Mark Prater:

Good, I'm doing great. I'm so excited about you hosting this podcast. Tell me why you started your Gospel Culture Podcast. And are you seeing the results of what you hope for?

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, I'll be really brief. Eric warned me about you that you'll try to turn things back around, because you didn't want to talk about yourself. But we want to talk about you. 

Basically, the reality is, I mean if you pull up to a red light and look at the people all around you, they're just on their phones. Everybody's looking down at their phones. So we had a desire to meet people where they live, which is on their phone. And podcasts, I'm a big fan of podcasts. So it's an opportunity for me to serve my church and anybody else who wants to listen in, talking about a variety of things connected to what it means to live a gospel-centered life, and to look at life and ministry through the lens of the gospel. 

It's not setting the world on fire, but I have folks in my church that communicate appreciation for episodes here and there, and that they found it helpful. So it's working the way I was hoping it would.

So, on a sad note, we had a loss in the Sovereign Grace Family recently, and we wanted pastors to get an update so they would understand what's going on. So why don't you share that Mark.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I sent out an email a few days ago, which maybe most of our pastors read, but Erin Radano has been my administrative assistant, in a very capable sense for probably at least 10 years now. And her husband Chris: We prayed for Chris and Erin two years ago at our pastors conference when he was fairly early diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. And then this past year at our pastors conference, Erin wasn't able to come. And we prayed for them there as well. He passed away on Thanksgiving morning. Chris ran a good race for Christ in this life. And he finished well. 

We just had his Memorial service on Saturday here at Covenant Fellowship Church. And I would say it obviously had moments of sorrow and moments of joy. We are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as Scripture talks about. But it was also, I believe, one of the most Christ-exalting memorial services I've been a part of, because that's what Chris wanted. 

And actually one of the moving aspects of the service was Chris wrote a letter that Jim Donahue read and he addressed his family, extended family, people in the pastoral team. He talked to Erin. And it was very moving and a reflection of Chris's heart for not only his family, but his church family. So we miss him. 

Eric and the girls are doing well overall, enjoying the support of our church family here. But pray for them. They're just grieving. They miss their husband and their father. So thank you for asking and thanks for praying.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, well, I mean, if anybody's been around Sovereign Grace for any length of time they have in some way been served by Erin, whether they know it or not. Certainly very sad, but like you said, how wonderful that he's with Christ and his testimony continues.

So one of the things that I wanted the other other pastors at Sovereign Grace to be able to know about is just simply some of your background. I'm sure most of us know pieces here and there. But I personally don't think I know the story of how you even became a pastor, much less the Executive Director. So just to situate people (this is the beginning of the podcast). 

We've done a couple of episodes. Eric hosted those. We've done a few, but now it's going broader after a time of feedback (when we changed your camera so that we're not looking up your nose). But in order to give some context to all of this: The purpose of this podcast is for pastors to feel a connection with you and hear your heart. And so in order to give context to that, I thought it would be helpful to just share for a few minutes about your story. So how did you become a pastor?

Mark Prater:

Thanks for asking, Ben. I still can't believe I'm a pastor. It's still a stunning thought. I'm a pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, which is in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia. Jill and I and our three girls walked through the doors of Covenant Fellowship in September of 1990 and have been a part of Sovereign Grace since that time: 30 years next year. 

We had moved from the Midwest, which is where we're from. I was working for a pharmaceutical company at the time and I moved out here and had taken a different position within that company. A friend at that company invited me to church, and Jill and our girls came, and this has been our church home for obviously a long time now. 

We came here as Christians, as believers, but for different reasons (especially with my own heart and life) really marked by selfish ambition. I was not really following Christ in the way that Scripture commands us to. And what happened is that I heard preaching that was good expository preaching, but also helped me apply the gospel to my life. That along with the work of the Spirit that was convicting me of my pride and my selfish ambition, and the fellowship of the saints that we were enjoying here through our small group ministry, really what it led to was for me to make some changes within my career that allowed me to keep working for the company, but essentially what I did is I stepped off of the corporate climb. 

That was just a good thing for me, still not thinking about ministry. And just over the course of time, just something stirring inside of me, I would say maybe first a heart for and a love for the local church, my calling kind of emerged out of that first. And then I began to wonder about being called. And I didn't even really understand what all that meant. So I talked to the pastors here and they kind of looked at me and knew I wasn't ready for ministry. 

And then I just was in different discipleship groups (one led by Allen Redrow, one led by Dave Harvey), and over the course of a few years, I was really looking for external confirmation to this internal sense that I was called. And that was essentially determined. And that led to me planting a church in 1996.

Ben Kreps:

Was that in Pittsburg?

Mark Prater:

It was. We were sent here from Covenant Fellowship with, I think it was about 10 or 12 adults and a handful of kids to plant in Pittsburgh: Providence Church. That church is still there, no longer a part of Sovereign Grace. We thought in moving there we would spend the rest of our lives there. But the Lord had different plans and we moved back here in 2002, where I became the Executive Pastor here at Covenant Fellowship Church.

Ben Kreps:

And then all of that windy road ended up for you becoming the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace. So I mean, why did you want to be the Executive Director so badly?

Mark Prater:

Exactly! (Laughter) Whoever thought, I mean, let's be honest, whoever thought that I would be the Executive Director. Let's start there. Something I never wanted. It really is like this: In 2011-2012 when we've just had all kinds of things going on with Brent's accusations and the civil suits, bullets were just flying everywhere. It felt like that. And I think at some point the Permanent Board had the thought of: Who is dumb enough to take this role?

Ben Kreps:

And your name immediately sprung to mind.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, Prater's coming up to do this, so...

Ben Kreps:

Yeah. Well, I think I can speak for all the other pastors at Sovereign Grace about how grateful we are that you've agreed to become the Executive Director. You've done an outstanding job. You've served us so well, helping us navigate through a very stormy season--a number of years--into calmer waters. And you continue to serve us. So I'm personally grateful. I imagine all the other pastors at Sovereign Grace would also want to communicate that gratitude to you.

So here's the deal. It's a short podcast and we're done. That's the deal. So the plan will be to do a weekly podcast like this, about eight minutes long, something like that, where we'll give you an opportunity to share thoughts about Sovereign Grace and what you see and how you would want to connect and encourage the pastors. So we'll plan on doing another one next week.

Mark Prater:

Great. Looking forward to it.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, looking forward to it. See you then.

If you have questions or comments, Mark, would love to hear from you. For more videos like this, hit subscribe on YouTube or by email at markkprater.com.