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, Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 11:28, how in bringing his oversight to a lot of different churches that he faced the daily pressure or concern, or ESV says anxiety, for all the churches. And you as our executive director overseeing many dozens of churches and know what that's like. And so here's the question. When you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the concerns you have for Sovereign Grace, what are you thinking about?

Mark Prater:

Well, I do wake up in the middle of the night. In fact, just last night I woke up in the middle of the night and was thinking about several different things. So there's a list of things that go through my mind and I take those and try to turn them into prayers, which is what I did last night. One of the things that was on my mind when I wake up in the middle of the night is actually if God would allow Sovereign Grace to be a multi-generational family of churches, will he continue to provide young men and young women who will be faithful members of our churches, faithful to the gospel, faithful in obeying and following Christ, faithful to pursue Christ-like growth in their life and faithful to share the gospel with others? And how will the Lord do that?

And so I was just kind of praying out of Psalm 78:6 that talks about how one generation tells the next generation about the wonderful works of God in this case, the gospel. And then they can tell their children, just a reminder, of how God works through generations to pass that good news of Jesus Christ. And so that's what I was thinking about last night. That's what I was praying for, asking God to provide.

And even as where we're at at this point as a denomination where the founding generation is my age and will be transitioning at some point, and future generations, younger generations will be leading our churches, leading our regions, leading our denomination, I'm praying that some of those young men who are part of Sovereign Grace churches are compelled and even called to pastoral ministry. That's another thing that I pray for, just godly young men who say, I want to give my life to gospel ministry. That's the other thing that I do pray for. So that was on my mind last night and I was thinking about it. And of course, we don't want to just simply pray, although that's most important, I think in many ways, knowing that God hears our prayers, we want to take steps of faith to serve the next generations as well in Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, I share that burden with you, Mark. And the past few months at our corporate prayer meeting, we have a monthly corporate prayer meeting; that is a category we've been praying for, not just the next generation at Living Hope, but across Sovereign Grace churches as well. And so one tool that we're using to help equip the next generation and to strengthen them as we pass the baton is the Relay Conference. So we had the Relay Conference this past January, this year actually, it seems maybe like it was longer than that. And the next one's coming up sooner than you might think because the next one's this upcoming January in just a few months. And so this is an opportunity to serve the next generation, the young adults in our churches in a wonderful way. And you wanted to talk about that as well.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's one of those steps of faith that we prayerfully and yet enthusiastically have created and put a lot of time and work into because it's just an expression of really investing into future generations in Sovereign Grace churches. And that's the Relay Conference as you mentioned. I thought it was a good time to mention it in the podcast. I was thinking about it last night, but also because it's January 2nd through fourth, and once we get to this time of year and we get near the holidays, it seems like time flies by.

And it's just a good reminder that if you're not registered for the Relay Conference, you might want to do so soon, certainly before January gets here, so that you can be there to attend. Now, Relay is a young adults conference. It really aims at 18 to 25 year olds, but last year we had high school students there. We had young men and women, young couples, married couples in their thirties. So that's really the age range that's there, the high school through thirties. And if you're in that age group, I really would want to encourage you to attend because it is a conference meant to serve you, your generation, and just to equip you and inspire you. I think part of the thing that I heard from last year's Relay Conference is that there were all these people in this room of the same generation and they realize, wait, there's other people like us who really want to take up the cause of Christ and to further the gospel, and we get to do that with a bigger group of folks than I realized before this conference started. That's just one of the effects that it has.

And as I mentioned, one of my prayers and your prayers, thank you for praying by the way, Ben, and leading your church to pray the way you do. But one of our prayers has been that God would give us young men called to Pastoral Ministry. So there are pre-conference sessions for those young men for the Relay Conference again this year, pastoral interest sessions, there's a few of those that begin on Thursday afternoon on January 2nd. And actually I'm happy to announce that Jeff Purswell is going to be a part of those this year. I don't believe Jeff was a part of those last year. So another bonus or incentive for young men who think about pastoral ministry is to register for those as well.

So right now we've got registration, I think it's around 330; people from 20 plus different states within the United States, but we also have registrations from Australia and Canada. So it's exciting to just begin to anticipate gathering with all those folks. And I just think it's going to be a wonderful conference. Anytime you've got CJ Mahanehy and Jeff Purswell, just those two alone preaching, it's going to be good. So they'll be preaching as well as Jon Payne and Jared Mellinger and Dave Taylor. And then there's several specific breakout sessions that are planned that will be done by Josh Bolunt who was there last year and taught, Walt Alexander, also Jace Hudson and Joel Shorey, just to name a few of the guys that will be doing breakout sessions. So I really want to encourage you to, if you've not registered and you're in either high school through your thirties to get registered before the holidays get here, and come prepared to just rejoice in Christ January 2nd through fourth. That'll be in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania at the church I'm at. We're hosting it at Covenant Fellowship Church.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Yeah, I was able to attend earlier this year at the first Relay, I'd encourage any pastor, but especially maybe even senior pastors, lead guys to consider coming with a crew, big or small from your church so that you can experience what God's doing among the young adults in Sovereign Grace because it is a wonderful experience to be in a packed room. I mean, the news stories, we hear them constantly about the decline of the American church, about how young people are growing up, graduating high school, leaving the church never to return. Well, by God's grace, we're seeing in many of our churches exactly the opposite. And God is doing something among the young adults in our churches. And so this is a wonderful resource to use along with what we're doing locally to serve the next generation of young adults coming through Sovereign Grace.

Dr. Carson, Don Carson has famously noted, speaking about a denomination that has moved away from biblical fidelity, that in the first generation they believed and preached the gospel. And the second generation, the gospel was assumed. And in the third generation the gospel was lost. And so God forbid that would happen to us, and by his grace it won't because as we seek to be faithful, he's going to meet us because he's faithful. And so Relay's just a wonderful opportunity to help invest in that next generation. So please consider coming; pastors, consider joining the young folks that are coming, and we look forward to all who will gather in January.

So thanks, Mark, for your encouragement and for your care for us and for the next generation in Sovereign Grace. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.