Transcript:

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, my name is Ben Kreps. I'm the Lead Pastor at Living Hope Church, a Sovereign Grace Church in Middletown, Pennsylvania. I'd like to welcome you back to this podcast where our goal is to help connect our global family of churches with our executive director Mark Prater. How are you Mark?

Mark Prater:

I'm doing great man. How you doing?

Benjamin Kreps:

Doing great. Last year on November 4th at our Council of Elders, you gave our State of the Union address. We're not gonna actually getting the specifics of that. We'll put a link in the transcript. You can click cause it's actually on the Sovereign Grace Church blog. But the Book of Church Order mandates that you give a State of the Union address at our Council of Elders each year and you do, which is wonderful. But I wanted to ask you, how do you approach the task of writing that State of the Union each year and formulating your hopes and prayers and vision for Sovereign Grace in the year ahead.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's something I love doing each year since I've been the executive director. The Book of Church Order doesn't really give any specifics on what the State of Union should be. So being the first Executive Director, I really got to make it up basically. And I really wanted it to be encouraging, so I include a number of updates that are intended to encourage our pastors as well as communicate that we are truly a global family of churches. So the updates that I give are from different parts of the world, but I also wanted the State of the Union to be inspirational in nature, so that it would cast vision for our future. So when we left the Council of Elders meeting and then the Pastor's Conference that follows that there's a sense of vision casting that's happened and that our pastors and our churches are filled with vision walking into the new year.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, so what about the nuts and bolts? So is this something that you're working on? You probably are working on this like on the plane and Orlando, I'm just assuming, but maybe not. So, uh, so what does it look like for you--your process of thinking through what you're going to be presenting to us at the council?

Mark Prater:

Well, the way I've approached it (I'm sure it can be different for different guys that will be in this role), but the way I approach it is I'm actually thinking about it throughout the year. I've already put in some thought to what I might even say in fall of 2020 at our Council of Elders meeting. And the reason I do that is as we go throughout our year, as I visit our churches, as I've talked to our pastors and even to the members of our churches, I'm just making notes of sort of the state of where we're at as a family of churches and from my perspective where we need to grow or how I can inspire us to continue on in gospel ministry. So this last State of the Union that I gave in November, I think I wrote the original draft in July, just to kind of get it down on paper, knowing that by November it may need to change some because of situations that would change in Sovereign Grace. But I actually wrote it several months before.

Benjamin Kreps:

You do visit a lot of churches. So you're going around, you're interacting with pastors and you're prayerfully thinking for months actually what you want to present to us at that Council of Elders.

Mark Prater:

Right. I am. Yeah.

Benjamin Kreps:

So do you get input on what you're going to say?

Mark Prater:

I do. One of the things I've done each year is I go to the Executive Committee retreat and I present them a draft version of the State of Union. I don't fully deliver it; I just kind of give them an abbreviated version and then they spend time giving me a lot of input. So that's nine guys on the Executive Committee giving me input. And I've always found that their input has really helped me improve it so that what I give in November is better than what I gave them in August.

Benjamin Kreps:

So they're not just rubber stamping. They're actually giving their thoughts to help sharpen and improve what it is that you're writing.

Mark Prater:

Their changes are represented in it. Even some of their own quotes are represented in it, and I really feel like they, they improve it. So it's a team effort in that regard.

Benjamin Kreps:

So it's the new year. And you had six exhortations to us in that State of the Union address last year. See the beauty of the glory of Christ, see the transforming power of the gospel, see the beauty of reaching the nations, see the beauty of God's provision, see the hope of future generations, see the beauty of our unity in Christ, which is all wonderful. We would all say amen to that. But if you could add or sort of crystallize a thought, one brief thing that you want to leave Sovereign Grace Churches pastors with as we enter into this new year and think about the year ahead, what would that be?

Mark Prater:

I think I would say this: I would say continue to faithfully preach Christ. And do that with even more faith that your preaching of the gospel every Sunday, of you reaching out to unbelievers in your community throughout the week. and hopefully having opportunities to share the gospel, doing that with a renewed faith or a strengthened faith of the gospel's power to save. As I approach the new year, one of my big prayers for Sovereign Grace is that we would reach the lost and people would be born again, and that the greatest miracle of regeneration that we will ever know would happen through the ministry of our churches. So be faithful brothers to preach Christ, and believe people will be saved.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. Thanks Mark. And as you're working on your thoughts already for this upcoming fall we look forward to hearing from you again at our State of the Union address at the Council of Elders in November. Hopefully I'll talk to you before then. Actually, I think next week. So everybody, thanks for taking some time to watch this podcast. God bless all of you and goodbye until we meet next time.

Transcript:

Benjamin Kreps:
Welcome back to Mark Prater's video podcast. My name is Ben Kreps. I'm the host and Lead Pastor of Living Hope Church, Sovereign Grace Church in Middletown, Pennsylvania. And today we're talking about Christmas. Merry Christmas, Mark. 



Mark Prater:
Merry Christmas Ben. 



Benjamin Kreps:
So I want to give you an opportunity to share some thoughts and encouragement for Sovereign Grace Pastors. It's an opportunity to hear from you about what we're navigating through in a very busy Christmas season. So what kinds of things have you seen in different Sovereign Grace Churches that you've enjoyed? Just to highlight perhaps a few different practices that might inspire or encourage us as we think through the Christmas season. 



Mark Prater:
Our churches do a number of different things during the Christmas season. So I would say most of our churches do a Christmas Eve service, which is a wonderful way to have people in your church who may not normally come to church. But there are some other churches that do some things that are related to Advent. They're very intentional about Advent. So Cornerstone Church in Knoxville has something called Lessons and Carols where during the singing of songs they bring a specific aspect of the advent that they want to highlight for the church throughout December. 



Benjamin Kreps:
Each sermon based on a Christmas Carol? Is that why it's called that?



Mark Prater:
I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I don't think so. Uh, I think it's more recognizing and tying truth to a specific song they're probably singing during, during that. 

And then in Sovereign Grace Church in, in Marlton, New Jersey has Songs for the Savior that they have and they're actually preaching one of five songs each Sunday in December five Sundays that relate to the advent. And then on their website they give specific lists of resources their members can access for advent. 

So you see some churches emphasize Advent and specifically the meaning of Advent. Which is so, so important. 

Here at my church at Covenant Fellowship Church we obviously have a Christmas Eve service, but we do a Christmas concert every year. We just had this past weekend and there's all kinds of people that come in from the community that we don't typically see. 

It's just a fun time for the church. 

And we also do a ministry called boxes of love, where we feed probably around 300 people in our community that are in need. They're poor folks that we're just looking to care for. So members can pick up empty boxes and they fill it with a list of food. And then we typically add something like a frozen turkey to it. And then those people are invited to come to our church and pick up that food on a Saturday if they're able to. We'll also deliver it to them. But we like to bring him to the church just to help them get inside and become comfortable here.



Benjamin Kreps:
That's great. So I think it was, I saw a video clip from your Christmas concert where the lights were out and there were glow sticks and techno music or something playing. 



Mark Prater:
Yeah. That was great. It was crazy. 



Benjamin Kreps:
I didn't immediately think of Christmas, but it looked like a lot of fun. 



Mark Prater:
Exactly. 



Benjamin Kreps:
So how would you encourage pastors when it comes to thinking through how to steward the Christmas season, which is such a big deal in our culture? There are many opportunities as every pastor is aware. A lot of churches in Sovereign Grace are smaller churches and so maybe there aren't Christmas concerts and dynamic programs. Maybe it is just a simple emphasis on the Sunday before because they can't even use the facility on Christmas Eve. But how would you want to encourage the pastors in Sovereign Grace during this Christmas season? 



Mark Prater:
Well, my first encouragement is actually to thank each of our pastors for working hard during the Christmas season. For most folks, life can slow down a bit during the Christmas season. That's not true of pastors. Life is very busy for a number of different reasons, especially up and through Christmas day. You may maybe get some time off after Christmas, but you're working very hard this time of year in ways that most people I don't think see or realize. But the Lord sees, and I believe he's pleased. And I just want you to know my heartfelt appreciation. 

I think the second thought is, and this is not a new thought, but just the opportunity that we have to reach people during this time of year who don't normally enter into a church. 



Mark Prater:
They don't come to church, but they'll come to Christmas Eve service or you can't have a Christmas Eve service they'll come to Sunday after Sunday before they call them Christmas. 



Benjamin Kreps:
They call them Chreasters: Christmas and Easter. 



Mark Prater:
That's right. The Chreasters. But don't miss the point that there's gonna be somebody that's going to come to your church and they're there out of duty maybe. They're there because their family brought them. Don't miss the fact that the spirit can work and do the work of regeneration while you're preaching the gospel either on a Sunday or on Christmas Eve. Pray big prayers that God would save the lost during this Christmas season. I think there are other Chreasters and they're looking for a place to rest at this time of year because life has been hard. Maybe this year has been hard for them and they're wanting to find a place where there's real community and love and peace. Your church will provide that cause Sovereign Grace Churches are like that. Look for the person who's looking for a respite and welcome them into your church family. 



Benjamin Kreps:
And you don't need to be a big church or have some dynamic program. Just your church being a gospel light and a place of unity and love is sufficient for God to use that church to draw people to himself. 



Mark Prater:
So true. 



Benjamin Kreps:
Well, I really appreciate how Twitter you just, I don't know if it's every day, but regularly you post how you're praying for our churches and specifically about opportunities we have with unbelievers. So thank you Mark for your prayers, and we'll be looking expectantly, as your prayers are joined to ours in this Christmas season, about what God will aim to accomplish in and through our churches. So thanks for your thoughts, Mark. 



Mark Prater:
All right, Merry Christmas everyone. Jesus came and we've got to celebrate that. So Merry Christmas.

Mark Prater: 
Merry Christmas. See you man.

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.