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, you talked on a podcast a few months back about how God has given us the opportunity to see his kingdom advance through church planting and Sovereign Grace, even in a very difficult season. Now we have a Church Planting Group or what has been known as the National Church Planting Group that is intended to serve these men as they navigate into their church plans. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

Mark Prater:

Love to. This is a great time to be planting churches, simply because as all of our pastors know, the world needs to hear the truth of the word of God and needs to find hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And one of the ways that happens is through church planting.

We're actively planting three churches right now. One in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Michael Granger just had his first public service in the last two or three weeks. We're planting in Prattville, Alabama. That plant is being led by Matt Turner. And we will be planting right at the turn of the year in San Antonio, Texas, where Phillip Estrada is leading that church plant. And so our Church Planting Group—and we've dropped the National Church Planting Group; we have dropped the national name out of it and just call them the Church Planning Group because we want them to be a resource for our planters around the globe, at least in this point in time in our history. And these guys are doing a great job. That group is led by Mike Seaver, who leads that group on behalf of Eric Turbedsky, our Director of Church Planting. And what that arrangement does is it allows Eric to focus on the things that we've asked him to focus on related to church planting while Mike leads the Church Planting Group in assessing and equipping our church planters.

And this group is just a great group. It's Mike Seaver, Jeremy Oddy, Andy Farmer, Ricky Alcantar, and Greg Dirnberger. Some of our best guys.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes.

Mark Prater:

And they've been working hard really equipping guys for church planting.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. I understand that there is some of that equipping happening this weekend with these guys that are in the middle of working on a church plant. Can you tell us about that?

Mark Prater:

I'd love to. It’s happening the next couple of days. The guys are flying in today. We've had to make some adjustments because obviously of the pandemic. But Andy Farmer in the Church Planting Group is the guy on point for our Church Planting Cohort. And that's what the guys will be attending over the next several days.

So Matt Turner is flying in today and he's bringing a couple of guys with him that are planting that church in Prattville. Those two guys are kind of forming a leadership core for him. And then Phillip Estrada is coming as well. He's planting Mission City Fellowship in San Antonio after the turn of the year. And then Jim Brown, who is the Regional Church Planting Chair, a church planting committee chair for his region in the Southeast. He is coming along with Matt simply just to learn, but to sort of envision him for influencing his region in the future for church planting.

So those guys are coming in and they're going to spend what Andy's mapped out. I think it's a great plan. We're going to draw on our team here at Covenant Fellowship Church and some of our planters in the area. So guys are going to get intensives. Actually it starts now, let me just say what's happening tonight. We are having an elders meeting tonight so they can just sit in and one of our elders meetings. And then throughout the day tomorrow, they're going to have these intensives where they're going to get with Rob flood and Andy Farmer on Biblical counseling with Jim Donohue regarding evangelism, Leo Parris when it comes to youth ministry. Matt Turner is bringing his worship leader with him. So he'll get time with Joseph Stigora related to worship leading. Matt and Phillip will get time with Jared Mellinger just on the role of the Senior Pastor and mapping out sermon series in particular.

And then we've got a couple of church planters in our area, Dan Birkholz who's up in Northeast Philly and Steven Bowne who is in the Frankfort section of Northeast Philly are going to be at Covenant Fellowship. And they're just going to talk about their church planting experience in an urban setting.

So that gives you a little bit of flavor of what Andy has put together. And just one of the ways that the Church Planting Group is equipping our planters.

Benjamin Kreps:

It's just great to hear. Not only that we're planting churches but that are gifted men who serve as pastors in Sovereign Grace are being deployed to equip those men and to build relationally. I love that model. I think we all do. Do you think if somebody is on a church planting committee in their region, would you encourage them, if somebody is inclined, to come and visit one of these like Jim Brown is doing?

Mark Prater:

I think it would be a great idea. I think it would give you a little better look into how a planter is equipped and it may just give you a vision for future church planters in your region. I think you'd come away from this cohort enthused and excited about church planting and then you would bring that back to your region.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Great idea. Any other thoughts before we go?

Mark Prater:

Well, I think it’s what you just said. You know, this is a real expression of our partnership. First of all, the Church Planting Group has got guys that serve on that from different regions. And we're using our pastors to train our church planters, all different guys who are pastors in a local church. And none of that happens without our shared commitment to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ together by planting and strengthening churches. So, what this next few days represents is one expression of our partnership and even how we, I think, build relationally within that partnership.

Benjamin Kreps:

Right. Wonderful model. Very encouraging to hear. Thank you, Mark. And thank you everyone for watching and we'll see you here soon. Bye for now.

Transcript:

What Happened at the Leadership Team Retreat?

Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone, this is Ben Kreps. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where we aim to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Hey, Mark, how are you doing?

Mark Prater:
I'm doing great. Ben, how are you?

Benjamin Kreps:
I'm doing good. So I saw last week on Twitter (by the way, your Twitter handle is @MarkKPrater like the website) you posted that you were at a retreat for the Leadership Team and asked for prayer. And so I wanted to connect with you and hear about what Leadership Team retreats are all about. I mean, what happens at a Leadership Team Retreat?

Mark Prater:
Well, let me start by giving you the typical day. What does a typical day look like at a Leadership Team Retreat?

Benjamin Kreps:
So we're assuming it involves drinking beer and complaining about Sovereign Grace. Is that pretty much like substance of it?

Mark Prater: 

That's about all we get accomplished. That's right. Haha. 

No, we get together three times a year. In fact, we talked about this in our last retreat: Should we continue to do three retreats a year? Is that too many? Should we go to two? And because we're spread out geographically, we find that those retreat times are just so important for us to build relationally, to talk, and have conversation that doesn't have to be hurried about big picture issues in Sovereign Grace. And we just found that (both on a relational level and a strategic level, if you can say it that way) the retreats are really helpful.

Benjamin Kreps: 

That's wonderful. So three times a year, for how long? Three days?

Mark Prater: 

We started Monday, about 11:00 AM, and ended on Thursday at about 11:00 AM. So it's a full schedule. 

Kind of a typical day during our retreat, we'll rent an Airbnb, so we'll just all stay in the same house. It's another chance just to be together. Just hang out together. We love that as well. We usually get started around 8:30 or 9:00. 

And we just begin by praying: Whether there's specific things we're praying for related to Sovereign Grace (typically we're praying for our pastors and churches and certain churches that are on our heart) and then we will meet and after prayer we'll just discuss items until about 4:30. We typically have lunch brought in. 

And about 4:30 we'll just take a break, just to clear our minds, do some exercise. Typically most of the guys go work out. And then we'll gather back together, usually about 6:00 and we'll go to dinner and we'll continue the meeting over dinner and we'll typically be meeting until 10:00. So it's a full day that has both, again, the relational and the strategic component to it.

Benjamin Kreps: 

That's great to hear that we have a fit, healthy Leadership Team. Everybody's working out. So what kinds of things did you talk about and cover and pray about over this past week?

Mark Prater: 

We had a really good retreat because we were able to take some time and just talk about big picture issues. So actually, the first session, I just take time to specifically encourage the Leadership Team. And then after that, we take some time to pray. 

And then this past retreat we just really answered the question: How do we move our family of churches forward in mission? What can we do as a Leadership Team? 

I asked each of the guys in the Leadership Team to answer that question and bring specific thoughts. And they had done a lot of work beforehand, and it was a really, really good conversation. 

Some of the ways that we answered that question were to refocus on church planting. We talked about how to focus not so much on the "how" of church planning, but the "why" of church planting. And because of the work that Ian McConnell did and the National Church Planting Group continues to do, we've got the "how" pretty much down now in terms of our process. What we really need to talk more about is why do we plant churches in more of an inspirational, vision casting way. 

We also talked about how do we make our pastors in our churches more aware of what's happening globally in Sovereign Grace. That alone, will stir us in mission. 

We talked about making evangelism more of a priority, and Mickey's leading us in some ways of doing that. So we just had a great conversation about that.

Benjamin Kreps:
That's wonderful. I know that Dave Taylor and I have been talking about possibly doing an Emerging Nations Team podcast to help assist in that, helping people to know what's going on globally.

Mark Prater:
Let me just encourage you to do that. Stop talking about it and do it actually. I've said that to the guys at the Leadership Team because the other thing that we talked about as a Leadership Team (especially we devoted to): the topic of how do we strengthen our influence and our leadership as a Leadership Team. 

So a couple of things we talked about: Beyond the Sovereign Grace website, we're going to have department websites. 

So church development: Mickey hopes to have that up by March 1st and the Pastors College website up by March 31st. It's going to have a bunch of new resources on it. And then beyond the podcast I'm doing and the Ordinary Pastor Podcast, I believe Jeff is going to start one fairly soon, which will be really, really good. So those are just some of the ways. 

So if you and Dave could do one on emerging nations, that would just add to the voices that will serve our pastors.

Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. What we're aiming to do it. So look for that sometime soon when we can coordinate between Australia and Pennsylvania. We'll figure it out. 

So the important question you asked (just to end this conversation): You guys talked about why is it that we plant churches at Sovereign Grace? 

So give me the short answer: the elevator pitch. Why does Sovereign Grace plant churches? What was your conclusion as you talked about that at the retreat?

Mark Prater:
Our conclusion, which is really our heart, is to reach those who don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior with the good news of the gospel. That's ultimately why we plant churches: to see people born again through the preaching of the gospel, through local gospel outreach. 

And as you know, as you read through the New Testament, it happened through church planting. And really all of that should be for the glory of God. 

So it's not really about Sovereign Grace, in that sense. It really is about fulfilling the Great Commission that Christ has given us for the glory of God. And that's why we plant churches.

Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. Well, I think everybody watching this would also say amen to that and our shared mission together. So thank you Mark for leading our Leadership Team, for caring for them at that retreat. We are grateful for you. And to all our viewers, thanks for taking time to watch this podcast. God bless you. We'll see you next time.