Update on NL and LD Retreats

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, on the last podcast, you gave an update about a coming retreat that actually happened in this past week with the National Leaders group and then with another group of leaders as well. So how did that go?

Mark Prater:

It went very, very well. It went better than I anticipated. It was more than what I prayed for. It was God being good and answering prayers in more than a way that we can ask or even imagine asking. It’s what Ephesians 3:20 talks about. We’ve had two weeks of retreats that I've been involved in. The first retreat was investing into existing leaders that we have, our Regional Leaders. And then, this past week, we had two different leadership development retreats that we put into one week. And Mickey Connolly, Jeff Purswell, Jon Payne, and I led both of those retreats. The first half of the week was our National Leaders Fellowship group. And that's about eight guys who have a pretty significant extra local responsibility. And we've been meeting with them for three years. This was our fourth retreat with them.

And it was just great being together. The purpose of that retreat is to equip them and invest into them for the extra local leadership that they're serving in. And then also for those men to build together relationally, which is really important for a couple of reasons. One is that they're going to be serving together potentially in the future extra locally. So then knowing each other really helps that. And as an illustration of that is when we added Jared Mellinger, Jon Payne, Dave Taylor and Eric Turbedsky to the Leadership Team that was seamless, partly because they had been a part of this group for the last three years. So, the relational aspect is so important. And in building relationally—we also said this to the Regional Leaders—it's not just the Leadership Team that's involved in leading Sovereign Grace. It is a shared leadership that the Leadership Team has with our Regional Leaders and with the leaders that we are investing into.

So that retreat just went really, really well. It was just great being with those guys. Jeff just went through some theological trends that he's seeing. We had a wonderful discussion around that. We presented the global partnership plan to them. I talked a little bit about the five-to-10-year strategic plan that I put together for the Executive Committee. And then Mickey Connolly and Jon Payne led a discussion on building healthy elderships. So that retreat started on Monday and ended at noon on Wednesday. Those guys went home. Actually, they stayed and had lunch with the next group, a Leadership Development group guys that we have not gathered together before and tend to be a little bit younger than the other guys, just to kind of broaden the reach of our leadership development as a Leadership Team. So those two groups shared lunch together, and then the National Leaders Fellowship guys went home, and the Leadership Development retreat guys stayed. And it was just a wonderful time with them. In fact, Ben, you were a part of that Leadership Development groups. I'd like to ask you a question. What did you think of the retreat?

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, it was wonderful. I certainly like having Joella Hot Chicken to begin the retreat with previous retreat. By the way, thank you, Mark. The guys should know you went almost two weeks doing retreats, home for a day and a half in between there. And finally, I hope you enjoy some rest and all of that.

And yeah, I thought we had a great time together at the retreat. It seems like we covered a lot of the material that you covered earlier in the week because it had Jon and Mickey and Jeff with us. It was equipping relationally. It was wonderful. Got to meet some guys that I've never met before in Sovereign Grace and really had a wonderful time hanging out with a number of guys getting to know them better, building relationships.

So, it was it was an edifying time. We had a guy that experienced healing in our time of prayer on Friday. So, I don't know when people would be watching us, I guess next week. But on Friday morning we had a brother who had his taste restored after months of not having tastes, from COVID. So, an unexpected, delightful thing as he wept with joy and then we all rose to our feet to sing to the Savior. So yeah, an edifying and equipping time. But relationally, very meaningful as relationships were built and strengthened thanks to you, Mark. So I appreciate that. What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts about how that went?

Mark Prater:

Oh, it would just basically repeat what you just said. I don't think it could have gone better. That was a group of guys, by the way, that hadn't been together before. Some of them had never met before and what God did of how quickly he forged friendships and guys were sharing their lives in a very meaningful and genuine way. That was just a delight to watch. And those relationships will now continue. In fact, I spent this morning getting out sort of the notes and the prayer requests that each guy shared in both groups to both groups, because I know guys will continue to pray for one another. And again, it's just another way to not only care for one another, but to build relationships with one another.

Benjamin Kreps:

I'm really looking forward to all of the guys in Sovereign Grace hearing about what Jon Payne has been working on when it comes to building healthy teams. And certainly, in the days ahead, Jeff's leadership that he provides with thinking theologically through current events, things going on in this season, is much appreciated. I'm sure all of us will benefit from that going forward. So, thank you, Mark, for the sacrificial way in which you serve us. I hope that you are going to get some rest now. I hope Jon and Mickey and Jeff are going to get some rest too, because I knew they'd been involved all the way along. And so grateful for your leadership and your investment in Sovereign Grace. Thank you, everyone, for watching. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.