Why Do We Do Pastors Conferences?
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ben Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches to our Executive Director. Mark, as many of us know, one of the key roles that you play in Sovereign Grace along with the leadership team is planning our pastors conference. And it was not long after last November's Pastors Conference that you met and began planning, so it has been in the works for a few months already, as we look forward to this upcoming conference later this year. But this sort of begs a question, why do we have a pastors conference?
Mark Prater:
It's a great question. We've been doing them as long as I can remember, as long as I've been a pastor, and certainly in Sovereign Grace. So it's a part of our history, obviously, but I've only been leading them for 10 years. I think they are very strategic and an important part of the rhythm of our life in Sovereign Grace, if you can say it that way, meaning that once a year we all gather together as pastors and wives, first of all, to worship the risen Christ together. And to do that with other pastors and wives is such a joy as you well know, Ben. And then, we gather together to be equipped through the preaching of the word and through the teaching of the word and breakout sessions.
And then we gather together to continue to foster the value of building relationally. And as our pastors and wives who've attended those, it really is a family reunion in that regard, right? Just seeing people you haven't seen for a year, and you get to see them again and spend time with them. And it's a great way for guests or new people to experience that relational value that we share in Sovereign Grace. And then I think the other thing is that it's a unique time to say, we are on mission together, and we know we're on mission together because of the updates that we planned during conferences that can be given. And because we simply try to dedicate some of the preaching towards our Gospel mission, and it leaves us with the reality that we don't do gospel mission and ministry alone. We do it together as a family.
I think they're so important for those reasons. The guys that have been attending them for years, they're like, yep, that's exactly right when they hear this podcast. But there are other brothers and sisters throughout the world that are a part of Sovereign Grace now as we expand globally, who can't make it to the Pastors Conference in the States. And we want them to have that experience. And so that's beginning to happen. We dedicated a podcast about a month or so ago for the first Sovereign Grace Pastors and Wives conference in the Asia-Pacific part of the world. In August, we have the first Sovereign Grace West Africa Pastors and Wives conference. That will happen in June. There's gonna be a gathering of Sovereign Grace Europe, European pastors. It won't be a conference, but a meeting to plan the future. I think it'll have a little bit of that feel. That'll be in June in Warsaw, Poland.
And then the conference in August that Carlos Contreras leads for Mexico and much of Latin America. Those are all conferences outside of the states that are happening and will continue to need to happen. So that as we build Sovereign Grace, what we experience at our conference here in the States can also be experienced throughout the world. And the hope is that it strengthens us as a family of churches and in our mission together.
Ben Kreps:
Wonderful. It is the best time each year when we gather together. We've already invited, along with the guys from our pastoral team that are coming, two couples. We plan on inviting more, can't wait for them to experience the joy that we share when we gather at the Pastors Conference. You have an update for us, actually. You have a couple of updates including where you've landed on the schedule and the Council of Elders meeting.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. We're planning November, let me start with the Council of Elders meeting. We are gonna have it on Monday. It'll have to be in a different location. It'll be at the Crown Plaza, which is a five minute walk from the Wyndham where we've met the last several years. We need to meet there because, Home Base,, many people remember Home Base, they'll be doing there, <laugh> concert, their party, they'll be there through Sunday, checking out Monday morning. So the hotel can't turn over the hotel and be ready for us that quickly. So we will do the Council of Elder's meeting at the Crown Plaza. You'll be getting more information about that.
If you come in on Sunday, you'll need to stay Sunday night and then Monday night there as well. And then those that don't come to the Council of Elders meeting can just check in at the Wyndham on Tuesday. And the conference, like we've done the last several years, starts Tuesday night and goes through Thursday afternoon. So that's a little bit about the schedule.
In terms of a theme. We've landed on the theme, which I really love, which is the Triumphant Church of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. And we chose that theme because right now, I think, pastors are facing a number of pressures and challenges, and we want to respond to those pressures and challenges by rooting us in the Word of God and remembering that the Church of Jesus Christ will triumph. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. So if we've got the word and we've got the promise of Jesus' Church, the New Testament church, it will continue. That can strengthen us as a family of churches. So we've got messages that aim at for that and really will help us, Jeff Purswell is gonna give a message just to talk about, for example, our theological clarity and integrity, which is very important in this day and time as guys face and feel pressures, social pressures sometimes on social issues from the far right and the far left. And we wanna be rooted, not on that spectrum, but only in the word of God. That's where we want to be rooted. And that we lead our people out of the word of God.
So that's just one of the reasons we chose that particular theme. And there'll be much more information coming soon. We're hoping to open registration in June. That's the plan right now. We've got the five main sessions planned and those speakers chosen. I'll hold those until maybe another podcast, to reveal who those are. And then, breakout sessions. We've got a long list of what we're trying to work through and determine, if we have breakout sessions, which topics it will hit. So I said a little bit of a precursor, and just a reminder really more importantly, of why we do pastors and wives conferences.
And, I can't end this podcast without thinking about the pastors and wives in Sovereign Grace. And they're not only friends, they're brothers and sisters in partnership with the gospel. And they labor so hard and they serve so faithfully, like you and Kate and everybody else that listens and reads this podcast. I want you to know, I thank God for you. And the labor for the Pastors Conference for me and the other guys in the Leadership Team, it's a labor of love. It's a labor of service. And that's because we love the pastors and wives of Sovereign Grace so much.
Ben Kreps:
Thanks, Mark. Your care and your love is evident in the thoughtful way that you and the Leadership Team seek to plan to equip us and strengthen us each year at the Pastors Conference in very specific ways. So thanks for that. Thank you Leadership Team. Thank you for whetting our appetite for what's coming in November. And just so guys know, Mark is serving us from Hawaii.
Mark Prater:
Yes, that's right, <laugh>.
Ben Kreps:
So he's eager to serve the pastors of and members of Sovereign Grace churches. He's even breaking into his vacation to give us this update. So thank you, Mark. And thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week, unless Mark doesn't want to do it, because he is on vacation. So that might be in play. We'll see. But we'll talk to you soon. All right. Bye for now.