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, we've talked on the podcast for the last couple of weeks about the wonderful resources that are now online following the pastors conference, and so we continue to benefit from the conference even though it's been a few weeks since we were at the conference. One of the things we didn't talk about though, and that you'd like to talk about, is your State of the Union address. You begin the Council of Elders (that happens typically before the conference) with a State of the Union, a State of the Sovereign Grace Churches Union address. Why do you start the Council of Elders each year with that State of the Union address?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, first of all because the Book of Church Order requires that the executive director give a State of the Union address at the Annual Council of Elders meeting. And by the way, if you've never been to a Council of Elders meeting, that's typically on the Monday of the week of the conference. And then the conference starts Tuesday evening through Thursday and a Council of Elders meeting is sort of a denominational business meeting. Although what we've tried to do with it is make it more than that; than just a business meeting. We do business, we vote on things, we pass amendments and a lot of good business and I think that strengthens our denomination. But, the context of the Council of Elders is also very relational in nature. We take time to sing together and we have time to catch up with one another and pray for one another.

And then there's the State of the Union message that I give. And really I'm glad it's in our Book of Church Order because it gives me the opportunity once a year to convey to our pastors what has happened over the past year. And then mostly it's forward looking. It's looking into the future and just sharing some things I'm seeing about our future, I'm excited about in our future. And it also gives me an opportunity to share those things that are on my heart that I'm concerned about. In Sovereign Grace, one of the unique things about this role is you do have a viewpoint. Whether it's just because of interaction with pastors throughout the world or through travel or through interactions with conversations or emails that fills out a bigger picture, it gives me a view of Sovereign Grace that I don't know every pastor has. And I count that a real privilege and I want to make sure I steward that privilege well by sharing what I see in an encouraging way, in a way that strengthens our churches, in a way that unites us.

So this State of the Union in particular is something that I have been carrying on my heart for several months, actually. The text I sprang from this year was John 15. I read verses one through eight, but verse five in particular about abiding in Christ. If you abide in me and he abides in us, then we will bear much fruit, for we can do nothing apart from Christ, is really what that verse says. And so I was trying to emphasize our ongoing dependence upon Christ. Even though there are a number of several good things happening in Sovereign Grace, we can't lose that vital dependence upon Christ. So from that, I developed points about just the kind of fruit I was looking for us to develop. And that allowed me to share some things on my heart that I see in Sovereign Grace as executive director. And I just want to encourage pastors who were not at that meeting to listen to that State of the Union and listen to those things that are on my heart because they're intended to help serve you, serve your churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

It was a wonderful address, I so loved. Guys and gals that follow the podcast may remember you talking about how you've been meditating on that text in John for months, half the year or longer. And it showed. John Piper talks about taking scripture and placing it on your tongue like a lozenge and slowly letting it seep into your system. And clearly that happened to you. You came with a burden, you came well-informed because you are well-informed about what's going on in Sovereign Grace. You pay careful attention to our churches and we thank God for that. But you came with a full heart, exhorting us to pay attention to some things, to emphasize some things. What were the high points of what you shared?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, there's several things I shared in the State of the Union, which is why I encourage guys to listen to it. Or if you're a member of a local church, I'd encourage you to listen to it as well. By the way, it can be found on our website on the events page, click on this year's pastors conference and the State of the Union is listed there under the main messages, if I remember right. So you're welcome to listen to it.

But I want to draw out three points from the State of the Union. These things are on my heart and they continue to be on my heart. And you're going to hear more about them over the next year from me and from the guys on the leadership team.

So the first one is developing future pastors, recruiting and developing future pastors. That's real important because I shared some stats in that State of the Union message and in my main session message as well, that show us that over the next decade the first generation of pastors in Sovereign Grace are going to be transitioning primary leadership of our churches, local churches, and even on a denominational level to the second and third generation pastors. And I think it's a transition we're not really completely prepared for. So we want to be a multi-generational family of churches should God allow that and give us grace to do that. And what that means is we need to recruit and to develop men for future pastoral ministry. And I talked a little bit there about the importance of taking some risks there, some calculated risks in developing guys. And once you do that, make sure that you get them to the pastors college. The pastors college will equip pastors in a way that I don't think any other local church can. So that's one encouragement and we're going to try to give you resources to help you do that. In fact, there's leadership development pipelines. One of them I handed out at the Council of Elders meeting from the Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, their pipeline, we're going to put up on our website, the SGC pastors website where there's going to be other leadership development pipelines that you can access as a pastor. So that's the first one, taking risks to recruit and develop future pastors.

The second one is risk to plant churches here in the United States. We're enjoying some wonderful expansion throughout the world outside the United States. And a common question I've been asked by pastors is why does it seem like there's so much growth outside of the states but not in the states? And I think there's a number of reasons for that. I talk about that in the State of the Union. But what I really called us to is let's take risks to plant churches. And as we develop men for pastoral ministry, let's be thinking about church planting and let's just redouble our efforts to plant churches, not to grow Sovereign Grace, that's not the intent, but to reach the lost with the gospel because in any area of this nation, a gospel centered church and a church that proclaims the gospel consistently will have impact in that part of the United States. So just a call for our guys to do that, to take risks to plant churches. I'm so grateful for your example, Ben; you took risks this year in sending out a hundred plus people along with Jeremy Hetrick to plant and that church plant is doing well, and God is already honoring just that risk and your faith by bringing new people.

Benjamin Kreps:

They had two baptisms last week. Redeeming Grace had two baptisms last Sunday.

Mark Prater:

Oh, outstanding. Outstanding.

And then the third thing I talked about, I put it under this point, is protecting and promoting our gospel heritage as we see a transition happening from first generation to future generations of pastors. Let's not lose our gospel centrality and the gospel heritage that we have. And I think the shaping virtues in particular help us to sort of monitor that. That's why we had you teach a breakout session on our shaping virtues, at least in part because we want to build gospel centered churches. And the fruit of the gospel in any church's life, not just in Sovereign Grace, are those virtues that we talked about like joy and humility and encouragement and gratefulness and generosity are just some of those virtues that reflect the fruit of the gospel. And I shared this concern I have as the executive director that I don't think we are as strong in the virtue of encouragement as we were several years ago or maybe a decade ago. I don't quite know how to quantify the time, but I want to call us to be an encouraging people; that we would be encouraging pastors and that we would lead churches that encourage one another because that's what you see in scripture. In fact, it's one of the commands of what we're to do daily, encourage one another. Hebrews talks about that. So it's that important that we should do it daily. It's pretty important in God's eyes. And it's the fruit of the gospel when you're able to see evidences of grace in another and speaking those evidences of grace at times is very timely because they may be discouraged, they may be struggling with sin, and that brings life and it brings them hope and it brings them encouragement and it gives you an opportunity to tie them into Christ and the hope of the gospel. So let us be encouraging churches. In fact, we may do a whole podcast on that topic, Ben, because it's one that I want to continue to hold up. So those were three things in particular I wanted to draw from the State of the Union and share on this podcast.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Well, I certainly was blessed sitting under the State of the Union address. You spoke to us passionately. You clearly had a burden that you shared with us. And certainly my faith was built and I'm confident that all the guys there, our faith was built. We were strengthened to consider the future. So thank you for the discernment that you displayed in the encouragement that you shared. And thank you for the faith building call to take risks for the advance of the gospel. Jesus is worthy of doing the hardest things. If we go down, we go down swinging for the glory of Christ. So grateful for your leadership, Mark. So thank you for sharing this. Let's check out the State of the Union if you haven't done so yet. It's on the resource page with the other conference resources. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

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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, still enjoying what we experienced a couple of weeks ago at the Pastors Conference. Last episode, you highlighted some resources that you guys posted online from the Pastors Conference so that what happened there can continue to serve us going forward. And you wanted to highlight some of those resources including a bunch of testimonies that were deeply encouraging that we heard.

Mark Prater:

I do. God was very good to us in Orlando. I think we all look back and continue to marvel at how really good God was to us during the conference. And we hold a conference not just to experience it in the moment, but we want to use the conference to produce resources to serve our pastors and the members of our churches. And so that's why if you go to the events page of the Sovereign Grace website and you click on the Pastors Conference, we've got a number of resources there. The main sessions, the breakout sessions, I'm going to talk about a couple more today. But we also just published the videos of the testimonies that were shared. And I would encourage pastors or members of our churches to listen or to watch those because they really recount how God is at work through our family of churches throughout the world.

And there's just some encouraging, inspiring updates that I think anyone can benefit from all for the purpose of advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God alone. So if you're a pastor, think about who in your church might benefit from watching those, or maybe you could take them and show them on a Sunday morning or some small group context. They are there for the edification of your church. So that's something that just recently has been added. There's also the Spotify song list that includes the songs we sang at the conference. If you're interested in singing or listening to any of those songs, Bob did introduce a new song that David Zimmer wrote with Nathan Stiff and it's called Sing essentially. And it's a wonderful song that'll be on the Knowing God album that will come out next year. So there's a new song on there that you could sing as well. So just some of the resources that have been added and that our churches can benefit from.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, I was losing my voice when I was at the conference and that song--I was attempting not to sing to protect my voice for a breakout that I taught on Wednesday--but that song came on. I could not, how can you not sing at the pastors conference? So I was sorely tempted and that is a wonderful song. So grateful for those resources and definitely we'll check out the Spotify list as well.

Last week you talked about a couple of breakout sessions taught by Josh Blount and Jeff Purswell in order to serve us in a couple of different vital areas, thinking about politics and our complementarian convictions. There were a couple more breakouts that you wanted to talk about.

Mark Prater:

I do, before I mention those two, let me just mention again, those main sessions and the breakout sessions are there not only for the edification and equipping of pastoral teams, but for the edification and equipping of members as well. So if you're a Sovereign Grace pastor listening to this or a pastor not in a Sovereign Grace church listening to this, those are resources that you should consider who in your church could benefit from. If you think the entire membership, make them aware of it. There may be small group leaders that you want to direct a main session to or a breakout session to. I find that, let's take for example the one we discussed last week regarding Josh's, Josh Blount's, complimentarian convictions breakout session. There's a lot of common questions that people have regarding Complementarian theology and our convictions there. That's just a great resource to use to give people to answer some of those questions. So just think in some strategic ways, some ways that you can serve your church by utilizing those resources.

I did want to highlight two other breakout sessions that are posted. There's one that you led, what I'm going to talk about in a moment, Ben, on our shaping virtues. And then the one I want to start with is a breakout session that Jon Payne led and taught regarding the privileges and pitfalls of pastoral teams. And it really is a team ministry breakout session. Jon just did a wonderful job of just saying, look, we like other denominations, we value plurality, plurality of elders that you see in scripture in leading the church. We can't just take it for granted. It's actually something we continue to have to remind ourselves of and what scripture says about it. So in his points, and by the way, his outline is available on the website, he uses this word renew.

So he talks about renew your sense of privilege of being on a pastoral team, renew your biblical convictions regarding pastoral teams or plurality. And in that point, he just talks about the overwhelming evidence for a plurality of elders that you see in the New Testament. And he makes the point that there, there's probably more passages on that than parenting, for example, that you find in the New Testament. So it matters to God. Renew your sense of pastoral fellowship or commitment to pastoral fellowship. We on pastoral teams really can really help one another to grow in Christ and how our godly example, not only as an individual pastor but as a team of pastors is so key to building Christ-like churches and then renew your love for fellow pastors. And I really appreciated that point because he just draws, he just used a number of texts to draw out how Paul in particular spoke about fellow pastors. He does so with appreciation and with affection and with encouragement. And that's something we continue to not have to renew but cultivate as we work with men on pastoral teams that we would have just a love for one another as we serve together. And not allowing the busyness of pastoral ministry to swallow those things up because of the tyranny of the urgent, but that we would continue to make plurality and team ministry not only a priority in our thinking because of our biblical convictions, but in our practice and how we fellowship and love one another. So just a really well done breakout session by Jon.

And then the other one is the one that you led, Ben, I think I've got the title right, How to Build a Gospel Culture in Your Church, using our shaping virtues. And Ben, I thought you just did an outstanding job teaching and leading that breakout session with a voice that you were losing by the way, and you got through all of that, but just how you laid it out biblically I thought was excellent.

And then you walk biblically through each of our Seven Shaping Virtues, which really are, as you said, the fruit of the gospel in our lives. So we devoted a breakout session to this because we do want to build Christ-like churches. And the gospel has this unstoppable power that does transform us and make us more like Christ as we pursue his work of sanctification in our lives. And so one of the things we hope for is the virtues, which are the fruit of the gospel are more and more evident in our lives as we grow in Christ. It's also what we hope people experience when they walk into a Sovereign Grace church. They experience, as you said, humility, joy, there's so many others that are there that you talked about, there are seven, generosity, encouragement, et cetera. And you just did a great job of laying those out.

And then you gave 10 ways to build your church culture with these virtues. And I thought those 10 ways were not just only practical and helpful, you included, I thought, just very helpful illustrations of the impact they had on your church or how they helped you address pastoral situations. I thought the illustrations in particular were very, very effective. So really, really well done. Another reason we asked you to do that particular breakout session, I shared this in my State of the Union and we'll probably devote an episode to my State of the Union address, but one of the things I said in my State of the Union, a concern I have for our family of churches as executive director, is that we're beginning to lose that virtue of encouragement. I don't know if it's because we've just gotten lax or we don't readily see evidences of grace in other's lives, but scripture commands us to encourage one another daily, is what the Hebrews text says. And so I want our churches to be filled with people that encourage one another. And so that's another reason for pastors or for members of the church to listen to your breakout session to cultivate that particular virtue in particular. So well done, Ben, on that breakout session.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. It's like so many of us historically have enjoyed not just rich biblical convictions and theology, but also this beautiful culture in Sovereign Grace. And I think just like the famous quote from D.A. Carson about the gospel is preached and believed in the first generation, assumed in the second generation lost in the third. I think you could say the same thing about a gospel culture as well if we're not attentive to that. So thanks for the opportunity to serve. That was wonderful. Looking forward to listening, I haven't heard Jon's yet, but I do want to hear that, grateful for Jon's heart for healthy elder teams and healthy pastors, and it's clearly evident in his care for us, including the paperwork that he developed for elder teams to work through together to help strengthen the fellowship and the health of the team. Certainly our churches notice, they take note, when there are healthy and happy pastors who love one another and together love the church. That is a wonderful experience for the people in our churches as well. So thank you for recommending these resources. Thank you to everybody who spoke, including the wonderful testimonies that really were a highlight. And thank you all for watching or reading or listening to the podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

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, we're recording this the week after the wonderful conference that so many of us experienced. I returned home with a full heart and a killer cold as everyone can hear if you're actually listening to this. And you also came back encouraged about what happened over the course of that conference last week. You were responsible for the conference. You did an excellent job leading the conference. What are some thoughts coming off of the conference about what we enjoyed and experienced last week?

Mark Prater:

First, thanks for your encouragement, Ben. God was very, very good to us last week. I am responsible for the conference, but we do it together as a leadership team. So I'm grateful for my fellow leadership team members and how hard they worked last week as well. Yeah, God was exceedingly kind and good to the pastors and wives and leaders from Sovereign Grace Churches and to the many guests that we had there. And he did more than we could ask or think to ask as it says in Ephesians 3:20. You plan a conference and you try to get the right people in the right spots preaching the right messages, but God just works in all of that and brings a cohesion and a unity to it so that people leave thinking I understand what this conference was about. It equipped me in this way to go back home and serve my church.

Not only that, just the times that we had together singing together, hearing updates together, the sense of, at least for me, of palpable tangible joy and unity and faith for our future. Experiencing each main session that I was in was so encouraging, which you can only attribute to the spirit of God at work among us. So it was just a great conference. That's one of my takeaways.

Another one, there was a guest pastor there, a pastor who's not in Sovereign Grace who leads a church in Georgia. And he came up to me on Thursday the last day and he said, this is my second year here. This time I brought another elder with me. What I'm looking for my church is gospel fidelity. That's the term that he used. And he said, I haven't found anyone like Sovereign Grace that models gospel fidelity like you're doing. And I'm just very effected by it. And I want my church to be adopted into Sovereign Grace, which was humbling and exciting at the same time. And I think a statement like that, it commends the pastors and wives of Sovereign Grace, the leaders that were there just by who you are and how you experience a conference. And we go through a conference together even that communicates gospel fidelity. And then you add on that the preaching of the main sessions and the breakout sessions, and it had the effect upon this pastor who now wants his church to be adopted into Sovereign Grace. I had many conversations similar to that that were highlights to me, but that's one of them. So I'm just very grateful for how God worked among us last week and may he receive all the glory.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. It was wonderful In every way. We, as we always do, enjoyed rich fellowship, loud and rowdy singing. Meanwhile, as is a conviction of ours, central to our gathering was the reading and the preaching of God's word. And we heard some spectacular sermons that hit on various important topics. Well-rounded diet of excellent preaching. And you sent out an email recently telling us that actually that audio is online. What were your thoughts about the sermons, the main sessions?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I did in fact, not just the audio, but the video as well for the main sessions are all up on the Sovereign Grace website. Go to Sovereign Grace, click on events, scroll down to the conference, the Church of Christ and Triumph of the Word is the theme. Click on that and you'll find all the main sessions. And if you were at the conference, I would encourage you to listen to each of those. Again, if you're a senior pastor, I would encourage you to lead a conversation with your team about the main sessions and just how can you glean from them and how can you benefit from them in serving your church. If you weren't at the conference, I would encourage you to listen or watch those main sessions and do it in the order that they were preached, which is how they're listed on the website.

Because there was something unique I think about this conference about how God took each of those messages and knitted them together in a way that man can't plan for and actually can't do. So I would encourage you to listen to 'em in the order they were preached as well. So those are going to be up on the website. If you're a pastor, consider sending those sermons to other leaders in your church or people that you're developing for leadership because they can really benefit from the preaching that was at the conference. And that's partly how we think about the conference. It's not just a one-time event. It produces resources that you can use for several months in just strengthening your church. And so main sessions are one of those resources that we hope you'll use.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, there is definitely an immediate usefulness in our local context. Even just think about CJ's sermon and potentially having that be a tool to help guys think about pastoral ministry who are aspiring for pastoral ministry. We had a 16 year old guy that wants to be a pastor as an aspiration, and he learned what the contract was. You want to do this, buddy? You better figure it out right away and settle it in your heart and mind ahead of time. What actually the pastor's calling is. So loved all the sermons, but the breakout sessions, I actually haven't heard them yet. I'm looking forward to listening to a couple of 'em today from all accounts were excellent. And you wanted to highlight a couple of those as well.

Mark Prater:

I do. And you haven't heard 'em yet because you taught and led one of those breakout sessions on our shaping virtues. So thank you so much for doing that, Ben. And we hope to talk about that in the next podcast, your breakout session. First of all, the audio for the breakout sessions (and I believe we're going to have video at some point), but all the audio for the breakout sessions is up and available online. And again, if you haven't listened to the breakout sessions or to those that you didn't attend, listen to those as a senior pastor, lead your pastoral team in a conversation about those breakout sessions, looking to bring application to your church and make sure that you make those available to other leaders in your church who can benefit from the breakout sessions as well.

I just want to mention two today, I want to highlight two, and we'll talk about the others maybe next week, I attended Jeff Purswell's breakout session entitled The Pastor in Politics. It was outstanding. And then I listened yesterday to Josh Blount's breakout session Complementarianism, Culture and our Churches: Living our Convictions in an Age of the Gender Wars. It's just an excellent breakout session. By the way, each of the breakout sessions has an outline that you can download on the Sovereign Grace website. So, make sure you look at the outline as you go through the breakout session because it's really helpful.

But what we asked Josh to do, Josh accomplished and did so much more. I was so pleased with his breakout session. I saw the outline beforehand, but to hear him teach it was even better. So he starts with these core theological definitions of complementarianism and he draws from three affirmations, one through three of the Danvers statement. For those familiar with that statement. And then from there, goes to the Sovereign Grace statement of faith and draws out complementarian theology in our statement of faith. And he kind of says, this is the basis, this is the foundation. We've got to remember that now as we walk into what we're seeing really in the culture in evangelicalism. So there's a bit of a stirring in the culture regarding masculinity. Jordan Peterson would be an example of that, for example. And there's also a lot being talked about in evangelicalism right now regarding masculinity and a lot being written. And by the way, what Josh did with his breakout session is he published along with an outline, his book reviews of a number of books that he's read, a lot of them in the area of masculinity that is invaluable. So make sure that you download that and use it.

So he just kind of walks through sort of the issues in evangelicalism not only that are egalitarian in nature, sort of on the one end of the spectrum, but also basically a hyper, I would say, biblical masculinity on the other end that he just walks us through and talks about why those aren't as helpful because they can be more influenced by the cultural moment. They can be more influenced by pragmatism rather than bedrock theology that Complementarianism is built on. So that's just a great review. And then he just ends his breakout session by talking about our bedrock theology when it comes to complementarianism. And he just walks through that at the end, I think very helpfully, and then offers some practical advice for pastors. So it's an outstanding breakout session. I would commend it to you. And again, here's another thought to consider. If you've got people in your church who are new to the church or maybe younger generations that could be wrestling with Complementarianism, this would be a breakout session for them to listen to.

And then Jeff Purswell did one on The Pastor in Politics. Why this breakout session now? is how he started. There's cultural upheaval regarding politics now, and that's just not in the states, that's outside of the states as well. There's political despair for some and there's evangelical reactions to what's happening in the culture and in politics. So he just lays out some foundations for a biblical political theology that is just simply outstanding. And it's something that I would encourage every pastor to not only listen to, but learn from that, to have your own biblical political theology in place. And then he talks, he just walks through really what is happening in evangelicalism as it relates to politics and what he dials in on. First of all, when he builds his political theology, he really does make a clear argument for a separation of church and state, which is really helpful because the government has a call, a role to play. The church certainly has her mission to accomplish. And if we mix those two things, the church won't accomplish her mission. So he just spent time just clarifying the church's mission and clarifying the pastor's call in accomplishing that mission, and then spoke to some of the temptations that are out there for people in our churches that may be caught up in politics, which isn't necessarily wrong, it's just do they have the right emphasis and prioritization when it comes to politics? And he offers some practicals there that I find are not only helpful from a leadership standpoint, but from a pastoral standpoint as well. So two breakouts to recommend to you, download the outlines and listen to those, benefit personally, and then think about how your church can benefit as well.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. I look forward to listening to those breakouts. God has given us gifts in the form of effective teachers, and Josh and Jeff are right there as some of our best. So thank you Jeff and Josh for the hard work you put in to serve us through these breakouts in these two hot topic areas that we need to be sure we're settled on and have convictions about. So once again, another expression of the leadership team's thoughtful care for us as pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches.

So Mark, thank you again. Thank you, leadership team. What a conference. I can't wait to go again next year. Lord willing and thank you all for watching or reading. Actually, we have a podcast feed a lot of guys don't know about. If you go into your podcast, whatever app you use, apple or whatever, and just type in Mark K Prater, you'll see the podcast come up.

I know some guys like to just listen to stuff when they're driving around. So if you put that in your podcast app, that'll pop up in your feed on Mondays and you can get it that way if that's easier for you. So thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing next week. Actually, it'll be after the fact, but happy Thanksgiving everybody. That's tomorrow for us. It'll be last week by the time guys see this. But thank you all. We're thankful for you, our audience, and we're grateful to be able to serve you in this way that you can hear Mark each week. So thanks. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

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, as you've done a number of times over the past couple of years on this podcast, you have some resources you want to recommend to us to help strengthen us and equip us. Tell us about the first one.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I'd love to. It's a book just recently published entitled Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, written by Rosaria Butterfield. And Let me just tell you why she wrote this book. She writes in the preface that “this book is for Christians, especially Christian women who aren't ashamed of the Bible and its teachings, or who are and want to change. For young married women, my hope is that this book will encourage you to press on in holy faith and living. For young single women, I hope that you'll aspire to be faithful and fruitful Christian wives; that is to be helpers, wise counselors, and devoted homemakers to a godly man, raising children to the glory of God.” And then she goes on to talk about really that she's also written this book for moms and grandmoms, grandparents who have children or grandchildren who are wrestling with gender ideology issues or sexual orientation. And she has written this to help them as well. That's kind of who is on her heart.

And even though the book is written primarily for women in view, I would encourage guys to read it. I would encourage the pastors in Sovereign Grace to read it. I'm making my way through it and have benefited greatly from it. And I would also recommend, before I tell you a little bit about the book, Kevin DeYoung did a podcast with her recently that was really excellent. I would encourage you to listen to it. It was on September 27th, just an interview that you can find it by the title of the book: Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age. And it just gives you a little bit more about who Rosaria is and her passion for why she's written this book. So I recommend the podcast, as well.

She's written it because of the times we are living in. I think she sets that up by saying this. She says, "the world is in chaos and the church is divided because we have failed to obey God. And value is planned for how men and women should live. We foolishly believed that we could permanently extricate the gospel from the creation ordinance, key point, that we could have the New Testament without the Old. We foolishly believe that personal piety and love for Jesus require no doctrinal integrity and no foundation in the Bible as God's inerrant sufficient and inspired word. We foolishly believe that we could reinvent our calling as men and women, defy God's pattern and purpose for the sexes, and somehow reap God's blessing. God's plan for men and women, the creation ordinance, is first found in Genesis 1, and it is central, not peripheral to the gospel of Jesus Christ."

So I thought that was just well-written and well said in just a few sentences that describes why the world is in chaos. And here in the states, she mentions a couple of Supreme Court decisions in the last several years that she felt like shifted the culture. So the 2015 Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage that happened in 2015, and then the Bostock position of 2020, giving LGBTQ rights to those that identify that way. She writes this about those two things. She says, “after Obergefell and Bostock, LGBTQ describes who someone is, rather than how someone feels. Freudian ideas about sexuality replaced biblical ones and became the new and preferred anthropology, The study of what makes us human.”

And I think that is a wonderful cultural observation as well. When those laws codified into law, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights, it shifted anthropology in that sense, at least in the way that the culture looks at it and is a shift away from biblical anthropology in particular. So she then unpacks five lies of the anti-Christian age. Lie number one: homosexuality is normal. Lie number two: being a spiritual person is kinder than being a biblical Christian. Lie number three: feminism is good for the world and the church. Lie number four: transgenderism is normal. And lie number five: modesty is an outdated burden that serves male dominance and holds women back. So that's the five lies that she addresses. And she speaks not only very biblically and theologically, but very humbly as well, because she is one who embraced these lies in her past and has come to Christ and repented of them and now is really wanting folks to know the truth that not only set her free, the truth that shaped her whole worldview. She wants others to know about that. So highly recommend Five Lies of the Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. I just got the book, but I haven't started reading it yet. But I did watch the podcast or listen to it with Kevin DeYoung. I mean, if you want your appetite stoked for this book, go listen to that. It's a little easier maybe. I'm thinking about sharing it with the church even because it's a little easier expectation to have someone listen to an hour long podcast than necessarily read a long book. But she is just a model of biblical conviction, courage, clarity. But at the same time, there's a discernible, like you said, humility and kindness in the way she talks about these things. So she's really modeling a posture, I think, to be emulated, as we continue to hold fast to God's word, providing and preaching about the beautiful alternative to the chaos in our culture when it comes to biblical anthropology and sexuality, the way God has designed it.

Mark Prater:

I really encouraged my wife, Jill, to listen to it because I wanted her to benefit from it. She listened to it and greatly benefited from it. So if you are a husband or a pastor and have listened to that podcast or do listen to it, encourage your wives to listen to that. A particular interview that Kevin does with Rosaria, it will be, I think, really beneficial to them.

 Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, it's very good. Now you have some other books that you want to commend to us and they're written by one of our very own, tell us about them.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I want to commend one more book. It's written by Marty Machowski, a pastor that I have the privilege of pastoring alongside at Covenant Fellowship Church. Anybody that knows Marty Machowski knows that he has been actually a prolific author for a number of years now. Marty just cranks out books and he's got a routine. He writes very early in the morning before he comes to work and it just really works for him. And he's produced some wonderful books for children in particular. That's the niche that he's in. But he's got a new book out called The Treasure. And I wanted to mention this book because first of all, it's wonderfully illustrated. So you can read this with your children and it'll hold their attention. And really The Treasure is broken down into two books.

Book one is an adventure through Luke, the Gospel of Luke. And then book two is an adventure through Acts. So what Marty, I think, skillfully does is he not only teaches through Luke and tells stories that kids can benefit from not only to understand the Gospel of Luke, but to hear the gospel itself, which is really important as you're raising children who you hope come to know the Lord Jesus as their savior. And then he wisely combines that with Luke's second writing, the book of Acts, after Jesus' ascension. The gospel continues to go forth, including in our day. And he walks the kids through the stories, some wonderful stories as we all know, not only in the Book of Luke, but in the Book of Acts as well. And it's just a book that is just really well done, not only in terms of content, but in terms of, as I mentioned, in terms of illustrations.So you have illustrations that kids will enjoy and benefit from.

So, that is produced by New Growth Press and wanted to mention this to all the parents that are listening or to grandparents that are listening, I'm a grandparent. And we can use those with our grandchildren, in my case, or with your children in your home. And if you're thinking about what do I do to help train my kids in biblical teaching, what do I do with family devotions? If you can say it that way, Marty's solved that problem for you, especially with younger kids, just read through The Treasure and you will cover Luke and Acts and that will greatly serve your children and strengthen your family.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's great. Shout out to Marty. Thank you Marty, for so many valuable contributions to helping our families grow and our kids grow. And not just in Sovereign Grace churches, but far beyond. And so that looks like another excellent resource from Marty.

So Mark, thank you for sharing these recommendations with us. I know your heart is to see us strengthened and equipped in all manner of areas and we feel that coming through these recommendations. So thanks for that. And thank you all for watching, listening or reading. I just discovered (this is how dense I am) that you can actually listen to it. There's a podcast feed on your podcast app or wherever you hear most the podcasts. So, how would I know? I'm only posting this podcast, right? But thank you all for joining us. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

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, the Pastors Conference is on the horizon. So many of us that are going are getting excited about gathering together as a global family of churches at the Pastors Conference. But you wanted to share some thoughts to remind those who are watching or reading the podcast or maybe for the first time, the reasoning behind why we have pastors' conferences. Why do we have a pastors' conference every year?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a great question, because as we begin to pack to go to a pastors' conference or our wives are arranging childcare for the time that we're away, we can wonder why are we going to this conference again and why do we have a pastors' conference every year? Those are common questions I think we can all have. And we hold a pastors' conference annually for, I would say, four reasons.

First, it gathers all of us together, the pastors and wives in Sovereign Grace. It gathers our guests, it gathers the leaders from our churches and it gives us an opportunity to cast a theological vision for who we are in Sovereign Grace and how we do ministry together. And any pastor listening to this podcast or reading it knows that you have to keep casting, you want to cast vision for your local church, you've got to say it over and over again. And so the Pastors Conference gives us that opportunity to cast a theological vision for Sovereign Grace churches, who we are and how we do ministry together. So that's the first reason.

The second one is that we see this as an opportunity as a leadership team to care for the pastors and wives that are attending this conference. Obviously we know best those that are in Sovereign Grace, but we want to care for pastors and wives that are coming outside of Sovereign Grace. And this is a conference that pastors and wives can attend where they don't typically have responsibility unless you're teaching a main session or a breakout session. This is a conference that you can come to and just receive. And that's one of the ways we pray as a leadership team that this conference would be both a spiritual and relational highlight for our pastors and wives because the pastors in Sovereign Grace and their wives, they labor so hard throughout the year. And so this is a time to just come and receive and be cared for. So that's the second reason we do it.

A third reason is that we want to cast vision for our mission, the mission that we do together, because we hope one of the effects of this conference is that pastors and wives leave the conference saying, I'm linked in arms with brothers and sisters who have the same heart and same desire to advance the gospel throughout the world. And it just encourages you, it emboldens you, it strengthens you not only for your local mission of your local church, but for our shared mission in Sovereign Grace. And that happens obviously through teaching and through testimonies and updates. So that's a third reason that we do it.

And I've kind of hinted at this a little bit. It's an opportunity to continue for us to build relationally. We are a family of churches and so we've said this in previous podcasts, the conference very much has the feel of a family reunion where we're together again with brothers and sisters maybe we haven't seen for a year. And we get opportunity to just sing to Jesus with them, which can be strengthening itself. We get opportunities to have meals together, to pray for one another, to catch up with one another. And that's something that we don't want to lose as we expand as a small family of churches throughout the world. So the Pastor's Conference provides that unique context and we try to design the schedule to foster that relational element. So those are the reasons that we do it. And I believe we will continue to do it annually should the Lord lead us because we want to continue to exalt God when we are together and strengthen one another relationally for the mission that Christ has given us.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Yeah, can't wait to get there and gather with you, Mark, and everybody else. I saw the new Sovereign Grace Journal dropped recently. It's all about church partnership and full of wonderful articles. And that pastors' conference is a vital piece of that partnership that we enjoy. It's a tangible expression that we enjoy together. So there's a lot of people coming. I think over 700 have signed up, something like that. And not just, of course, from the States. We are a global family of churches. So talk to us about who's coming.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I want to give you a little bit of an idea of who will be coming to the conference. I think registration is around 750. We'll have walk-ins. So we'll have more than that at the conference. And we have pastors and wives attending the conference from 22 different nations, which is really exciting and encouraging and humbling all at the same time. So let me tell you just about a few of them. Dyonah Thomas is coming from Monrovia, Liberia, I think Dyonah hasn't been to a conference for about four years. He told me there were complications in getting a visa. He's got a visa, he's going to be there. In fact, you're going to hear from him during one of our main sessions.

Benjamin Kreps:

Freshly ordained.

Mark Prater:

Freshly ordained. Yes, the first ordained Sovereign Grace elder in West Africa. So if you see Dyonah, welcome him. We also have a gentleman coming from Belarus. His name is Leonid Kovich, and he is the head of the Baptist Union there in Belarus. We've been relating to a number of churches in Belarus. They're potentially interested in pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace and they're also loosely connected with this Baptist Union. So I'm so glad that Leonid can be there and if you have a chance to greet him and meet him, thank him for coming.

We also have several churches coming from Costa Rica, two that are in the San Jose area. For example, Casa 2:42 led by Rodrigo Fournier, and then a church that just recently signed an Emerging Nations candidate church agreement; Iglesia La Gracia, which is also in San Jose, Costa Rica. So those are just some of the folks that are coming from different parts of the globe.

Also, there are a number of guests who are coming for the first time who are not a part of a Sovereign Grace Church. And those primarily are coming from within the United States. There are churches who have interest within the United States of partnering with Sovereign Grace. And so one of the ways they're exploring that partnership is coming to our conference. So what that does is it highlights our need to just reach out to those we don't know and interact with them. I mean, think about it. You go to a conference for the very first time, you don't really know many people at all, and you're trying to understand should we be a part of this or not? And so when someone reaches out and welcomes them and prays for them, or maybe even invites them to a meal, that gives 'em a glimpse of who we are and why we build relationally. So just to give you a little bit of an idea of who's coming and my encouragement to reach out to those around you that you don't know.

Benjamin Kreps:

It's very encouraging. 22 different countries represented. The more we grow as a global family of churches, the more our Pastors Conference looks like heaven when we're singing together and gathered together. So what are a couple of things that we can pray for in anticipation of the conference?

Mark Prater:

Yes. Please pray. Pray for the conference. Just first of all, pray that God would work in a way that he would glorify his name. Our first prayer request is that our time together in Orlando, both in the Council of Elders meeting and during the Pastors Conference, would please God and bring Him glory. If that happens, we'll be happy pastors and wives.

Secondly, pray for the Spirit to work and to work in a way to do things that we just haven't planned. I think some of the things that I think about in terms of past conferences and ways that God has worked and some of the ways that people were affected were areas and categories that we just didn't plan for. So pray for the Spirit's leading and for the Spirit's help. And obviously that comes through interactions with individuals. It can come in the preaching of his word through the main sessions and breakout sessions. It can come through testimonies. It can come just in announcement slots where we decide in the moment spontaneously to make a change and maybe go a specific direction. All of those things happen at a conference, but they can't happen without God's help and through the Spirit's leading and help as well. So pray for that.

And then I think thirdly, just pray that it would be a time that we are strengthened relationally and that our unity as a family of churches therefore is strengthened as well. We can't assume upon our unity. And so a conference is a wonderful opportunity for us to be strengthened together in the gospel, unified in Christ and unified therefore as a family of churches. So thanks for praying for the conference in those ways and many more. I'm grateful for your prayers.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, please do pray, and we will be praying. I just have in my mind's eye remembering our singing from last year and I am so excited for that first song on first night of the conference. I can't wait to gather with you, Mark, and everybody else for that week. So thank you, Mark for the updates. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ben Kreps:

Hi 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. If guys are following along in the podcast, we recently had one with Dan Birkholz while filming from the Regional Elders Retreat and this is our second one with another pastor. We take advantage of being with these guys and being together. So why don't you introduce our guest.

Mark Prater:

I would love to Ben, and again, we kind of look like we know what we're doing rather than just using the iPhone. We've got these really nice mics that we didn't have to set up or do anything. <laughter>

Ben Kreps:

Exactly. Alright, this is our friend Stephen Bowne. Stephen is the Senior Pastor of Grace City Church, which is in the Frankford section of Northeast Philadelphia. It's a unique neighborhood, it's a unique context where he is doing ministry, where he planted this church. And I wanted to hear just a little bit about what God is doing there. So Stephen, first of all, thank you for your faith to plant this church in Frankford. Just tell us a little bit about what Frankford is like and the context within which you planted this church and are doing gospel ministry.

Stephen Bowne:

Sure, yeah. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm a first time caller, long-term listener. So grateful to be here. Frankford, it's a difficult neighborhood. It's the kind of place that people even in the city say, oh, you're in that neighborhood. It's known; it has a bad reputation, rightfully so. There's a lot of violence, a lot of crime, a lot of drug addiction and just kind of open out in the streets, even with looting and things like that that happened recently. It's all just in our neighborhood, all around where we're at. It's just the way that the neighborhood is. There's a lot of poverty, a lot of broken families. Schools are awful and it's just a very difficult place, a very difficult place to raise a family and have kids and to live.

Mark Prater:

So you've made sacrifices, obviously, to move Abby and the kids there and to plant this church. You did that for a reason. And tell us why you think it's important to have a church in Frankfurt in a place like that.

Stephen Bowne:

Yeah, you look at the problems of the urban poor, you look at the problems of the cities in America and it really breaks your heart and you think there are so many needs, there's so many problems, there's so many layers of issues, there's so many generational things, so many systemic things and individual things that are there. And you just see it. It just oozes over everything. And the thing that we have to offer is what nobody else has to offer.

And that's the gospel. To speak into those situations and to talk about repentance and to talk about living for God's glory and to talk about how we can be forgiven for our sins and to talk about systemic problems and the evils in the world and what Christ has done to address those things and how we can be redeemed and how our dead lives can be made alive again. It's a hope that we can give that really meets people's needs. There are, as difficult as our neighborhood is, there's a ton of agencies, there's a ton of programs, there's a ton of things that are there to help people, whether it be for jobs or whether it be for education or whether it be for feeding them or whether it be job training. There's all kind of programs, but none of them offer life transformation hope and only the gospel does that.

And so as a church, we're able to not just proclaim that but live it out in a community in that neighborhood. So it's different than just coming in on a missions trip and handing out some tracks and telling the people there "Here's Jesus." It's like, come and see how our lives have been transformed and come and live in our midst and be part of our family and be part of our church family and see how this works out in real life. And that's why it's so important to have a church community in these neighborhoods and living in the neighborhood, not just ministering to the neighborhood, but being in the neighborhood and with the neighborhood and having a church there matters so much and it's so transformative in the neighborhood and so life-giving to the neighborhood. So that's why we want to have a church.

Mark Prater:

I'm so glad you're there. So glad you're there. You've kind of spoken to this a bit generally already, but what are some of the unique challenges to do a ministry in Frankford?

Stephen Bowne:

Yeah, it's just that things that are typically extreme are more normal. So it's just expected that someone has served time in jail. It's just expected that someone is battling with an addiction or maybe not even battling with the addiction but just surrendering to it. It's just expected that people have multiple partners and multiple kids with multiple different people. Not even a sense of shame about it. It's just kind of like, this is just how we live. So it makes it hard.

On one sense, it is nice because people are open and they'll say, this is my life, this is where I'm at. It is what it is. Philly already has a reputation forever for being blunt and just saying what they are, and our context is Philly--but even more extreme, so just like, this is who I am, I'm a real person and this is what it is. And then it comes with all the, here's my mess. So there's a difficulty in that. There's a niceness in that because people aren't hiding and acting like they're perfect and things, there's not a self-righteousness in it. But it's also hard because it's like here's all this mess and how do we know what's going to be dealt with in the long-term? How do we know what to hit right now? How do we know what needs to be cleaned up before we can baptize you? What needs to be cleaned up before you can become a member? And what is just your culture and this is where we're at. And so there's a lot of challenges that way.

Another big major challenge is mental illness and that's often combined with drug use and even just trying to figure out level of comprehension that people have and how much they can understand and how much can you hold them accountable. And just working through that on an individual level and then it's so many people like that.

It is overwhelming all the time. It can be. You're always overwhelmed and I'm constantly reminded, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know how to help. I don't know what to say. I don't know, I'm just overwhelmed. Every Sunday I'm overwhelmed. And it's just a reminder that it's God, he has to work. God has to be the one to do it. God's the one that's going to make a difference in their lives and he has to change their hearts and take people that are dead and make them alive again. And so the glory of it is being able to have a front row seat to it, but it's very messy.

Mark Prater:

Tell us about how you see God at work and include there a building you just recently put work into.

Stephen Bowne:

So we see God at work in so many neat ways, in all kinds of individual stories and all kinds of neat pictures of people that their lives have been just a train wreck their entire lives and God is just redeeming them and stuff.

But we also see God in the fact that we're even there, existing, and were able to get a building in the last couple years. We were renting a space and then we bought a building just right down the block from where we were renting before. And it was just God's provision in all of it. God providing the money, God providing work teams, God providing the resources to be able to do it. And then every time we'd come across something that was like, oh no, this is going to be another so many thousand dollars, then another person would step up from some random church somewhere or the region would step up and it just kind of kept coming and kept coming and kept coming and you just see God making it happen. And now that we're in our space, it's just such a neat place to be.

We're right underneath the L. So if you think about any of the Rocky movies you've seen Rocky running underneath that elevated train line, that's where we're at, underneath that blue train thing. <laughter> There's so much traffic, and foot traffic. And so one of our ministries that we have is to have the church open on Mondays from 10 am to 2 pm and we had put out a sign that says coffee, prayer and conversation, come on in. And we just have people that come in off the street continually every week and it's just such a need. People are hurting. And sometimes people just want coffee, or if it's hot they want to get cool, or if it's cold they want to get warm.

And it's just an opportunity to pray with people and talk with people and you just see God at work. So many people just come in crying and just laying their burdens out and it's so intense, just the amount of things. But God is just working and it's so neat to see those people then come to church on Sunday and get plugged in and get fed and get well. So it's really neat to see God at work in that way.

Mark Prater:

Thanks for being there. Bonus question for you. Tell us one thing you've learned as a pastor in doing ministry in the Frankford section of Northeast Philly.

Stephen Bowne:

The one thing that I learned when I was studying urban ministry and was going to go into urban ministry, I assumed that a major part of that was going to be a lot of mercy works that we would do. And so we would have food pantries and soup kitchens and clothing giveaways and all these kinds of job trainings. And I thought that would be kind of what we would do and that would be the thing that would get people to come in. What we've found is that there are already several churches in the neighborhood doing stuff like that that aren't preaching the gospel. And those churches don't get people to come and people aren't changed by those churches. They come in, they use their services just like they would the corner store or use their bank like, let me get this service, but it's not connecting them to God.

And so the one thing that I knew, we need to be about the gospel, and we need to be about preaching the word. And obviously we're still helping people, so we do a lot of mercy ministry type stuff, but it doesn't have the accent that I thought it would have, because what people really need is the word of God. And what people really need from the word of God is Jesus and for him to save their souls. And so the message and the importance of solid biblical teaching and the importance of proclaiming the gospel over and over again in all different kinds of ways to try to get the word out being the main thing that we do as a church. That's the thing that I think I've learned, especially doing urban ministry, that the word is the thing that should matter the most, the thing that we should accent the most, even in the midst of such a hard, physically hard place.

Mark Prater:

That's a compelling lesson.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah. And for you to go and plant in a hard place where there is a famine of God's word and bring the bread of life with you is a beautiful saying as I said to Dan in the last podcast, if you haven't seen that podcast or read it, please go back and read Dan's testimony.

'Just want to commend you and thank you for your example in a world full of celebrity pastors and selfish ambition. You did not plant in Frankford for the glory or for the money of which there is little of both, but you did it to see Jesus glorified in a hard place of Philadelphia. So, thank you for your example. And thank you to those who are watching or reading this podcast.  We’ll see you here next time, Lord willing.  Bye for now.

Benjamin Kreps: Hey, everyone! Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. And on this podcast, we're actually together.

Mark Prater: We are.

Benjamin Kreps: Together at the Northeast Regional Assembly of Elders. And we've had a joyful day. Full of worship updates and teaching, but on this podcast a little bit different. Not just we're together, but because we have a special guest with us. Why don't you introduce our guest?

Mark Prater: Yeah. Before I do that, we actually look like we know what we're doing here. We got these mics. So, we'll see how this goes. Anyway, this is our friend Dan Birkholz. Dan is the senior pastor of Mercy Gate Church, which is in the Wissinoming section of Northeast Philadelphia. And I wanted Dan to join us because he has been a faithful pastor in a neighborhood that has its challenges and difficulties. And his church exists in a part of northeast Philadelphia that I think is a little bit different where compared to where other churches do ministry. And I just wanted you to hear from him and how God has been at work in his church. And to also then pray for Dan as you listen after listening to this podcast. So Dan, thank you for being a faithful pastor. Tell us about the context or really the neighborhood that Mercy Gate is in. Start with that.

Dan Birkholz: So, yeah, we're in the neighborhood called Wissinoming, which is kind of lower northeast section of Philadelphia. And it's kind of a middle, lower class neighborhood. Demographics is about a third of white Caucasians, a third of Hispanics, and then a third of African-Americans. A growing population that we're seeing more now with Asians moving into the area as well. And so, plenty of diversity and plenty to think about in terms of working through some of the cultural differences in terms of sharing the gospel, unique needs of people, and just feeding boots on the ground for when it comes to serving.

Mark Prater: And being in Wissinoming, just knowing a little bit about the neighborhood, tell us about some of the unique challenges of what it's like to do ministry in Wissinoming.

Dan Birkholz: Yeah, so first you do have that diversity aspect. So that becomes a challenge because it's not just some of the cultural things that we would readily think of. But, I mean, it gets into language barriers oftentimes. So this past week we were out doing outreach and it was like every person we were running into spoke a different language. So, we're trying to figure out translation, get our phone out to translate. And so those are significant challenges that we're now seeing and we're having to pivot a little bit. So even a few months ago, we bought translation equipment for the church thinking, okay, folks are going to be coming in, they may be speaking different languages. We need to make sure that we're making the gospel accessible beyond those limitations there. So we're processing that. Also then with those lower income neighborhoods there's various levels of crime and violence on the ground. And so we're dealing with a lot of hurt and brokenness. So even in the last couple weeks, there's two individuals within our church family who's one, her son, his girlfriend was murdered. Another family had a family member who was murdered. And so you're dealing with various levels of grief as well. And so it's just being careful and thinking pastorally and ensuring that even your church body is aware of just handling some of these sensitive issues.

Mark Prater: That is sobering. It's something that not every Sovereign Grace pastor faces. So with all those challenges, God has placed you there and you have been faithful. Tell us how you see God at work through Mercy Gate.

Dan Birkholz: Yeah, so there's a few specifics that I do want to just toss out there. And that is there's been some folks who have just carried a burden specifically to kind of meet this need where people are grief stricken. And so, they've taken it upon themselves, folks in our church, to start a Grief Share. So we've seen a number of folks coming out and attending that. We went through the first set of Grief Share. We saw about 20-25 folks coming from the neighborhoods, some seeing it online that we were doing this. And it gave just a wonderful opportunity not just to connect with those are hurting, but also then bringing some of the church family along who haven't necessarily gone through difficult things, but in that process of grief they’re seeing how we correctly can minister to those who are. So it's equipping people just as they're coming in to go through those particular things.

And so, then the other thing is that for about two years, my kids and some other kids within the church are going to the same local high school. It's a charter school. And they've dealt over the years now with some unique challenges of just sharing the gospel and standing up for Jesus in really difficult contexts. And so, just two weeks ago, they began a Jesus club. They had their table set up, they had a whole banner, the balloons and all these kinds of things. There they were in the gym and hundreds of kids coming through and checking out these different clubs. And of course, here's Jesus Club and all the different reactions that come with that. Folks making fun of it, people kind of saying, “Are you kidding? They're actually doing a Jesus club here?” But, then 20 kids signed up. It's an opportunity for our youth within our church to just be a shining light in their high school. And so that has been wonderful. Then there was a number of younger students who just didn't fit the age gap for that club and so there's the possibility that a younger Jesus club maybe starting with those kids. So, amidst the mess and the hardship, it creates wonderful opportunity for a light to shine in the darkness and we're seeing it.

Mark Prater: Wow, that's a great story. Alright, bonus question that I didn't prepare you for so we'll see how good your answer is. Given the number of years you've been doing ministry at Wissinoming, what is one thing you'd say you learned as a pastor?

Dan Birkholz: One thing? What I think comes to mind are these particular words: keep your eyes on Jesus. There's so much to captivate you in terms of difficulty and hardship. And if you give undue attention to those things, you're going to collapse. Or you're going to resort to striving in your strength to try to become something in the midst of that difficulty. And keeping your eyes on Jesus has just been a rescue to my soul time and time again as the storms come in and difficulties abound. It's Jesus, just keeping our eyes fixed on him.

Benjamin Kreps: Yeah. Well, that's good counsel for all of us. It's a joy to be talking about Dan. I went to Pastors College with Dan, so I was with him the year that he was preparing it to plant. And just the fact that you chose a hard place to plant. We heard a teaching earlier today from Hebrews 13 about going outside the gate to where Jesus is, and you modeled that. There was an integrity to your exortation because how you have modeled that. Before we end, could you describe your experience of sustaining grace? I mean, you've only skimmed the surface of all that's been happening at your church over the last 10 years.

Dan Birkholz: Yeah. When it comes down to it, there's so many details that we don't have time to talk through. But it is God's providence. There are things that we prayed, and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed for, and there's no human possibility that you could manufacture the particular needs that you carried. But in God's providence, he has just constantly shown himself faithful on the ground. It’s not just in major ways where it's like, “Yay!” But in those really specific heartfelt ways where it's just like, “I need this right now. If I don't have this, I'm going to crumble.” And he's just again and again shown himself faithful. That has sustained us.

Benjamin Kreps: Excellent. Well, we're grateful for pastors like you, Dan, and the example that you set for us. You certainly did not get into that church plant for glory. Precious little of that. You did so for the glory of Christ and the advance of the gospel. So we we're grateful for you, Dan.

Dan Birkholz: Appreciate it.

Benjamin Kreps: So, thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

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 with our executive director. Mark, as you well know, we were very much encouraged over the past week by the response to last week's podcast, received a number of messages from guys expressing their gratefulness for the way that you were able to minister to them, encouraged them when it comes to the area of criticism, last week we said that you had a different plan and the Spirit led you to that and certainly the fruit that we saw from that podcast, it seems evident to me that that's true. It happened again, as you said, you wish it happened more often, but you had a different plan and you felt that God is leading you to continue to talk about this area of criticism in order to encourage guys.

Mark Prater:

I do. I did have a different plan for today and felt like the Spirit of God again directed me in a different direction. And for that to happen two weeks in a row, that for me is once in a millennium event. Quite honestly.

Ben Kreps:

You wish it happened all the time.

Mark Prater:

I do. I wish it happened all the time. I wish it was more a part of my life and my ministry, but I'm grateful for the Spirit's leading because it does seem from the feedback you and I received from last week's podcast, that that's what the Lord wanted to care for his people. And I pray that's the case with this podcast as well.

So picking up on last week, we talked about criticism and really a godly response to criticism, was the main topic of the podcast. And when we get criticism, there can be different responses, in my case, sinful responses in my heart that are various in nature. One of them is actually unbelief and I see it in a couple of different ways. If the criticism is accurate, you can wrestle with, as a pastor for example, am I really called to do this? If that criticism is accurate, am I called to do it? Should I stop being a pastor? Those are some dark roads you can go down. But if the criticism isn't accurate or isn't helpful, I find in my own heart that you can go down some dark roads that are filled with just godless thoughts. God's not in those roads at all. And it can take you to some dark places regarding how you view yourself, how you might view others regarding just your future for example. And all of those are expressions of unbelief in response to criticism we might receive. I think I'm an ordinary guy, I'm an ordinary pastor, and so probably there are others, whether you are a pastor or you work in a non pastoral vocation or you're a homemaker at home raising kids, we can all in response to criticism, I think wrestle with unbelief at times. And in those moments we really do need perspective. And it's one that's informed by scripture and it's a reminder of the promises of God in our life. That's what we desperately need in that moment.

Ben Kreps:

Yes, I can completely resonate with what you're talking about. I know my life can be filled with all kinds of encouragement from many different people and then that criticism comes and I've had that experience. I guess maybe this ministry thing is all over now. Certainly I think about back during the pandemic and how difficult that was to navigate through, but you're so right. We need to be able to cultivate, build a perspective of faith and battle unbelief in those dark moments. And you have some excerpts you want to read from really one of the great books "The Christian Ministry" to encourage our faith in this.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a classic work written by Charles Bridges and it's one that I encourage pastors to read over and over again as they're able.

Ben Kreps:

That's a favorite.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it is a favorite. He's got a section in there entitled Want of Faith. And I'm going to read some excerpts that I hope are helpful. They really are aimed at pastors or people in ministry, but I think it applies to any Christian. So even though he's writing to pastors, keep in mind any Christian can benefit when it comes to wrestling with unbelief. So he just begins by saying that the life of faith is the life of the minister's work and the spring of his success. He's saying that if we don't have faith as pastors in our role, we don't have faith as Christians in following Christ. We're not going to be able to follow him. And in pastoral ministry, we're not going to be able to serve his people if we don't have faith. And so I think he's not overstating it. I think it's vital. It's why Paul writes in the pastoral epistles to Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith because it's that important.

And he goes on to talk about just why it's so foundational. And what he does is he reads from Isaiah 9:7. The very last sentence which says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The zeal, the passion of the Lord of hosts will do this. So you've got to have that chapter in that verse in context. So 6 and 7: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord will do this." And obviously it's prophetic regarding the coming of Christ, the incarnation and the life and death and resurrection of Christ, the coming of the kingdom where he brings justice and righteousness for all those who will trust in him. And that's a work that man cannot do. And Isaiah emphasizes that by saying, "the Lord of hosts will do this". And so Bridges is saying that should be something that bolsters our faith. He says that in response to that verse, how overwhelming is the thought of this affection, this zeal, possessing the heart of God, of the deep interest in his infinite mind, in the progress of the kingdom of his dear son, his thoughts engaged in it, his unsearchable plans embracing it and controlling all the mighty movements of the world to subserve this main design. Oh, solid therefore, is the rock on which the Christian ministry rests and the grand engine for the accomplishment of the purposes and promises of God.

That preaches, doesn't it? That preaches. From one verse you're like, okay, I've got faith.

Ben Kreps:

Don't you wish you could write like that?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I wish I could. But when we're criticized, I think we can lose that verse. We can forget that promise that the zeal of the Lord will do this and it can come in different ways. He talks about hindrances to faith. He talks about indolence and he talks about just self-reliance. He uses the term self dependence. Those two things can really affect our ability to continue to trust God. And he says this, but he says this in response: difficulties heaped upon difficulties can never rise to the level of the promise of God.

And typically criticism is coming when there are difficulties heaped upon difficulties. And in those moments we're losing. I know I am losing perspective, because of a lack of faith. And we can forget that those difficulties heaped upon difficulties, can never rise to the level of the promises of God that are found in scripture. And so I just think he's right. When we are criticized in pastoral ministry or in our homes or in our vocations, we've got to have a godly perspective.

And then let me just give one more quote because I think this is so well written and so true, and it's a reminder of our need to continue to strengthen our faith in God, to foster our faith in God. And this is what Bridges says. And of course again, he's writing to pastors, but I think this applies to anyone. "It is faith that enlivens our work with perpetual cheerfulness. And we want to be joyful pastors. We want to be joyful people that follow Christ. It is faith that enlivens our work with perpetual cheerfulness. It commits every part of it to God in the hope that even mistakes shall be overruled for his glory and thus relieves us from this oppressive anxiety often attended upon a deep sense of our responsibility. The shortest way to peace will be found in casting ourselves upon God for daily pardon of deficiencies of sins and supplies of grace without looking too eagerly for present fruit." And that's just so well said. We live in a world, I think especially in the western culture, where we want to see immediate fruit. And he says, don't look for that immediate fruit. Don't look for present fruit. Just keep casting yourselves upon the Lord being faithful to do what God's called you to do with faith. That the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. So just some thoughts that I might encourage those that might be wrestling with unbelief as I do so often in God, partly in response to criticism.

Ben Kreps:

That is wonderful encouragement. I think many of us as pastors, we can be far better at applying the gospel and building faith into those that we serve and find ourselves deficient and doing the same for our own lives. So I appreciate the encouragement. I think a great way to help to grow in faith is to read that chapter. If you don't have the book, the whole book is gold. But that chapter, I think will serve guys that are looking to be strengthened in the Lord. It was famously said of Jonathan Edwards that his happiness was out of the reach of his enemies. And so as we lean into Christ, dependent on Christ, clinging to Christ in dark moments, we will find a joy there that knowing and nothing can touch. So I'm so grateful for your encouragement.

Mark Prater:

Amen. I mentioned last week that I was carrying people in my heart that have been the recipients of recent criticism and the responses to that have been so encouraging. I came into this podcast in a similar way, carrying people in my heart that just would wrestle with unbelief at times. And I want you to know, I'm praying for you, praying that God through his word, strengthens you, enlivens your work so that you'll have perpetual cheerfulness and that you'll do what Bridges said, just cast yourself upon the Lord. And sometimes we just need reminders to do that. And hopefully this podcast serves that way. And after you listen to this podcast, know that I'm praying for you in that regard.

Ben Kreps:

That's excellent. Yeah, we certainly want our people to experience us as happy pastors, as we seek to serve them faithfully. And so Mark, thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for your example of being sensitive to the Spirit's leading and for encouraging us, caring for us. And thank you all for reading or watching the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.