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, one of the wonderful things that I enjoy in Sovereign Grace is not only that we are a family of churches that has distinct defined theological convictions and our shared values, but that we also have our shaping virtues, ethical entailments of the gospel that inform the way we hold those theological convictions, the way we live them out. One of those which has been a hallmark throughout our history in Sovereign Grace is the shaping virtue of generosity. And you wanted to talk about that shaping virtue, generosity in our churches, and you have a story for us. But first, talk to us about this wonderful shaping virtue.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a wonderful virtue I think, and for a number of different reasons, but it's language you just used, It is the fruit of the gospel. It's ethical entailments of the gospel that seem lived out practically in our lives. And it's one of those virtues of seven that we have that we hope and pray by the grace of God, mark our lives in Sovereign Grace churches. And we're not exclusive in that. Other denominations are generous as well because they apply the gospel to their lives. So these are not exclusive to our family of churches, but it's something that we want to continue to hold out as something we want; to be known as generous people in this case. And the connection to the gospel, there's several connections to the gospel, but one of them very clearly is in 2 Corinthians 8, where Paul is talking about generosity in chapter 8 and chapter 9, but he makes this connection, clear connection to the gospel in 2 Corinthians 8:9, but let me read it to you: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

And it's one verse that succinctly and accurately captures what God did in the gospel. That God the Father, gave his only son a rich, generous gift to us who came and gave his life for the poor, for us who needed salvation so that we might be rescued from the wrath of God because of our sins and receive forgiveness and have eternal life through faith in his finished work alone. And it's that understanding of the gospel and ongoing appreciation for what Christ has done that does stir the virtues that we've talked about in the past, the shaping virtues in our lives and that of generosity in this case in particular.

And we as pastors, since I'm going to speak to pastors for a moment, we as pastors are called to faithfully preach God's word. And where the text allows, if you're preaching through 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 for example, you want to call people to generosity, not just out of duty. It's what Christians do. It's not just the moral thing to do. It is the fruit of the gospel in your life, meaning that once you see how generous the father has been in the giving of his son, you want to be generous back to God because you're overwhelmed by his generosity. In that sense, we will never out give God, we will never give one of our children like He did in the giving of the Son.

So it's an important virtue not only in our churches, but I think for each individual believer because there for a couple of reasons, it allows you to participate in what God is doing in the advancement of the gospel in your community locally, through your local church and in your area by joining other churches and in Sovereign Grace in terms of what God is doing throughout the world.

But another reason I think it's important for us, there is quite a unique joy that you experience when you are generous and God wants us to experience that joy by being a generous people. So I wouldn't want folks to miss that. And I am a proponent of generosity for that reason, those reasons and many, many more.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent and amen. Yes, wherever there is stinginess lingering in the heart of a believer, I mean that is an issue of actually understanding the immensity of the generosity of God. It's a gospel issue. It's going back to the cross and observing the lavish, undeserved grace poured out on our lives and understanding that, I mean, how can we not then and with our money of all things give to the Lord and to his purposes. And you have a testimony that you want to share with us about a church that we partner with globally where God is doing that now. There are many churches in Sovereign Grace. So there's much generosity and much to talk about. But you wanted to highlight a specific story of what God's doing in a church in Costa Rica, I believe.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I do. And let me just give you the context of this story. I actually was going to talk about a different topic in this podcast today. But last night Jill and I had dinner with a couple who are very generous to Sovereign Grace and there are a number of reasons why I wanted to get dinner with them. I wanted to obviously thank them for their generosity to our family of churches. I wanted to talk to them about a new initiative of stirring generosity that I hope to introduce, I plan to introduce at the Council of Elders meeting in just about a month. I'm very excited about that. I wanted their input and they may potentially be involved in that. And I just wanted to talk about another new initiative that may not get launched quite this year, but maybe the following year because I think we need to trial run it first, just another way to stir generosity in our churches.

And so I just wanted to talk to 'em about all those things. But when I was thanking them for their generosity, I was trying to connect it to the effect it's having. And just that afternoon I had a Zoom meeting with a pastor, Rodrigo, Fournier who leads Casa 2:42, a candidate church in San Jose, Costa Rica, a wonderful church. And I was just asking him how he was doing and he said how the church was doing and he said, I don't know what's going on. I don't know Mark whether this is revival or not, but we have more and more and more people coming. He said, we've got to a place, we have two services and we've got to a place that people come and they have to leave because there's nowhere to sit. So now they're adding, they're talking about adding, a third service because the Lord is just drawing people and they're seeing new converts, people being born again, placing their trust in Christ and people being discipled in the gospel and they're actually having an effect there in San Jose.

They're also just beginning to church plant just south of San Jose. And it's all for the advancement of the gospel. So I was telling this couple that story because in their giving to Sovereign Grace, have given to that nation and helped the advancement of the gospel there. And I just wanted to connect through a specific story, their generosity with how the gospel's advancing. And I wanted to do that because when people give, think about this, when people give, we give in faith not by sight. In other words, we give sacrificially not knowing how God's going to provide for us, will he replenish what we're giving away. For example, when we give, we don't know exactly how God is going to use that money, we're giving in faith that it will lead to the advancement of the gospel. But when we hear stories and when we see how the gospel is advancing, then our faith, we realize in giving in faith, has been honored by God when we are now hearing about the advancement of the gospel.

And they said something to me last night that really stuck with me, which is why I'm devoting the topic of generosity for this episode of the podcast. They said, we love giving. Our motive in giving is really 2 Corinthians 8:9. We give because God's been generous to us in the giving of his son. But what's really helpful for us is after we give, to either hear those stories or to actually meet some of those people, and they've been to different contexts with me and they get to meet some of the people I've talked about and that makes a real difference in people's giving. They know them and they can see and they can hear how God's at work.

And so I just wanted to mention that because we as pastors, again, are called to faithfully preach God's word and call folks to give because that's the right thing to do. It's the biblical thing to do. We want them to have the joy of generosity. But what we also have to do is to strengthen their faith because they, again, they're given faith by telling them stories of how the gospel is advancing. And so look to do that in your local church, wherever you're seeing the gospel advance in your local church, tell the story maybe someone that was recently saved or how people are coming to some sort of course like the Bridge course or Christianity Explored, whatever you might be doing in your church because without their giving you couldn't have those events where the gospel is being preached. It's also why we try to get stories out and we do these quarterly Sovereign Grace mission videos. We're trying to tell stories of how the gospel is advancing so that people who do give to our family of churches actually see and hear stories of how the gospel is advancing.

And it's just something that you see in scripture as I read through Acts. It strikes me that Peter, he goes, directed by the Spirit, he goes to Cornelius, and his household is saved and it causes a little bit of a stir because Peter goes to Jerusalem and reports what's happened; that the Gentiles are being saved. And he got pushback from the circumcision group and he just told a story about what God had done in saving the Gentiles. And it became very clear after the hearing of those stories, what happened at Cornelius's house that they realized, oh, the gospel is not just for Jew but for Gentile. It's for every tribe, tongue, and nation. And so the telling of stories like that I think is just a biblical pattern that you see that we have an obligation as pastors to tell our people. And when you do that, it stirs even more generosity because people find a lot of joy in knowing that their generous giving is being used in the advancement of the gospel.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, excellent. One of the privileges we have as pastors is to exhort and encourage our people to be generous givers. I mean, giving generously unlocks a constellation of blessing and promises according to God's word. One of those being those testimonies of seeing how our faithful giving, perhaps we don't even think about it as much as we might, but just faithfully sowing, sowing into God's kingdom. And then to hear the stories about what God's doing. And certainly on those mission videos, I mean for all of the churches in Sovereign Grace, we hope everyone will be able to participate if they're not, in giving out of our budgets as we've agreed to in our partnership agreement, the 10% to Sovereign Grace, those videos we can show to our churches and say, you participated in this. You played a role in what God's doing and through Sovereign Grace and globally as well. So I just love hearing that partnership piece where there was giving that came that we participated in with Costa Rica, along with their giving and how God's used that kind of partnership in giving. I mean, the reality is in light of the lavish and generous grace of God compelling us to give, and then in light of on the other side of our giving, promises and blessing and glory to God, I mean, there is no downside. So win-win, all joy, all glory to God. And I'm grateful to hear that story and many other stories about generous giving throughout Sovereign Grace.

So thanks for sharing that testimony with us. Thanks for your encouragement, Mark. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. 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, this particular podcast certainly is not an occasion for joy because as we were talking about before we started recording, as many who are checking out the podcast are aware, another recent moral failure from a high profile pastor is all over the news. And because you want to care for us and encourage us, you want to talk about that. So talk to us about what's going on here. Not the details of the situation, but how we can think about in response to it.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. I don't plan to use the person's name, the man's name. I don't think that's necessary. It is though a sober warning for those in pastoral ministry. I think even for members of our churches, that we would learn from this. I think what can happen when a high profile pastor or well-known evangelical leader needs to resign because of a moral failure; we can shake our heads and think, oh no, not again, and sort of move on. And I don't think we're supposed to do that. We're to allow something like that to sober us, to warn us regarding our own vulnerability to the sin that still indwells within each of us. This man is 73 years old, married 40 years. And so it teaches you, what the warning teaches you, is that sin is no respecter of age or season of life, that we will have a battle with indwelling sin until we die or until the Lord returns. And until that day we are in fact in a battle.

And that's why I wanted to do a podcast about that, to strengthen us in that fight because we need God's help and we need one another to help us just fight that fight because we can't do it on our own, which I think is one of the lessons that you come away from this. It's very sad. He had to resign from his church and from a ministry that he had and other ministries he was involved in. And this is a man that had written, I think, well over 30 books if I remember right. So he had a wonderful platform and influence and needed to step away from all of it. Our founder, CJ Mahaney, sent a few of us a quote this week from D.A. Carson's book, How Long? Oh Lord. And in that book, he has a chapter entitled Illness, Death and Bereavement.

And this is what Carson says, "But I remember the fate of King Hezekiah when he was under sentence of death. He begged the Lord for 15 more years and received the extra span. And in the course of those 15 years, he blew his entire reputation for integrity in one incident prompted by foolish pride, nor was his reputation alone at stake, the bearing of his action had on the future of his nation was disastrous. That is why I decided there are worse things than dying. I do not know how many times I've sung the words, oh, let me never, never outlive my love for thee, but I mean them. I'd rather die than end up unfaithful to my wife. I'd rather die than deny by a profligate life what I have taught in my books; I would rather die than deny or disown the gospel. God knows there are many things in my past of which I'm deeply ashamed. I would not want such shame to multiply and bring dishonor to Christ in the years to come. There are worse things than dying."

And that is an appropriate sobering quote. There are worse things than dying. And I think it's why you find in scripture, especially as it's written to pastors, this admonition to watch our lives very closely, to pay close attention to ourselves. You see that in Acts Chapter 20 verse 28. This is Paul speaking to and writing to us, speaking to the Ephesian elders: pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. So that "pay careful attention to yourselves" language and then similar language when Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Then he says this, persist in this for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

We as pastors are to keep a close watch on ourselves. And that's not a one-time or a periodic event. We are to persist in this. We are to consistently and constantly keep a close watch on our lives. And I think we need that because the battle with indwelling sin is always going to be there for all Christians. And I think the way that Satan works, he likes to take down Christ's leaders in his church because that has a multiplying effect. And so we especially need to be aware of that tactic of our enemy because we don't only have to battle our own sin, we have to be aware of how the enemy's involved. So brothers, pastors, we must watch our lives closely.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. It's a moment. Moments like these certainly are an opportunity for sober reflection about our own lives, but also for a great deal of humility. I mean, Paul says in one Corinthians, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall because there is no temptation that is not common to man. And so while we might wonder, scratch our heads and ask how did he get there, we're all capable of making a shipwreck of our ministries, of our faith. And so your encouragement is needed and appreciated. What are some ways that you would suggest to us about how to go about watching our lives?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. Here's what I would recommend, the things that I try to live in my own life; and all of those require the need of God and the need of others, to say it that way. The first is to remember that wonderful work of the Spirit to convict us of sin. So we must pray. We must ask the Spirit to help us there to convict us of sin. And that's important because sin works very subtly. I would guess that this man felt there were probably subtle, subtle, sinful compromises along the way. And we must be asking daily for the Spirit to show us and to convict us of sin so that we can not only confess that to God and receive forgiveness, but walk out steps of repentance. So there's a reliance upon God and upon the Spirit of God to show us our sin and convict us of sin.

Secondly is to just be in regular fellowship and accountability. What's interesting about the Acts text is he's speaking to the Ephesian elders plural. So obviously the admonition there to watch our lives closely is one that we have responsibility for individually. But they heard that as a group. And so I don't think it's too much of a stretch from the text to say by implication they have to help one another watch their lives, which is why biblical fellowship and being in accountability is so important that you don't jettison that because of the busyness of ministry. You make that a priority in your life. And one of the ways that Jill and I practice that is we have community group that we're involved in twice a month, and then the men in that group meet twice a month for fellowship group. And those are contexts where we can talk about our struggles and our temptations and where we need the help and prayers and counsel of others.

I would say this, as men who are called to faithfully preach God's word, that should include where the text allows you to do that, to preach on the doctrine of sin. And that must begin by preaching that doctrine to ourselves so that when we step into that pulpit, we need that sermon. We need that message as much as the people that we care for need it because we need the word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword to help us see what's really going on in our hearts and for the Spirit to show us as well so that we can access the grace of God that we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I would just say one other thing is just continue to look at the cross and to be affected by the glories of Calvary, as we've said in the past, that Christ died a horrible death and he paid the greatest price for all of our sins. And that kind of vision of the cross, that view of the cross, that grasping of the cross not only humbles you, it will want you to be sure that you are watching your life, so that you're even honoring the death of Christ by keeping a close watch on your life. So just a few thoughts that I think men already know that are listening to this are pastors, members, men and women of our churches that are listening to this, but they're good reminders at a time like this.

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, it's always good to stir faithful minds up by way of reminder. And so your encouragements are helpful and needed. I was listening to Kevin DeYoung's podcast this morning, actually, and he and the guest he had on, they were discussing, I found this a helpful contribution in light of the recent sad story about this pastor, about how even just a more perhaps organic reality of just living a life of hospitality as pastors, having people in your home, observing your life, family, opening up your life to others is, whether it's like you were talking about in a time where men are in the community group meeting together and specifically talking about stuff, but also just generally living life in the open with others. I mean, in the rigors and challenges of pastoral ministry, sometimes guys can be tempted to isolate and begin to spend more time alone. And that's always going to be a dangerous place for us. We need others, like you said, and more than anything, we need the Lord in all of this.

So Mark, thank you for your care for us. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. 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, you've talked in the past on a podcast about how you lead a Faith and Work group at Covenant Fellowship where you seek to serve Christians in the workplace and you're just about to start another iteration of this Faith and Work group. Why do you do this group?

Mark Prater:

Well, actually this week I start another Faith and Work group study and I went back and looked, I think this is starting the ninth year. It might be the 10th, but I think it's the ninth actually, because I'm old and don't remember. I tried to find when did I start this thing and this will be the ninth year. I started a Faith and Work group at Covenant Fellowship simply because there are Christians, members of our churches, who face real challenges in their vocation in the workplace day to day. And I was somewhat aware of that coming into ministry. I worked for 14 years with a pharmaceutical company before entering into pastoral ministry. So I carried that burden into ministry with me and eventually wanted to help folks face some of the things I faced, which can be ethical, moral, and obviously all those issues are rooted in good theology and using our Bible. That's why I started it. I'm so glad I did.

The purpose of our study at Covenant Fellowship is, we actually wrote this out as a group; one is to study the Bible and resources that give us a biblical worldview that help us address issues Christians face in any vocation in the workplace. And then secondly, it's a context to create biblical fellowship over those issues. And we've actually had that experience where someone needs to give a bad evaluation to an employee or someone in our church has got their own bad evaluation or they're facing their business owner and they're facing decisions where they may have to lay someone off. All of those kinds of challenges. And then more recently, challenges with AI and how does a Christian think about that ethically? So there's just been really good fellowship during our study as well.

It's also a context where I can cast, through the Bible and book study that we do, but also in seminars that I do, just a biblical vision for vocation that you see in scripture. And so what the effect that has is, it keeps work from being just this daily grind actually. It's much bigger and greater in God's understanding of work and vocation since he created work and really in doing faithful work as Christians, we're accomplishing his sovereign will in many many ways. So those are just some of the reasons why we do it.

Now I bring this up. I want to be very, very clear. I don't think churches have to do this at all. It's just a practice and something that I love to do. So I wouldn't want any pastor or member listening to this thinking that a church has to do this. Faithful churches will not have this kind of study or ministry in their church. But if you're interested, I'm glad to share resources because what I found, the way we've just said it to our churches, this is for any Christian in any vocation so that it's not just limited to business men, for example.

And we've just found a diversity of people in different vocations who are all united in Christ helping each other with the challenges that they face. And I think it's more fruit for us just beyond the weekly Bible studies that I'll do. And I usually do about a six week stretch, four to six week stretch, take a break, start another one, we'll choose a book and read it. And obviously I've got scripture we're reading throughout, praying for one another. I've also done a couple of, I don't know, three or four seminars over the years, which are more teaching moments and then typically after that doing a Q and A or some sort of small group discussion. So that's kind of what we've done so far. And because we're starting another one, I just wanted to speak about it again for consideration. Again, this is something a church doesn't have to do, but I've found it to be helpful in pastoring the people of Covenant Fellowship.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, I so appreciate your example on that. There just appears to be no end to resources to strengthen, especially, people in full-time pastoral ministry working at churches. And I think a lot of our folks can sort of look at like, oh, you're doing the real work and we're just over here grinding and trying to make a living. And so what you're doing with that group is you're really, you're dignifying, you're honoring, you're seeking to serve people in your church who, in fact, almost none of them will ever be in full-time pastoral ministry. Most of the people we serve never will be. And so that kind of thoughtfulness I think is wonderful and I appreciate your example on that. So what do you do in the group? What's your plan maybe for the upcoming group?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, actually what we do is we have a book and we read the book together. I typically read out ahead and create a weekly curriculum that includes scriptures that they're to read and then the chapters for that week. And then each week I create discussion questions, send those out ahead of time just to give us a basis for conversation. Sometimes we get through the questions, sometimes we don't. We veer off and have some really good pockets of fellowship and conversation.

Just some books to recommend. If you're just getting started with this, Dan Doriani has written a book called Work: Its Purpose, Dignity and Transformation. You used that word dignity just a moment ago, Ben. That's what scripture does with work. It dignifies work because of how God understands work and that includes work of any kind; the stay-at-home mom to the person who works at the 7-11 to the person who's a CEO at a major organization. All of that work is dignified in God's sight. So that's a great start. If you're looking for a book to start with, that would be the one I'd recommend. A good biblical theology actually of work.

He also has a newer one and actually that's the book we're going to read beginning this week called Work That Makes a Difference. And he talks about why is work good and what makes it good. And then in all of that, his thesis, he unpacks challenges that Christians typically face in the workplace. Like what if I'm in a difficult job, do I stay there or not? What's God's will or what if I'm working for a difficult boss, love my work, but it's a difficult boss, how should I think about that biblically? And he does a really good job of addressing those things.

Just two or three more books I wanted to mention real quick. What I'm learning is people are facing the challenge of AI more and more. And I've mentioned this book in a previous podcast, but I found this is the best so far is God, Technology and the Christian Life by Tony Reinke. It's an excellent read and a good biblical treatment of how to understand technology. A book that's been around a long time, redeeming. Oh good, you got it right there. Excellent on cue. I didn't know you had that. That's funny.

Redeeming Productivity is also a wonderful book. If you're looking for something after reading Doriani and you want to give your folks a reformed worldview, for example, there's an older book called Creation Regained by Albert Wolters, and it's just presents a wonderful, reformed biblical worldview, which is basically creation, fall, redemption and consummation. But he unpacks it in a really good way.

And there's one other book called God and Money. We had a wonderful conversation over that book just a few years ago, and it actually stirred a lot in a number of people. One, in creating more desire to be generous because the book is about living on a more limited, make all you can, but live on a limited budget so that you can give money away. And I actually had a member of our church come up to me recently and he said, I've been thinking about that book and what I want to do, Mark, is talk with you about starting a group of guys that have means that I know both in the church and outside the church, I'm wondering if this could maybe even be something for other guys in Sovereign Grace to join us for support. And we have a retreat once a year, get together, we pray for one another, we talk about what we want to do in terms of our own living limitations, in terms of a budget, but what we want to give away.

So that's just one of the fruits that have come out of this Faith and Work group at our church. So I'm not promising that everybody's going to be generous in that regard, but I'm just grateful that when you put biblical tools in the hands of Christians who are in different vocations, some who have means, they, by the grace of God, just take it to heart and it's a reminder of just the joy and privilege we have to pastor the people that God has given us in our churches. And it is just an amazing thing to me, that one conversation is like, all glory to you, oh Lord, and isn't your grace amazing? And just want churches to enjoy that kind of interaction with their people. So something to consider.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Yeah. Isn't it wonderful that in the kingdom of God there is no meaningless work when done for the glory of God, you can glorify and please the Savior through cleaning toilets or cleaning up after in the aftermath of a sick toddler. All of it matters to God when done for his glory in the grace he provides. And so what a privilege it is for us as pastors to be able to invest into the people in our church where they are each day working at their jobs and their vocations of various ways. So thanks for the idea and for your example, Mark. Thank you all for watching the podcast, checking it out. 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, when I was growing up, and some people who check out the podcast probably had this experience to of playing the game, maybe watching the TV show, Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? Well, we're playing, where in the world is Mark Prater? Because you're on the move and you are not at home, you're in a hotel room. Where are you?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I am in Bozeman, Montana. It's a beautiful day here in Bozeman. We're recording this on a Saturday and this podcast will drop into the inbox on a Monday. Let me tell you why I'm here. I was actually out on the West coast already this week in LA for a leadership team retreat, and I was asked by Greg Dirnberger, the regional leader in this area, if somebody from the leadership team could come this Sunday and install Ron Boomsma as the senior pastor and elder of the church here in Bozeman; Emmaus Road Church. Greg is on sabbatical and he felt like because of what the church has walked through, they were without a pastor for a couple of years, it would be good just to have somebody come from the leadership team just to encourage Ron and Tami, but also the church as well. And I thought, well, I'm already on the west coast. I can pop up here.

And so I made that call and so that's why I'm here in Bozeman, and maybe some of our pastors listening didn't know that Ron Boomsma is in Bozeman. He is the new senior pastor of Emmaus Road Church in Bozeman. The church has been a part of that process, so I'm not announcing anything that's not to be kept confidential. The church does know and tomorrow's going to be a great day for them. You might remember Joel Carlson led that church and then went to serve another church that was outside of Sovereign Grace and transitioned therefore out of Sovereign Grace. They were without a pastor for a couple of years and Ron and Tami heard about it and prayed and felt like the Lord was leading them here from Pasadena. You might be wondering what's happening in Pasadena? Well, Tim Owens who graduated from the Pastors College just a few years ago and has been there on staff in Pasadena, stepped into Ron's role.

So, two transitions have happened; obviously one in Pasadena from an older pastor to younger. And then in this case in Bozeman, from region to region from the West region to the Midwest Northwest region. And I wanted to mention it because it not only explains where I'm at and why I'm in this hotel room, I just think it illustrates how we want to continue to develop our partnership among Sovereign Graces churches. That as transitions occur in the future, we've got to help one another and share people and pastors with one another so that we can do effective transitions that serve our local churches and mostly give God glory. We want to do God glorifying conversations. So I'm very grateful for the sacrifice the Pasadena Church is making, the sacrifice the West region is making, the sacrifice that Ron and Tami personally are making to move here to Bozeman and to begin to pastor this church. And the church here is very excited about Ron and I just can't wait to do this tomorrow. It's going to be quite an honor.

Benjamin Kreps:

That is deeply encouraging. I mean, it is an compelling example that Ron is setting for us. He could very well have just lived out his days in pastoral ministry in beautiful California, and not necessarily early in life, but a little later in life, to pick up and move to Montana and to serve that church, that is a sweet sacrifice, I'm sure that pleases the savior and it's not the only one. There are all kinds of examples of this kind of sacrificial love for the local church, whether you have Scott Crook coming from Chaska to serve at Ed's Church as he plants in Italy. And here now we have Ron coming over; or Ken Mellinger leaving Living Hope, going down to Texas with Jon Payne. It is the older pastors in Sovereign Graces once again are setting an example for us that I'm deeply grateful for. And I'm sure tomorrow is going to be a happy Sunday in Bozeman, Montana.

But you are in Bozeman because you come by way of California. You were in California last week at the latest leadership team retreat. Tell us about what happened there.

Mark Prater:

We had a great retreat. It wasn't all of the leadership team, it was myself and Jeff Purswell and Jon Payne, Jared Mellinger, and Dave Taylor flew over from Sydney, God bless him, which is one of the reasons we do it in Southern California. It's just one leg of a flight for him. And we just had a wonderful retreat. God just blessed it. It was a retreat I've been praying for quite a bit and I'm just going to tell you some of the highlights. I don't have time to go through all of them or this podcast would be too long. We had a full, important, I would say one of the most important agendas we've had as a leadership team.

So here's just some topics that we talked about. First, church planting. The Church Planting Group and Joel Shorey, our new Director of Church Planting, just had a retreat last month. And so Jon gave us an update on that. It's just so encouraging to see what work our church planting group is doing and now the leadership that Joel is bringing not only to them, but to our church planting efforts. And that's just very timely because we have six to seven, I think, church plants planned here in the states over the next two years. (Ben: "let's go") And then another 10 outside the states over the next two to three years. So in the next two to three years, we're going to plant somewhere between 16 and 17 churches if things go as planned. Again, not wanting to be presumptuous upon the sovereignty of God and part of the reason we wanted to talk about it at the retreat, we're asking are we prepared for that? And that would include financial preparation. Do we have enough resources to fund the church plants we want to fund both here in the states and globally.

And it gives me a chance to mention the Council of Elders Delegates. Just a couple of weeks ago, received some information about our meeting in November, and one of those was a new business motion from the team. And if you've read it in the rationale, we're proposing that the Council of Elders approve making a division between the current church planting fund that the Council of Elders established several years ago, and divide it into a US fund and a global fund because it helps us to use our money more strategically. It helps us to track how we're using it more effectively and it helps us on the leadership team in particular and those in different parts of the world, including the states, to request funds and they know how much they've got to work with. So, just a number of reasons. We'll talk about that at the Council of Elders and potentially that will be approved by the Council of Elders. We'll see.

We also talked through our church adoption vetting process. We've just looked back and thought there's some things we can learn as we go to adopt churches. It seems like there's some things that we can grow in. And so Jon and Dave brought a whole proposal on how to improve that. I was very excited about what they're proposing. So we're going to work through that just a little bit more. It may require some BCO amendments in the future. My guess is it probably will, but looking to just make that process a little bit better so that we're just being wise in the church adoption process.

We also planned, initially anyway, the February leadership team regional leader retreat. That's the one retreat we do as a leadership team every year where we have the regional leaders join us. That's a very strategic time. And so we've got to do a lot of preparation beforehand. And I really like the plan that we've got in place and you'll hear more about that obviously on future podcasts.

We did a discussion about the Relay Conference in 2025, just doing some additional planning, including a pre-conference meeting for young men aspiring to pastoral ministry that most likely will involve Jeff and I can't wait for Jeff to just be exposed to them, to those new men, those young men aspiring to ministry.

There's a number of new initiatives that many of the leadership team guys have been working on that we discussed. I don't have time to discuss 'em now, but most of those will be talked about at the Council of Elders meeting. So if you're not a delegate and you want to hear about 'em, come as an observer. We would love to have you at that meeting. You'll hear about those.

Then Jared gave us a publishing update, really a publishing plan over the next year. It's really exciting to see what is about to be released and what's in the works that will be released over the next year in the categories of the Journal. In fact, next month, October, the next edition of the Journal with the theme Books That Have Shaped Us, I can't wait to read that, that'll be released. And then the category of Theo-Pastoral resources, we're just going to use the old name, The Perspective Series from guys have been around some time. Those are written at a little more theological level and we're about ready to release that first one; Who Governs the Church, you'll hear more about that. And then books we're just self-publishing. In fact, there's a new one up that Jeff has written. It's a chapter that was in a book, that honored Wayne Gruden. We now have permission to use that. And so that is the republishing of that chapter. That's new on our website. But also a number of other things. I think 10 to 12 other projects that are in the process of being published right now. So you'll hear more about that.

And then we planned the 2024 Pastors Conference and we're planning on that and the 2025 Pastors and Leaders Conference. So we hope to announce at the 2024 Pastors Conference that the 2025 conference will be a pastors and leaders conference, where churches can bring leaders, members of their churches, to this conference. And we're tailoring it that way with a number of different breakout sessions that will serve those members who serve our churches. Things like small group leadership and things like parenting and marriage. And there's just a whole list of those. So we did some planning for that too because we hope to announce it with specific dates at the end of the 2024 conference because people need to take time off work in 2025. It's good for them to know ahead of time and then open registration as soon as possible. So those are just some of the things that we talked about this past week in Southern California.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Well, thanks for the update. Thank you for sharing about the hard work you guys were getting done at the retreat. At least it was in beautiful California. If you're going to work hard, that's a great place to do it. So, thank you, Mark. Thank you for all the guys on the leadership team, for your thoughtful and wise leadership and investment in us. And thank you for checking out the podcast. And so 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, anybody who's been following the podcast or what's been going on in Sovereign Grace over the last several years knows that God has increasingly given us just a wonderful opportunity to partner with the nations and there have been many fruitful partnerships that have been developing, growing, being solidified, and you have some updates for us about some of the things God is doing through our partnerships globally.

Mark Prater:

I do. In fact, I had to sort of keep this list short. I had to shorten this list because there's just a number of exciting things that God continues to do through our small family of churches throughout the world as he does in other denominations. But we're grateful that he's doing 'em in Sovereign Grace and we get to participate in the advancement of the gospel, the equipping of pastors, the planting of churches throughout the world so that more people will come to know Christ so that the nations will be discipled and Christ would receive more glory. So let me just run through a number of these real quick. We have an official new partner church in Italy, they have their website up, which is all in Italian. So I'm going to try to pronounce the name of this church.

Benjamin Kreps:

This is going to be fun.

Mark Prater:

Alright, so I apologize to Ed and Rocco if they're listening to this or any listener or reader of this podcast who speaks Italian. I must apologize, but here I go: Chiesa Grazia Sovrana in Torino, Italy is our new church being planted by Ed O'Mara and Rocco Dahlia. If you go on our Sovereign Grace website and you go on the churches page and you scroll down to Italy, you can click on a link to their website. It's all in Italian, but there is usually a translation option in your search that you can hit and it'll translate into English. It's just wonderful to see though, a new partner church there in Italy.

Also, Jacobis Aldana, who is the senior pastor of Iglesia Biblica Soberana in Santa Marta, Columbia, has officially completed the ordination process. He will be set in place and ordained in a service next month in October. And when he signs the Emerging Nations partnership agreement, we will have our first partner church in Columbia. They're in Santa Marta, Columbia.

In terms of training pastors, young men to be future pastors, let me just give you three exciting four exciting updates. First of all, Mexico has started a pastor's college. They just welcomed three new students that are beginning classes now, all from three different states in Mexico, which prepares the nation of Mexico to continue to reach out with the gospel throughout their country.

Jeffrey Jo is starting another Philippines Pastors Institute on September 21st that has 14 students in it. Now, they don't meet throughout the week. They meet on Saturdays for a complete day. I think they do that monthly or something like that, I could have the schedule wrong. But the whole purpose is to invest into men who are either serving in churches or will plant churches. And with this class in particular, they're looking to invest in the Mindanao region of the Philippines.

Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will graduate their second PC class comprised of nine men on September 15th. So that's just wonderful to see the fruit from that particular pastor's college. And here in the States, I think it was last week, the US Pastors College kicked off, and we have nine men from two different nations, the United States and from Australia. Again, those men will be deployed into the states and into Australia for the purpose of pastoral ministry and advancing the gospel. So those are just some equipping categories in terms of just mission.

A couple of other updates. Pat Tedeschii, who is a pastor at Greentree Church in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, will be leading a short term missions trip to London, England with a group of folks and they'll be working with Oasis International Church, a church that Greentree has partnered with for well over 18 years. And the purpose of that short-term mission trip is to reach out to that area of London with the gospel. And there's many Muslims that live in that area. So there'll be a Muslim outreach in particular. So pray for that particular short-term mission trip, again, September 13th through the 23rd.

And I just got a wonderful video from Jeffrey Jo in Manila, Philippines of a one year celebration video of a new church plant that he planted a year ago in Dasmariñias City, Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries was sent from his church, and that church will shortly, I'm sure, become a candidate church in Sovereign Grace. And to see how the church has grown in a year, just from the pictures I saw was truly amazing. God is blessing that church plant in that part of Manila. Dasmariñias City is in the metro area of the Philippines.

So just some mission updates. A lot is going on. I can share more. But first of all, let all of this humble us that God would use our small family of churches to advance the gospel. We're not worthy of that and he could do it without us, but he's choosing to use us. So may it humble us, may all that we do bring God glory and may all that we do be in dependence upon God and his wisdom and his power as we continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. It is humbling and it is gratifying to see not just simply that we're partnering with pastors and other nations, but there's this cross-pollination going on that's just the fruit of our relational way that we pursue ministry together. We have Australian men in the States at the PC. We've got us guys planting a church in Italy with help from Rocco and so forth. So it is wonderful and gratifying to see God using our little denomination in wonderful ways.

So those are all very encouraging updates, but being in partnership also includes taking on burdens and embracing hard things that our brothers and sisters are going through around the globe. And Ukraine is an example of that. And you want to give us an update about what's going on in Ukraine?

Mark Prater:

I do. I've mentioned this before in a previous podcast and maybe our listeners are familiar with the Ark church in Dnipro Ukraine led by Michael Ostanin. And we continue to send him funds for the relief efforts, the war relief efforts that he's doing there in Dnipro. As long as we have money designated for that, we will continue to do it. He just sent several of us an update last week, and this update came the day after Russia's largest missile attack on Ukraine since the war started. As Michael says in his email, that one day 127 missiles and 109 drones hit different parts of Ukraine. Some of those were power plants. And so he was saying in Nebra, they were in a blackout for 16 hours. But he writes this, he says, "we continue to minister to hundreds of refugees giving them food and preaching the gospel because Russian troops are occupying more and more territories. Hundreds of people are evacuating to our city every day and asking us for help." And on this particular day, he knew after that missile attack that more would be coming and that's been the case. And then Michael just ends it with this. He says, "the scale of grief and suffering of people overwhelms us, and the faithful Lord cares for our souls with his grace and mercy and does not allow us to despair." And then he just thanks us for our support and for our prayers. And I just thought, oh, my life is not like that. My ministry world is not like that. Here is a man ministering in difficult circumstances, kind of hard to imagine what he's facing day in and day out. And yet he remains faithful. He remains faithful. The members of his church remained faithful. He mentions in this email that they've sent people from his church to be chaplains at the front lines. They'll send them in, they'll care for soldiers, they'll make it back. It's that kind of faithfulness. It's that kind of risky faith. It's that kind of sacrifice that marks what he's doing. And he's remaining right there at his post. Of course he's grieved as he says, but he is strong in knowing what God has called him to do.

So I just wanted to mention that because if you have some heart to give to the relief effort there in Ukraine, you can make a contribution designated for Ukraine to our Europe Development Fund, and we will make sure that that gets to Michael Ostanin. As long as we have funds, we will send them along to a man and a church that are doing good gospel work in difficult circumstances. So thanks for praying for them.

Well, one other thing as we end this global update, just got to thank God for Dave Taylor, our Director of Global Missions. Also want to thank God for our area leaders like Rich Richardson who's doing such a great job in Mexico and Latin America, Ed O'Mara in Europe, who I mentioned before, Bart Lipscomb in Africa, Greg Dirnberger in the Asia-Pacific region. And Dave leads those men and he leads Sovereign Grace globally so well for us. So just thanking God for Dave and each of those area leaders and just ask the listeners that you would pray for each of those men; may God continue to give them grace to do, to really respond, to all that God is bringing our way for the glory of God.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes. Amen. I trust that many of us checking out the podcast, we'll be praying for Michael and the brothers and sisters in Ukraine. I think something that we are wise to make sure that we don't miss in this partnership with Ukraine is that they have much to teach us about suffering and faithfulness. And so we thank God for you, Michael, and for the brothers and sisters there. We thank God for you, Dave, and your hard work on our behalf globally.

And so thank you, Mark, for the update. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. 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, we talked a few weeks ago about the WorshipGod conference that was in Louisville last month. A wonderful time; room full of people, many of them not from Sovereign Grace churches, which is an illustration and the fruit of the fact that Sovereign Grace Music is having a powerful influence, not only in our small family of churches, but actually broadly. And you have a bunch of stats that you want to share with us that show us just that.

Mark Prater:

I do. I put some stats together every year for the Executive Committee retreat, which I was at last week, and I'm only going to share some of those to illustrate the influence and the impact that Sovereign Grace Music has. And these I typically hand out at the Council of Elders meeting. So I'm aware that not all of our pastors are at that meeting, and members of our churches typically aren't at that meeting. So I wanted to share them because they are really encouraging and they demonstrate how God is using Sovereign Grace Music, not only to influence Sovereign Grace Churches, but churches throughout the world.

So here are some stats regarding songs. So these numbers come from CCLI, which is the organization that tracks worship songs sung by churches on a Sunday. They track that for many reasons, but one of them being, I believe, that the songwriters for a period of time get some royalties.

So Sovereign Grace Music has 50 Sovereign Grace songs in the top 2000. And of those 50, 4 songs are in the top 1000. And of those 50, 16 songs are in the top 500. So that tells you that songs are being sung. Sovereign Grace Music songs are being sung in churches just throughout, not only Sovereign Grace, but outside of Sovereign Grace because we're a small family of churches. So those numbers reflect they're not only being sung by our churches, they're being sung by churches here in the states. And I'll give you some stats in a minute that will demonstrate throughout the world.

And I just think that's important because it does represent how Sovereign Grace Music is having this wonderful gospel centered, theologically rooted influence in churches both inside and outside of Sovereign Grace. And that's important because it also reflects that those churches want to sing theologically rich songs, which Sovereign Grace Music songs have. Their lyrics are theologically rich and they are gospel centered. And that's so important in the life of any church because as we've said, it's been said probably for hundreds of years, good theology leads to rich doxology. So ultimately all those numbers point to the exaltation and glory of Jesus Christ within the church. So those numbers were just really encouraging beyond just what's happening in a Sunday service or a corporate public gathering.

Also, 60 million Sovereign Grace songs are being streamed on Spotify in 2023/2024, over that one year period. 60 million songs by Sovereign Grace Music. If you go from Spotify to YouTube, Sovereign Grace Music has 374,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel, adding about 4,000 new subscribers every month. So it's just growing. And to give you one stat of what's being viewed: 255,000 views of the newer song of Christ Our Wisdom, which is on the new Knowing God album; 255,000 views since its release in March of this year, March of 2024. So that song's been viewed a lot.

And then just one other stat; Sovereign Grace Music has songs translated in 50 different languages. And that stat tells you that their influence and impact is not just here in the States, but obviously throughout the world. They're serving and influencing churches throughout the world. And as God has given our small family of churches opportunities to expand globally throughout the world, it's given us the opportunity to sing Sovereign Grace songs in different languages. For example, there's active translation work being done in Italian because we're planting a church in Torino, Italy. It's just wonderful to see, for me, the impact and influence Sovereign Grace Music is having and the way they serve the churches in Sovereign Grace, but churches throughout the body of Christ in the States and throughout the world.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. It is wonderful that Sovereign Grace Music isn't just making music for Christian radio stations to play. They're making music for members in local churches to sing loudly these theologically rich, glorious truths of the gospel. And so it is gratifying to hear how that's happening, not just within our family of churches, but more broadly speaking as well. As you think about what's happening in Sovereign Grace Music in the days ahead, give us some thoughts about Sovereign Grace Music.

Mark Prater:

Well, one of those thoughts is what you just said, Ben, is that Sovereign Grace Music, it is our hope and prayer, will continue to write songs sung by congregations. They'll write congregational songs, not that they wouldn't be played on the radio or on Spotify or on YouTube, but that's their desire to serve local churches, including Sovereign Grace churches. So because of that, it's one of the reasons we wanted to invest into this new music studio that has been used over the past year where the Knowing God album was recorded and produced, because that's an investment into our future; is that Sovereign Grace Music would continue to write congregational songs with a music excellence that does serve churches throughout the world.

And in light of that, as we think about the future, we want to continue to invest in the songwriters. Bob leads a songwriter's retreat every year. And one of the things that's encouraging for me as an older Sovereign Grace pastor is to see that some of those songwriters are now younger members of our churches, because most of the songwriters that are writing Sovereign Grace music are members of our churches. So to see younger generations write those songs, it just gives you faith that God is at work to make the influence and impact of Sovereign Grace Music a multi-generational one, which is real encouraging. So that's a thought.

Also when I think about the future, I continue to thank God for Bob Kauflin and his music team. It's a wonderful team of folks that he works with. And just continue to pray for them, not only thank God for them, but pray for them that God would give them wisdom, that He would give them direction as they continue to write congregational songs and train worship leaders that serve churches, all of those in Sovereign Grace and obviously churches outside of Sovereign Grace. So may that all be done, obviously, for the glory of God.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. I know my first introduction to Sovereign Grace was through listening to the WorshipGod Live album 17 years ago, and hearing Jesus, Thank You and instantly fell in love with that song, not even knowing that there was such a thing as churches that were Sovereign Grace. And so I think many others have discovered Sovereign Grace in the same way through the gift that is Bob and the rest of Sovereign Grace Music. So Bob, Devon, Dave, we thank God for you and the whole crew. We thank God for you. Thank you for the good work that you're doing. We're just trying to figure out what songs not to do off Knowing God around here. And so we do thank God for Sovereign Grace Music. Thank you, Mark, for the update. 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, you just recently returned from a retreat that you regularly have with the Executive Committee. You were mentioning before we started recording how our polity was ratified 11 years ago. And while some of us are more passionate about Sovereign Grace Churches polity and some of us like to eat it for breakfast and do their devotions in the Book of Church Order, it is certainly not a necessary evil. It is a gift from God as we seek to apply principles of church government and denominational governing structures according to what we read in God's word. But you were expressing your gratitude; that is appropriate when we think about our polity, is gratitude. And you wanted to talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

I did. I mean, remember when we ratified our polity, our Book of Church Order 11 years ago in April of 2013. And I think we'd all have to admit at the time it looked good on paper, but is this really going to work? It's sort of what we were thinking. And 11 years in, it's not perfect. It still needs to be tweaked and adjusted, but it's working. And I thank God for the polity that we have and in particular this week, thanking God for a component of our polity, which is the Executive Committee. And we have listeners or readers of this podcast who really probably haven't read the Book of Church Order, but there's a place in the Book of Church Order where we have an Executive Committee that is assigned to do a number of things on behalf of the Council of Elders. So this is a standing committee that works on behalf of the Council of Elders that oversees and evaluates the Leadership Team.

They also are responsible for their fiduciary financial responsibilities and legal responsibilities. So in that sense, they do really govern as a board, what the Leadership Team does, and really they govern, in that sense, Sovereign Grace Churches. And I'm so grateful for that structure because I've benefited from it over the years, including this week. I just got back today, this is Friday, you'll get this in your inbox on Monday. Just got back from an Executive Committee retreat that was held in Louisville. And I'm so grateful for those men. And I told them that I was actually praying for them by name before the retreat and then I just saw God answer those prayers as those men gave me input and evaluation and thoughts, not only for myself as executive director, but for the Leadership Team as well.

So the men who serve on that Executive Committee, Ken Mellinger, who chairs it, did a great job of leading a retreat that keeps things moving and yet allows all the voices on the committee to share their thoughts. That's not an easy thing to do. And Ken does that very well. So Ken Melllinger, Andy Farmer, Bruce Chick, Brian Chesemore, Bill Patton, Steve Teeter, Abelardo Munoz, and Dave York. Nine men that are pastors who are busy serving their churches and yet they take a week away from their families and away from their church to serve our family of churches by exercising their governance role in Sovereign Grace.

And these men gave me a lot of good input. They evaluated me, they evaluated the Leadership Team. We spent all day yesterday or most of the day yesterday on the budget. And they do that for the Council of Elders because they approve the budget. The Council of Elders affirms it. So we do drop into detail and they ask some very pointed detail questions that you would want them to ask. And thank goodness Tommy Hill has answers for all of them or most of them. But it was just really a wonderful retreat in many, many ways and a fresh appreciation to God for our polity and for the Executive Committee in particular

Benjamin Kreps:

As you were reading off those names, wow, what a gift these men are to us. These are wise and discerning pastors with integrity who are sacrificing to serve our family of churches and what a gift they are. So what happened at the Executive Committee retreat?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, we had a full schedule. We kind of started off with some personal updates and praying and then Ken did something this year that I'm really glad he did. We were just trying something that had never been done before. He asked Executive Committee members to come with just thoughts on the things they're encouraged by that they see in Sovereign Grace, and areas where they may have questions or they're seeing vulnerabilities. And it was really good. I sat there and just took notes and it was really good to hear both where they're encouraged and where they see potential weaknesses or current weaknesses and really benefited from that discussion. So I'm glad we did that. And it's another reflection of these guys that had put thought into this and it's not just the content of what they shared. Their heart for our family of churches comes across. So this is not a dry polity where we're going through the motions. This is very much a polity that men carry on their heart and they carry the churches and our pastors on their heart. So I was really grateful for that and that input.

From there, really what we've been doing in recent years, and we sort of followed a similar pattern this year, I give a Sovereign Grace update where I just kind of share where we're at and where we're headed. And the way that I talked about it this year, and I'm not going to get in too much detail because this will probably frame my State of the Union message at the Council of Elders meeting in November, is there's a lot to be encouraged by in our family of churches about how God is providing. And as you look into the next 10 years, there's much to be encouraged about, much to have faith in God for.

At the same time I see present and potential vulnerabilities that along the path during those 10 years we must address. So I just kind of framed where I'm encouraged as well and vulnerabilities that we see and we're actively addressing or have new plans to address. I framed the update that way and then just went into topics with that framework and we had a lot of good dialogue over that that actually took several hours one afternoon and just found that really, really helpful not only in terms of just what was shared, but more of the input I got from the Executive Committee.

I wrote a five to 10 year strategic plan. They asked me to do that a few years ago. So each year I give them a progress report on the progress we made over the last year. And then I write a new one or it's not a complete new one. It's really a rewrite of the present one that is adapted to the things that we're seeing or the things we had accomplished, and we want to accomplish some different things this year. So I presented that to them as well. From there, they ask and I give a report of departments and regions, and so I just methodically walk through every department in Sovereign Grace and when I talk about departments, I mean Department of Theology, Sovereign Grace Music, Finance and Administration, Church Planting, Church Development, Publishing, West Coast Development, and I think that's most of them. And just walk through each of those. And then for the regions, I didn't drop into specifics in regions. Jon helped me write this. Jon Payne. Really it was just an overview of the regions and that was just real encouraging to go through with our Executive Committee.

And then from there, they spent time, we just spent time, walking through an evaluation of each member of the Leadership Team. I evaluate the Leadership Team and bring my evaluation to the Executive Committee and then they evaluate me. I submit a self-evaluation and then every member of the Leadership Team evaluates me and I just pass those along to the oversight committee within the Executive Committee responsible to sort of package all that and bring a proposal. And then also we get from every church where a Leadership Team member or non-Leadership Team director is based, just a local church evaluation. All that gets sent to them about six weeks before the retreat. And so they just took time to evaluate me.

And then from there we went on and as I mentioned, just took time to just methodically go through the budget, looking at financial projections in the future and also just talking through any sort of legal issues that they need to be aware of. Nothing bad. When you say legal, you think, oh man, what's wrong? Nothing at all. Like Tommy this year was able to renew the Sovereign Grace copyright for another 10 years. That's legal work that he had to do. Or recently, especially as we expand globally, he's got to do a lot more work with visas. So he was working with Josh Kruger Jr. He was in the States for a time now back in Namibia, there's visa work that has to be done there that's under the legal category. So just kind of gave some updates there as well. So that's a bit of what we covered. We also laughed a lot together and prayed with one another, and they're friends, so we just got updates and fellowshipped and it was a wonderful retreat that I thank God for.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Well thank you, Mark for your role in all of that and the sacrifices you made to go be in Louisville for a week with the Executive Committee. I too share with you in gratefulness for these wonderful men that serve us effectively. It sounds like you guys are getting work done. So thanks for working hard for our good in Sovereign Grace, and thank you all for checking out the podcast. 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. People who check out the podcast might've noticed that there wasn't a podcast last week, and that was because I was on vacation and you were attending the Fieles conference, which you talked about on the last pod. You have some encouraging updates about your experience at the conference. But first, at the last pastor's conference, we had the joy of seeing Mexico become its own ecclesiastical nation in Sovereign Grace Churches. And recently they had their National Assembly of Elders and you were going to give us an update about that.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. In fact, that vote happened at the last Council of Elders meeting last November. The Council of Elders voted to establish Mexico as an Ecclesiological nation, and that is the first Ecclesiological nation apart from the US that we've established, which was a very historic and exciting moment for the Council of Elders, but especially for the brothers in Mexico. And the the morning of the Fieles conference, the brothers met from Mexico for their National Assembly of Elders meeting, and I wasn't there. Carlos told me about it. Carlos Contreras, who's leading the team there in Mexico, and Rich Richardson was there from our leadership team. And I heard just great reports from both of them of how pleased they just were with how that meeting went.

So a couple of highlights from the meeting. Mexico made some polity decisions regarding their Book of Church Order, just like we have been doing in the states, just trying to tweak it and fine tune it as we use it. So that happened.

They also made some financial decisions as a nation, which requires financial commitments from the churches in Mexico to give to the National Fund in Mexico. And the reason Carlos was so excited about that is because our goal overall in Sovereign Grace as we establish nations, is to establish self-sustaining nations over a period of time. And so Carlos was like, we took another step towards being a self-sustaining nation here in Mexico. And it was wonderful to see his excitement and his enthusiasm for that meeting because the thing that we voted on last November as a Council of Elders is actually happening. And one of the things that's so exciting for me is that it's not just happening on paper. It's happening in influence and impact that the brothers in Mexico are having, I think, seeing most clearly through their leadership of the Fieles conference.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Yeah, it is quite a thing to go from theoretical ideas about ecclesiological nations and what that might look like to actually seeing one established and it beginning to function. That is such a joy to hear about. But you were yes, at the Fieles conference and you wanted to talk to us about your experience there.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, let me just start with saying Carlos Contreras was responsible for planning and leading this conference. He did an effective, masterful job. Carlos is a gift to our family of churches. I thank God for him. Our leadership team here in the States thanks God for him. And he just did a really, really good job. Now, he doesn't do that alone. He's got a team that he works with, a leadership team that he's leading Mexico with. Each of those men worked very hard as well. And then he's got the members of his church. So Fieles was held in Juarez at Iglesia Gracia Soberana, where Carlos is the senior pastor and 160 of his members volunteered to serve during that entire conference. And they did so with such joy, and they did it with such a servant's heart. It communicates Sovereign Grace values just in the way that they serve. So first of all, just to commend all that served at the conference.

But it was a very effective conference. The theme of the conference was essentially the pastor pursuing a godly life. And the pastor's example is very important in building godly churches, which is something we want to do in Sovereign Grace. So this was a very significant conference for pastors and their wives. And by the way, there were somewhere between 400 and 450 pastors and their wives there, leaders from the churches and their wives there from mostly different parts of Mexico and really all parts of Mexico. There were also some pastors there from other Latin American nations, from Costa Rica for example.

But this was primarily in serving pastors and wives that are in Mexico. And the impact and influence that conference has is palpable. It's very, very clear. In fact, a lot of the pastors and wives that were there were not a part of Sovereign Grace. So for them to hear instruction, messages, for several days that will help them grow in godliness, they'll go back and they'll be stronger pastors and they'll build stronger churches as a result, regardless of whether they're ever part of Sovereign Grace or not, although several are very interested.

So Jeff Purswell was a main speaker. Mike Bullmore was a main speaker. Juan Sanchez, who's not a part of Sovereign Grace, but leads a church in Austin, Texas, he did a great job preaching. Carlos Contreras preached two messages, God bless him, in the same day; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. And then he also asked me to do a main session. And then Mike Bullmore and Juan Sanchez both led breakout sessions that were really, really, really well done. Mike was more about pursuing God through the spiritual disciplines, essentially. And Juan was teaching, his breakout session was more on building a godly home, how a pastor builds a godly home. So all of the preaching that those men did, it was just outstanding. It was very well done. It had application and impact.

There were conversations I was having with pastors as the conference was ending, they're coming up, they're in tears because of how the Lord worked during that conference and how much it impacted their life. And that's the kind of thing you want to see, at least you pray for and you hope for, is that pastors are encouraged, they're built up in Christ, and they're also challenged to grow as men of God. So it was just a wonderful time, and I just walked away thinking, boy, the influence that this conference has and the influence that the men leading in Mexico have, it's really palpable. And really, I think "nation transforming" is, I think, the word I'm looking for, the phrase I'm looking for.

And so I just thank God for not only Carlos, but all of those men that are leading in Mexico; Abelardo Munoz and Hellman Avila and Jaime Chow and Manolo Quintal, Cuautemoc is there on the team, just helping administratively as well. Those men are gifts to our family of churches. And so this is a nation, not just on paper. This is a nation that's having influence and impact within Mexico. And I just wanted everybody to hear about it and continue to pray for our friends in Mexico.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes, excellent. So grateful for Carlos and his guys and for that church. What a compelling example, 160 church members serving men and women they don't even know, probably most of them that aren't in Sovereign Grace, but as we see so often in Sovereign Grace churches; eager, cheerful, joyful servants. And so that's impressive. So well done. So thanks, Mark for the updates. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.