1st Sovereign Grace Africa Pastors Retreat

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, anyone who didn't check out the podcast last episode — we encourage you to go back and check that out, because you recorded it from the Ethiopian Pastors College. And that was deeply encouraging for those of us who were watching: the questions and answers that you guys were interacting with at the college, getting to meet those men and hear their thoughts and experiences. Very grateful for what God is doing in Ethiopia, of course.

But that wasn't the only thing you were doing there while teaching at the Pastors College. You actually attended a bit of a historic gathering for Sovereign Grace in Africa. What were you doing there?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. What we had planned — and actually pulled off — during that time, when I was there teaching that first week at the PC (in which I taught Pneumatology), was the very first Sovereign Grace Churches Africa Pastors Retreat, held there in Addis Ababa. And that was a retreat for all of the ordained elders, or those in the ordination process, in Sovereign Grace churches on the continent of Africa.

And it was really a good time. Dave Taylor had planned to be there — the week before that retreat he was in Italy, co-leading with Ed O'Mara at the Sovereign Grace Churches Europe Pastors Retreat — and was going to fly from there to Ethiopia, to be a part of this. However, he needed to return home due to health issues with his family. So I stepped in and helped co-lead it with Michael Granger. And it was just such a good, good week.

So let me just tell you who was there. There were men from four different nations on the African continent. Josh Kruger was there from Windhoek, Namibia, where he planted a church over a year ago. Ector Makaliki came from Zambia — and it was so good to have him there. There were also two ordained elders from Sovereign Grace Church in Nairobi: Brian Kiama, the senior pastor, who was a graduate of the Trinity Pastors College a few years ago, and his fellow elder, Jonathan Wesley.

And then there were men from Ethiopia. Trinity Fellowship was so gracious and kind, opening their doors and hospitality to host this conference. Michael Granger is the senior pastor of Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa. Amanuel, who is an ordained elder there and a graduate of the very first Trinity Fellowship PC class. Josh Pannell, who leads the PC there. And then Yeabtsega, who has only his oral exam left — and I'm fully confident he'll do great on that and will be fully ordained before too long.

So those were all the men who participated, along with myself. Men from four different nations: Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Namibia. And it was quite a time. It was a real highlight. It exceeded my expectations because God did more than we could have thought or asked.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. Some of those names — Josh, Brian — you know that we've had them on the podcast recently. So, if anybody wants to learn more about some of those church plants in Africa, go back and check out those episodes. What a wonderful experience that must have been. It's very encouraging to hear that the first Sovereign Grace Africa Pastors Retreat took place. So, what did you guys do? How did it go?

Mark Prater:

It went really, really well. Dave had done a good job of mapping it all out for us, so we just had to modify the schedule and what we would discuss while we were there. The purpose of the retreat was to bring these men together for the first time — to build relationships. It's just such a big continent; that kind of gathering is so hard to make happen. So it was very, very good for them to be together, just to get to know one another. And very quickly over that week, they grew relationally closer together. I was so encouraged to see that. They all spoke of the beginning of trust that could be — and is being — developed between them, which, as you know, is so important in partnership.

So there was the relational development aspect of it. There was also a reinforcement of the values that we hold dear. And the third part was just thinking about the future of Sovereign Grace in Africa — what that could look like, what they're looking to build, and how they could help one another do that.

If we ever get to — and I think we will get to — a point where we have Sovereign Grace Churches of Africa, it won't be for the whole continent; it's just so big. But Sovereign Grace Churches East Africa, for example, could at least right now include Kenya and Ethiopia. Sovereign Grace Churches Southern Africa, maybe Central Africa — we'll just have to see how it develops over the years.

But it was such an encouraging time. Michael taught on gospel centrality, which was really, really good. We covered a couple of our virtues. Emmanuel gave a great teaching that generated great discussion on godliness. And then Yeabtsega did a really good job on the virtue of encouragement. There were some other teachings as well — I did one on gospel partnership and its priority. And after each one, we built in time — David had built in time — to just discuss them.

And the discussion was good, because at the end of the week, not only had they built together relationally — that was our trust-building goal — but they said, "Here's what we've realized on this retreat: we're all on the same page. We're on the same page theologically. We're on the same page in terms of what we want to build using Sovereign Grace values and virtues." And that is very encouraging.

So I was so sad Dave couldn't be there, because I wanted him to experience it. But he did the right thing by going home and caring for his family. It went really, really well. I think I told you before we started recording, Ben — it exceeded my expectations, because God was kind to do more than we asked, or even could think to ask Him to do, as I mentioned a moment ago.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. It is quite something to watch over time — as a vision from a number of years ago of us increasingly becoming this global family of churches becomes reality — to now see those fellowships established on different continents, and in Africa as well, with pastors building together. That is a wonderful thing to hear.

Thanks for your work, and for everybody else who served at the retreat. Let's continue to pray for what God is doing in Africa, and for these men as they continue to build together for the future and for gospel expansion across the continent. So thanks, Mark, for the update, and thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.