Around the World: Global Updates

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, on a previous podcast, we spent some time talking about how you and the leadership team are seeking to steward the remarkable global expansion that God has brought to us in Sovereign Grace. We want to build our global partnerships well and wisely. On a previous podcast, we talked about a global strategy to do that, to seek to ensure that we are partnering well and wisely. You recently updated the executive committee about how that's going, and you want to talk to us about it.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I do. Last week at the Executive Committee retreat, I was just giving them a broad update on a number of things happening in Sovereign Grace, in a number of different categories. One of those being our global expansion. The executive committee, like me, we are so grateful to God for the opportunities that he's given us to plant churches and partner with churches throughout the world. I mean, we're stunned, actually. We're just following God in something we never expected that we would follow him in. All these opportunities we have—it is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. We're grateful for it. We're trying to respond to it in a wise way. But the main thing is that God gets all the glory. This is not some big plan that we had. It's just God at work, advancing the gospel and saving more people who don't know Christ as their Savior. So that's where we start.

But with expansion comes responsibility. This is where I was explaining to the executive committee last week. That responsibility is to steward wisely what we have now and get that right, so that as we expand in the future, we've built something foundational and solid and good. There are a number of ways we're trying to do that as a leadership team, but I walked them through our global strategy, which has really seven anchors to it. I've mentioned those, as you said, in a previous episode, but I want to mention them again for a specific reason. Let me just give you the anchors first. Here are the seven anchors.

Theological education is a strategy, because if we lose theological fidelity, but certainly theological consistency as we expand in different parts of the world, that's a huge risk.

The second is ecclesiological clarity. Really, that emphasis on the local church that you see in the New Testament is what we want to continue to emphasize. It gives clarity on the mission of the church, obviously, and therefore a family of churches. Obviously, you include in that our polity structure. So we just want to make sure we bring ecclesiological clarity to our global expansion.

The third is relational development. Yes, we are a denomination, but we're also a family of churches that want to continue to build relationally. Embedded in that anchor is our desire to care for pastors, and certainly our desire to build a relational, interdependent partnership across churches in Sovereign Grace. So that's an important anchor for us.

The fourth one is missional risk. We must be willing to take a prayerful, thoughtful, faith-filled risk to advance the gospel. You see that in the New Testament, in the book of Acts in particular.

The fifth anchor is leadership development, which means a couple of things. We want to invest into our national leaders throughout the world, our global leaders, and at the same time we want to make sure our churches are investing in developing the next generations of pastors.

The sixth anchor is financial stability. Part of what that aims at is to build financially self-sustaining nations. That's going to take longer in some nations than in others, but that's where we're wanting to aim.

And then seventh, cultivating and maintaining zeal in our churches. That really gets at the ethos. It's the culture that we want to live for Jesus, and there's a zeal for living for Jesus. That gets to things like application in preaching. It helps us apply the gospel and grow in Christlikeness. For example, it's passion in worship because in following Jesus, we love to sing to Jesus because of all he's done for us.

So those are the anchors that are there. They really do shape our strategy as we expand. As we do that with God's help and by God's grace, these will guide us. I want to mention them because I do want to share some updates—just some of the things in the last two weeks that have been happening in Sovereign Grace throughout the world. But as I give those updates, I do want to make connections to those strategic anchors.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Well, it's easy to see how those are thoughtful, wise, and biblically informed anchors that will serve us and have been serving us in our growing partnership. You sent out the Costa Rica missions video, I believe last week or around then. We showed it at our church on Sunday. What a delight to see what God is doing in Costa Rica—how humbling that our brother, Pastor Juanjo, is going to Lebanon to plant churches there, and all of it in the context of our family of churches. Like you mentioned, the last couple of weeks have brought some more good news, some global updates to your attention. Want to share what's included, including partnership with some new Sovereign Grace partner and candidate churches globally?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's crazy. This all happened last week. So after the Executive Committee retreat, I asked them, and they unanimously approved the emerging nation partnership agreement for a Family of Grace Church in Thailand. That's coming. So they are now a full partner church. I'm not going to use the name of the pastor, the church planter, just for security reasons, but we now have—I mean, who would ever think that Sovereign Grace would have a partner church in Thailand? My goodness. Again, this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes.

Also last week, Dave Taylor and I approved two candidate churches—and just to remind folks, candidate churches means that they are intentionally pursuing partnership in Sovereign Grace, full partnership. The next step for these churches is for the elders in these churches, at least one of them, to go through our ordination process.

So, the first one that we approved last week is Chiesa Grazia e Verità in Catania, Sicily, Italy led by Giuseppe Fortuna and he is a dear man. I want to give credit to Ed O'Mara, our area leader in Europe, who has worked for the last three years with this church and with Giuseppe as they explore the possibility of partnership. That church is now very excited about beginning that process of formalizing partnership. Giuseppe will be going through the ordination process; his first language is obviously Italian, so pray for him as he navigates that, and pray for Ed as well.

The second one that we signed is in Brazil. Igreja Casa Vide in São Bernardo dos Campos, Brazil led by Rafael Yamashiro and Andre Casimiro, two men that Bert Turner has gotten to know. Bert was down in Brazil earlier this year—I think eight weeks there, if I remember right—and really invested into these men and this church. So thank you, Bert, for what you've done, Bert Turner, and they are pursuing coordination with Sovereign Grace.

So with the signing of those, we now currently have 98 full partner churches in Sovereign Grace—70 inside of the United States and 78 outside of the United States. We also now have 43 candidate churches; all of those are outside of the United States. If you add those numbers together, we have 141 partner and candidate churches. I'm aware of a few more that could come before the Pastor's Conference. I'll look forward to giving an update there.

So, under all of that sort of update, those numbers reflect the anchor of ecclesiological clarity—it's the polity, there's a process for which churches can come into Sovereign Grace. You're also seeing there in ecclesiological clarity the focus on the local church, and certainly establishing a church in Thailand. That's another strategic anchor, which is missional risk. There's risk that this family has taken to see a church planted in Thailand. So just some updates from just last week in terms of new partner church and two new candidate churches.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful updates. Thank you to Bert and Ed for their sacrificial and faithful efforts over years to shepherd these relationships and bring them into partnership. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing to see. And all under the leadership, of course, of our director of global missions, Dave Taylor. It's a great thing for Dave and the good work he's been up to for many years, including something that you and Dave participated in recently—the Global Leaders Fellowship. Because we do have this—one of the anchors is leadership development—and that includes you guys seeking to invest in and equip this growing circle of global friends and pastors. So you guys had the Global Leaders Fellowship. Talk to us about what happened there.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, Dave did a great job of leading through a Zoom meeting yesterday. We're looking to do Zoom meetings with them once a quarter, then a retreat with them every other year. One of those Zoom meetings was yesterday, which I had the privilege of participating in, but a shout out to Dave in his leadership.

First of all, these men, they work so hard in establishing and serving and pastoring their own churches, but also in the nations where they work. And in Ed O'Mara's case, the whole continent of Europe. So there's a few updates from yesterday that are just new to me, and I want you to hear them as well.

Let me start with pastors colleges. There's a pastors college in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, led by Josh Pannell—Trinity Fellowship Pastors College. Michael Granger, the senior pastor of Trinity Fellowship, is also involved in the pastors college, and said that they are just about ready to start their next PC class. It's got 10 students in it. Six are Ethiopians, two Kenyans, one Ugandan, and one Pakistani. So that is quite a mix of guys, and the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College there in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a strategic pastors college for us because it's key in terms of building in Africa, but as you're hearing, even they've got a student coming from Pakistan. So be praying for that class.

Then last year, Carlos Contreras started a pastors college in Juarez. He had one there years ago, started again, and Edgar is helping him with that. They graduated their first class. They're starting their next class now; it's just beginning. It has four students—three from Mexico and one from Costa Rica. They're trying something out with those students from Costa Rica. He'll actually be doing that remotely, virtually, and they'll be coming to Juarez every so often for face-to-face classroom instruction. So just some exciting updates about the students and where they're from who are getting theological education. That's our first strategic anchor— theological education. That's what those PCs reflect in terms of building strategically.

Then, we'll talk a little bit about church planting. Carlos Contreras was sharing yesterday—they are planning and praying about and hoping to plant two new churches in Mexico, sometime over the next year probably. One in Chihuahua and one in Guadalupe. The one in Guadalupe, many of our listeners may have been to Rancho 3M, the orphanage there, and this church plant will be near there, associated with that in some sort of way. So those church plants reflect missional risk as a strategic anchor.

It was so interesting to me—one of the things that surprised me yesterday as I listened to these guys give updates was the number of churches that are growing, and that's just wonderful to see.

Jeffrey Jo, who leads his church there in the Manila, Philippines area, was talking about how his church is growing and recently, not only his church, but a couple of churches he works with that are partner churches. They're drawing folks from the LGBTQ community, who are coming back and coming back again, and they're hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're wanting to figure out how to navigate all of that—they're so glad they're there, they want to see them saved, but obviously, there are pastoral implications there for them.

Michael Granger was talking about how Trinity Fellowship was growing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They're about to add 40 new members, and their next new members class already has 50 people registered for it. So he's like, my challenge is this: I need more pastors, Ethiopian pastors, that can help me shepherd this flock. He does have right now two elders who are Ethiopian, a third Ethiopian who's about to finish his ordination process, and Michael's desirous for the Ethiopian pastors to eventually lead that church. That's just how we build in Sovereign Grace, and I love that vision.

Ed O'Mara's church in Torino, Italy, is starting to grow, and he is at work in the hard ground of Europe, where it's hard to sow gospel seeds, but they've added, I think, two or three people, and that tells you a couple of things. First of all, growth there is very, very, very slow. Ed was just saying, that's part of my heart challenge—I hope for things to go faster. But at the same time, just the fact that a church is growing in any way is a wonderful thing and really a testimony of how God is at work and advancing the gospel.

Carlos was just talking about Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Juarez. Now, recently, probably over the last year, they've just grown—people are coming they didn't expect. So they've tried to figure out even some space issues in that regard. They're adding on to the building to have some more classroom space, for example.

All of that was just—I wasn't aware of it and just very encouraged by it. I share that because it reflects local churches building wisely. And when local churches build wisely, a family of churches builds wisely. A lot of what you're seeing there is ecclesiological clarity, that anchor there, but also relational development. Part of what the guys were talking about yesterday is, you know, with growth, you love it, but there are also pastoral issues and you realize pastors need care as well. So there's that relational development, that strategic anchor that you hear there.

One other thing that I wanted to mention in terms of local churches building wisely—it was so encouraging to hear. Michael Granger just held his first pastors and wives retreat for his local elders there in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was Michael and Kenan, obviously, and then these three Ethiopian brothers and their wives just investing into them, and that strengthens them for the future. Again, that gives you the strategic anchors of relational development, ecclesiological clarity, and also leadership development.

So just some updates that are fresh in the last two weeks that really give some expression of how God is at work in this little, small denomination called Sovereign Grace, in ways we never anticipated. And again, God gets all the glory.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes, he does. You know, personally, especially with the updates about Italy and what's going on there. I just love seeing what God's doing through the faithful efforts of Ed and other guys there in Italy.

A lot of us were around a number of years ago when, at a Council of Elders, you talked about how no longer are we going to consider ourselves conceptually as a North American denomination with global partners, but that we are a global family of churches. And you fast forward a number of years, and just reflecting on all God has been doing, that really has become increasingly true—this global family of churches.

And on top of that, just hearing the updates with all of these faithful pastors and partners—Josh Pannell, Michael Granger, Jeffrey Jo, Carlos—I mean, even for those of us who haven't met these men, I'm sure these are men who have become dear to us just hearing how God is working in their lives through their churches and their efforts. And so God has been and continues to be so good to us. He is so faithful and kind, and I'm grateful.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of so many checking out the podcast—we are grateful for the way, Mark, you've led us through all of this, and the leadership team, and the contributions of so many all throughout Sovereign Grace and across the globe. So thanks for the updates, Mark. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.