Mexico National Assembly Meeting

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 been trotting around the globe again, as you have been known to do. And as you record this, you arrived home in the wee hours of this morning. Tell us where you were.

Mark Prater:

Well, I operate on very little sleep, and so we'll see how well this episode goes. I was in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the invitation of Carlos Contreras. I arrived on Monday, got to Guadalajara about noon their time. And what I did on Monday is I actually met with the Mexico leadership team. It was a wonderful meeting together, talking about a number of issues.

Let me just remind folks who's on that team, because I want you to pray for these men. Carlos Contreras leads that team — he's like the executive director, the title I have, but in Mexico. He's the senior pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Juárez. And he has two other pastors on his team there in Juárez who are also on the leadership team: Abelardo Muñoz and Cuauhtémoc.

And then two guys from El Paso — our Spanish-speaking church in El Paso, Misión de Gracia — Hellman Avila, who is the senior pastor, and Jaime Chow. And then Manolo Quintal, who is the senior pastor of our Sovereign Grace church in Silao, Mexico. These are the men that serve on the leadership team.

They are working very hard because there's a lot going on in Mexico, and they're facing issues in similar categories to what the Sovereign Grace leadership team faces. We spent time talking about their Pastors College, which is going really well — but how do they fund it, for example. And they're becoming a self-sufficient nation, by the way, which is really encouraging. Not quite there yet, but they're getting there. They were talking about church planting and the church plants they have planned, which is very exciting.

They were talking about the number of churches that are eager for adoption — where they're at and where they're at in the process. How they can work more efficiently together as a team. It was just wonderful being with those men. They know each other, they've known each other a long time, and so they laugh readily. There was a lot of laughter in that meeting, it was a dinner meeting, there was a lot of good conversation. And they're doing an amazing job leading Sovereign Grace in the nation of Mexico, because God is blessing their labors. It's amazing to see all that God is doing.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. You know, I'm just reminded of a few years ago when Sovereign Grace Mexico was officially established. And I love hearing these updates about how they're really stepping into this — this is becoming a significant reality down in Mexico. And that includes what you got to be part of on Tuesday and Wednesday, as they had their National Assembly. Talk to us about the National Assembly. What happened there?

Mark Prater:

Carlos invited me down to attend the Mexico National Assembly meeting. And by the way, I'm so glad you mentioned when they became a nation — I had actually forgotten it was three years ago that the Council of Elders, our Global Council of Elders, voted unanimously to establish them as a nation. So that's been three years. What a joy that was. It's so great to see what's happening.

At the Mexico National Assembly meeting, they met Tuesday through Thursday. I was just there for Tuesday and Wednesday. There were 73 pastors at the Mexico National Assembly meeting — held at our church, Gracia Soberana, there in Guadalajara — 73 men from all over Mexico. And it was just so encouraging to see those men represented. They represent partner churches, and they represent a number of candidate churches — what we would call in the States, churches that are pursuing formal adoption into Sovereign Grace. And there were a number of guys in the ordination process. So that was just really, really encouraging.

Their meeting had very much the same structure that we would have in our Global Council of Elders meeting. Carlos gave what we would call a state of the union — he really just gave an update on what's happening in Mexico. That was so encouraging to hear: regarding what's happening in certain churches, churches that are interested in being adopted, where they have church plants planned. It was just all really, really encouraging. They also did their business portion of the meeting and had motions that they voted on. They ratified BCO amendments for their Mexico BCO. They voted on pastors who would serve on their national committees. They were giving updates on a number of things that would all fall in the business category.

Then the other thing that Carlos did is he had a few churches give different updates — some of those were partner churches, others were churches pursuing adoption. I'll just tell you one quick update from a pastor in  Moroleon. He just has his oral exam left, so this will soon likely be a partner church in Mexico. And they have just been reaching out with the gospel. They baptized a number of new believers. But recently he told this story: in that area is the biggest cult in Mexico — and I think Carlos told me the biggest cult in Latin America. And somehow a few of these folks are coming to the church in  Moroleon, and they're preaching the gospel, and these people are changing — some of them being born again and baptized. And it's just this remarkable story of how someone leaves a well-known cult and comes to one of our churches there in Moroleon. So it was just an encouraging update to hear.

The other thing is there were messages that Carlos had planned. He asked me to speak on my vision for the future of Sovereign Grace — which obviously, as I'm transitioning out of the Executive Director role, these are my hopes for the future that I know Jon Payne shares with me, and I wanted to honor that for him. He also asked me to speak on hard conversations — he knows it's something that's been on my heart for us to grow in. So I spoke out of Galatians 2:11–14, where Paul confronts Peter. There's a lot there that we can learn from regarding hard conversations.

And then the theme of their other messages — it didn't apply to mine — was the fear of God. Cuauhtémoc gave a message on the fear of God, and it was really good. Carlos gave one after I left on the fear of God and the pastor's love for Christ and his church. I was so excited to be there, to see the nation running in the way that we all hope for in Sovereign Grace, and really, really doing well. To see all the churches that are either being strengthened or interested in becoming a part of Sovereign Grace, and then the church plants they have planned.

They have at least three church plants planned over the next year or so. Two of them I know are in very poor areas — one in Guadalupe and one on the west side of Juárez. And so I got to have lunch with those men and talk a little bit about their situations. They're both in the Mexico Pastors College right now, and we were just talking through some of the challenges and issues they face. I don't face what they face every day. There are pressures from all around. There's obviously the poverty aspect, there can be the drugs and the cartel involvement. And I know the guy in West Juárez has a number of folks in his church — people he's gathering — who are illiterate, and he's thinking through how does he teach them the Bible. Godly men that we are honored to be in partnership with. I thank God for my brothers in Mexico.

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, it certainly is encouraging to hear about how the guys in Mexico are just running with this thing — Sovereign Grace — and they are owning and expanding Sovereign Grace churches. Even more encouraging to hear about how the gospel is advancing in Mexico through their efforts. So thanks for the update, Mark. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.