Regional Leader Conversation: Rob Flood
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. And I am in person with our executive director today.
Mark Prater:
Doesn't happen often.
Benjamin Kreps:
No, it doesn't. And we are also joined by our friend and our regional leader had lots of church planners on recently in conversations with them, but we have our first regional leader and it's our regional leader, Rob Flood. So Rob, welcome to the podcast.
Rob Flood:
Thank you. What a privilege to be first.
Benjamin Kreps:
First, but not the last we trust. So let's just get into it. Thanks for getting together with us and having this conversation. Just give us some background for anybody who doesn't know you. Tell us about your wife and your family. You've been a pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church for a very long time. Talk to us about that.
Rob Flood:
Great. I'm married to Gina. In just a few weeks, it'll be 30 years.
Benjamin Kreps:
Oh, congratulations.
Rob Flood:
A week from today, actually, the day of recording, we are renewing our vows. Officiated by my brother, Mark Prater.
We're looking forward to that. So 30 years with Gina. We have six children, three boys, three girls right now they range from 26 is my oldest. My youngest is 12. We've had the privilege of having all three of our boys serve in the military and none of our girls serve in the military. So that worked out well for us. I've been here at Covenant for 19 years. I served in a marriage ministry prior to this for seven years. And the time from college to that, I was a public school teacher.
Mark Prater:
So Rob, we're interviewing you as a regional leader. Tell us when you became the regional leader of the Northeast region and what that region encompasses geographically?
Rob Flood:
So it was three years ago, right around this time, three years ago that I became regional leader here and the region encompasses, let's see, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New England, which sounds like a lot up in New England. We've one church up in New England. But yeah, so there's a number of churches there. One of the things when I meet with other regional leaders that I don't brag about, but it is a blessing to us, is that I can leave my house in the morning, meet with any eldership in my region with one exception and be home for dinner. I know some of our brothers who are regional leaders of other regions have just expansive geography. I respect them. I'm thankful for the geography we have. It's really been used to foster unity and connectedness in the region. Not really because of my efforts, just because the blessing of geography.
Benjamin Kreps:
Wonderful. Well, we certainly enjoy having you as our regional leader. You serve us well. You actually have a heart to serve that is easy to see and we get to experience. So thanks for being a great regional leader.
Rob Flood:
What a joy.
Benjamin Kreps:
But for you personally, as you've been a regional leader over the last few years, what has been most fulfilling for you in serving the churches in the Northeast?
Rob Flood:
There's a few things. The first that comes to mind is the way to connect with other pastors. Getting to care for pastors, it's a privilege, but beyond that, caring for pastors is a need. So often churches love their pastors throughout Sovereign Grace. I believe that to be true, but truly caring for them is hard for churches to do. And the position of regional leader getting to do that's a joy. But there's a real strategic thing that I enjoy doing as regional leader and it's meeting teams that are not so much in crisis, but facing a challenge, facing a difficulty and finding the light that pierces into those darker times with them. Just helping them lift their eyes a little bit from where they are and maybe see a way through or see a way forward. So I suppose that's problem solving with different elderships, but it's not so much because we get to solve the problem. It's because of the hope and the mission and the church health that flows out of that. Not every meeting's a success. We don't always find that great glimmer of hope at times, but it is fulfilling to step into that. And the teams certainly in the northeast, I trust this is true throughout Sovereign Grace, but it certainly in my region, the teams are just so humble a nd open to input. I've never really needed to break down a door or knock multiple times. Guys welcome the help and it's just a real joy to do.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, well you do it well. I mean, just to illustration from yesterday, our regional assembly started yesterday. Rob taught a message God's care for pastors and in that cared for me and care for the pastors here in the northeast. So that was so well done. And then we heard a number of updates from different churches in the region, and you could hear Rob's council and Rob's care in those updates. It's pattern, it's why the regional leader role we think as a leadership team is so vital in Sovereign Grace, we believe we lead Sovereign Grace with our regional leaders. And in fact, we think the regional leader role is the most important role in Sovereign Grace from a leadership perspective because you're on the front lines and you're doing exactly what you just said. You are caring for pastors and teams, you're giving counsel. So I wanted to ask you this question. As a regional leader, what do you see in terms of an area and make it two areas if you want, but certainly an area that sovereign Grace could grow in?
Rob Flood:
Well, it seems necessary to qualify. My view of Sovereign Grace is the Northeast, and I think our guys in the Northeast, to a man and to a team, are doing a great job. I'm not so much thinking of this as an area that desperately needs reform or growth, but I do carry a burden for the pastors in Sovereign Grace, certainly for myself and for the pastors here in the northeast. And it's this, I think we do well in our private lives, being self-suspicious, being willing to take our hearts before the Lord. In our leadership, though we are accustomed to being the deciders, the people who set policies who make decisions locally, and it should be that way. We need to govern and lead our churches. That type of expectation of having our impulses lead the way doesn't always foster denominational unity. And I'd love to see us double down on our self-suspicion as teams that we carry just one perspective, that we carry a perspective informed by our local contexts, and that we be open-handed when we're facing committee decisions, regional decisions, or council of elder decisions. I think if we don't double down on that, eventually it just starts to sow division, build sects, and create side conversations that don't foster unity. So it's not so much that I see that as a problem, but I do in being in committees and being in the denominational roles that I've been in, it is something I'm like, oh, if we don't give attention to that, I think we're going to start bearing some bad fruit from that down the road. So it's not so much an area of growth as a burden I see pastors taking on seriously.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, that's so really well said. Actually, I was just thinking about it maybe the same thing or a similar thing. And I love our BCO because it gives clarity and certainly the BCO is clear about a local eldership autonomy to govern itself, and that's biblical when that will always have that in sovereign grace, but it's also very clear on extra local authority and the way it's prescribed and the way it functions in sovereign grace. And so I think just maybe another way to say it is we certainly have convictions regarding our local polity and we need to have the same conviction for our extra local polity and governance. And I think some of that may just be how it's expressed in the BCO, but it's still, what, 12, 13 years old —we're still learning how this works and putting it on. So I'm so glad you brought that up. I think it's an area we can grow in.
Benjamin Kreps:
Good. Yeah, that's really good. I think I'm grateful that anybody who checks out the podcast is hearing something of what we've experienced for many years, your heart for pastors, your love for our family of churches. So as you continue in your role as the regional leader of the Northeast region, what excites you? What are you anticipating? What are you looking forward to? What are you hoping for when it comes to the future of the Northeast region?
Rob Flood:
Well, I loved the question. We're here at our regional assembly now. We're having a really rich time with the elders here and I've planned sessions, we've done messages, Mark mentioned them. But I even said to the guys yesterday, the most important part of these regional assemblies is the breaks and the meal times when guys get to connect with one another. So that's the first thing that excites me about the region is the unity we're experiencing right now.
Mark Prater:
It's sweet.
Rob Flood:
When we've gone through really difficult times, it's not always bred this kind of unity and that's fine. Sometimes we have to contend and we have to really work through this. And I don't presume this unity will always continue without being hard fought for. That's right. But it is a kind of a sweet time now and I'm allowing myself to enjoy that.
Benjamin Kreps:
Good.
Rob Flood:
The second thing that excites me, and we'll talk about this a little bit today, is the church planting in the region. We just planted two churches and I'm very excited about those two churches. I believe both those guys have been on the podcast in the past. But the thing that really excites me is I feel like we're getting ready to burst.
Benjamin Kreps:
Let's go.
Rob Flood:
There's a number of churches that are ready that are eager. We're doing the Antioch program in our next regional assembly, and I'm just full of faith for how that's going to stir churches in this region. I look forward to the really difficult process of what it looks like to take the Northeast and put it into two regions with the growth of churches. So I can get excited about that. The last thing I'll mention if you don't mind, is the way that the women in our region are connecting with one another. The pastor's wives in particular. I think sometimes that's the hardest calling in Sovereign Grace or in pastoral ministry is the pastor's wife. We at least get to be in there a part of the solution. They just have to deal with us. And so it's been important for me to connect the women together, to connect the pastor's wives together. That's been great. And we've seen some real fruit come out of that. And I think that does nothing but strengthen local teams and strengthen the region that program's only like two years old. So I'm hopeful that as that gets momentum, relationships will deepen. We've already seen it at last year's pastors conference wives connecting with people from throughout the region that they didn't really know before these things. And so it's another area that excites me about our region.
Mark Prater:
Rob, I said at the beginning, when we started recording, that the regional leader role is the most important role in Sovereign Grace. But let me take that statement form it into a question. Why do you think the regional leader role is so important to our partnership in Sovereign Grace?
Rob Flood:
There's a lot of reasons I won't give 'em all. The one that comes to mind, you've probably pulls on the themes we've already talked about. I think that we have our doctrine nailed down and I am very excited for our statement of faith, and I'm very glad for the clarity in our BCO that you mentioned. But those things are documents that we only are united around as we desire to be united with one another. And I think the regional leader role, maybe one of the most important things we do is to foster unity amongst members of a local team
Where that may be at risk unity between churches in our region. And one of the great joys, and I love that you've invited regional leaders to the leadership team retreat because one of the things that I've really seen is as regional leaders connect with one another relationally, we do mission across regional lines. There's denominational unity that comes out of that. And unity at all costs is not something worth fighting for, but Unity that's defined and unity, that's relational and unity that agrees on the statement of faith and on the culture we're trying to build. I do think the regional leader is in a unique role to foster that across the whole denomination. So I thinks a strategic thing we've done by breaking our denomination into regions and putting men above each of those regions to help lead that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, very well said.
Benjamin Kreps:
Well, we for many years have enjoyed and we love the gift of leadership in Sovereign Grace. It is a gift of grace from God. And so you are that kind of gift to our region. As are all the regional leaders. So thank you for serving us. I think clearly, even though this was somewhat brief, folks listening and checking out the podcast can hear your heart for us and we get to benefit from that and we will later today at the Regional Assembly as we continue on this Saturday. So thanks for being on the podcast.
Rob Flood:
Thanks for having me.
Benjamin Kreps:
And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.