Resources for the Pastor's Toolbox
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, a resource has been introduced not too long ago, by pastor down in Texas, that we know and love, Ricky Alcantar. He was especially instrumental in creating sgcpastors.com.
We received an email and an update, and I’ll be quite honest that I kind of forgot about it. I went back on maybe a month ago, and I was astonished to find it is chock-full of helpful resources. So Mark, if guys have heard about the website and haven't been on it or are hearing about it for the first time, talk to us about the sgcpastors.com website.
Mark Prater:
I wanted to talk about it because we're all prone to forget, as you mentioned, Ben. It's for Sovereign Grace pastors, and if it serves pastors outside of Sovereign Grace, that's wonderful.
It's a website filled with really helpful resources that I'll discuss in just a moment. And the redesign of the website to make it more accessible, and I think even more helpful, is the work of Ricky Alcantar. Who, as you mentioned, is the senior pastor of Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, Texas. He's got some historic resources on there that continue to shape us. He has current resources and some new initiatives there as well, all of which are intended to offer our pastors in Sovereign Grace resources to strengthen their pastoral ministry in their local church. That's why I like the way that Ricky wrote the purpose statement or the title of the website. It says, “Resources for the joyful work of pastoral ministry in the dearest place on earth.
And that is well said. It's well written. And what he's done is make these resources much more accessible by categorizing them. There are articles, podcasts, voicemails, news, and books. You can click on each of those categories to find different resources that are really helpful. I also wanted to remind our pastors of this resource and encourage them to visit it routinely, so they can benefit from the new resources that are being posted. As I mentioned, I think these are not just for pastors, but I also believe they can be helpful to members of our churches.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yes, excellent. There is a wealth of helpful resources available on this website. There are tons of things that are continually being updated, including podcasts and other content, which I didn't even know were new episodes being created, such as the Ordinary Pastor podcasts.
Hey, guess what guys? If you don't know this, they've been making a whole bunch of ordinary Pastor podcast episodes. One of the wonderful things about this page is that it truly leverages the unique gift and wealth that we have in the pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches. I mean, you and I would both agree, we have the finest pastors on Earth in Sovereign Grace Churches, and this is really drawing from a lot of gifting when it comes to writing wisdom and podcasts. So talk to us a bit about these resources. There are several articles, for instance, what are they about?
Mark Prater:
Yeah, let's talk about the category of articles first. There are a number of really good articles that are there to give you an idea of how you can benefit from this particular website. For example, there is an article entitled “21 Ways to Plant Your Next Church," written by Ricky Alcantar and Eric Turbedsky. There are a couple of articles from Mike Bullmore. One is Lessons Learned by Experience. He means lessons learned from preaching by experience. And then another one, Peaching and Your Heart. Those are resources drawn from a February 2008 conference that Mike Bullmore held at our pastor's college on expository preaching. It was Mike Bullmore, Jeff Purswell and CJ Mahaney.
CJ has an article there from that February 2008 conference at the pastors college, his article entitled My Burden for Preaching: Priority and Passion. Those articles are gold, and they are our resources that we don't want to take and lock away in a vault. We want to take out our best resources and make them available. There are younger generations of pastors, including second and, most likely, third-generation pastors who weren't old enough to attend that conference, and yet those resources are very valuable to them in their growth as preachers. Those are just a few of the articles that are listed, to give you a taste of how you can benefit.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's excellent. Yeah, 2008 is when I became a member of Living Hope. I mean, I've been a pastor for 15 years, and I wasn't even around for that. There really is a rich history over decades of us being together and enjoying the gift of leadership and pastoral ministry. I love that it's being tapped into this website. Talk to us about the podcasts. I mentioned Ordinary Pastor podcast. Of course, we have our podcast. Bob has his podcast, but the Ordinary Pastor podcast is Jared and Jon from the leadership team, who interview pastors and give us an opportunity to learn from and glean wisdom from pastors in Sovereign Grace Churches. Talk to us about the podcasts on the website.
Mark Prater:
There's the Ordinary Pastor Podcast. There's a 40 for 40 podcast, featuring 40 sermons that have shaped Sovereign Grace pastors over 40 years in our history. There's Sound + Doctrine that Bob Kauflin does. There's our podcast. Those are just some of the few podcasts that are listed. But I don't know how many of our guys are aware of the Ordinary Pastor podcast
That was resurrected just a few years ago by Jon and Jared, Jon Payne, who's the senior pastor of Redemption Hill Church in Round Rock, Texas, and Jared Mellinger, senior pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA. Those guys just did some new episodes on the Ordinary Pastor Podcast. To give you an idea of what those are, they just dropped an episode entitled A Tribute to Team Pastors. We can talk a lot about the role of the senior pastor, and they're talking about the role of guys that are on teams and the vital role they play in the life of the church and in pastoral ministry. They've got a recent episode on preaching delivery, and both those men are very good preachers. That's just one way you can benefit. And then they've got a recent episode entitled Fighting Self-Pity, something that we can all battle, whether we're in ministry or not. So, those are recent episodes I would encourage you to listen to on the Ordinary Pastor podcast. You can find it on the SGC pastors.com website, and you can subscribe to receive episodes delivered to you as they are recorded. Those are just a few of the podcasts. And I wanted to highlight the Ordinary Pastor podcast in particular.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent. And there are some other things as well. There are voicemails. This is a new one.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, it's called Pastor’s Voicemail. It's a new initiative by Ricky that I really do appreciate and its called Voicemails, they're timely advice from seasoned pastors on frequently asked questions in pastoral ministry. So what Ricky did is he just went to some of our most seasoned guys and asked them to record no more than 10 minutes and maybe even less than that. He asked them to record like you would receive a voicemail on a particular topic or question you might be asked in pastoral ministry. One example, there is one on how to handle team ministry tensions that Jon Payne speaks to. There's another one entitled, does Our Statement of Faith Really Matter? And Mark Alderton speaks about that. I've got one on there about how to effectively serve business people in your church. They're very short, less than 10 minutes and their wisdom from some of our most experienced guys. So I'd encourage you to check out the Voicemail Podcast as well.
Benjamin Kreps:
Well, that's wonderful. I want to thank Ricky, of course, for the hard work that he's put in to helping get this thing off the ground and for all of the guys that are participating and supplying us with resources to help us in the task of pastoring. And for those looking on, and interested in pastoring as well. So, as you think about this website and you think about the pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches, what do you hope the effect of this website will be on Sovereign Grace?
Mark Prater:
Yes, I think the hope of it all comes down to a couple of things. First of all, this website would strengthen you in the joyful work of pastoral ministry because we all have issues we face that we need help with. There are always areas of growth that we have. Pastoral ministry is a lifelong classroom. To say it another way, at least it has been for me, and you continue to learn. In fact, the more you're in pastoral ministry, the more you realize you've got more to learn. Right?
Benjamin Kreps:
So true.
Mark Prater:
So, it's there in terms of having helpful resources, but I also hope that it strengthens partnerships. This is really Sovereign Grace pastors for the most part, helping Sovereign Grace pastors. Now, there are some resources from non-Sovereign Grace pastors, like Mike Bullmore. But it mostly is Sovereign Grace pastors helping Sovereign Grace pastors. It's just another way to benefit from and to strengthen partnership in Sovereign Grace and then ultimately, may all that lead to us serving our churches more effectively for the ultimate goal of giving Christ all the glory for how we serve the dearest place on Earth.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yes, wonderful. I mean, there are lots of websites that capture articles and podcasts. One really helpful thing is understanding that on this website, these are like-minded brothers. These are our brothers, the ones, the pastors of Sovereign Grace. We share the same values and virtues and the same heart for the gospel. And so that becomes a trustworthy place, I think, for us to go to find help in that task where we all feel the need for a great amount of help in that task of pastoring. So, thank you to everybody who has contributed to the website. Thank you, 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.