Running The Race into 2026
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.
As we record this, it is getting right near the end of 2025. It's the week before Christmas and we're actually going to take a week off even though we have podcasts to be released, we're taking a week off — but we're thinking it's the end of the year.
And so I think a wise Christian really pauses at times to reflect on life and where we're going. End of the year is a great time to do that and to think about, anticipate what we're giving ourselves to in the new year in 2026.
So my question for you is, what are you looking forward to and hoping for in 2026? I got a great question,
MARK PRATER:
That’s a great question. You're right. At this time of year, you reflect back, but you also begin to look forward to 2026.
What I shared in my State of the Union message to the Council of Elders last month really does capture my hopes for Sovereign Grace in 2026 and what I anticipate.
What I talked about in the State of the Union, that audio hopefully will be up on the website soon, if you want to listen to it, but what I talked about is a race that we are to faithfully run and a race that we are to faithfully finish.
And I sprang from two different texts. The first one is Acts 20:22 – 24. That is really a race set before Paul that he wants to run faithfully.
He's speaking to the elders from Ephesus as they gather in Miletus and he says to them starting in verse 22:
And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
It's in his second missionary journey and he's looking at this race that is before him. He is anticipating in faith what God will do through him - hat he's focused on is preaching the gospel.
But there are some things in what he said in those verses that I think capture who we need to be as pastors and really as churches in 2026.
To faithfully run our race, first of all, we want to be pastors and churches who are constrained by the Spirit. That's the language you hear there in verse 22 in Acts chapter 20.
Paul was constrained by the Spirit. He didn't determine on his own to go to Jerusalem. There was this divine compulsion as the Spirit of God worked in his life to go to Jerusalem.
And what emerges from there is Paul's pneumatology. In fact, if you study his letters, he uses the word Spirit, Spirit of the Lord, Holy Spirit, like 153 times. And what would emerge from that study is that a theology of the Holy Spirit was prominent, not only in the letters of Paul but in the life of Paul.
He was a man who was Spirit-filled and Spirit-led and Spirit-empowered. And so to do what we're called to do in testifying to the gospel of the grace of God in 2026 may we be faithful to do that. We need the Spirit's help.
It's a reminder as pastors that in this specific vocation, what we're called to do, we can't accomplish in our own strength, in our own wisdom, in our own abilities. We daily need to be filled with, empowered by, and led by the Spirit of God. May we see those kind of pastors and those kind of churches may our pneumatology function daily in our lives.
The second thing you see there in that text, really what I anticipate and look forward to in terms of the kind of pastors and churches we will be in Sovereign Grace, is to be pastors and churches that actually anticipate suffering.
Now, we don't look forward to suffering, but we must anticipate suffering, because you see there in verse 23 that the Holy Spirit not only compelled him to go to Jerusalem, the Spirit testified to him that when you get there, imprisonment and afflictions did await him.
I think that verse is in our Bible so that we will have an adequate theology of suffering as a part of our pastoral theology and our understanding of pastoral ministry.
I think there are a number of ways that we may suffer for the work of the gospel in 2026. But I think one way we know we likely will is that if we are faithful to continue to preach God's Word, to continue to proclaim the gospel, if we remain committed to our sound doctrine and preaching expository messages, we will suffer.
Whether that is fatigue or criticism or pushback or even in some parts of the world, forms of persecution that Sovereign Grace pastors face. And in that moment, our pneumatology must inform our pastoral theology, because Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:8 that it is the Spirit of God that will help us, that will give us power to endure suffering for the gospel.
So again, our pneumatology is the Spirit. And as we preach God's Word in 2026, let us be faithful to do that, brothers.
There are three areas that I want to make sure we're giving attention to. The leadership team and I have talked about these and it's important from a theological perspective that we keep our eye on these categories.
The first is our complementarian convictions. For obvious reasons, we want to remain true to God's Word. We want to be elder-led churches and to remain faithful to our complementarian convictions in the home as well.
Let us portray the beauty of complementarianism. Complementarianism is good. It's criticized so much, and when you're doing that, when you hear that, you can respond defensively, which isn't wrong. But you miss the opportunity to talk about the beauty of complementarianism.
It's beautiful because it's God's ideas, and it's what God wants.
Second thing to keep focused on is biblical counseling. And I say that because most pastors know that there's been, in some counseling circles, an integrationist trend, meaning that we're moving away from God's Word, and the therapeutic again is creeping in.
So we must be pastors who faithfully not only preach God's Word, we must remain committed to counsel our people with the whole Word of God. We will be effective pastors by remaining committed to pastoring with God's Word.
Then the third category is gender ideology. I mention that because I have more Sovereign Grace pastors tell me that they're actually pastoring younger people in our churches whether it's high school, typically, or sometimes college who are wrestling with their gender identity because of the pressures of culture.
We just want to continue as a leadership team to produce good resources that will help our pastors, but also let us teach what scripture teaches when it comes to gender and sexuality, because again, that's a beautiful portrait that we see in scripture.
So the third thing I said, that I think will be important, especially for pastors in Sovereign Grace churches in the coming year, is that we must rid ourselves of ourselves.
You see that in Acts 20:24, where Paul says, "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself." What matters to him the most is not himself, but testifying to the gospel of the grace of God.
So to run our race faithfully, brothers, we've got to rid ourselves of ourselves. In my statement, I read one of my favorite quotes from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It comes from his book on the Sermon on the Mount, a chapter entitled Denying Self and Following Christ.
This is what Lloyd-Jones says:
"The whole trouble in life is ultimately this concern about self. That is something we must rid ourselves entirely of. We must rid ourselves of this constant tendency to be watching the interests of self."
That's a part of what pastoral ministry is, it's a call to die to self so that we can lay our lives down to serve the people in our churches.
But even for members of our churches, a call to gospel ministry is to lay our lives down for the gospel. So whether you're a pastor or a member of one of our churches, let us purpose to rid ourselves of ourselves this year.
So that we can be more effective in preaching Christ and him crucified. Let us pray then that more people will come to know Jesus as their Savior in the coming year.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Amen. What wonderful encouragement, Mark. I certainly appreciate hearing your State of the Union I love hearing it reiterated here, as I'm sure so many who are checking out the podcast are also appreciating the thoughtful and biblical way that you're encouraging us in our role as pastors.
So, an excellent reminder and worthy of our reflection that we must be pastors who walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, not surprised by suffering, willing to embrace suffering, actually, as you preach and counsel faithfully, even when it's countercultural, as Jesus increases and we decrease in 2026.
But as well, at that meeting at the Council of Elders, you not only encouraged us to think about the way that we go about following Jesus in 2026, you also gave a really important announcement and a life change for you and a significant change for our family of churches that is coming in the near future.
So in case anyone hasn't heard about that announcement, why don't you share it here on the podcast?
MARK PRATER:
Yeah, when I was saying in my State of the Union, there's a race to run faithfully, and then there's a race to finish faithfully as well.
I read from 2 Timothy 4:6-8, where Paul writes to Timothy,
"For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith, I have finished the race. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing."
Paul writes Second Timothy probably about ten years later after he wrote what he did in Acts 20. So he's an older man now and he knows that the time of his departure has come. He doesn't know when he will die, but he knows it's not too far off.
What's on Paul's mind in that moment? It's not himself. What's on his mind is finishing well. He's kept the faith, but there's one other thing on his mind.
That whole letter actually both letters to Timothy are all about preparing Timothy to take his place. So a part of finishing well is transitioning well for this reason: because the gospel matters most.
What Paul was most concerned about in Acts 20, that he would continue to testify to the gospel of the grace of God, was also what he was concerned about at the end of his race, that the gospel would continue to be faithfully preached. He had invested in a Timothy for years and now it was time for Timothy to transition.
So to finish well means to transition well, because the gospel matters most.
What I announced at the State of the Union, in my statement at the Council of Elders meeting, but also at the pastors conference, is that a little over two years ago, I began talking with the leadership team, but also the executive committee, about my transition out of the executive director role.
I started that conversation a couple of years ago because I believe transitions, when done well, take time. We had many good conversations as a leadership team; they only strengthened us.
And many good conversations with the executive committee, and they're involved because, according to the BCO, they are tasked to present to the Council of Elders an executive director candidate. Then that candidate is voted on. It doesn't tell them how to do that, so the executive committee put together a whole process over the last couple of years.
I wanted to give them time to work through their process of choosing an executive director candidate. That's why I informed them this past January that I believed it was time for me to transition out of the executive director role.
So they got to work, and they went through a process. And it was happily reported by the executive committee and the leadership team that Jon Payne currently on the leadership team, and if you don't know him, is also the Senior Pastor of Redemption Hill Church in Round Rock, Texas is the candidate to be the next executive director of Sovereign Grace.
It was announced at the 2025 Council of Elders meeting. He'll be voted on next November. We wanted a year in between the announcement and the vote just to interact with people who might have questions or thoughts or don't know Jon, to get to know him better.
We want to walk through this in a way that is pastorally caring, a transition that's clearly communicated, that's faith-building and inspiring, and most importantly, will glorify God.
I just believe it's time. Here's how I view my transition: I lay it into our 43-year history of Sovereign Grace. God has been good to us.
One of the ways God has been good to us is that He gave us one of our founders, CJ Mahaney, who led us for three decades as our president. Then after that, I stepped in for a time. We were going through some difficulties I just tried to stabilize things.
But I think we're at a place now, as a denomination, for Sovereign Grace to thrive. We need a man with a different set of gifts than I have in strengths and abilities. I just think Jon is that man. He has my full enthusiastic support. He has the unanimous support of the leadership team, and the executive committee voted unanimously to choose him as the candidate.
So that's what's so happy about all this is that the guy who is the candidate to take my place next year should the vote go the way that we all pray it will go we have the right guy, we believe, stepping into the job.
By the way, regarding my future, I'm not just retiring. Actually, the leadership team asked me to stay on the leadership team after the transition. After praying through that, I've decided to do that.
Essentially, Jon and I will be flip-flopped roles, and I will find, I'm sure, great joy in serving him.
One of the things that I think about for 2026 what I want to do, what the leadership team wants to do, what the executive committee wants to do is we want to model a pastorally caring, clearly communicated, faith-building, and most importantly, God-honoring transition, because the gospel matters most.
So that Sovereign Grace churches can continue, as I said earlier, to preach Christ and him crucified. As he helps us in that transition, may he receive all the glory.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Yes, amen. Oh, thank you, Mark, for your thoughts and for those who are hearing this for the first time. Like Mark said, he's not retiring his role will change, as actually all of our roles will at some point in our lives.
It's been said that we should view ourselves as Christ's moveable property. So thank you, Mark, for your example and the way you have served us and will continue to serve us in 2026 as we navigate through this transition for God's glory.
I am so looking forward to what God will do in and through our family of churches in 2026 as we continue to run the race together, empowered by the Spirit, making much of Jesus.
Thank you, Mark, for your thoughts and for the update. Thank you all for checking out the podcast, and we'll see you here in the new year. Lord willing. Bye for now.