Six Months Ago I'd Never Held a Bible

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, anybody checking out the podcast likely is aware that Sovereign Grace churches exist to strengthen churches and to plant churches, and we are passionate about church planting. Understanding that this is not at all about expanding the brand reach of Sovereign Grace churches or building a name for ourselves — you want to talk on this episode about the vital reason why we are about church planting in Sovereign Grace.

Mark Prater:

I do. Our desire to plant more churches — and really to strengthen churches — is rooted in theology. We know very early in our Bibles that our God is a sending God. We get a glimpse of that in Genesis 3:15, where we know that one is going to be sent to crush the head of the serpent. And then throughout the Bible it's about that — it's about God sending His Son. For He so loved the world that He sent His only Son. And Christ comes and accomplishes the work of redemption and salvation through the finished work of the gospel.

During His ministry, Jesus sent the twelve, He sent the seventy-two. And then after His death and resurrection, He sends all of us — saying, right before His ascension: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." So He sends us, and He reminds us: I'm not sending you to go alone, because my Spirit will be in you and will empower you — partly to go, and to proclaim and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So that's what church planting and church strengthening from a missional sense is rooted in — it's rooted in God Himself. And when we share the gospel, when we reach out with the gospel, we are reflecting something of the character of God who seeks and saves the lost, even still today.

Benjamin Kreps:

Beautiful. You know, it reminds me of that potent and succinct verse in John 20, where Jesus comes to His disciples and says, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And we're just walking in the generations that followed that sending. And that's our passion — to make Jesus known because God has sent us to do so.

And there are all kinds of wonderful testimonies throughout Sovereign Grace churches that have to do with churches embracing this centeredness, this call to go and to proclaim Christ to those who do not know Him. You want to share a couple of recent highlights — testimonies you've been made aware of.

Mark Prater:

First is a church plant story. Last September — eleven months ago — we planted Cross of Grace Church, a Sovereign Grace church, in North Manchester, Indiana, which is a rural community. Twenty-two people were on that church plant team. And Adam, who leads that church plant, took all those folks through the Proclaim course to equip them in evangelism. And then they just finished their third Bridge course. So they ran three Bridge courses over the last eleven months, and the church has grown from twenty-two people to seventy people — much of that through conversion growth, people coming to Christ. Just real gratefulness for Adam's intentionality, and for Jim Donohue, our Director of Evangelism in Sovereign Grace, who has put together this Bridge course as well as the Proclaim course.

And as many folks know — I think we mentioned on a previous podcast — we've planted a church in London led by Pat Tedeschi, and they had just begun their first Bridge course there, which is really, really exciting. We've got the Bridge course in a number of different languages — Jim just added three more languages, so it's now available in ten different languages. In a city like London, which is very cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse, Pat has options not just to run it in English but in different languages. So be praying for that as well.

And then just thinking about myself and being sent by God — I was on a flight in June from Los Angeles to Sydney for the Global Leaders Retreat that we've talked about before, and I struck up a conversation with a young man sitting next to me. Of course, it was the "What do you do?" type of thing. When he asked me, I told him, thinking it was going to end the conversation. I told him I was a pastor. He said, "Oh really?" He said, "I grew up in an atheist home and my father is still an atheist." He grew up in Sydney. He was flying back home for a time — he had worked in London, spent a little time in New York, was going home for a few weeks, and then moving to Austin for a job there.

During his time in London, there were people in his workplace and in his community who were Christians, and he was very affected by how they lived their lives and how they initiated conversation with him — a man who had come from Australia and didn't really know many people at all. It was the corporate witness of the church, in that sense, that drew this man. He started attending church. So we got talking about what it means to be a Christian. I shared the gospel with him — which I think he understands. And then he said, "I've tried to read a Bible and I'm just really having trouble understanding it." And I said, "What version?" He wasn't really sure. I said, "Okay, you've got to read the ESV." So I pulled up my phone, the ESV app, and showed him: just read the Gospel of John. And I read a little bit to him. He said, "Oh yeah, I can understand that." So we talked for quite a while, exchanged numbers, and we've texted each other after that flight.

It's just a reminder that there are people who literally have not heard of Christ before. We think everybody has — that's just not true in our day. So be open to those kinds of opportunities. In fact, you were telling me a story just before we got started that reflects that same thing.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes. We had a testimony from a young couple — with a little one — on Sunday, just this past Sunday in our services. The wife began to share that six months ago she, from what we understand, was an atheist and had heard about Jesus but didn't know anything about Him. She said, "I'd heard about God and Jesus, but I didn't know anything." She said that six months ago, she had never held a Bible.

She was on the stage with her husband, talking about going through Christianity Explored — actually, we've done Bridge before and we're going back to it in a couple of weeks, which they're going to attend as well, and they're looking forward to it. But she was able to explain just what the people surrounding her were like. She said: "I thought I'm a decent person, probably as decent as anybody else. I'll probably go to a better place if there is one." And then she and her husband shared about learning about sin and about Christ and the cross. What a powerful morning — to hear, "Six months ago I had never held a Bible" to then being on the stage at church sharing about how they have come to know Jesus.

So yeah, it's a wonderful encouragement, Mark. And hearing about your example and what's going on with Adam — that's remarkable. That's the perfect way to grow a church. To all of our young aspiring church planting friends: this is the way.

Mark Prater:

Amen.

Benjamin Kreps:

And this is just a sampling — I'm sure we could go on and on with stories from all over the globe when it comes to the faithful, simple efforts of ordinary Christians who are willing to go to others and share the best news anyone could ever know: of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus.

And in order to help us keep this as a priority in our churches, we have a number of resources — especially this month, a number of new ones — to help us in the area of evangelism. Talk about that.

Mark Prater:

First of all, a shout out to Ricky Alcantar, our Director of Communications — Ricky is just doing a great job with fresh resources. The focus on the blog this month is evangelism. So he's got a number of resources. I would encourage you to read the prayer of the month on evangelism, written by Walt Alexander. Asher Donohue lists some of our favorite quotes on evangelism. There is a worship playlist you can listen to. And then Ricky also makes mention that Jim Donohue has started a new podcast called Ordinary Evangelist — I would encourage anyone and everyone to listen to that, but especially if you have a heart for the lost and maybe even think, "Man, I'm an evangelist." Listen to that — you'll benefit from Jim's experience.

And of course, as I just mentioned, the Proclaim course — you can get that online, it's available as video instruction. We recently went through it as a community group at our church, and I've been through it before but benefited again. It really helps you know how to share the gospel. And then the Bridge course, which is really a ten-week introduction to Christianity framed around more apologetic-type questions — like, "If God is good, why does He allow suffering?" Just some great resources.

I want to end with a story, Ben. I want you to tell it. We talk about planting churches to advance the gospel and reach the lost with the good news. But there's an aspect of strengthening churches where we accomplish that same gospel mission. Tell the story of the man who just found his way into Living Hope this past week.

Benjamin Kreps:

It was already a remarkable morning with the testimony from that couple. And then at the break, someone came and grabbed me — thinking it would be helpful to have a pastor involved. And actually, this person was already doing a great job of caring for the situation. A young man had just wandered in — lived nearby, wandered into the church utterly heartbroken. His marriage is collapsing. Recent miscarriage. Just looking for answers. Utterly lost. He stumbled into the church and sat through the first service, just weeping.

The member of the church who was with him did a great job just encouraging and praying — unhurried time during our break, which is quite lengthy. And then one of the guys on my team went over and interacted with him. Just that connection there, and the willingness to say, "Hey, let's get you connected to what we're doing here." Adam did a great job. Next thing you know, this is Sunday — Monday he has dinner with the guy. Now he's coming to our pastor's coffee. He's coming to the Bridge course. He said, "Can I become a member?" And we said, well, that's something to talk about later. But it is a sweet thing to see. So in our current Bridge course in a couple of weeks, his name popped up there.

So yeah. You talked about the corporate witness, and I think that's an important dynamic. The issue is sometimes people just sort of leave it there — and we want to have intentionality in going outside the walls of the church. But churches that are strengthened by the gospel, where there is a gospel culture of love and unity and welcome and hospitality, also create compelling atmospheres for people to be attracted and perhaps create space for them to actually want to hear about Jesus. This man has now heard the gospel. He's coming back on Sundays, coming to our Bridge course. So it's both-and: the witness of John 13 and 17 — the love and unity that others observe making a compelling argument — and of course the verbal proclamation of the gospel. All of that together is happening not just at our church, but all over Sovereign Grace. And I praise God that's true.

And I'm also grateful for Jim. That podcast is going to be really good — the intro episode is out now and it's compelling. And many of us have been friends with Jim for many years. We've had him in to do the Proclaim course as a Saturday training, so that may be an option too — you can ask, and if he can come in, that's very helpful.

And at the risk of being a little self-promoting — Ricky and I on The Clash Vs. podcast also this month have an episode on busyness, and how perhaps one of the greatest hindrances to our evangelism is that our lives are so busy that it squeezes out making time to actually connect with our neighbors and friends and talk to them about Jesus. So look for that. Lots of resources on the website and on the Substack. If you don't know about the Substack — the podcasts are going up there along with other resources — just type in "Sovereign Grace Substack" and subscribe, and then you get things in your email whenever they drop, including a lot of these resources we've been talking about.

So thank you, Mark, for your encouragement and for your example. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now