That Your Way May Be Known

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. Speaking of our global family of churches — you have just arrived recently back home from traveling the globe, and your trip included something that you talked about on a previous episode. You were in attendance at and serving at our recent Global Leaders Retreat. So welcome back to the States, and we'd love to hear about what happened. But first — for anybody who doesn't know — what is the Global Leaders Retreat and why did you have one?

Mark Prater:

Thanks for asking. And it's good to be home, by the way. That retreat you just referenced — our Global Leaders Retreat — was in Sydney, Australia this year. Dave Taylor, our Director of Global Strategy and Development, just did a marvelous job of planning it and leading it. It was quite a good time. But let's get to your question: what is a Global Leaders Retreat and why have one?

As a frequent listener of this podcast or reader of the transcript will know, God has really blessed us by giving us opportunities to expand throughout the world. This was not our doing — it's not man's doing, it's not the leadership team's doing. It's really the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Given the number of opportunities we've had in recent years to expand globally, and given where we are in our denominational polity development, we have one leadership team — one global leadership team, the leadership team I have the privilege of leading right now. And we simply can't be in every country all the time providing leadership. We have to think carefully about how to lead effectively.

So we've gathered and designated these men as national leaders across the world. They are really the boots-on-the-ground guys who are leading Sovereign Grace in any given nation or continent. The purpose of the retreat is to invest in them. We have this retreat every other year — it's not an annual retreat. And it's an opportunity to invest in these men, to build relationally with them, to equip them, to encourage them, and to learn from them — so that we as a leadership team can strengthen them to lead on our behalf in their various nations, and so that we can learn better how to lead a global family of churches. It's just wonderful to invest in men who have the same heart that we do: to advance the gospel by planting and strengthening churches throughout the world.

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, it is easy to see the wisdom in having that kind of dispersed leadership and in empowering men in their home contexts, where they are serving and pastoring, to lead well. So, introduce us to everyone who was there, in case anyone doesn't know who's on this global leaders team.

Mark Prater:

These guys work very, very hard — beyond their obvious responsibilities as pastors. Many of them, in fact, most of them, are senior pastors. So they're carrying a great deal of responsibility both locally and extra-locally.

Ed O'Mara — many people know Ed as the church planter who planted a church in Torino, Italy. He is our area leader for Europe and really has the whole continent, just doing a wonderful job.

Jeffrey Jo — who has led a church in the Philippines for probably 25 years or more --- is our national leader in the Philippines.

Riley Spring — who planted Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta in the Sydney area, is our national leader in Australia. We are doing some reconfiguration —

Andrew Leung — who is also an elder and pastor with Dave Taylor at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga in the Sydney area, is going to be our area leader for Asia, to kind of split out Australia, Asia, and the Philippines a bit more.

We had hoped that Michael Granger could be at this retreat — he couldn't come. But he has a wonderful Sovereign Grace elder by the name of Amanuel whom we had invited. Amanuel wanted to come but couldn't get a visa.

Bart Lipscomb — who is our area leader for Africa, was at this retreat and gave a wonderful update on Africa.

Carlos Contreras — who has led Gracia Soberana so faithfully for 35 to 40 years now in Juárez, is our national leader in Mexico.

And then Joselo Mercado — whom many have heard of before, is our leader in Latin America.

And then we had five leadership team members there. Besides myself, it was Jeff Purswell, Jon Payne, Jared Mellinger, and as I've already mentioned, Dave Taylor. So it was just a wonderful group of men. And one of the things about this time was that because we've had retreats before, these men know one another, and they just deepened their relationships during that time. I mentioned their names because I want you to know who was there, and I would ask that if you're a listener or reader of this podcast, you would pray for those men.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. And that is a wonderful list of men. Those names represent really God's goodness to us in bringing men of this quality into our family of churches to help with what God is doing globally in Sovereign Grace. So you gathered — I'm sure there was a lot of laughter and enjoying one another — but you also were about doing some work and growing together. So what did you do at the retreat?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, we did a number of things. First of all — and this again was Dave's leadership — we just began with the big picture: what is our aim in building a global family of churches? We worked out this statement last year as a leadership team, and Dave wanted to review it again with our national leaders. So here is our Sovereign Grace Churches global aim:

"Our aim is to build interdependent churches and ecclesiastical nations that are self-sustaining and faithful to our mission — advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ by planting and strengthening churches for the glory of God."

Obviously there is mission in that aim. But we want to build local churches that are interdependent — we put that word very purposely in there. That's the New Testament pattern: local churches that are interdependent and in partnership together. And we want to build, as a nation, plants or adopt more churches, ecclesiastical nations, where we can have Sovereign Grace Church of Mexico, as we already do, and Sovereign Grace Church of the Philippines, Sovereign Grace Church in parts of Africa, and so on. That's very intentional on our part. But it also says they are self-sustaining and faithful to our mission. Self-sustaining means that as we expand globally, we don't want to create an overdependence upon the churches in the United States. All of our national leaders are on board with that — they want to build self-sustaining nations. Not that the United States would never be involved; we will continue to be involved and serve in any way we can. But that's obviously going to be the healthiest for a nation: if they are self-sustaining.

So that is our aim. What does that look like day to day? We've got seven strategic points that fill that out:

One — Theological Education, which fosters theological consistency and fidelity as you expand globally.

Two — Ecclesiological Clarity, which fosters an emphasis on the local church and brings clarity to the church's mission.

Three — Relational Development. We've been led so well by C.J. for three decades — he built us relationally. That's why we call ourselves a family of churches. We want to see that continue as we expand globally.

Four — Missional Risk: that we would take prayerful, thoughtful risk to plant churches or even adopt churches, to reach more people with the gospel.

Five — Leadership Development. It's our hope and prayer that Sovereign Grace would be a multi-generational family of churches. For that to happen, we need young men who can lead in the future.

Six — Financial Stability, which really aims at nations being self-sustaining at some point.

Seven — Cultivating and Maintaining Zeal. As we expand, we want to have a genuine passion for Jesus Christ and His mission. That zeal word that Jeff Purswell has taught us on so well.

So those are the things we're aiming to cultivate as we fill out our overall strategy. We just kicked that around, reminded those guys of it, and it was really helpful for them.

And then we heard updates from the different nations and continents. I won't go into all the detail — that would be a very long podcast, though a very encouraging one. So let me just summarize what I heard. It was so encouraging to see the quality of like-minded churches that are not yet in Sovereign Grace but want to be, in different parts of the world. These are theologically sound, like-minded, gospel-centered men who lead those churches, and their churches reflect that leadership. Also very exciting were their plans to plant churches in different parts of the world — some of which I've mentioned before, like in Mexico, in Guadalupe, and in West Juárez. And then just the young men in the churches we've already adopted or planted — or in those churches that are interested — young, solid men theologically who are either new to pastoral ministry or have an interest in it, and the ways that these national leaders are investing into them so that a nation can be built with a multi-generational focus. All very, very encouraging.

And then we did some teaching. Jeff taught on 2 Corinthians and pastoral ministry — outstanding, of course. I taught on important lessons for extra-local leaders. Jared taught on the importance of watching our doctrine, and Jon taught on the importance of watching a pastor's life. Obviously these men pastor pastors, and Jon's teaching was outstanding. And then Dave taught on what tools are available to them in Sovereign Grace that can help them build their nations and continents. So it was just a wonderful time. We did laugh a lot, we prayed for one another a lot, and we had a lot of good fellowship together. So if you prayed for that retreat — thank you so much, because God answered your prayers.

Benjamin Kreps:

Sounds like a wonderful time. So grateful for what God did and continues to do in that fellowship with the global leaders. Before we started recording, you mentioned that you had a certain text on your mind. You've been talking — you mentioned words like mission and doing things for the glory of God — and that's all biblically informed. And you wanted to share some verses with us.

Mark Prater:

Yes. Thank you, Ben. As I was thinking about this podcast, I just felt like the Lord laid these verses on my heart. Why do we even want to be a global family of churches? Why is God giving us these opportunities? And I think it's captured in Psalm 67. I'm going to read the first three verses. This is what the psalmist writes:

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us — that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you."

And God has done that, hasn't He? He's done that upon our family of churches. That's why we do what we do — not only in the States, but throughout the world — because we want to make known the name of Christ. And may more people praise Him as a result. May more gather around that throne on the last day from every tribe, tongue, and nation and say, "Worthy is the Lamb." That's why we do what we do.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. Well, thank you, Mark, for all you do, and for the rest of the leadership team and all the men that participated in that retreat — taking time away from family and their church to serve and to grow. Grateful for the updates. So thank you, Mark. And thank you everybody for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.