"Together" in Australia
An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Sydney and National Leader for Australia…
Recently, Sovereign Grace Churches Australia had our 2nd combined churches Retreat, what we call “Together”. It was so great to see our family of churches come together to hear from God’s word, worship and fellowship as one body, united by our love for Christ! The theme for the weekend was: “Zealous for the Name of Christ”, which gave us an opportunity to hear about and think through God’s call on His people: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in Spirit, serve the Lord.” (Romans 12:11)
I chose this topic, inspired by Jeff Purswell’s excellent message from the Pastor’s Conference last year, because zeal for Jesus was really the thing that drew me to Sovereign Grace in the first place. It’s been a virtue of SG here in Australia and it’s something I don’t want us to lose or grow slothful in. It was clear that this was a topic we needed as the Lord moved in so many people’s lives to be refreshed and recommitted to a whole-hearted devotion to Christ again.
Originally, Jeff and Julie Purswell were coming out for our Retreat but unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances they weren’t able to come. However, in God’s kindness, Mark and Jill Prater made the massive call to come out and be with us all for the week which was such a blessing and a wonderful expression of our partnership.
We had three main preaching sessions over our Retreat:
1. A Zealous People - Riley Spring (Romans 12:11) - Apple, Spotify, Website
2. Zealous For Jesus - Mark Prater (Colossians 1:15-20) - Apple, Spotify, Website
3. Zealous For Home - Brendan Willis (Philippians 3:3 - 4:1) - Apple, Spotify, Website
Aside from the amazing times we had in our sessions there was so many other great things that happened on our time away together. Firstly, most of our two churches were able to come! It was a joy to see everyone interact, get to know each other, eat together and have fun. Secondly, the children were served so well by various volunteers as they studied parables from the ‘Listen Up!’ curriculum. Thirdly, on the Saturday afternoon there were various free time options people could sign up for to have fun and meet each other: basketball, beach walking, craft, scavenger hunt, board games, and more. Additionally, we were served so well by so many volunteers across our churches who did so much work with all the music, creatives, registrations, gift bags, and more.
Finally, it wouldn’t be an SG Australia church retreat without something ridiculous happening! In the introduction to Mark Prater’s message on the Saturday Night he mentioned a world-record breaking event that occurred in Australia recently where over 5000 people gathered to do the Tina Turner ‘Nutbush’ dance (if you don’t know the dance…let me educate you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTiLknvewlM). After Mark’s fantastic and powerful message on the glory of Christ, there was no other more appropriate way for us to celebrate than to do the Nutbush all together as a group. Yep, ridiculous!
After Retreat, we were served so well by Mark Prater meeting with the pastors and pastoral interns from our churches for a day of training, fellowship and prayer. On that day, Jill also met with the wives for lunch and then in the evening we all gathered together for a ‘Night with Mark and Jill’, so that we could glean wisdom from them on marriage, parenting and ministry.
It was a rich time, and we are very grateful to God for our joyful partnership here in Australia and how we are connected with our broader family of Sovereign Grace Churches across the world.
As we look ahead to the future for Sovereign Grace Australia our aim is to keep the main thing the main thing, love Jesus and live fervently for Him. Our focus, first and foremost, will be to continue to strengthen our two growing local churches, and then to raise up more Gospel workers for the future for church planting, perhaps even establishing a ‘Pastors College’ here in Australia. In January we also have the joy of sending over 10 of our young adults to the US for the RELAY Conference, and we’ll also visit with our friends at SGC Orange on our way through.
Please be praying for us!
