An update from Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology and Training for Sovereign Grace Churches…

October may be festival season in Germany, but in Hamburg it’s the time for the Arche Church’s annual Eckstein (“Cornerstone”) Conference. This year, Mark Prater and I had the great privilege of serving at this strategic conference, which for many years equipped and strengthened not only the Arche, but Christians throughout Germany and in numerous countries the Arche serves with the gospel. Including the nations represented within the Arche itself, this year’s Eckstein touched people from some 56 nations.

The Arche pastors chose as the theme of the conference “Staying the Course,” with messages drawn from 1 Peter designed to fortify believers in the face of suffering, persecution, doctrinal deviation, and social upheaval. It’s hard to describe the privilege of seeing so many people, so passionate for Christ, so hungry for God’s Word, and so desirous of glorifying God in such a spiritually dark portion of the world. We left so grateful for our partnership with the Arche and its remarkable pastoral team led by Christian Wegert.

Perhaps the greatest highlight was seeing Michael Ostanin, the pastor of Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine. Michael planted his church 20 years ago out of the Hamburg Arche, graduated from the German Pastors College, and has become a very dear friend of Sovereign Grace (SGC has had the honor of supporting Michael and his church financially during the Russian invasion of Ukraine). To our great surprise, through some last minute providences Michael was able to come to Hamburg for the conference, and we were able to hear from him, cry with him, and pray for him about his gospel labors amidst the cataclysmic circumstances unfolding in his nation.

I wish every SGC pastor could meet Michael. Since the war began, his life and his church has been turned upside down. At the outset of the war, 90% of his church departed—either joining the army or fleeing the city for the west—leaving mainly the elderly and those unable to flee.

Since February the church has been turned into a refugee center, and Michael and his team are serving people 24/7. Beds cover their entire building—pushed aside on Sundays for worship, which is overflowing, mainly with refugees, almost all non-Christians, and all of whom are traumatized by the ravages of war. Every day Michael and his team serve meals and clothes and medicine, they wrangle for supplies, they clean overstressed toilets, they help refugees evacuate west, they listen to heart-breaking stories, they counsel, and they unflaggingly share the hope of the gospel with desperate victims of war. For every Sovereign Grace church which has contributed to the European Development Fund to support these efforts, Michael asked that we pass on his deeply felt thanks.

Please do continue to pray for Michael and his church. The past week has brought targeted rocket attacks which left Dnipro without electricity, water, or communications for three days. They now have power for several hours a day, enough to charge batteries, cook food, and take a shower. Despite these deprivations, by the grace of God they remain joyful and devoted to proclaiming the gospel in this historic moment.

Beyond the conference, we had the unique joy of hosting the first Sovereign Grace European Fellowship gathering. The goal of this gathering was to pull together SGC pastors and pastors pursuing Sovereign Grace in Europe to build relationally, to learn from one another, and to pray and dream about the future of gospel mission together on this continent. In addition to the Arche pastors, we were joined by Matt Chapman and Peter Bowley, along with a guest pastor, Greg Cruse, from Bristol, England, and Ed O’Mara (who has recently relocated to Italy for a future church plant). Kyle Huber from Greentree Church (New Jersey) brought with him three pastors from Belarus whom he’s supported and labored with for 20 years. To a man, we were humbled as we listened to Sergei, Valeri, and Sasha share stories of ministering amidst governmental restrictions, surveillance, and outright persecution. We learned of the arrest and conviction of another pastor’s wife, recently convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of holding a poster with a Bible verse. Yet, these undaunted believers do not cower or hide—they continue to meet, they worship, they evangelize, they disciple.

Please pray for these pastors and the people they serve, and especially for Philip and Lida as they seek to navigate the unthinkable circumstances they are facing for the cause of Christ.

Although our time together was limited, it was beautiful to see relationships already beginning to form and faith rising for how the Lord may want to use the labors of Sovereign Grace pastors and churches to see the gospel proclaimed on the continent of Europe.

One of our cherished values in Sovereign Grace is partnership in the gospel—which is more than a slogan. Partnership strengthens us. It protects us. And it enriches us, with Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered friendships across the U.S. and around the world. I know I speak for Mark in saying that our whirlwind week together in Hamburg left us more grateful than ever for the partnerships He’s given us in Europe—and more inspired than ever for the gospel ministry we pray lies before us in the future together.

After the Pastors Conference and Jared's excellent closing session on church planting, you may be wondering, "How can I participate in that vision for church planting?" There are two key opportunities coming up that we believe can serve our pastors and churches as we seek to take up the work of church planting in Sovereign Grace.

Church Planter Assessment Weekend

Greg Dirnberger is leading a church planter assessment weekend in January for men who are seeking to discern whether there is a call on their life to plant a church. It's a two day intensive for the prospective planter and his wife where they'll have the opportunity to be assessed by some of our most experienced pastors in Sovereign Grace. This doesn't replace the local assessment or regional assessment, instead it aims to provide an additional layer of assessment to help both the local team and region as they walk with a man through this process. That weekend is coming up soon in January, so please contact us soon with your interest.

Antioch Project

The entire Church Planting Group will be hosting a retreat in March for pastoral teams desiring to more fully participate in our mission to plant churches in Sovereign Grace. While every church is in a different local situation, we desire all our churches to have the heart of the Antioch church in Acts 11-13 as they are committed to mission beyond their church. See this flyer for more information. This retreat will be March 20-23 and space is limited so please contact us soon with your interest.

May our next 40 years be marked by a commitment to plant and strengthen churches across our regions and around the world!

An update from Lauren Maples, Content Strategist for Sovereign Grace Churches…

I am excited to share that we have officially launched an Instagram account for Sovereign Grace Churches.

Our goal is not to gain a massive following, but to provide a more accessible form of communication about and from SGC for our pastors, church members, global partners, and anyone interested in learning more about SGC.

This account will highlight local churches around the world, updates from our leadership team, stories from our Emerging Nations, latest Sovereign Grace Journal updates, and more.

Follow @SovGraceChurches to catch the latest updates, photos, videos, and resources from SGC churches, missions, and leaders.

Join us as we celebrate all that God is doing in SGC and throughout the world!

As a Sovereign Grace Pastor one of the highlights of any year, is the annual Sovereign Grace Pastors & Wives Conference. Gathering together in Orlando, November 1st-3rd, this time serves as a “family reunion” for so many, and after the pandemic prevented so many of our global pastors from attending these past two years, this year is particularly special!

Current registration for the conference is over 700, with folk travelling in from places such as Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, Zambia, Nimibia, Philippines & Australia, to name but a few.

For this month therefore, I’d love to enlist your prayers for this special and strategic time for our family of churches. Here are some ways you can pray for everyone involved:

• Please pray that God would use the preaching to equip our pastors to live our lives, and pastor our churches, in a way that we make much of Christ as we faithfully serve His people.

• Please pray for our main session speakers: Jeff Purswell, Jon Payne, C.J. Mahaney, Jared Mellinger, and Dave Taylor, as well as all of our breakout session speakers and worship leaders. That the Lord would bless and give grace to all that we do.

• Please pray for the work of the Holy Spirit as we spend time together, both in our gatherings and outside of them.

• Please pray that God would give us opportunities to care for one another and strengthen our relationships, both the old and new alike.

• Please pray that God would use our time to strengthen and unite us in the gospel mission we share, all for the Audience of One.

... What a wonderful time of year this is. May the Lord meet us and do what only He can do!

An update from David Del Castillo, co-pastor at Iglesia Gracia Soberana, Santa Cruz, Bolivia...

I have been really looking forward to this moment, since I want to update you on what God is doing among us. Thank you for all the support. It is very nice to be able to count on so many brothers in this great family to which we belong.

First of all, let me tell you that God has blessed us with several faithful people who have a passion for the gospel and are beginning to understand our Statement of Faith and our seven shared values. God has been very good to us. The church has grown remarkably compared to last year and now demands our focus on other challenges related to membership and leadership. We want God to guide us as we move forward. If you would like to see more of what our family has been doing, there is a video here. Right now, we are studying the book of Acts in the Sunday preaching and aspects of our Statement of Faith in our study meetings. God is building his church in our midst.

We are thankful to God that we have been able to work with other ministries. Simeon Trust has continued to invite me to participate in their training and with God's favor, I will be going to Venezuela from December 7 to 11 as an instructor of this ministry. I have also been invited to help in a workshop here in Santa Cruz in April 2023, and in La Paz in May 2023. I ask for your prayers.

By God's grace, on Monday October 24th my first article was published by the Gospel Coalition. Here is a link to the article in Spanish. This month I will be sending a second article as I have been invited to write for them quite regularly. I am convinced that I have been invited to participate in this ministry because of my role as a pastor and my affiliations with our beloved Sovereign Grace ministries.

I also want to tell you about our recent conference, "Servants by His Grace 2023" where we addressed the theme of "A Church According to His Word". This event was a great blessing. We had Joselo Mercado, Rich Richardson, Matthew Williams, Jose Mendoza and myself as speakers, as well as Chris and Maria Deloglos, Oscar Vargas and Erick Miranda as panellists. You can access video recordings of the conference here.

The conference was very good. We had close to 200 people attending, including several pastors. This number was higher than those who attended last year and included attendees not only from Santa Cruz but also from La Paz and Cochabamba. We had the support of the Gospel Coalition and Ligonier to give away books. In addition to this, we were visited by more than 10 different churches, among which two are considering adoption into our family of churches.

I really want to say that the expositors did a remarkable job. Each of them taught us about aspects of how a solid and good church should be. I do believe that the goal was achieved and many church members received the messages well, glory to God! We also spoke about the purpose of the church, the local church, how the church was the plan of God since the days of the Old Testament and how important missions are for the church. We thank God for all the support that each one of you has given us, either by being attentive to us or by praying. We believe that our little church is making an impact in our city.

Last but not least, I want to ask that you continue to pray for Pastor Jorge. His eyesight has continued to deteriorate. He cannot see out of one eye and has partial vision out of the other. Thanks to a relative, he is now in Texas and is being seen by a medical professional that this same relative is paying for. This medical professional has completed very prominent studies relating to the retina, and so Lord willing, it is my hope that we will have better clarity on how to move forward.

We ask for your prayerful support as we navigate the various challenges that a small church faces, including what it means to implement membership and leadership.

We will be traveling to the States soon to visit some churches and attend the 2022 Pastors Conference in Orlando. We are very excited to see many of you.

God bless you and thank you very much for reading.

An update from Josh Pannell, Dean of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia…

Since our inception as a church, Michael Granger (our lead pastor) and I have been eager to begin training Ethiopian men for pastoral ministry, which is why this update excites me so much. Our first class of the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College just graduated! This is a massive answer to prayer, and I am grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness. 

In the past 12 months, these men went to over 1000 hours of classes, read over 12,000 pages, and wrote over 250 pages in final assignments. They completed a year in seminary Greek and sentence diagramed 1 John 1 in Greek. In addition to this, they attended weekly elders meetings, conducted membership interviews, taught Sunday School classes, sat in on biblical counseling meetings, and preached on Sunday mornings. Not an easy year, but so very rewarding!

I could tell you amazing stories from all of these brothers (they are indeed a gift from the Lord!). Allow me to introduce you to just a few of them:

• Mohammed (Back Row, Far Right): Mohammed (not his actual name) is a Somali believer. Somalis are 99.9% Muslim. He’s a walking miracle! He has been imprisoned 14 times for preaching the gospel. He has a current ministry organizing Somali believers into churches and mobilizing evangelistic efforts toward Muslims. He desires to continue to help strengthen the Somali church in Addis and eventually return to Somalia with a partner to establish healthy Somali churches.

• Amani (Back Row, Third From the Left): Amani gave up a promising career at Ethiopian Airlines to invest fully in our church and pastors college, and invest fully he has! In addition to our studies, Amani has preached twice at Trinity Fellowship and assisted Michael regularly in counseling meetings. Amani is a gifted preacher and a compassionate counselor. He hopes to lead a church plant out of Trinity Fellowship in the upcoming years.

• Sammy (Back Row, Far Left): Sammy is one of our brightest. He desires to pursue further theological studies and is already applying for MtH programs. After that, he hopes to teach at our pastors college so that he might invest in the future pastors of Ethiopia long-term.

• Yeabtsega (Front Row, Second from the Left): Yeabtsega is also sharp theologically. He won our Academic Award after graduating with a 3.99 GPA. He desires both to church plant and to start a theological training center among unreached people groups in the Horn of Africa.

• AB (Back Row, Second from the Left): AB won our Leadership Award at graduation after the students agreed he demonstrated the greatest degree of Christ-like leadership throughout the year. AB is a talented musician and has served as our worship leader at Trinity Fellowship since it began. TFPC has greatly strengthened him both in his theology and pastoral gifting. In addition to continuing to lead worship on Sundays, AB wants to produce gospel-centered music in Amharic (the local language). His goal is to write songs that are easily singable in church and so impact the Ethiopian church at large.

God is doing something unique here in Addis Ababa, and it’s incredible to see him so clearly at work. We’re already looking forward to the 2023-2024 TFPC class, and I pray that we will still be sending out pastors to plant and strengthen churches hundreds of years from now.

Please note that Josh Pannell is fully funded by overseas support in these endeavours, as a traditional missionary, and is presently looking to raise support to cover expenses for the next two years. If you’d like to hear more about this, and potentially support the Pannell family with a gift, then please click here.

An update from Bert Turner, Executive Pastor at Covenant of Grace, Ohio, and Emerging Nations team representative to Brazil…

Karen and I were so humbled and blessed to be sent to Brazil for six weeks by Sovereign Grace Churches and our church, Covenant of Grace Church. We logged 16,000 miles in the air traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to five cities in Brazil – São Paulo, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande and Porto Alegre. The Lord was gracious to build his church and connect us with his people all across Brazil. We are thankful to all who prayed for and supported us on the trip!

Our first stop was São Paulo. It was a joy spending time with our long-time friends and partners in the Gospel, Fabiano and Marcia Medeiros. We had a lovely time with our new friends and partners in the Gospel, Guilherme and Talyta Guimarães. Guilherme pastors a church plant that is pursuing formal partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches.

After São Paulo we travelled to Fortaleza where we visited with the leadership of a growing reformed and charismatic church. I spent a day with the leadership and preached in their Sunday services.

In our next city, Rio de Janeiro, we renewed relationships with long-time friends and pastors who are influential in Brazil in various ways.

In Rio Grande we gathered all the husbands and wives of the churches pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches for a weekend of fellowship and ministry. We were hosted by Emerson Soares and his church, Igreja Graça Soberana. It was a joy being with Emerson and Tati again. Emerson is in the final stages of the ordination process.

In our final city, Porto Alegre, we spent a wonderful week with Jader Bitencourt and his church, Igreja Casulo. Jader and Andressa are becoming dear friends as their church pursues formal partnership.

It would be hard to overstate how important it was to have Rich Richardson, Pastor and leader for the Latin American team, join us for a week in Rio Grande and Porto Alegre. His ministry of the Word was very effective as was his warm and insightful interaction with the Brazilians. Rich was also a great encouragement to Karen and I.

These were two highlights of the trip. The first was Fabiano’s ordination on September 18th which was a sweet and significant step in his 17 year-long quest to partner with SGC in Brazil. Now he is better equipped to be our boots-on-the-ground for our developing relationships and further ordinations in Brazil, which he is eager to pursue.

The second highlight was meeting with Rich. All the men – Guilherme Guimarães, Fabiano Medeiros, Emerson Soares, Jader Bitencourt — carried the sense of being a nascent team of diversely gifted men upon which God will build in the years to come. That joy was multiplied by having all the wives present that weekend as well.   

In that meeting with the team I shared the sense that the Lord gave me Revelation 3:8 as a context for where these churches and SGC Brazil are at this time.

“I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:8)

Truly, we need the Lord to build the house as we attempt to walk through the open door for SGC to serve the Lord’s purposes in Brazil. I believe our efforts there are timely. God is moving in some remarkable ways in Brazil to restore the doctrines of grace and to build his church.

An update from Andy Farmer, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…

In Sovereign Grace we are committed to planting churches that will start well and last long. Church planting in Sovereign Grace is a cooperative effort between a planter, a sending church, a Region and a national committee serving under the Director of Church Development. One crucial aspect of this cooperation is our annual Church Planter Cohort.

I have the privilege of leading the cohort, which is a year long gathering of planters who are looking to launch churches within one year to 18 months. Through a combination of retreats and Zoom meetings we work through the specific plans and challenges of plants, help the planter prepare for approval of his plant by the Region and provide tools and resources for the health of his soul, his family, and his church planting team. 

This year we have four men in the cohort. Each of these plants is a very distinct but faithful application of our church planting missiology…

Ramon Flores, is a pastor at Legacy Church in Yuma, Arizona, who is preparing to launch a Spanish speaking congregation alongside the existing church.

Gabriel Magill is a Sovereign Grace pastor who is doing an exploratory work to plant a church in Warren, Pennsylvania.

Jeremy Hetrick is a pastor at Living Hope Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who will be planting with a segment of the church across the Susquehanna River around Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Perry Wang is an elder in training at Risen Hope Church in Charleston, South Carolina who is developing a plan to plant a Mandarin speaking church in North Charleston. 

We began this year’s cohort by gathering in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania where the guys had a chance to meet with the Covenant Fellowship eldership and talk about leading a church plant through team ministry. We met for a full day discussing each plant and its opportunities and questions. We then spent the afternoon working the process of church planting as laid out in our Book of Church Order and the Guidelines and Best Practices. In the evening we met with the church planting team of Valley Creek Church in Malvern, led by Nick Kidwell. Saturday was spent on a tour of historic Philadelphia where we interacted over the work of mission in a complex culture. On Sunday morning the cohort had the chance to attend Covenant Fellowship Church and participate in the send-off service for Valley Creek Church.   

As I’ve led these cohorts over the years I’ve been humbled and amazed at the quality of men who want to plant Sovereign Grace churches, and the level of sacrifice they and their families and sending churches are willing to make to see our mission advance in new ways. We are a church planting movement, we have always been a church planting movement, and experiences like this give me faith that we will always be a church planting movement. 

An update from our key leader in Pakistan (identity concealed for safety reasons), as he speaks on behalf of 17 Churches in Pakistan who we’ve related to for many years, primarily through theological training and mentoring, and who are eager to pursue formal partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches...

Greetings.

As you all know, Pakistan is going through a tough time because of heavy rainfall and flooding. Many areas have been affected especially the Sindh province. People have lost their homes and are going through a very hard time. Our pastoral team visited the flood victims and gave them essential items to help them survive until the circumstances were under control. This is all because of the generosity of Sovereign Grace Churches. With the help of your funds we were able to bless these people. They were overjoyed to see that they finally had beds, warm blankets to sleep in and food to eat. Muslim people have been reaching out to their community and have been neglecting Christians. Your funds and prayers have meant that we could also reach the Christian community, together with Muslim and Hindu families.

The package that we gave them included beds, blankets, mattresses, water coolers, crockery, food items, hygienic items, and mosquito nets. Along with that we arranged a medical camp. We invited a professional physician who examined the patients who were affected from the floods and poor hygienic conditions. We also distributed audio Bibles and Bibles to the people because we knew that apart from their physical needs, their spiritual growth was also very important. We joined them in their huts and prayed with them before the distribution.

There are still families who are not yet reached, so we are praying for those who are living hand to mouth and are suffering. Once again, we are extremely thankful to Sovereign Grace Church, for your soft hearts for the victims and your desire to bless them. We have seen the gratitude on the faces of people. One of the ladies we reached out to said that though they are away from home and are suffering, they know that “Our God has not forgotten us and will definitely make a way for us.” They are also very thankful for their Bibles after having to leave most of their physical possessions behind. The only thing the people could say was how good God is.

We are thankful that the team were able to get home safely and seeing the Pakistani people happy when we left, brought us much joy.

God bless you!

In his book, “Truth On Fire - Gazing at God Until Your Heart Sings”, Adam Ramsey writes the following: “Relying on our own cleverness to live out the Christian life is like trying to circle the globe in a glider. It might fly for a while, but predictably, it is going to crash. Prayer, on the other hand, is God’s sovereignly appointed means of connecting our never-ending neediness to God’s never-ending power. Prayer is the vehicle through which God will accomplish his invincible purposes, through the lives of weak dependent people, like you and me.”

I love that quote, and it’s so true. Without His sovereign help, we’re like a glider trying to circle the globe, all by itself, and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead, we so need Him…

1. Please pray for Todd Peterson and Erik Rangel who are nearing the end of a recent trip to India. Please pray for wisdom as they continue conversations with various church leaders (Arun in Prayahraj, Caleb and Sidhanta in Bhubaneswar and Hemo in Karaput) in determining a way forward for future SGC partnerships. Todd and Erik have been leading the Villatoro ministry in Vempadu, headed by JP, with the hopes of converting it into a formal foundation. They have also been overseeing plans for a Bible College in Gundugolanu, and so please pray for wisdom and clarity for these men as they continue to serve in this way.

2. Please pray for Bert Turner (Executive Pastor of Covenant of Grace Church, Copley, Ohio) as he continues his time in Brazil (September 1st – October 12th). Please pray for safety and good health for all those who are travelling. Please pray for good communication as Bert meets with Pastors Emerson, Fabiano, Guilherme and Jader as they seek to build gospel-centred relationships through which Jesus can build his church. Please pray for Rich Richardson as he joins Bert in Brazil, so that as they communicate and preach they will “bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:9-11).

3. Please pray for Dave York and his team of SGC pastors (Dave Taylor, Riley Spring, Tony Walsh and Lynn Baird) who will travel to the Philippines from October 7th-16th to conduct oral exams for ordination. There are 19 men who are candidates, and so please pray for peace and wisdom for them as they sit these exams. Please pray for safety for everyone travelling from Australia, the USA and the Philippines, and that God would give understanding and discernment to the SGC pastors on the ordination panels.

4. Please pray for Nick Kidwell and his team who planted Valley Creek Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania on Sunday October 2nd. The church building is located in the heart of Malvern amongst many local homes and businesses. Please pray that it will be a place that brings about gospel change for many folk in the community there. Please also pray for unity for the team, asking God to give them a united vision for the mission they are on together.

… Thank you so much for praying with us. May his grace abound!

An update from Dyonah Thomas (Lead pastor of Gracelife Church in Monrovia, Liberia)…

West Africa is home to over 10 nations, a complexity of cultures and two major languages, English and French. The greatest need for Christ cannot be over-emphasized. Gracelife Church has been working in West Africa for over 8 years now with churches in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This year we launched our first Pastors and Planters Academy.

God has been kind to enable us to build lots of regional relationships. Through our existing churches and relationships, we were able to recruit 15 men from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast for the first cohort. Ten of these men are Full-Time and five are Part-Time. God has been kind to allow these brothers to relocate with their families to Gracelife.

The Academy is designed with the aim of enhancing the knowledge, conviction and competency of each of these men around gospel-centered theology and ministry. They are immersed into the life of the local church, involved with leadership and ministry as well as the wider community. It is a solid year of training and interaction.

These brothers, supported by the wider network of churches in West Africa are dreaming, working, praying and networking, all in the hopes of sending out teams to Southwestern Liberia, North Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

Please continue to pray that as we learn together, the Lord will grow this cohort into men who love Jesus, who love their wives and children, and who labor with joy because of their love for Christ’s church. Please pray that God will continue raising up faithful instructors to teach, mentor and coach these men. Please pray that the Lord will build into the hearts of each of these men a vision for the harvest and clarity on where to serve going forward.

An update from Fengyu Ji…

My name is Fengyu Ji. I was born and raised in Mainland China, an atheist country that denies God, soul and afterlife. The very first time I heard about the gospel was in 2006 when I was a freshman in college. A young American man named Andy shared the gospel with me after I encountered him on campus. He was studying Chinese in my college. Years later I learned that he was from Campus Crusade.

Andy soon invited me to attend their fellowship gathering. Among those Christians that night, I was amazed by their genuine love towards one another, which I never experienced before in a Darwinist society. Not only so, what surprised me the most was their warm welcome and tender care towards me - a total stranger! In China, trust between strangers is rare. Defensiveness and indifference prevail people’s hearts. Yet this group was so distinctive. That characteristic attracted me to know more.

I was connected to a house church in Beijing. Through hearing the Word being faithfully preached week in and week out, I deeply felt the need to accept Jesus as my Savior. I am a sinner! Only through Jesus Christ can my sins be forgiven. He died on the cross for me, so I am spared from death. And one day I will be raised with Him. What great news to the world! One year later, I was baptized into Christ’s body. Soon after that, God began to test and strengthen my faith through persecution. In those years, a revival was taking place in China. Many people repented and were added to our church. The authorities started to persecute our church since 2008, to stop our growth. However, this trial was turned into a blessing in God’s hand to true believers. We rejoiced that we were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. We followed the Lord through the path of the cross.

In 2010, I received God’s calling for me to feed His sheep through the preaching of His Word, as the burden to build up the Chinese Church through solid teachings from the pulpit became stronger and stronger in me. I was encouraged by my senior pastor to pursue this calling and I began to preach monthly. In 2015, with the support and blessing of my home church, I went to Louisville, Kentucky to get theological training at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

During my studies, my wife and I joined Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. We were greatly influenced by the gospel-centered preaching we heard every Sunday. Over the years our lives have been changed notably, from a legalistic tendency to a joyful appreciation of God’s grace.

In 2018, I went to Pastors College to better equip myself with the Sovereign Grace values. The passionate vision in my heart to build a gospel-centered Chinese church was strengthened more and more.

After graduating from Southern in 2020, I left Louisville to serve as a Mandarin-speaking minister in a Chinese Church in Maryland. God continued His work to prepare me to be a more useful vessel for future church planting. Meanwhile, my wife's heart for church planting grew. This encouraged me greatly and we felt united. We talked about our convictions about church planting frequently at home. We prayerfully sought God and hoped that He would open a door for us to plant with Sovereign Grace.

Last November in the Pastors Conference we were very excited and grateful to learn that God was also preparing Sovereign Grace for a vision towards the Chinese! Our mutual hope is to plant a Chinese-speaking church in the States first, and then be sent back to China for church planting in the long term. It is our strong desire to bring the gospel of grace to more Chinese people both here and later in China.

As we prayed and sought God’s guidance specifically for a location to do church planting in the States, it became evident that He was leading us to Clarksburg in Maryland. Clarksburg is a growing suburban area outside Washington DC. New immigrants are flowing in continually and the Asian population has reached 40% in recent years. Even more than this, in God’s providence I will be starting a pastoral internship for two years this December at Grace Church of Clarksburg, which is a local Sovereign Grace Church. 

I thank God for such precious learning opportunities and support as I prepare for church planting. Please pray for us, that God may open a wide door for us in Clarksburg to preach His word and to effectively declare the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen!

An update from Riley Spring (Lead Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Australia)…

Dave Taylor and I recently had an amazing trip travelling to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to take part in the Trinity Fellowship Pastor’s College. It was a joy to gather with Trinity Fellowship Church on the Sunday to celebrate the gospel together. We were blessed by the warmth and encouragement of this newly formed and vibrant Sovereign Grace Church. It was remarkable how similar it felt to our churches back home, as we all have the same gospel culture and DNA.

Over the week, we were hosted by Josh Pannell, Dean of the Pastor’s College, and Michael Granger, Senior Pastor, who took us around the city to give us a feel for what God is doing in Addis Ababa, and as well to find out more about what God is doing across all of Africa. It was so inspiring to see how God is on the move and to hear their bold and ambitious plans to plant more churches (ten in ten years!), raise up leaders, and fan into flame a gospel centered movement in their city and beyond. We also ate with leaders from City to City Africa and Voice of the Martyrs and heard more stories of the current work that the Lord is doing in Addis Ababa and Africa as a whole. They encouraged us to see Sovereign Grace as one of the most uniquely poised denominations to have a global impact. This is because of our strong gospel centrality and our clarity of doctrine, values, and partnership.  

At the Pastor’s College, we spent the week teaching on church planting. Our assignment was to teach how to plant Sovereign Grace Churches, the Sovereign Grace way. We took the men through our Seven Shared Values and Seven Shaping Virtues as the foundation. We then spent the rest of the time looking at the practicals of what church planting would look like for them in Addis Ababa and in other African countries that God may be leading them to. We sought to make it as practical as possible so that they had a whole new host of categories to think through how to plant a church in their context. We shared our experience but wanted to ensure that we weren’t imposing a ‘western’ paradigm on their context. We finished our time by looking at the theology and practice of partnership, and how that would look for them going forward to plant churches in partnership with one another and with Sovereign Grace.

These men are very special men. They have a deep love for the Lord, for their local church, and a real heart for Sovereign Grace. If this is a small sampling of how God is at work in Africa, there is much to be excited about! 

Sovereign Grace Music Español is Growing!

Sovereign Grace Music recently released its 5th Spanish album, En Ti Esperamos (We Hope in You). The project contains 12 translated Sovereign Grace songs, some from our most recent albums, Unchanging God: Songs from the Book of Psalms, Vol. 1 & 2. Almost all the songs chosen focus on the theme of suffering. They remind us that in the midst of our darkest nights and deepest sorrows, those who trust in Christ will never be without hope.

Since the release of two albums recorded with La IBI in the Dominican Republic in 2013 and 2014, Sovereign Grace Music has had an increasing impact in the Spanish speaking world. So much so that currently 13 of the top 20 Sovereign Grace Music YouTube videos are in Spanish. En Ti Esperamos is a long overdue response. 

The primary musicians on the album (Bob Kauflin, David Zimmer, Peter Scrufari, Gaby Estupinian, and Fabrizio Rodulfo) are from Sovereign Grace churches. We were joined by our good friends, Jonathan and Sarah Jerez, to produce the album. The Jerezes have collaborated with Sovereign Grace on three other projects, and recently helped lead a bi-lingual main session at the WorshipGod conference. 

Along with seeking to provide more theologically driven, gospel-centered, musically accessible songs for Spanish churches, En Ti Esperamos was recorded with minimal instrumentation. It’s common for Latin American churches to emphasize production and performance in a way that can distract from the words being sung. Simplifying the arrangements counteracts that impulse, but also makes it easier for smaller churches to replicate. 

 In light of all that God is doing in the Spanish-speaking world, we recently hired Fabrizio Rodulfo as an Intern for Video and Spanish Resources. He has done a fantastic job overseeing the translation team and started an Instagram account (@sovgracemusicespanol) which has gained over 5600 followers in only two months. 

 While we’re grateful for the opportunities to provide excellent translations of Sovereign Grace songs, our eventual hope and prayer is that God would raise up individuals to write original songs in Spanish. We took a significant step towards that goal when, at the recent Fieles a Su Llamado conference, we met with 15 songwriters interested in writing for a future project. Our next step will be a songwriting retreat in Mexico some time next year.

We’d appreciate your prayers that God would enable us to steward these resources well for the good of the Spanish speaking church and the glory of our Savior!

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches…

In his book, “Brothers, We are Not Professionals” John Piper writes this compelling sentence: “Prayer is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightning bolt of heaven.” Our efforts to pastor our churches, and to advance the gospel together as a family of churches, can feel like that “limp wire” at times. We need God’s power and help. It is by praying for one another that we can splice our feeble efforts "to the lightning bolt of heaven” and God answers our prayers by giving us power to accomplish what He has called us to do for His glory.

It is with a sense of desperate dependence that I’m sending you the prayer requests. May God, according to the riches of his glory, grant us power through his Spirit to advance the gospel together for the glory of Christ. Here’s how you can be praying…

1. Pray that God would give the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities and workplaces.

2. Pray for Nick Kidwell and his core team that will plant Valley Creek Church in Malvern, PA this September asking God to strengthen their church planting efforts, and to draw unbelievers and the unchurched to Valley Creek.

3. Pray for the churches in Dnipro, and Sinelnikovo, Ukraine that Sovereign Grace is relating to, and sending money for relief efforts, asking God to protect them, and to use them to offer gospel hope as the war continues in that nation.

4. Pray for our new 2022-2023 Pastors College students and their families who will be moving to Louisville, KY before classes start at the end of August, asking God to provide for them and to give them grace to grow over the next year while at the PC.

5. Pray for the Eckstein Conference hosted by the Arche Church in Hamburg, Germany, September 30-October 2 where pastors from Germany and around Europe will gather for teaching and fellowship. Also pray for the first Europe Sovereign Grace Pastors Fellowship Gathering on Tuesday, October 4 led by Jeff Purswell and Mark Prater.

6. Pray for our first West Africa Pastors and Planters Academy in Monrovia Liberia where 10 men from for different West African nations are being trained to pastor and plant churches in West Africa. Pray for Dyonah Thomas, Sr. Pastor of Grace Life Church in Monrovia, and the Dean of the Academy, asking God to give him grace to lead and invest into these 10 men.

7. Pray for Ed O’Mara and his family who moved to Italy in July to plant a Sovereign Grace church in that country a year from now. Pray that God would use the next year to help them continue to learn the Italian language, and the culture for the purpose of being equipped to advance the gospel through church planting.

8. Pray that God would continue to provide financially for Sovereign Grace Churches so that we can fund the gospel opportunities He is giving us throughout the world

An update from Carlos Contreras, Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Regional Leader for Mexico…

Our theme for this year was ‘Pastoral Ministry by Grace’ with Dr. Bryan Chapell as our special guest speaker. Again this year, we were joined by our wonderful regular speakers, Jeff Purswell, Bob Kauflin, Miguel Núñez, Kike Torres and Joselo Mercado. As part of the team of men participating, we also had Rich Richardson and Mark Prater. In all, this was by far our best time together in our desire to serve Mexican and Latin American pastors, leaders, and their wives.

Because of space limitations, we had to limit attendance to 400 folks, representing 23 Mexican states (70% of our country represented). Of all those in attendance, 80% were leaders and their wives, from around 110 different churches, making it one of the few contexts where the focus has been primarily on serving those in church leadership. We also had a good number of Latin American leaders that came from other countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, and the USA. Our mission was to encourage and equip called leaders from our family of churches but we were open to all who wanted to come and join us.

One highlight of the Conference was the release of the new Sovereign Grace Music Spanish album “En Tí Esperamos (We Wait on You)”, a copy of which was given to all attendees and filled our worship times with long awaited powerful new songs. From the first song we sang at the beginning of worship time, and throughout the rest of our time together, the presence of the Holy Spirit was evident. Our Lord was gracious to answer our prayers for a time of refreshment for all and so there was as much joy as there were tears and encouragement during all our times of ministry. I can safely say that we experienced a true visitation that many testified as they left to return to their homes. One pastor from Oaxaca who came for the first time wrote saying:

“Thank you for serving us who are looking for encouragement to keep ahead serving God. It was a great blessing to me and my wife to be able to spend these days learning from the Word of God and enjoying His grace… We will be the first ones to register for next year… We are now seeking God to make decisions for our ministry.”

Another highlight this year was that we were looking for ways to stimulate times of fellowship among the participants, so we hosted a brunch with all pastors from the region and their wives. It was a wonderful time to just be together and share testimonies of what God has been doing among us and some plans for the future. We also set up an outside food court with tables where food was available for purchase in the evenings. This place was full every night until late at night and many mentioned this venue being a big plus in regard to making new friends in true fellowship.

In addition, a very interesting and now memorable event happened on Thursday night. There was a violent spree in our city as well as in other cities in Mexico orchestrated by organized crime groups as a means of pressuring the government. As a result of this, our whole city went into lockdown for two consecutive nights. We saw this as God sovereignly testing us in our faith and trust that He would care for us during this scary event. The result was amazing. We decided to continue with the conference as planned and we extended the hours of our food court since all restaurants closed on both nights. Not only was our faith strengthened, but there was more joy in our fellowship, our singing was louder and more heart felt, and we all returned home having had a real experience of His sustaining grace.

In all, I can safely say, our gracious God took over our Conference and made sure we all received a full measure of His amazing grace. We can’t wait to see what He will do next year!

An update from Perry Wang…

I was born in China. Growing up, I was completely atheist. The first time I heard the gospel I refused to listen and laughed at the brother who told me, but by God’s mercy and grace, in a moment He opened my eyes and made me alive. He showed me that I had lived in lies all the days of my life and He led me to the truth. He showed me my sins and led me to the cross. I knew in that moment that Jesus was alive and from that moment, I was His. That was March 11, 2006. Since then, God has given me a passion for the truth and love of Jesus Christ.

After graduating in 2007, I trained for one year and was sent to Nanning City, China to plant an underground church. After 7 years in ministry, I found I knew very little about church and ministry and so I resigned and pursued further study in seminary. By His grace, God opened a door for us and in January 2017, we arrived at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

While I was in Louisville, our friends Huadong (Brian) Yang and Fengyu (Jeff) Ji were members of Sovereign Grace Church Louisville, both of whom had studied at Pastor’s College. At that time, my wife and I had known these brothers for two years and we witnessed change in their lives. Some negative aspects of Chinese culture were fading away and the aroma of Christ was growing. We were attracted by the fragrance of their lives, so my wife and I decided to visit SGC Louisville.

We loved the vibrant worship and powerful message. There were many times we were moved to tears by CJ's preaching and by the songs we sang. My wife was shepherded well and her spirit was renewed. It was faithfulness to the Word and the grace, love and humbleness flowing from the pastors that drew us to Sovereign Grace. After Gary Ricucci gave us the membership interview, I had an impulse to give him a hug, and I did! By the way, hugging is not part of Chinese culture!

For the first three years in seminary, I was determined to go back to China to plant churches. However, God changed my stubborn mind and showed me a new vision - to plant healthy churches here in the States and use them as a base to reach unreached people groups. When I was nearing the end of my seminary studies, Pastor Gary Ricucci and I were discussing the possibility of Pastors College and other ministry opportunities. When he heard of my heart for church planting, he told me about the church planting class that was running the following week at the Pastors College and invited me to join. There I met Mike Seaver, pastor of Risen Hope Church, Charleston. That’s how I ended up in Charleston after graduating from Southern Baptist in Louisville.

I’m now a church planting resident at Risen Hope Church and I’m grateful for the last year. I am learning from the pastoral team, their humility in teamwork, the way they hold each other accountable, how they deal with different opinions and conflicts, their love and care for each member through prayer, their laughter and their tears, how they exercise church discipline and so on. This has been so helpful in preparing me to build and lead a team as a church planter. We started a bible study at the Medical University of Southern Carolina where more than a hundred Chinese students work and study. We are planning to launch a new Chinese-speaking church next summer. The plan for the following year is to build a core team, with the help of the Church Planting Cohort.

If you’d like to get involved, or have Chinese speaking members in your church that would like to get involved, then please let me know.

An update from Jared Mellinger, lead pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, USA…

On July 27-30, 650 people from 38 US states and 5 countries gathered in Louisville, Kentucky for WorshipGod 2022. I attended with a group of members from my church, including several other pastors I serve with. It was incredible!

The conference is designed to serve anyone who leads or participates in the Sunday gathering, as well as anyone who wants to better understand congregational worship and grow in loving God, who is worthy of all praise.

The theme of this year’s Worship God conference was Unchanging. We celebrated God’s unchanging character: his independence, trustworthiness, eternality, blessedness, and love. The theme was drawn from the newest Sovereign Grace album.

Sovereign Grace Music published a devotional on the songs/Psalms from the new album, which was released and available at the conference. The devotionals are written by various Sovereign Grace pastors and have helped me meditate more deeply on the songs on this album. We’ve also started singing some of these songs in our church, and our congregation has been richly blessed by them.

Bob Kauflin did an outstanding job leading the conference as Director of Sovereign Grace Music. He has unique leadership gifts and relational gifts that made these days together especially edifying. Bob's goal is not to run a polished and impressive production, but to serve those present. He does this by leading with joy, humility, generosity, encouragement, and thankfulness.

Musical instruments and books were given away. The give-aways often honored those who have faithfully served in their church for many years, or are serving with young children, and others appropriate to honor. Song writers were also thanked and encouraged. Abundant grace was on bright display.

The entire team at Sovereign Grace Music models gospel culture in a way that shapes the experience of each person in attendance. The grace of God was also evident in the hospitality shown by Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. Although we met at a different church building, there were dozens of people in the church in Louisville who cheerfully served and greeted me and others all week long.

After the conference, I shared with Bob that one of the specific things I appreciate about his leadership is the way he helps us in Sovereign Grace learn from, express appreciation for, and serve the broader body of Christ. Attendees were a combination of people in Sovereign Grace Churches and beyond. Speakers were a mix of pastors in Sovereign Grace and others: Mike Bullmore, Jeff Purswell, Mark Jones, Josh Blount, and myself. Special guests included Adam Wright from Corner Room Music, City Alight, Jonathan and Sarah Jerez, and others. It was so encouraging to hear Adam Wright sing with his daughter, and to hear the vision City Alight has to serve the church of Christ through modern hymns.

I have regularly attended this conference over the years, not because I am a musician or worship leader, but because I am a pastor and Christian. I have found this particular conference to be especially edifying, equipping, and refreshing for pastors. Lord willing, I hope to attend again in the future.

After all, worship does not exist for the few, or for the musically talented, but for us all. God created us to glorify and enjoy him forever.

Worship is always related to missions, as John Piper has explained, because worship is the goal and fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. And, worship is always related to our future, because when we gather and join our voices in song with people from many different churches, we experience a foretaste of the day when we gather in the new heavens and the new earth, to sing “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” 

An update from Brendan Willis, Pastor in Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney…

In July, Sovereign Grace Churches Australia celebrated a milestone in our very first combined churches conference, Together 2022 – Side by side for the Gospel! Sovereign Grace Churches has a rich history of local churches coming together to strengthen their gospel partnership, and to build rich relationships between churches. Since the very first Sunday service of Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga in 2010 we had longed for the day when we might be able to enjoy a similar level of regional partnership here in the southern hemisphere!

Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta was planted in September 2019, and though we had a small two-year COVID delay, we were thrilled to be able to come together as two churches for the very first time this year!

We decided to name the conference “Together” to reflect our heart that going forward this annual celebration would be all about our unity in the Gospel. As our inaugural year, we also planned our teaching sessions around the “Together” theme.

Dave Taylor opened the conference with a great message unpacking the way in which the Apostle Paul used the example of the Lord Jesus to inform not merely individual generosity in giving but corporate generosity between churches (2 Corinthians 8:1–24).

Brendan Willis continued our series with a message that showed us how the power and wisdom of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:10–31) enables us to remain deeply united despite the way in which our hearts might tempt us towards division.

Finally, Riley Spring closed out the weekend by reminding us of the only hope we have for genuine fruitfulness and growth… and that is to abide together in dependence upon the Lord Jesus (John 15:1–27)!

It was so wonderful at many points across the weekend to simply pause and give thanks to God for what he has done! For starters, we were so thankful for the opportunity to simply have fun together as churches. A classic example of this was the kids entertainer we hired for a bubble show who thought she was doing a small kids party but was welcomed into an amphitheatre with >100 kids! It was an absolute riot!

Even more than this, to watch and see the many late-night chats, deep discussions over dinner, times of prayer for those in need, passionate singing and the many people who gave hours and hours of their time to plan for and serve on the weekend was an absolute joy!

Here’s to praying God would enable many more “Together” conferences and multiply these for many more years to come!

Welcome, Pastors College Class of 2023!

Please be praying for our new 2022-2023 Pastors College students and their families who have just moved to Louisville, KY, as classes commence. Please ask God to provide for them and to give them grace to grow over the next year while at the PC.