An update from Abelardo Munoz, a Pastor in Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez…

On Wednesday, August 7th, Mexico's Council of Elders and National Assembly of Elders gathered for the very first time at Iglesia Gracia Soberana of Ciudad Juárez.

The 4-hour meeting was conducted by our national leader, Carlos Contreras, and was attended by all the delegates of the Council of Elders, and 23 of the 25 elders who make up the National Assembly of Elders. These men represent a number of different churches and regions across Mexico.

While these meetings help us grow relationally, they are also a means for us to come together to make crucial decisions relating to the polity, governance, and leadership of Sovereign Grace Churches in Mexico. These gatherings allow us to achieve so much in a short window of time.

For the Council of Elders, we were able to address a number of items on our agenda. We voted unanimously to confirm Carlos Contreras as our national leader, as well as for members for our National Leadership Team and National Polity Committee. We also separated our churches into two provisional regions; the 'North/Central' region and the 'Bajío' region, and appointed regional leaders for each. Financial matters were also discussed, and approval was granted for our 2025 budget.

For the National Assembly of Elders, similarly we were able to nominate and confirm men as members of the National Conflict Resolution Committee and National Ordination Committee. With joy, we were able to officially approve two church plants; one in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and one in Huajuapan, Oaxaca, and were thrilled to hear updates from both church planters. Both churches meet in the homes of these two men and have an average attendance of 15-30 people. The next step for these churches is to find a suitable location big enough to accommodate the growth they expect in the coming months. We are looking forward to officially presenting these churches as Iglesias Gracia Soberana of Reynosa and Iglesias Gracia Soberana of Huajuapan.

While these meetings are necessary in helping us move forward together as a nation, we do not forget that each of these elders represents individual churches. These individual churches are made up of men and women whom Christ died and whose lives have been graciously redeemed.

Please continue to pray for SGC Mexico, in particular the elders who serve on the Council of Elders and National Assembly of Elders. May God be glorified as they press on together in His glorious mission!

This post first appeared on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog on Sept. 4, 2024. Click here to visit the original post.

This video includes just a few highlights from our 2024 Relay Conference. You can find sermons, breakout sessions and more from this conference here, or register for our upcoming 2025 Relay Conference via the button below.

John Piper famously writes,

            ‘Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, millions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.’

I believe Mr Piper is right. Missions exist because so many people in our neighbourhoods and nations have yet to receive their invites to the incredible marriage supper of the Lamb. And in His incredible kindness, He’s entrusted us with the privilege of giving out those invites, to every tribe, language and nation.

We’re eager then to keep giving out the invites, and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead…

1. Pray that God would give the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities, workplaces and on our campuses over this next month.

2. Pray for Pat Tedeschi and Greentree Church’s Short-Term Missions Team as they head to London, UK, to work with Oasis International  Church, 13th-23rd September. The team will be involved with leading church services, youth events, small group discipleship, neighbourhood evangelism, and building relationships with the church members. Greentree has partnered with Oasis Church for the past 18 years, with the work primarily involving outreach to Muslims and the least evangelised people groups in London. Please pray for much grace and favour for this trip.

3. Pray for the Philippine Pastors Institute as they restart up again for another academic year, starting on September 21st, then meeting every Saturday for the next nine months. There are 14 students currently registered for the school, covering basic biblical theology, and the Sovereign Grace seven shared values. It’s the hope that through PPI Sovereign Grace Philippines, in particular in the Mindanao region, will continue to be faithful in the gospel for many generations to come.

4. Pray for Sovereign Grace Church of Parramatta as they celebrate their 5th Anniversary on Sunday 15th September, and Lord’s Grace Church of Seoul as the celebrate their 14th Anniversary on Sunday September 8th. May they know the Lord’s smile on them as they look back and remember His goodness to them over these years.

5. Pray for Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as they celebrate the graduation of nine students this month. Please pray for each of the students as they consider next steps beyond the PC, and for Josh Pannell and Michael Granger as they continue to move this wonderful work forward. The Lord is doing great things through this Pastors College.

6. Please continue to pray for the Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine asking God to continue to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to those around them who have been impacted by the war. There are so many coming to them now, so may His grace abound.

... Thanks friends. May we do all we can to keep giving out these invites.

*This post was originally shared on our SGC Missions website. To view the original post, click here.

Recently on the Mark Prater podcast, Mark shared about the recent Fieles A Su Llamado Conference in Juarez, Mexico. Here is a clip from that conversation with Ben Kreps. The full Vlog is linked below.

The theme of the conference was essentially the pastor pursuing a godly life. And the pastor's example is very important in building godly churches, which is something we want to do in Sovereign Grace. So this was a very significant conference for pastors and their wives. And by the way, there were somewhere between 400 and 450 pastors and their wives there, leaders from the churches and their wives there from mostly different parts of Mexico and really all parts of Mexico. There were also some pastors there from other Latin American nations, from Costa Rica for example.

But this was primarily in serving pastors and wives that are in Mexico. And the impact and influence that conference has is palpable.

From July 24-27, over 1300 people gathered in Louisville, KY, to participate in WorshipGod24. Our theme this year was One with Christ: How our Union with Christ Affects Everything.

Going into a WorshipGod conference I never know in what specific ways God is going to meet us. I just know that he always does. And WorshipGod24 was no exception.

We sang. We laughed and learned. We cried tears of joy and repentance. We ate. We fellowshipped. We marveled and reflected. We grew – in our relationship with God and each other.

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Bob Kauflin (@bkauflin) is director of Sovereign Grace Music. He equips pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship, and serves as a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He writes at worshipmatters.com and is author of True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God. Bob and his wife, Julie, have six children and an ever-growing number of grandchildren.

This post originally appeared on Worship Matters, on Aug. 9, 2024.

An update from Songhwan Kang, Lead Pastor of Lord's Grace Church, South Korea...

I am Songhwan Kang, serving at the Lord's Grace Church in Korea. I am grateful for the opportunity to share the Gospel & Life Conference that was recently held in our small Asian country of Korea.

The Lord's Grace Church hosted the Gospel & Life Conference from June 6th to 8th with a mission team of 17 people from the United States. This conference first began in 2012 when Pastors Larry Malament and Bill Kittrell visited Korea for the first time. Not considering the pandemic, this year now marks the conference's 10th anniversary. Firstly, I want to thank Pastor Larry, who is now in heaven, for his sacrificial love and dedication to the work he began with us many years ago. I am also grateful for the continued partnership, excellent cooperation, and sacrificial service of Pastor Bill of Cornerstone Church in Knoxville, TN.

When the Lord's Grace Church started in 2010, we were like children in the gospel and did not know what a gospel-centered church was. We wanted to learn and grow in living a gospel-centered life, but did not know how. God heard our prayers and sent a mission team from the United States, who then started the Gospel & Life Conference. This year, at our 10th conference, God poured out great grace on us once again.

For the 2024 conference, 190 people gathered, including members of the Lord's Grace Church and 18 families from outside. The theme of the conference was "Don’t Waste Your Life". Pastor Walt Alexander from Trinity Grace Church in Athens, TN delivered five thematic lectures from Ecclesiastes. He said, “life is meaningless, but God has given life as a gift, and we must live a life that fears and obeys the eternal God”. His message was clear, simple, and showed the excellent wisdom of the gospel.