As a fellowship of churches united by a Statement of Faith that is permeated with reformed theology, we can’t help but take time to appreciate and remember the day that made so much of who we are and what we believe possible.

As you ponder what it means to be “reformed” or consider the historical events that occurred on Reformation Day, we hope you enjoy the resources below.

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Our Reformational Confession

We treasure the principles of grace alone, through faith alone! Check out the section of our Statement of Faith that address the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Reformation Song by Bob Kauflin & Tim Chester

Jeff Purswell’s Sermon on Psalm 46: A Mighty Fortress”

The theology of the Reformation was about a trustworthy, powerful, Sovereign God who is a refuge for all who will trust in him. Jeff Purswell’s sermon on Psalm 46 is a call to take refuge in our sovereign God.

Sovereign Grace exists to plant and strengthen churches for the glory of God, and in His extraordinary grace, four Sovereign Grace churches were planted in September. I’m not sure I remember a month like this in our history and to celebrate, giving all the glory to the Lord, here’s some brief updates from three of the plants…

Cross of Grace Church, North Manchester, IN

“On September 21, 2025, Cross of Grace Church in North Manchester, Indiana. held our first service. This day was the culmination of a 5+ year process of taking steps toward planting in this town. 

God was so kind to us in our first gathering. Not only did everything go smoother than I ever would have expected, but we even had 118 people in attendance from the community--68 more people than our core group! Praise the Lord!

After our time of worship together, we held a spaghetti dinner in the gym, where people could continue to get to know one another. Around 80% of those people stuck around for dinner, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship. 

The gospel was sung, prayed, preached, and displayed on our first Sunday. Please pray that the Lord would cause that seed of the gospel to begin to grow for many. Pray that the Lord would bring back the non-Christians who joined us. Pray that he would use our church to make Jesus big in our community!"

Thank you!

Adam Penird - Lead Pastor

Emmanuel Church, Coatesville, PA

“God was incredibly good to us on the launch Sunday for Emmanuel Church! Our launch team of around 50 adults and children gathered with joy and anticipation—and the Lord exceeded our hopes by bringing over 30 guests to join us. Together we lifted our voices in heartfelt worship, prayed earnestly, sat under the proclamation of God’s Word, and shared communion together. It was a remarkably ordinary service — and it was fantastic, because our extraordinary God met us!

The atmosphere was filled with joy and expectancy. Guests commented on the life in the room and the sweetness of gathering around the gospel. Afterward, we lingered long over lunch, where conversations and laughter flowed freely, and genuine fellowship marked the day. It was a beautiful foretaste of the kind of church we long to be: a joyful, generous, ordinary church family delighting in the gospel deeply, applying it broadly, and proclaiming it boldly.

We are overwhelmed with gratitude for how God has already been at work and so excited to see what He will do in the weeks and months ahead. Praise God for such a joyful beginning. Roll on next week!”

Nathan Smith - Lead Pastor

Trinity Church, Galloway, NJ

“I never saw myself as a church-planter.  I am simply a local church pastor who wants to disciple people to love God and those around them for the sake of the Kingdom. I don’t have a pioneer spirit. So, when Greentree Church began to talk of church planting in Galloway, I assumed someone else would need to go. Two years later, God had worked in my heart to see that I was the one to go and plant this new church.

Galloway is about 30 minutes north of Greentree Church.  Most of the people who live there have no connection to any kind of Christian church. But by God’s providence, Greentree had a committed core of believers who lived in the Galloway area. They were committed members of Greentree, but the distance made it hard for some of them to be as involved as they would like and somewhat disconnected from Greentree’s emphasis on local outreach.

We planted Trinity Church of Galloway to disciple those people to reach their community for Christ.  We want their friends and neighbors to experience the corporate witness of the local church – to see the beauty and glory of Christ among his people gathered and sent out in his name.  We seek to be salt and light to the people of Galloway.”

Eric Huber - Lead Pastor

This blog was originally published on October 8, 2025 on our Missions blog. To view the original post, click here.

Sovereign Grace Sermons can now be found on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Once a week, we’ll be dropping a sermon from the archives, so go ahead and hit subscribe to add to your weekly listening routine.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater Podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our executive director.

Mark, on a previous podcast, we spent some time talking about how you and the leadership team are seeking to steward the remarkable global expansion that God has brought to us in Sovereign Grace. We want to build our global partnerships well and wisely. On a previous podcast, we talked about a global strategy to do that, to seek to ensure that we are partnering well and wisely. You recently updated the executive committee about how that's going, and you want to talk to us about it.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I do. Last week at the Executive Committee retreat, I was just giving them a broad update on a number of things happening in Sovereign Grace, in a number of different categories. One of those being our global expansion. The executive committee, like me, we are so grateful to God for the opportunities that he's given us to plant churches and partner with churches throughout the world. I mean, we're stunned, actually. We're just following God in something we never expected that we would follow him in. All these opportunities we have—it is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. We're grateful for it. We're trying to respond to it in a wise way. But the main thing is that God gets all the glory. This is not some big plan that we had. It's just God at work, advancing the gospel and saving more people who don't know Christ as their Savior. So that's where we start.

This vlog was originally published on The Mark Prater website on September 1, 2025. To view the original post, click here.

An update from Joshua Varnedoe, Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church, North Knoxville, Tennessee, USA…

On Sunday, August 17th, Christ Community Church opened its doors to the community of North Knoxville. This morning was the product of two and a half years of prayer, discussion, planning, and more prayer! It was a celebration of the Lord’s faithfulness to both Cornerstone, the sending church, and Christ Community.

Since its founding in 1990, Cornerstone has been gripped with a passion to reach the lost. Over the years, this has been illustrated by its vibrant campus ministry at the University of Tennessee and the church’s love for church planting. In the last 15 years, CCK has planted 3 churches: Redeeming Grace in Franklin, TN, Trinity Grace in Athens, TN, and Christ Community in North (downtown) Knoxville.

Christ Community Church was planted so that those living in the North Knoxville community might hear the Gospel and trust in Jesus Christ by faith. One of the reasons why this part of town was such an attractive location for a new church was the lack of spiritual life. The philosophies and priorities of man reign supreme in the coffee shops, the grocery stores, and in the neighborhoods. Our mission is to bring light into dark places by preaching the Gospel of Christ which is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

Cornerstone Church has sacrificed in significant ways for this church plant, most pointedly in the people they have joyfully sent out for the cause of Christ. Represented in the church plant team are families who have been members of CCK for decades. A large number of them became Christians and got married through CCK’s campus ministry. Still more have been faithful servants in the church—community group leaders, musicians, children’s ministry teachers, and the list goes on. However, because they love the mission, they eagerly volunteered to help start a new church in North Knoxville. Most of our team live within 10 minutes of where Christ Community is located, and they have been boldly inviting their neighbors, co-workers, and friends to come on a Sunday morning.

The Lord graciously provided a meeting space for Christ Community through a local Baptist church. We began renting their gym and some classrooms earlier this year and have gradually updated our new space with fresh paint, new lights, wall décor, etc. Finally, after months of hard work, Christ Community was ready for our first Sunday.

Our first service was a joyful occasion. God’s grace was on display as members of the planting team arrived early to prepare for the meeting. As the morning progressed, we were shocked by the number of new faces that came through the door. Many had heard about Christ Community from friends and neighbors. One family had been waiting for us to launch all summer!

We sang songs celebrating the grace of God in Christ, we prayed together, we began our series in the Gospel of Mark, and we received the Lord’s Supper for the first time as a church. The Lord was present with us, and we were aware of his pleasure in our gathering. 

Looking forward, much of our focus and energy is being devoted towards outreach and evangelism. We’re spending a lot of time thinking about creative ways to engage our community. We want to build new relationships and invite more people to join us on Sundays. Who knows who might walk through the doors of Christ Community Church! May the Lord of the Harvest receive all the glory for what he has done and for what he will do!

This blog was originally published on September 3, 2025 on our Missions blog. To view the original post, click here.

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta and Regional Leader for SGC Australia…

In early August, we had the joy and privilege of hosting Jeff and Julie Purswell here in Australia for our TOGETHER 2025 combined churches retreat. We went away to the coast for the weekend and, even though it rained the whole time, that didn’t spoil it at all. We enjoyed rich fellowship, fun, worship, and time sitting under God’s Word. It was a special event for us as we held our largest church retreat yet, with over 340 people attending, and it marked 15 years of Sovereign Grace Churches Australia. It truly was memorable.

This blog by Dave Taylor was originally published on September 3, 2025 on our Missions blog. To view the original post, click here.