Pastors in Sovereign Grace Churches discuss a wide range of topics related to the life and work of the average local church pastor. The Ordinary Pastor Podcast is hosted by Jon Payne, Jared Mellinger, and other SGC pastors.
Season 2 premiered in August with The Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith, followed by talks on a few of Our Shaping Virtues: Humility, Joy and Gratitude.
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.
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!”
Jared Mellinger is Senior Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA.
Fieles 2022 Pastors Conference in Juarez, 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.
More updates on Sovereign Grace, Mexico:
Carlos Contreras is Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Sovereign Grace Regional Leader for Mexico
This quarter we wanted to provide an update for you on Sovereign Grace Music. It's been some time since we've done so. And not only is Bob doing his usual great work, but he has grown his team too. And we wanted you to hear more about it.
In this video, Bob shares about the mission of Sovereign Grace Music. As Devon puts it, "We write songs to plant churches." Included in the update are resources produced this year, as well as our opportunities in the Spanish speaking world. He also shares about the training they are focusing on--producing the Sound + Doctrine podcast, the WorshipGod Conference and the Worship Intensive. There is so much packed into this video. You can find it on Vimeo here.
As you watch this video, prayerfully consider giving to Sovereign Grace to fund our shared passion to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ through Christ centered, God exalting music, all for His glory alone.
We’re excited to share that we have an online store where you can find and purchase some SGC “swag”!
As this store is primarily a place to find branded material when or if you need them, we aren’t seeking to promote the store or make it a prominent page on our websites, but you will find it at the bottom of our sites, in the footer.
Scroll to the bottom of the site and you will see a link to the store under our Resources section. There, you’ll find t-shirts, sweatshirts, water bottles, hats, coffee cups, and more.
When the gospel of Jesus Christ is embraced, it produces a culture marked by the fruit of the gospel. All churches that have come to know the grace of God should prioritize and pursue those qualities that are in keeping with the message of grace. In Sovereign Grace, the explicit gospel-focus that has marked our history has led us to value seven particular Shaping Virtues: humility, joy, gratitude, encouragement, generosity, servanthood, and godliness.
The list is not intended to be exhaustive. None of us perfectly demonstrates these qualities, and for this reason we press on toward a fuller expression of each shaping virtue in our lives. Ultimately, it is God who graciously creates and grows these qualities in his people, and he has promised to bring to completion the good work he began in us.
As we labor to keep Christ central in Sovereign Grace, our hope and prayer is that these shaping virtues will be present and increase in our churches for generations to come.
The Lord promises to bless the one “who is humble and contrite in spirit” (Isaiah 66:2). Humility is an accurate view of God and ourselves. It is foundational to all other shaping virtues, because without humility we will experience neither the desire nor the grace necessary to cultivate them. The gospel humbles us as we come to grasp that “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). This humility before God prompts humility toward others. In keeping with Jesus’ example, we are commanded, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
The gospel is “good news of great joy…for all people” (Luke 2:10). As believers hear and embrace the good news of salvation by grace alone, the natural response is to rejoice. In the gospel, God gives us himself, and in his presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). Christians are commanded to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) because the gospel is a source of joy that can’t be touched by any circumstance in life. Even in our suffering and sorrows we can rejoice, knowing “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This kind of joy becomes contagious in local churches and is especially reflected in our corporate worship.
All gospel benefits are received as undeserved gifts from a gracious God. The only appropriate response to such generous grace is gratitude. “I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart” (Psalm 86:12). A thankful heart is cultivated the more we remember, understand, and appreciate all the ways the Lord has blessed us in the gospel and through his common grace, by which he “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). We are also grateful for other Christians: “We give thanks to God always for all of you” (1 Thessalonians 1:2). Each local church is to be a community of gratitude, giving thanks to God in everything we do: “And whatever you do, in words or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
God is “the God of…encouragement” (Romans 15:5) who strengthens and sustains his people through the ministry of encouragement. There is nothing more encouraging to our souls than knowing that because of Christ, we are and will always remain in right standing with God. However, the harsh realities of a fallen world often obscure the glories of the gospel in our lives. We can grow discouraged and weary as we serve, suffer, and battle remaining sin. Encouragement is the means God uses to fortify us to live in light of what is true. In the gospel and in all the precious promises of God, we have a treasure trove of encouraging truth. Although every believer can and must encourage themselves in the Lord, the emphasis in Scripture falls on the privilege, joy, and responsibility we have to discover and point out evidences of grace in others and remind each other of the truth: “Encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11); “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).
All things belong to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). The gospel of Jesus Christ is an act of cosmic generosity. The cross is the pulpit of God’s love and the overflow of his grace and mercy to undeserving sinners. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) The demonstration of divine generosity continues because, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) As beneficiaries of such generosity, we now have every motivation and grace to be generous likewise with our time, money and talents on behalf of God’s people and for God’s mission.We give joyfully and freely, knowing “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
The gospel saves us into a life of service, first to God and then, as an expression of that service, to others. “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). Jesus, our faithful Master, defines service as true greatness: “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10:43-44). He ultimately demonstrated this greatness for us in laying down his life for us: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He also calls us to follow his example to serve not simply “in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18), thus we love and care for one another in practical ways (Romans 12:13; Galatians 6:2). The Holy Spirit empowers us for a life of service in the church by distributing gifts to every Christian: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).
In justification, God has declared guilty sinners to be righteous through faith in the finished work of Christ and has done so “by his grace as a gift” (Romans 3:24). Thus, those who are freely saved through the gospel are also called, empowered, and motivated to live a life that reflects God and pleases him. Motivated by a desire to please and honor the Lord, Christians are to strive after holiness (Hebrews 12:14) and be doers of the word (James 1:22). We put sin to death (Colossians 3:5) and we live in all things for God (Colossians 3:17). In so doing, our lives testify to the goodness of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the reality of the gospel. Compelled by grace, believers grow in the knowledge of God, obey Christ’s commands, walk by the Spirit, mortify sin, and pursue God’s priorities and purposes (Mark 12:30-31; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 John 5:2-3). This results in godliness, progressively increasing in the believer’s life.
Originally posted by the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team on the Pastors Blog on August 3, 2022.
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