The Sovereign Grace Journal is a publication of original theological, practical, and devotional articles written by Sovereign Grace pastors around the world, to equip our pastors, strengthen members of our churches, and celebrate the gospel values we share. It includes book reviews, resources, and more.

We publish the Sovereign Grace Journal with the hope that it will influence generations to come. I dream of a day, long after I’m gone and in glory, when someone reads the Journal and knows what it means to be in a Sovereign Grace church. May the power of the gospel produce that kind of gospel heritage, and may the power of the gospel produce that kind of gospel fruit found in these articles for generations to come, all for the glory of God.

There are five editions of the Journal now with more than 80 articles to equip and strengthen you and celebrate the gospel we share.

Christ Our Treasure (Spring 2021)

A Christ-Centered People (Summer 2021)

Our Statement of Faith (December 2021)

Our Shared Values (June 2022)

Our Shaping Virtues (October 2022)

The team coordinating gospel-centred translation work in Chinese: Andrew Leung, Perry Wang, Fengyu Ji and their wives.

It’s a joy to know that God is propelling his gospel forward among all nations. It’s an even greater joy to know that Sovereign Grace churches get to play a small part in this Great Commission. I have been privileged to be coordinating much of the translation work that is undergoing in various parts of the world, and I would love to share some of the highlights over the past year and what’s coming down the line for your encouragement, but also to enlist your prayers for all things developing for Sovereign Grace Churches in these nations.

Over the past year, we have seen Pastor Fengyu and his wife lead a team of pastors to translate the Sovereign Grace website and the Statement of Faith into Chinese. They are also in the process of finishing translating CJ Mahaney’s Humility and Living the Cross Centred Life and are looking to have these published by a Chinese publisher in the coming months. For the first time, Christians in China (and beyond) will be able to access these gospel centred materials! These materials will also be of great benefit to two potential Chinese-speaking church plants in the US this year.   

With the explosion of the number of churches in the Philippines wanting to partner with Sovereign Grace, translation work is in full swing on the Statement of Faith, Seven Shared Values, Book of Church Order, website and even ordination materials to have them translated into Tagalog and Cebuano. These materials will assist greatly in the further training, equipping of pastors, and the development of Sovereign Grace Churches, Philippines.

Translation work in Thailand has also been progressing full steam ahead, led by our key leader in Thailand. CJ Mahaney’s Living the Cross Centered Life has already been translated, and is expected to be published in print and available on the internet in the coming months. This will help fill the gap in gospel centered resources in Thai, which prayerfully will help strengthen His people in Christ, and reach out to those who are yet to follow Him. The Statement of Faith and Seven Shared Values are also being translated for a Thai website, which will house these translated materials, along with select Sovereign Grace songs that are also being translated into Thai.

Further translation work is also being done in Korea in the coming year. Pastor Songhwan, lead pastor of Lord’s Grace Church in Seoul, South Korea, is coordinating the translation of the Book of Church Order, as well as the recent journal articles on Seven Shaping Virtues and Seven Shared Values into Korean. These materials will assist greatly in the training of three interns and the development of Sovereign Grace Churches, Korea.

Work translating the Seven Shared Values, as well as the Statement of Faith and parts of the BCO into Russian are also in full swing. This is being led by Kyle Huber and being done off the back of several potential Belarussian churches being interested in partnership with Sovereign Grace. 

All in all, there is lots to give thanks for. God is on the move, and what a sheer joy it is to be able to go along for the ride! Come on board, join us and pray into all this work around the world, and let’s together see what God continues to do in the nations through Sovereign Grace. For his glory and our joy!     

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Missions blog, February 2, 2023.

In his devotional book, “Life As A Vapor: Thirty One Meditations For Your Faith” John Piper writes this about prayer: “We pray to God for the enablement of what He calls us to do, and what He calls others to do. In fact, that is exactly why prayer is necessary.” Piper is right. Prayer is necessary. It is vital. Without prayer we can’t fulfill what God has called us to do as a family of churches. Therefore, as we start 2023, let us consistently, and fervently pray for one another asking God to enable us to do what He has called us to do in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world for His glory alone.

Prayer requests are listed below. May God answer our prayers, enabling us to accomplish all that He has planned for our family of churches in 2023 in a way that brings Him glory.

Thanks for praying.

Sovereign Grace Churches First Quarter 2023 Prayer Requests

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

• Pray for the Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine asking God to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to people impacted by the war.

• Pray for the U.S. National Church Planters Assessment that will be held in Southern California in January asking God to give wisdom to Greg Dirnberger and his team in assessing future church planters in Sovereign Grace.

• Pray for Jeffrey Jo, Dave Taylor, and Mark Prater as they lead an Asia-Pacific Pastors and Wives Conference March 28-30, 2023, in Manila, Philippines. Pray that God would use the singing, preaching, and fellowship to strengthen and encourage the pastors and wives attending the conference in the gospel.

• Pray for the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team as they lead a retreat, February 6-8, 2023, that will include our U.S. Regional Leaders, Global Leaders, and a group of future leaders asking God to envision, strengthen, and equip our leaders to serve our churches throughout the world.

• Pray for our missionaries in Thailand, asking God to continue to open doors for them to share the gospel with unbelievers.

• Pray for Jeff Purswell, our Director of Theology and Dean of the Pastors College, as he teaches a new Pneumatology class, January 31-February 3 in Louisville, KY that many Sovereign Grace pastors plan to attend asking God to deepen their understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

• 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.

Recently on the Mark Prater Podcast, Mark mentioned Season 2 of the Ordinary Pastor Podcast and recent episodes discussing our 7 Shaping Virtues:

These guys have devoted the first several episodes to our Shaping Virtues. They talk about why we created these shaping virtues, which are really not unique to Sovereign Grace. They are the work of the gospel, the fruit of the gospel in our lives. And so then they dedicated a podcast to each of our Seven Shaping Virtues, and then dedicated a podcast to resources for anyone; members of our churches, pastors, those that are not a part of Sovereign Grace, to read and grow in those areas, in each of those virtues that are mentioned.

Over the last few years the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team has worked on this project that we’ve now called The Shaping Virtues of Sovereign Grace. Most of the credit for this work should go to Mickey Connolly who labored to produce the fundamental draft of these virtues, and to Jared Mellinger who worked hard at the editing process. We would also like to thank Ben Kreps—his idea to promote a list of Sovereign Grace virtues, and his own list of virtues, inspired us in this project. We are also grateful for Dave Taylor's valuable insight about the usefulness of a list like this in introducing Sovereign Grace to inquiring pastors around the world. Our desire is that these virtues would continue to motivate pastors to build churches that reflect the gospel. We never want to be churches of doctrine without application, of gospel preaching without gospel-shaped character. There are several brief posts from Mickey that discuss the value of each of these virtues, and you can also listen to the second season of the Ordinary Pastor Podcast, where Jon Payne and Jared Mellinger discuss the importance of these virtues in leading a local church.

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.

Rather than give you several different updates this month, I wanted to share with you this one 14 minute video to watch, our 2022 Global Update.

What a wonderful year this has been!

As you watch this video, I hope it encourages you, excites you and reminds you just how glorious He really is. For this is all the Lord’s doing, and so may it always be marvelous in our eyes!

This post originally appeared on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog on December 28, 2022. Dave Taylor is the Director of Global Missions for Sovereign Grace Churches.

Through financial support to Sovereign Grace, we have planted 12 new churches in the last 2 years, 9 of which are outside of the United States in countries like Liberia, Guinea, and the Philippines. We have also adopted 4 churches that enjoy full partner status in countries like Bolivia, the Philippines, and India. By God’s grace, we plan to adopt 60 more churches in 10 different nations over the next 3 years. I am humbled that God has given our family of churches these opportunities.

Many of the opportunities include stories of churches who learn about Sovereign Grace by singing songs produced by Sovereign Grace Music. In other words, Sovereign Grace Music is essential to our mission of advancing the gospel because they write and produce theologically rich, gospel-centered songs that are sung each Sunday in churches throughout the world.

As Devon Kauflin has said so well, Sovereign Grace Music writes songs to plant churches. Whether you are a member of a Sovereign Grace church or not, most likely you have sung a song produced by Sovereign Grace Music on many Sundays in your church. Songs that declare the glories of Christ, and songs that are used to advance the mission of Christ.

We are eager to invest into Sovereign Grace Music by building out a studio in the facility where they are located in Louisville, KY. This studio will be used to record songs, live albums, music videos in different languages, and equip worship leaders to serve their churches. Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music, and I recently recorded a video to tell you more about this studio. Please take a few minutes to watch this video, and then prayerfully consider giving to Sovereign Grace Music before the end of 2022 (in the designation box, choose Sovereign Grace Music from the dropdown). It’s our hope that we can raise $300,000 for this studio buildout now as an investment into our future.

Should God allow us to be a multigenerational family of churches, giving to the buildout of the Sovereign Grace Music studio now will allow us to continue to produce theologically rich, gospel centered songs for years to come for the good of our churches, the advancement of the gospel throughout the world, and for the glory of Christ alone.