Recently on the podcast, Ben and I talked about 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9 with truths that can stir our faith for church planting. Here are some excerpts from the transcript, with the full podcast linked below.

Paul writes in verse 5, "What then is Apollos, what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth. He who plants, he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field and God's building."

So just a couple of thoughts; one, in the text he says twice, that it is God that gives the growth. And, we have to have a component of faith to our church planting. That we believe our God will give the growth when we plant churches. And, when we talk about church planting there’s lot about methodology and that's really good and really helpful. So we should study those things and even put some of those methods into practice because we want to plant strong churches, but we also want to believe that God will give the growth.

Second, we are called God's fellow workers. That's stunning to me. That God would involve us in the work of his mission, but then to be called fellow workers with God, is amazing. And so when we church plant, we are laboring with God in his field, planting and watering, knowing that he will give the growth. And so church planting is a privilege because we are laboring with God. We are fellow workers with God. So, just a couple of thoughts from a text that I hope stirs us to think about church planting more and pray about church planting, and the Lord may just lead you to plant a church in the coming year or two, believing that he will give the growth.

This graphic contains a few of our highlights from 2022 (according to numbers). God has been faithful!

This summer we held a Youth Camp experience for 83 of our sponsored children in Ethiopia. The camp was organized by about 20 older teens and adult leaders from my home church - Covenant Fellowship in Pennsylvania - where a summer Youth Camp is an eagerly anticipated annual tradition. We asked the American team to give our sponsored teens a similar experience, with our in-country staff and church partners helping us adapt the Youth Camp concept for the Ethiopian context.

Throughout the 4-day camp, our sponsored kids participated in games and activities, enjoyed growing in relationship with one another, and encountered the Gospel daily in sermons, songs, and discussion groups. It was a beautiful expression of partnership as well, with about half the messages preached by visiting pastors from America and half by our Ethiopian partners. 

Please join me in praying that the Gospel seeds planted in our Ethiopian youth will bear much fruit in the months and years to come as lives are being changed for time and eternity.

---

Doug Hayes is the Executive Director of Covenant Mercies in Glen Mills, PA.

The Sovereign Grace Churches Press Info Page highlights links to Sovereign Grace Music, the Pastors College, SGC Missions, our polity, events, and historical statements with FAQs. We’re a family of congregations that partner together to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do this by planting and strengthening churches around the world. For more information please contact us at editor@sovereigngrace.com.

Partnership is biblical, and it is a gift! Until 1 year ago, my regular experience was being meaningfully partnered with other Sovereign Grace local churches. Having moved to Europe in July 2023 we came to a continent where interdependency is lacking. In my country, Italy, churches battle for turf rather than serve one another. The gospel witness is so lacking in some countries that the nearest like-minded, theologically-grounded church could be in a country where a different language is spoken. The result is that pastors in Europe often feel alone and are tempted to think their work is futile. Europe needs rich gospel partnership.

That is one reason I am so grateful for Sovereign Grace: the leaders and members of Sovereign Grace across the globe are making an investment in Europe for the glory of God, the good of pastors, and for local churches. A recent expression of this was our first Sovereign Grace Europe retreat. Pastors from Belarus, Poland, Italy, the UK, Turkey, and Czech Republic gathered in Warsaw from 21-23 June to receive refreshment from God’s Word, build relational connections, and begin dreaming about what SGC-Europe could be. We were joined by Mark Prater and Dave Taylor, who invested care and teaching as well as Kyle Huber who has significantly invested in the Belarussian pastors and connected them to SGC.

---

Ed O'Mara is a Sovereign Grace Church Planter in Italy and Area Leader for Europe.

The post first appeared on the SGC Missions blog on July 5, 2023.

More than a few women have asked us how we should view a woman's role in leading music on Sundays in light of Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 11:33-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15. So recently on the Sound Plus Doctrine podcast, we invited Jeff Purswell, dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College, to join us for a conversation on how we can think about this topic in a way that seeks to honor God's Word as well as the significant role women play in our gatherings.

If you’d like to know more, listen to the podcast below with additional recommended resources.