Building relationally has always been a value in Sovereign Grace, and by the grace of God, it's our hope that it always will be. One of the ways that we strengthen the relationships we have among our churches is to pray for one another. It is right that we, as a family of churches, pray for one another, but it is also right that we remember who we pray to. Charles Spurgeon in his book, “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life” writes: “The frail, feeble, undeserving creature is permitted to stand in the august presence of the God of the whole earth, and the Lord regards the poor creature as if there were nothing else for Him to observe, bending His ear, and His heart to listen to that creatures cry. It is essential that we know that we are speaking to God, and that God is hearing us.”

Amazing isn't it? The Lord of the whole earth bends His ear and His heart to listen to the prayers we pray for one another. What a faith-building truth, knowing that we are speaking to God in prayer, and that He is hearing us!

Please consider praying for our family of churches. Thank you!

§ Pray that God would draw unbelievers to Sovereign Grace churches as we hold our Christmas related events and services in December.

§ Pray that God would give the members of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelieving family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers over the holiday season.

§ Pray for the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors Conference, November 14-16, 2023, in Orlando, FL asking God to work in a way that our relationships among our churches are strengthened, pastors and wives are equipped for what God has called them to do, and that our family of churches is united in our shared gospel mission all for the glory of God alone.

§ Pray for our two church plants in Mexico, one in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and one in Huajuapan Oaxaca asking God to provide for their needs, strengthen their church planting teams, and draw unbelievers to both churches.

§ Please pray for Dave Taylor (Director of Global Missions) and Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney as they host 17 pastors from the Philippines for the second half of our SG Pastors Immersion Training, October 14 – November 6. This training will help us to continue putting some key foundations into Sovereign Grace Churches Philippines and bring these pastors together as a foundational leadership cohort. We’re very excited about this step as our two big groups of churches in the Philippines start to come together in partnership in this way, all under the one banner of SGC Philippines.

§ Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Pakistan who have been affected by the recent rioting. There were about 20-25 churches that were looted and burned as well as many homes of Christian families. One of those looted and destroyed churches is pastored by a man who is with the group that we have the privilege of partnering with, in Pakistan. So please pray, that God would meet them in this time of great affliction and sorrow.

§ Pray that God would bring peace and end the wars in Ukraine and in Israel. Pray that God would turn the tragedies of war into gospel opportunities in both nations. Please continue to pray for the Ark Church, our sister 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 conflict in Ukraine.

§ 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.

We often find it easy to trust God when things are going well and difficult to trust him when our world is falling apart. But Scripture assures us we can “trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:4, ESV). In this very personal episode David Zimmer and Bob Kauflin interview Bob's son, Devon, about the way God has sustained him during some significant trials he and his church have encountered this past year.

Sovereign Grace Executive Director, Mark Prater, with Dyonah Thomas, Senior Pastor of Grace Life Church and key leader in West Africa. Dyonah is the first ordained Sovereign Grace elder in West Africa.

An excerpt of a recent West Africa update from Mark Prater:

The best way to summarize what happened at the first Sovereign Grace Churches West Africa Pastors & Wives Conference is that a family of churches was born in West Africa known as Sovereign Grace. Attended by about 80 pastors and wives from 6 different West Africa nations, 2 of them French speaking, God worked to truly forge a family of churches.

Dyonah Thomas has established key leaders in different nations to help build Sovereign Grace in West Africa. Samuel Kotee, Senior Pastor of Saving Grace Fellowship in Conakry, Guinea, Morlai Kamara, Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Life Church in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Roland Blackie who is the Senior Pastor of another Grace Life Church in the Monrovia, Liberia area. Each of these men, along with Dyonah, led through the main sessions at the Pastors & Wives Conference.

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The post Our First SGC West Africa Pastors & Wives Conference originally appeared on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog on August 29, 2023.

Ephesians 3:10 - “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known…”

Redeemer Fellowship celebrated our five-year anniversary on September 9 this year. God has been very good to us as a young church family in Newark, Delaware. As I think about the past five years and all that God has done, I can’t help but pause and celebrate the gift that church planting is and how powerfully God uses it for his glory. 

I don’t even mean to celebrate a particular way of church planting (though I wouldn’t want to do it with any other denomination than Sovereign Grace!). But rather, I want to celebrate the act of church planting in any form. Whether in perceived ‘strength’ or ‘weakness’; whether with 30 or 300; whether near or far; the planting of new Gospel preaching churches is a primary and powerful way that God continues to do his good work in this world and in our lives. 

Church planting multiplies the manifold wisdom of God. 

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Joel Shorey is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship, Newark, Delaware, USA.

This post originally appeared on September 24, 2023 on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog.

I can imagine several possible responses to an article with a title like this one.

• “Oh great. Another extrovert clueless to the fact that God made people different.”

• “Yes! A word of admonishment to the frozen chosen.”

• “Come on. Just let people worship God undisturbed.”

• “Why do we keep talking about this, anyway?”

It’s that last question I feel aware of most as I write another article on what we do with our bodies in congregational worship. Haven’t we talked about this enough? Aren’t people just going to do what they’ve always done? Isn’t it more important to focus on what’s happening in our hearts than what we do with our bodies?

Good questions. But the Bible doesn’t give us the option of minimizing or ignoring what we do physically when we gather as his people in his presence. It matters.

But why? Whether you lift your hands high on Sunday mornings or keep them below your waistline, God gives us at least three reasons why it’s important to display the worth of Christ with our bodies.

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This article written by Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music, was originally published on Desiring God, September 21, 2023.

Sunday August 20, 2023 was a historic day for our growing family of churches in Mexico. It had been over 10 years since we had sent out a team to plant a church, but on this Sunday in an unprecedented event we prayed and commissioned two men to plant two churches. Through God's initiation four years ago, he sovereignly sent us 2 men from different parts of the country to be discipled and trained in order to go back to their respective cities to plant churches.

As part of their training, both men went through and participated in all of the ministries of our church in Juárez. They also covered much theological study and preaching workshops as well as participation in a year-long Leadership Discipleship group.

Keep reading to learn more about the church plants in Huajuapan, Oaxaca and Reynosa, Tamaulipa, including photos and more details on the men and their families on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog.

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Carlos Contreras is lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and key leader for Sovereign Grace Mexico.

The post Church Planting in Mexico first appeared on Aug. 28, 2023 on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog.