The Mark Prater Podcast recently released the first Q&A session where hosts Mark Prater and Ben Kreps took time to read and answer a few questions that had been submitted over the last few weeks. To listen to the podcast, click here.

If you’re interested in submitting questions for future podcasts, click the button below.

An update from Steve Teter, Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church in Franklin, West Virginia…

Pastor and Bible teacher Mike Bullmore was once asked, “Why should someone be a pastor in a small town? Why not locate to a larger, more urban or suburban area with more people, more money, more amenities and greater opportunities? Why should anyone stay and pastor a church in a rural area? It only took a moment for Mike to consider this question and respond, “Why pastor in a small town? Because God has His people there!”

That is why among the churches that make up Sovereign Grace in the United States there are number of churches located in small, more rural areas. While most Sovereign Grace churches are appropriately situated in more urban locations where more than 80% of the U.S. population lives, we have a number of rural churches in various regions throughout the U.S., not to mention rural churches in countries around the world. The Small Town Initiative exists as an informal resource to serve pastors in small towns; both those ministering currently as well as those considering rural church plants in the future.

Rural America, encompasses 97% of the land area of the United States. Sixty million people live in those “wide-open spaces”. Life there has its own, often unique, set of challenges. Declining industry along with young people leaving family farms for better jobs “in the city” often result in aging, stagnant or declining populations. Fentanyl deaths and drug addiction are rampant in many places and few families are left unaffected. Spiritually, main-line protestant churches that were once the soul and backbone of rural life, have become shells of what they once were due to many denominations abandoning the biblical faith “once for all delivered to the saints.”

At the same time in every small town throughout the country there are life-long residents who love the Lord, love His church and who are committed to the Lord’s mission to spread the gospel! Also, and particularly since COVID, there has been a mini-resurgence of people relocating from cities into these towns including young families or retirees who long for a life that is more affordable and less hectic. Some newer residents are Christians looking for a church home while others come needing to hear the gospel. So, while God indeed has His people in every small town, the good news of Jesus Christ, proclaimed and lived out through strong, theologically sound, gospel-centered churches, is rural America’s greatest need.

This coming year, to serve pastors who minister in rural areas, Trinity Grace Church of Athens, TN in conjunction with the Small Town Initiative, will host our first Small Town Summit to be held on April 3, 2025. Walt Alexander and Taylor Hollingsworth, pastors of Trinity Grace, will lead this one-day summit designed to provide fellowship, encouragement, worship and training to small town pastors both within and outside of Sovereign Grace. Our hope for this first Summit is that pastors will be strengthened and freshly envisioned for the vital ministry God has given them in their various towns.

To learn more about this summit or to register, please click here. May God help us in this important endeavor.

This blog was originally posted on our SGC Missions website on February 3rd, 2025. To visit the original post or view our Missions blog, click here.

The following is update about Relay 2025 from Jonathan Logan, a Pastor-in-Training at Cross of Grace in El Paso:

Relay 2025 was a time of encouragement, challenge, fun, and most importantly, gospel truth. What a joy it was to see so many hundreds of young adults from across Sovereign Grace (and beyond) gather around the beauty of the Gospel.

From the first moments entering the building, the conference was marked by gospel shaped life! Here are a few highlights.

There are a few sounds on earth as edifying as God’s people singing together, and the singing at Relay was thunderous! Seeing hundreds of young adults, hands lifted high, shouting at the top of their lungs praises to our God, to see the next generation carrying on a rich history of joy-filled, gospel-centered singing, was so encouraging.

Who doesn’t love T-shirts and stress balls being shot out of a canon that occasionally worked up to specifications? With incredible cover songs, trivia, humor, and lighthearted fun, “Joseph and the Fun Squad” did a great job drawing us all together relationally as we laughed and had a good time.

Our crew from El Paso loved experiencing both snow and late-night Wa-Wa runs, as well as getting some dedicated time with the churches from the (affectionately nicknamed) Wild West region. Josh Payne did a great job coming up with general Sovereign Grace historical trivia, as well as some trivia related to our region in particular. It was hilarious and informative!

My personal favorite surprise was rolling up to a Starbucks, seeing it was closed, lifting my eyes up and seeing God’s good gift to grocery stores, Wegman’s! It was a taste of home for this kid who grew up in Buffalo.

The breakouts were timely, helpful, informative, and compelling and it was an absolute joy to hear from the founding and next generation of pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches. They helped us dig in to the values and virtues we’ve held so dear for so many years as a family of churches. 

CJ, Jon, Jeff, Jared, Dave, and Bob did such a great job of helping us see the beauty of the doctrines of grace, seeing Jesus lifted high in song, reminding us of the freedom found in pursuing holiness, among so many other things.

Thanks to all the volunteers who spent countless hours preparing, serving, and cleaning up at Covenant Fellowship, so that we all could have a rich time of fellowship and growing in the good of the gospel! Can’t wait for the next Relay Conference!

I also want you to hear from one of our young adults, Abby:

“The theme of this year’s RELAY conference was teaching on the doctrines of grace. As a young adult who is relatively new to studying theology, hearing our pastors explain the importance and application of these doctrines was invaluable to me. Positioned right at the start of the new year, RELAY gave me a chance to set my eyes on what is true and beautiful as I begin a new year, which many see as a new start or clean slate. 

It was so edifying to be reminded of the grace of God; how indescribable, wonderful, and beautiful it is and how it fills every part of a Christian’s life. 

I learned that the doctrines of grace will never get old. I will always need to hear them and remember them. I will hopefully always be profoundly affected by them and rearrange my life to live by them. Seeing our founding pastors still tear up when they recount their testimony is so impactful, reminding me that I will never fully understand the depth of love God has for His people. 

One of the highlights for me was getting to reaffirm what the pastors were preaching with singing. I loved that the songs we sang reinforced the gospel of grace that we were learning about. It is one of the tangible ways I saw how God’s grace affects people in real time. 

I am so thankful for our family of churches that presses into these doctrines, even when they can sometimes be difficult to understand, and for the dedication of our pastors and leaders to teach the next generation!”

- Abby

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The team in El Paso also put together some daily video recaps that we wanted to share - Enjoy!
Day 1 - https://youtube.com/shorts/LACpIIx4Vwo?si=QcJUU98z20x-cSiv 

Day 2 - https://youtube.com/shorts/tjLCcrEdAQk?si=0zfJisKmdEVErqkj 

Day 3 - https://youtube.com/shorts/JiUEwS5_s_U?si=S8RjsGoppzB27DPL

All available resources from Relay 2025 are now available on our website. Watch or download main session messages, view photos, listen to breakout sessions, and more. Click the button below to start!

As many of you know, a portion of Southern California - in and around Los Angeles - has been facing the disastrous effects of wildfires. One of these fires, the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, directly affected one of our own churches - Sovereign Grace Church of Pasadena.

We have been in contact with our friends there and have learned that the church is currently seeking to care for and support those in their congregation and community who have suffered as a result of the fire - including some who have experienced the devastating loss of their homes.

Information about ways to support this church and these individuals can be found here. The church will update the page as new support opportunities and updates arise should you like to stay posted on the situation and needs there. 

Let us also be in prayer together for this dear church, all those affected, and for those who are fighting these fires.

On a recent podcast, Mark Prater and Ben Kreps walked through some questions that they received on their website and talked specifically about their desires for Sovereign Grace Churches for 2025. Mark’s thoughts are shared below:

”My overall hope is that we would be a family of churches that has an enduring faith for the good gospel work that the Lord gives us this year and in future years, depending on how long God allows Sovereign Grace to exist. And as you well know, Ben, that kind of enduring faith according to Hebrews 11:6, it pleases God. So, may all that we do this year in laboring for the gospel and in future years may it be done with an enduring faith, with an aim to please him as Hebrews 11:6 says. And so all that we would do in 2025 would give God glory. That's our ultimate goal is to glorify God in all that we do.

But that enduring faith really is expressed in some specific ways that I've been praying about. Now I just want to share a few of those for us as we start 2025. First of all, enduring faith to train future pastors and make any generational transfer of leadership that might occur this year in some of our churches and in the coming years. And if you look at scripture, it can be very humbling at times. For example, James 4:14 reminds us that our life is but a mist. We are here for a very short time and then we vanish, we vaporize like a mist. And so for the Christian, for the short time that we are here is given to this task of transferring the gospel to the next generation so that future generations not even yet born will hear the good news of Christ. I mentioned Hebrews 11 before, that's the wonderful chapter in our Bibles known as the Hall of Fame of Faith in that chapter. And Peter T. O'Brien in his commentary makes this wonderful observation about that chapter. He says, "it is noteworthy that in the list of Hebrews 11, attention is given not only to the faith of the Old Testament examples, but also particularly to the salvation historical events themselves. The examples are set in historical sequence so as to provide an outline of the redemptive purpose of God advancing through the age of promise until at last in Jesus' face, pioneer and perfecter, the age of fulfillment is inaugurated."

So we want to take what we do in Sovereign Grace and we want to lay it into redemptive history. And first of all, what you realize is Sovereign Grace is small. I mean we say that, we know that anyway just by numbers. But really we're small in comparison to all that God has done and will do in redemptive history. And yeah, we're playing our small part of advancing the gospel, the promise of God in saving sinners like us as we wait for the culmination of the age of fulfillment. That's where we fit in redemptive history. So let us use the short time we have, including 2025 to just equip the next generation to take this gospel and run with it and to equip future pastors as well.”

This podcast was originally published on The Mark Prater Podcast website on January 6, 2025. To listen to or read the full podcast, click here.

To submit a question for a future podcast, click the button below.