“May Sovereign Grace be known for taking the greatest risks of all for the greatest cause of all” ~Mark Prater

Each year, at SGC’s annual Pastors Conference, I meet with our Council of Elders and present what we call a “State of the Union” address. This is just a name for an overview of the last year and a vision of what I hope to help lead us through in the coming year.

Below in the intro is a summary of this vision, as well as the 6 supporting points that I hope will challenge and encourage all who read.

With the number of opportunities that God is giving us outside of the U.S., we can be vulnerable to think that God is not at work here in the States. 

Given the trials we have faced in SG, that have uniquely impacted our churches in the States, we can be prone to think that our reputation has taken a hit, and we can’t plant churches like we used to.

 Given the anit-institutional trends in our culture that tends to look down on the local church, we can wonder if planting churches is even worth it.

I understand those thoughts, but the book of Acts tells us that Paul and others encountered challenges and took risks to plant churches.

Church planting has always been risky, and it will always be risky, but it is a “right risk” to take in reaching the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us take the greatest risks for that great cause of planting churches.

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Mark Prater May 20, 2022

Building biblically faithful churches has inherit risks.

First, building biblically faithful churches means we take the right risk of continuing preach and counsel our people with biblical truth. Given the rapid movement of the culture away from biblical truth, the faithful preaching of God’s Word will have more inherent risk of us being criticized.

We are on a trajectory where the culture sees the biblical truth we preach as the problem. The culture says teaching on biblical sexual ethics is the problem and must be censored. And, in a growing culture of victimhood, the truth we preach, and the truth we counsel our people with will be targeted as potentially oppressive.

Let us be men who risk our lives for the cause of Christ by preaching it anyway for the purpose of building biblically faithful churches.

Second, building faithful churches means that we take the risk of calling our people to a love for, and a commitment to the local church. Whether it is an anti-institutional mindset, or a suspicion of authority, or the lingering apathy people have post-pandemic, calling people to love the dearest place on earth will be risky.

We must build faithful churches by courageously, and graciously calling people to be faithful to their local church.

May a love for the local church not be a first or second generational phenomenon in Sovereign Grace, rather may it be a multi-generational distinctive.

Third, building faithful churches means we take the risk of honestly accessing the health of our local eldership.

One of the primary ways that Satan seeks to sow disunity in the church is to weaken and divide the pastoral team.

“Conflict, poor communication, and relational disunity on a pastoral team can lead to discouraged and weary pastors, and eventually, can diminish the unity and health of the whole church.”[1]

If we are going to call people to love the local church, let’s make sure that the church we are calling them to love is strong and united. We do that by honestly evaluating the health of our local elders, which can be risky, but it is the right risk to take.

Let’s take great risks for the great cause of building biblically faithful churches.

[1] Jon Payne, “Team Health Evaluation Tool” blog post, October 19, 2021, sgcleaders.com

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Mark Prater May 13, 2022

The debate at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 was theological in nature. Good theology defined and shaped their unanimous decision as a Council. 

Last year, this Council unanimously approved our new Statement of Faith that contains the orthodox theology that defines and shapes our family of churches. This Statement of Faith clearly addresses many of the issues we see in our culture: Same sex marriage, gender ideology, sexual orientation, complementarianism, ethnic harmony, etc., etc. 

The Statement of Faith provides a theological foundation on which we stand to protect our churches from cultural influences that can cause theological drift.

Now here is the risk: 

When we stand for our theological convictions, which we will need to do, the culture and even some in evangelicalism will push back.

When we stand for our theological convictions, there is the possibility that people will pull out past accusations against SGC to discredit us. In that moment we must not distance ourselves from our family of churches and from the partnership we share. Rather, we must stand together knowing our feet are held firmly by his grace..

There will be risk in standing for our theological convictions, but it is the right risk to take. I’m asking our Council of Elders to equip the members of their churches to stand for our theological convictions by encouraging them to read the SoF, and the SG Journal to strengthen the doctrinal commitments and the gospel values that we share.

To continue to stand for our theological convictions highlights the vital need for theological training, whether that’s for new pastors or existing pastors. Therefore, I want to encourage the Council to send men to our Pastors College even when it seems risky. The PC model that started here in the States is being replicated throughout the world to equip men theologically, which is important as we expand globally.

Let us take the right risk to stand for our theological convictions.

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Mark Prater May 7, 2022