In a recent podcast, Mark Prater gave an update on strategic global leaders in Sovereign Grace, and in an Emerging Nations post, he highlighted God’s generous provision for global expansion:

“God is giving us good, strategic, theologically discerning leaders throughout the world. Carlos Contreras is obviously one of them. Manolo Quintal is one of them. Hellman Avila is one of them in Latin America. As well as Joselo Mercado.

But in the Philippines we have Jeffrey Jo, and in west Africa with Dyonah Thomas, and Michael Granger in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Christian Wegert in Hamburg, Germany, Nathan Smith in Bristol, England. These are all men who are important leaders for us to help us steward any global opportunities the Lord gives us. They're not Americans. They're doing ministry in their culture and in their nation or part of the world. And I think that's just going to strengthen and shape Sovereign Grace in the years to come. So we want to be investing into those men which is why I'm taking this trip. And to that end Dave Taylor and I have put together a global leadership development plan. Many of those names, I just mentioned, we hope to pull together in 2022 after Dave can get out of Australia to just do some leadership development with them because we think they're important part of our future.

God is also giving us people who are giving generously to financially support our global expansion. In other words, God is faithfully providing for the God-given opportunities to partner with churches globally through the sacrificial giving of faithful saints, most of whom are members of Sovereign Grace churches.”

---

Mark Prater is the Executive Director for Sovereign Grace Churches and serves as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church.

Dave Taylor is Director of Emerging Nations for Sovereign Grace Churches and serves as the lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney.

The Mark Prater podcast Strategic Global Leaders was posted on Aug 2, 2021. The full post God’s Faithful Provision for Global Opportunities originally appeared on the Emerging Nations blog on Aug. 1, 2021.

Not all of the pioneering work of Sovereign Grace Churches can be reported openly and easily. For some their work is in countries “closed” to the Gospel and so the reporting of such has to be discreet, as is the case with the following update from our team leader in Thailand, SE Asia.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15a).

Paul’s words still ring true in unreached places in the 10-40 window like Thailand. This Buddhist majority country of 69 million where worship of idols and spirits is the norm, has an enormous need for the gospel and laborers.

---

Dave Taylor is Director of Emerging Nations for Sovereign Grace Churches and serves as the lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney. He resides in Australia with his wife Emma and their five children.

The full post Reaching The Unreached in SE Asia originally appeared on the Emerging Nations blog on May 5, 2021. Emerging Nations exists to serve the pioneering work of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world.

My favorite conference is the annual Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors & Wives Conference. It’s my favorite because of the rich fellowship we enjoy, the soul-strengthening preaching we receive, and the faith-stirring updates we hear about what God is doing in our small family of churches around the world. Therefore, you can imagine my disappointment when the Leadership Team and I made the difficult decision to cancel our 2020 conference because of the global pandemic. And you can also imagine my excitement when we made the decision to have a Pastors & Wives Livestream Event on November 11, 2020. A livestream can never replace a conference, but it seemed to be a timely encouragement for the pastors and wives in Sovereign Grace and the guests we had invited to join us.

During our livestream, I asked Dave Taylor, our Director of Emerging Nations, to give an update on what God is doing through our small family of churches around the world. Because Dave’s update was so exciting and faith-building, we wanted you to be able to watch it. Therefore, we produced a video that captures Dave’s “Global Update” given during our livestream event. You can watch the video below.

I hope this video encourages you as it did me. I’m humbled by all that God is doing in our small denomination throughout the world. It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes!

---

Mark Prater is the Executive Director for Sovereign Grace and serves as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church. Mark and his wife, Jill, have three adult daughters and ten grandchildren.