In January of 1981, Lifegate Church in Seguin, Texas, began having Sunday meetings for the first time. These first corporate meetings were quite different than you might expect. They did not require us to set up a sound system or chairs before the service. The first meetings didn't even take place inside a building. Lifegate Church had its first meetings on the tailgates of pickup trucks parked on some newly purchased land outside of town.

Fast forward to January 3, 2021. This past Sunday was a milestone for Lifegate as we celebrated our 40th anniversary together. Our celebration turned out to be slightly different from what we had desired due to the global pandemic. Yet, with much lower attendance than we hoped for, it was nonetheless a sweet time celebrating the faithfulness and goodness of God over the past 40 years. Speaking of God's goodness, our church family was given a gift from the Lord to mark this anniversary, the most lavish gift a church could ever receive, the gift of multiplication. 

If the Lord allows, this coming Sunday, January 10, the members of Lifegate will experience another significant milestone. As we always do on Sunday mornings, we will gather to sing, pray, and hear God's word proclaimed. But this Sunday will look a little different than usual because we are planning to set aside that time as a "sending out service" for the church plant team being sent from our congregation. By God's grace, we have the immense privilege of multiplying as a church by starting a new congregation, Mission City Fellowship. We hope to plant on the southside of San Antonio in the Spring of this year. Philip Estrada leads the church planting team. He has been a member of Lifegate for over 12 years and a fellow elder for four years. Philip, his wife Danielle, and their two girls will move from Seguin to San Antonio soon. Several families and a single adult from Lifegate will join them, as well.

 As a church, we consider it a privilege that God would allow us from a smaller church, in a smaller town, to plant a church in a larger city like San Antonio for the sake of his kingdom. Most importantly, we understand that this church plant would not be possible if not for partnership--a partnership that involves sacrifice. Planting Mission City Fellowship would not be possible if we were solely dependent on the resources of Lifegate alone. Yet, through gospel partnership with our Sovereign Grace family, we can fulfill our mission to multiply as a congregation. 

One example of our shared partnership with other Sovereign Grace churches involves the South-Central region, which is currently made up of 4 churches, including Lifegate. For many years the elders in our region have prayed for a church to be planted in San Antonio, and for years we have asked God to raise up a church planter. The Lord answered our prayer several years back by placing a burden for church planting on the heart of Philip Estrada. Over time, that burden deepened and became specific--planting on the southside of San Antonio. Along with praying together for San Antonio, the elders of our region set aside money in our regional budget for the hope of planting a church someday. We did that so when the opportunity arose to plant a church like Mission City Fellowship, the churches in our region could all partner together to help that church get off the ground. What will take place on Sunday as we send out this church plant team demonstrates the value of partnership.

This shared partnership isn't limited to our regional involvement. However, it extends to our broader global partnership within our family of churches. The gift Lifegate has received from the Lord on our 40th anniversary is a direct result of our partnership with all Sovereign Grace Churches. As you are well aware, the gift of partnership is only possible because of individuals, families, and churches' sacrifice. Church planting cannot occur unless men and women are willing to go, and churches are ready to send. Mission City Fellowship is no different. Not only has Lifegate sacrificed for the sake of the mission, but so have other churches in Sovereign Grace. Financial gifts have been given from sister churches along with the most valuable resources of all, people. The church plant team for Mission City Fellowship consists of individuals and families from five different Sovereign Grace churches, including Lifegate. Philip will be joined on the plant by another ordained elder in Sovereign Grace, Rob Saathoff and his wife Terri, who are native Texans who moved back here from the Northeast to be a part of this church plant.

And this Sunday, as the people of Lifegate say goodbye to the Estrada's, we will welcome a new family to our congregation, the Bagwell's, from our sister church in Louisville. The Bagwell's made a move to Seguin for Kyle to serve as an intern at Lifegate. Ever since we announced last year about the church plant, we have prayed that if God wanted us to send out Philip, he would send someone here to help fill his position. Through partnership and the sacrifice of the Louisville church, that prayer was answered. 

Last Sunday, the members of Lifegate looked back in gratitude at God's faithfulness. If the Lord allows, this Sunday, we will look ahead with faith as a new chapter in our history begins. God has been so good to us for the past 40 years, and one of the sweetest gifts we have experienced as a church is the joy of being on mission with our brothers and sisters in Sovereign Grace. We thank God for our partnership! 

Please pray for Mission City Fellowship in the days ahead. Church planting is already hard, but it is far more challenging during a global pandemic. Also, ask the Lord if he would have you join this church plant in San Antonio. Lastly, pray that God would save many lost people through the witness of Mission City Fellowship and pray that he would build a strong, mature, and healthy congregation that would bring him much glory.

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Joshua Jordan has served as the lead pastor of Lifegate Church since 2018 and has been on staff since June 2009 after graduating from the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College. He is the primary preacher on Sunday mornings, oversees college ministry, adult and children’s Sunday Schools and serves in various leadership roles at Lifegate Christian School. He and his wife, Amanda, have three children.

Recently, our church in Fayetsville, AR shared this year-end video with the members of their church. Living Hope Church has a stated mission to pursue Christ and his mission of making disciples. The three ways in which the church practically embodies to live this mission is by: Enjoying, Encouraging and Evangelizing. This video is a peek into the ways that God has allowed this church to fulfill this mission despite the pandemic and all the hurdles that 2020 brought with it. And really, it’s the story of God’s grace to a small church that not just grew in size over the past year, but grew with a community of believers committed to the same mission. Take a look at what God is doing in one small corner of the world!

As a family of churches we exist to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ by planting and strengthening churches throughout the world for the glory of God. Together, we help local churches plant other local churches to reach the lost with the gospel as one means to fulfill our mission. That’s one of the reasons that I thank God for Sovereign Grace Church in Sydney, Australia who in September 2019 planted a church about 30 minutes away in the city of Parramatta. Sending some of their best, including Lead Pastor, Riley Spring and his family, our Sydney church was motivated by the glorious mission to share the gospel with their neighbors. What no one expected was the global pandemic that would provide opportunities for creative thinking and a different dependence on the wisdom of God on how to plant a church during a pandemic. This mission video gives you a snapshot of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta's story of grace as they seek to share the gospel of Christ with their community.

As you watch and listen, join me in thanking God for these saints. For many of us, they are thousands of miles away. And even if they are close, our stories are intertwined in a shared mission with the goal to make much of Christ and see the lost find salvation in Christ. Our shared mission knits us together.

And, of course, none of this would be possible without your consistent and faithful financial giving to Sovereign Grace Churches. Thank you for your generous support of our shared mission. If you would like to learn more about how to give, please visit us here.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever" (Eph. 3:20-21, ESV).

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Mark Prater is the Executive Director for Sovereign Grace and serves as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church. He and his wife, Jill, have three married daughters and a growing number of grandchildren.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Well, of course, it’s 2020!” to describe another unusual event seeming to characterize this year? Let’s face it, 2020 was a challenging year filled with cancellations, restrictions, mandates, angst, disappointments, and frustration. As we near the end of 2020, we just want it to be over.

But I want to propose something that may seem counterintuitive, and yet very biblical. I believe that given the unique challenges we have all faced in 2020, this is a great year for us, as Christians, to be exuberant in expressing thanks to God. In fact, Scripture tells us that it is God’s will that we give Him thanks in all circumstances: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess. 5:18, ESV) It’s that phrase, “in all circumstances” that tells us there is no aspect of our lives, or of this unique year, that is excluded from us giving thanks.

To say it another way, we should be able to thank God for the cancellations and disappointments we have experienced this year because our gratitude is an expression that He rules and reigns! In his book, Thanksgiving: An Investigation of a Pauline Theme, David Pao writes, “For Paul, to give thanks ‘in all circumstances’…is a call to lead a God-centered life. To ‘give thanks in all circumstances’ is to live under the Lordship of Christ in all that we do.”[1]

Why should we be exuberant in giving thanks to Christ in a year we just want to end? Because our thanksgiving is an acknowledgment that as our Lord, He rules and reigns over all the circumstances we have faced this year. Therefore, in light of this God-centered biblical truth, I want to tell share with you just some of the things I thank God for in Sovereign Grace this year that reveal His good rule and reign in our lives.

I thank God for how the members of Sovereign Grace Churches have grown in Christ this year.

As I’ve talked to members of our churches in Sovereign Grace this year, a consistent refrain that I hear is how God has used a global pandemic to cause them to reflect upon what’s most important, including their relationship with Jesus Christ. Members of our churches have not only reordered their priorities, as I’ve listened to them, I hear a greater satisfaction in, and love for Jesus Christ.

I thank God for how He has tested the unity in our churches this year.

God has been good to use the challenges of 2020 to test the unity we have in Christ in our churches this year. Differences regarding masks, political affiliation, and whether ethnic prejudices exist or not, have uniquely highlighted the need for us to be people who are “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). I thank God for how He has used 2020 to show us that true, genuine, lasting unity can only be experienced in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thank God that He has tested our unity in Christ, and we have been found to be a people who “are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27b).

I thank God for how He has used 2020 to reveal the power of the gospel

In a year of cancellations and shutdowns because of COVID-19, God has shown us that the power of the gospel can’t be shut down by a virus. Even when our churches couldn’t gather together in the Spring, the gospel was still being proclaimed and the lost saved, like a 49-year-old man in Fayetteville, AR who heard the gospel from the members of Living Hope Church and was born again. By God’s grace, we also planted churches in Sydney, Australia; Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Prattville, AL during a global pandemic. These are just some of the ways I see that God has used 2020 to show us yet again, the power of the gospel, which I thank God for!

I thank God for how He used 2020 to show us that we are sojourners who are headed home.

I thank God for how He has used the daily COVID numbers, unique frustrations, and growing divisions in our fallen world to remind us as Christians that we are sojourners who are headed to our eternal home. Hasn’t 2020 has heightened your appreciation for the promise of eternal life that we have in the finished work of Jesus Christ? In a year marked by trouble, Jesus says to us, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3). I thank God for how He has used the challenges of 2020 to remind us that we are sojourners headed to our promised eternal home.

These are just some of the things I thank God for in Sovereign Grace this year. Now, let me ask you, what do you give God thanks for, even in 2020?

[1] Pao, David W., Thanksgiving: An Investigation of a Pauline Theme (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 104.

Among our 7 Shared Values is the value of “ Church Planting, Outreach and Global Mission.” It states: “Our gospel-centrality entails no only treasuring the gospel personally but sharing it passionately. The risen Christ commissioned His church to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). We believe that commission falls to us and to all believers and that it is fulfilled in a primary way through church planting, whereby the gospel is proclaimed and converts are formed into communities of disciples (Acts 2:21-47; 14:23).” It’s woven into our DNA—we are always thinking about church planting because we are committed to this glorious shared mission.

In the fall of 2018, one of our local churches, Covenant Fellowship Church, planted a church about 45 min away in Newark, DE. Redeemer Fellowship started with 27 adults and has since grown. Our newest mission video tells the story of Colby who was born again because Redeemer Fellowship was faithful to warmly welcome him, and share the gospel with him. When you watch, be reminded that while this is the work of Christ alone, he used the care and labors of gospel loving people to passionately proclaim the name of Christ. I hope your heart will be stirred towards gospel mission!

We are grateful for every opportunity to reach the lost. May we all be reminded that our world needs to hear the hope of the gospel. May we be reminded that we are surrounded by Colby’s who are impacted by simple greetings and the care of patient listening. And may we be reminded that Christ has always at work around us, in us and through us. What a glorious Savior! What a glorious mission!

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Mark Prater is the Executive Director for Sovereign Grace and serves as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church. He and his wife, Jill, have three married daughters and a growing number of grandchildren.

Sovereign Grace exists to advance the gospel by planting and strengthening churches throughout the world for the glory of God. For that reason, I’m excited to share with you one of our newest church plants, Sovereign Grace Church in Santa Ana, CA. Planted out of Sovereign Grace Church in Orange, CA, this small church plant is marked by a sacrificial servanthood that is committed to helping the lost in their neighborhood hear about Jesus. They are living out the Great Commission (Matt. 28) in a very real way as they seek to serve and care for their community.

This video is introduced by our recently appointed Director of Church Planting, Eric Turbedsky (Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church of Orange). I am so grateful for Eric’s heart for his local community, as well as seeing church’s planted in his surrounding area, throughout the United States and in other nations. He and Kyle Houlton (Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church of Santa Ana) are living out gospel partnership together and I’m excited to see how God uses them in Southern California.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video. And consider financially supporting Sovereign Grace. Opportunities like planting Kyle’s church requires money and resources. We are grateful for your consideration of partnering in our mission to advance the gospel through church planting. If you are interested in giving, you can find more information here.

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Mark Prater is the Executive Director for Sovereign Grace and serves as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church. He and his wife, Jill, have three married daughters and a growing number of grandchildren.