In 1927, Roland Allen wrote a book entitled, “The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church.” 

He starts the book by describing what you see in the NT - the gospel is shared, people are born again, and churches are planted as the gospel reaches more and more people. Allen goes on to argue that that kind of spontaneous expansion is not limited to the apostolic age but continues today.

“By spontaneous expansion I mean something which we cannot control. And if we cannot control it, we ought, as I think, to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great, not because it is too small for us. The great things of God are beyond our control.”[1]

 That would describe what I see in SGC right now - opportunities to partner with churches throughout the world that is beyond our control because it is God’s doing.

Currently, we have at least 75 churches outside of the U.S. pursuing partnership with SG and we will potentially adopt 62 of those churches in the next 2-3 years.

Let us take the greatest risks of all for the greatest cause of all-the preaching of Christ to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

[1] Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, Wipf & Stock Publishers 1997, pg.13

Mark PraterApril 29, 2022

An update from Todd Peterson, Pastor of Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, TX, and Key Leader for our Short Term Missions Projects:

If you’ve ever been on a short-term missions (STM) trip, then you understand what a life changing experience it can be. Experiencing first-hand the challenges and struggles of life that many people experience living in third world countries and being able to, if only for a short period of time, show them the love of Jesus by meeting some of those significant needs is an experience that can reshape your perspective for the rest of your life.  

Understanding that organizing and executing one of these types of trips is very challenging, we wanted to find a way to open up the opportunity for this life changing experience to as many people as possible in Sovereign Grace.  Therefore, with that in mind and as a starting place, we’d like to ask any SG Churches who already organize their own STM trips, to consider if they might be opening up a few spots for people in other Sovereign Grace Churches to join them.  

To facilitate this, we’ve created a webpage on the SG Missions website, that will enable churches to post a detailed summary of the trip they are hosting (click here). The website walks you through the process of posting the most relevant details of the trip so people outside the church can understand elements like the location, mission, costs, and even any skillsets needed for the trip.  It also allows you to attach a more detailed “FAQ” type document if you have one, and if not, walks you through how you might be able to develop one. 

Our hope is that once the details are entered into the website a trip profile is created and posted, we can spread the word, and people from other churches can then go view the trips and their details, find a trip that might fit them, and send an application to the trip leader.  The trip leader can then work with the applicants to decide if they would be a good fit for the team and the mission of the trip. 

Our vision would be to eventually have a map of the world dotted with locations where missions trips are taking place and churches that are being connected through the opportunity to go and serve the nations together in the name of Jesus. 

As an initial step, would you please consider joining us in this effort by submitting your trip on our website?

The full post Short-Term Missions Trips Go Online originally appeared on February 28, 2022 on the Emerging Nations Blog.

Emerging Nations exists to serve the pioneering work of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world.

Last month we posted about the new SGC Missions website and Mark Prater highlighted more details in his most recent podcast:

We hope to really serve pastors and we hope to serve the members of our churches and maybe even those outside of Sovereign Grace in this way: we want to stir all of us for the mission of the gospel and reaching the lost with the gospel.

There are three banners on the sgcmissions.org homepage: Church Planting, Emerging Nations and Missionaries. Each has a theology behind it and a philosophy of mission and ministry captured in a brief description. Church Planting is described as “The work of establishing new congregations" and we want to establish new congregations in areas to reach the lost with the gospel. Emerging Nations is described as “The work of partnering in new places” as we have opportunities to partner with churches in the states and throughout the world. The Missionaries banner is described as “The work of reaching new cultures”. We’ve defined missionaries as being sent from local churches to areas or unreached areas where they are either going to establish a church or are connected to a church and continue to receive care and support from the sending church, and care for the church as well.

For those interested in church planting, there's a Church Planting Pathway to express interest by submitting a form. There are also two initiatives: The Antioch Project, which helps elderships who haven't planted churches before to plant churches, and Small Towns Initiative, to help plant churches in small towns in the states and throughout the world.

Under the Emerging Nations banner, you'll find a Partnership Pathway with clear steps for pastors of global churches interested in Sovereign Grace. There's also a link for short-term mission trips to connect Sovereign Grace churches who are planning trips with members throughout Sovereign Grace who are looking to serve. I’m really excited about that!

For someone who wants to give their life to being a missionary, there’s a form under the Missionaries banner to engage with the Emerging Nations team.

I think this website will really serve the pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches, as well as anyone outside of Sovereign Grace, because it gives clear steps to be involved in gospel mission.

When we think of Global Missions in Sovereign Grace Churches, we think about the great commission work of making and maturing disciples all around the world. (Matt 28)

It’s the privilege we have to represent Jesus as His ambassadors, and to take the glorious message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And for us as a family of churches, in an overarching way, that means three things:

• Church Planting: The work of establishing new congregations

• Emerging Nations: The work of partnering in new places

• Missionaries: The work of reaching new cultures

To help us in this great endeavor, I’m pleased to announce that our new ‘SGC Missions’ website has now been launched. There are still some additions coming to certain parts of the website, but there’s still plenty here for you to engage with and enjoy. 

I hope this website envisions you for our shared mission and encourages you to play your part... I’m so pleased that we get to do this together. We are so much better together!

What a privilege. What a message. What a Savior!

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

The full post New SGC Missions Website originally appeared on the Emerging Nations blog on December 2, 2021. Emerging Nations exists to serve the pioneering work of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world.

An update from Sergei Lukyanov, our friend and main contact in Belarus…

First of all, we are very grateful to you for the fact that you constantly support us in prayer.

The situation in Belarus continues to remain unstable, therefore the existence and life of the church in these conditions is difficult. We continue to adjust to the new reality that has changed due to the COVID virus and the political crisis. 

The Protestant Evangelical Church has again fallen out of favor in the eyes of the current regime. Thousands of people continue to go to jail, including many Christians just because they once took to the streets or wrote a comment on social media against the brutal actions of our police. Our church members constantly write letters to them, in which they try to comfort and encourage them with hope in Christ. In addition, church members regularly collect financial aid to support the relatives and friends of those who are in prison. 

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

The full post Planting & Partnering in Belarus originally appeared on the Emerging Nations blog on November 2, 2021. Emerging Nations exists to serve the pioneering work of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world.

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.”

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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.