In his commentary on the book of Judges, Dale Ralph Davis writes this about prayer, “Yahweh’s hearing is the most crucial matter for all prayer…When God listens to our voice, we must never respond with a yawn. We will trivialize prayer whenever we forget the repeated miracle it involves, the gracious condescension of the King of glory, who stoops down to listen to our verbs and nouns, our adverbs and questions, our groans and tears.”

What an amazing, humbling truth that we must never take for granted. God listens! In gracious condescension, He stoops down and listens to our prayers. May that “repeated miracle” fuel our desire to pray for our shared mission, and for one another in Sovereign Grace.

Sovereign Grace Churches Fourth Quarter 2024 Prayer Requests

• Pray that God would give us opportunities to invite unbelievers and the unchurched to Sovereign Grace churches as we hold our Christmas related events and services in December.

• Pray that God would give the members of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelieving family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers over the holiday season.

• Pray for the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors Conference, November 5-7, 2024, in Orlando, FL asking God to work in a way that our relationships among our churches are strengthened, pastors and wives are equipped for what God has called them to do, and that our family of churches is united in our shared gospel mission all for the glory of God alone.

• Pray for the annual Sovereign Grace Churches Council of Elders meeting on November 4, 2024, in Orlando asking God to give our pastors wisdom to make decisions that strengthen our mission, foster our unity, and that best serve our churches.

• Pray for Bob Kauflin as he leads four Prepare Him Room events in December in Franklin, TN, Knoxville, TN, New Orleans, LA, and Louisville, KY. Pray for the musicians, vocalists, and staT joining Bob asking that God would grant them grace to use their gifts to make much of Christ as we celebrate His birth.

• Pray for Pat Tedeschi, currently a pastor at Greentree Church in Egg Harbor Township, NJ who will be moving to London in early 2025 to lead Oasis International Church into partnership with Sovereign Grace. Pray that God would provide visas, housing, etc. for Pat and his wife Dana, and ask God to give Pat wisdom and help to lead Oasis Church to continue their gospel mission in London with a strong interdependency among the Sovereign Grace churches in Europe, and among our family of churches globally.

• Pray for the Philippine Pastors Institute, which started another academic year in September, looking to theologically equip 14 students. It’s the hope that through this institute Sovereign Grace Philippines, and the Mindanao Region specifically, will continue to be faithful in gospel ministry for generations to come.

• Pray that God would continue to provide financially for Sovereign Grace Churches so that we can fund the gospel opportunities He is giving us throughout the world.

Looking for resources from previous events? Visit our event page and scroll down to “Past Events”. Here you’ll find archived messages, transcripts, videos, and more.

If you’re looking for something specific and don’t see it, let us know.

August was a very sweet month for me, in that over a stretch of twelve days, I got to visit both Zambia & Namibia to seek to do all that I can to strengthen our work there... And what a sweet time it was!

First up was Zambia, where I was warmly greeted at the airport by Ector Makaliki (Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church) and his leadership team. I have known about Christ Community Church for many years, remembering when the late Wilbroad Chanda actually planted the church some fifteen years ago, and so to finally be with them was such a joy. I found the church to be exactly what I had expected: joyful, gracious, encouraging, zealous, gospel-centred, to name but a few.

The Sunday gathering was a highlight, to finally be with the gathered saints of CCC. Their unwavering expressiveness in song will always remain with me, what a wonderful picture of heaven they are. Likewise gathering with all of their leadership group and seeing their heart for the lost, both locally and globally was such an encouragement to me. CCC was the first church in Africa to be in full partnership with Sovereign Grace as an Emerging Nation Church, something it was a joy to remind them of and celebrate with them about.

During my stay I also got to spend some time with Zicky Chanda and her son, Penjani Chanda, as we toured the work of Covenant Mercies together, and in particular the work of Lighthouse Christian School. It’s been nearly 20 years now since this school was founded, serving over 400 children in the area, many of whom are orphans and are able to attend through Covenant Mercies sponsorships. It is an outstanding ministry and one I’m thrilled we get to partner with.

This update was originally posted on our SGC Missions blog and was written by Dave Taylor, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney and Director of Global Missions for Sovereign Grace Churches..

An update from Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology for Sovereign Grace Churches and Dean of the US Pastors College.

If you had wandered past the Pastors College classroom just a few months ago, you likely would have detected a medley of English, Spanish, and Portuguese echoing from our Louisville, Kentucky location. The “US” Pastors College hosted its most global class to date, the class of 2024, which graduated in June. Two of the six students traveled to us from outside the United States (Mexico and Brazil), while two of the four Americans hailed from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. And yet, despite the vast diversity of background and culture, these six men and their families formed a tight partnership and brotherhood that vividly displayed the gospel’s unifying power.  

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a PC class bond more quickly than these six students. Laughter filled the classroom from orientation day to graduation, and these men opened up their lives and hearts to one another from the very beginning. What a privilege it was to watch them link arms together, diving headlong into a year of rigorous theological study and discipleship, all for the purpose of fruitful gospel ministry.

Equally impressive were their wives. It was the first time we’ve ever brought in translators for our monthly PC wives’ meetings, and we needed two translators each time — one for Spanish and one for Portuguese! All the wives radiated exceptional courage and sacrifice over the year, which in God’s kindness, produced a harvest of godly fellowship and growth.

We witnessed deep friendships form across cultures as these families cared for one another throughout the year…

This blog was originally posted on September 24 on the SG Missions website. Click here to view the original post.

Recently on the Mark Prater podcast, Mark shared about the recent leadership team retreat where they discussed everything from church adoptions, to publishing efforts, to the upcoming 2024 Pastors Conference. One of the highlights were details on some upcoming church plants. Here is a clip from that conversation with Ben Kreps. The full podcast is linked below.

The Church Planting Group and Joel Shorey, our new Director of Church Planting, just had a retreat last month. And so Jon gave us an update on that. It's just so encouraging to see what work our church planting group is doing and now the leadership that Joel is bringing not only to them, but to our church planting efforts. And that's just very timely because we have six to seven, I think, church plants planned here in the states over the next two years. (Ben: "let's go") And then another 10 outside the states over the next two to three years. So in the next two to three years, we're going to plant somewhere between 16 and 17 churches if things go as planned.

At the SGC Pastors Conference last year I played a short 4 minute video of some of the Global Missions highlights from 2023, and ever since then, I’ve had a number of folk ask me if there’d be something like this that could be played and used at a local church level.

Well, good news, there is now!! The following video is a gift to your church to use as you see fit. It is without a date and so should give you a timeless snapshot of so many of the highlights of our work around the world.

I trust it blesses and encourages your congregation. God has been so faithful to us as a family of churches!

In addition, if you’d like to get more people in your church signed up for this newsletter, then here’s a graphic you can use with a quick sign-up QR Code.

What a joy it is to highlight the great work of our Saviour across the world, and how kind He is to let us play our part.

*This blog was originally posted on our SGC Missions site. Click here to read the original post and/or to read and subscribe to the Missions blog.