Conference resources are now posted on the website: audio & video for the main sessions, breakout sessions with outlines, testimonies and a Spotify playlist.

“God was very, very good to us. One of the ways he was good to us was through the teaching we enjoyed in the main sessions and the breakout sessions. For each of those main sessions and breakout sessions, we want to make sure that they not only serve in the moment during the conference, but actually can provide ongoing resources for pastoral teams and for leaders and members of our churches. And so I just want to make sure that folks access those, all of the audio and most of the video.” ~ Mark Prater, on his recent podcast.

Recently on the Mark Prater podcast, Mark shared about the practice and miracle of prayer. Here is a clip from that conversation with Ben Kreps. The full podcast is linked below.

One of my favorite expository commentators is Dale Ralph Davis, and he writes this in his commentary on the book of Judges.

He says, "Yahweh's hearing, God'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 kingdom of glory, who stoops down, stoops down to listen to our verbs and nouns, our adverbs and questions, our groans and tears."

That's a wonderful quote because it reminds us of this repeated miracle every time we go to God in prayer; that he stoops down and he listens to us and then he answers our prayers according to his good plans and his goodwill. That is an amazing thing that we can't trivialize, that should never become routine. The fact that God hears us and acts on our prayers in just wonderful.

We plant churches to serve our communities and to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ.

This video highlights just one example of what the Lord has done and is doing through our church planting efforts—which is why we have made church planting such a large part of our mission as a denomination.

What is most evident (and what we hope you are most encouraged by) in this video is the saving grace of God. He continues to move on the hearts of those in need of him. This video is an inspiring reminder of how God pursues us, provides grace, and, in his kindness, does it through the local church.

We are grateful to God for Stephen and his faithful service to the men and women in his community. May God continue to add to Grace City Church of Frankford.

Please consider giving to the Sovereign Grace Church Planting Fund. The prayers and the generosity of the members and friends of our churches will allow us to continue to plant churches in the United States and beyond.

Let us continue to plant churches to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, all for His glory alone.

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta and National Leader for SGC Australia…

On September 15th, we had the immense joy of celebrating our 5th Anniversary since planting Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta. It was a day full of gratitude and joy, and in true SG Parra fashion, we packed the morning with baby dedications, new member inductions, and the baptism of a new believer! It was a special moment in the life of our church family.

When the 28 of us first left Sovereign Grace Church, Wahroonga, we were excited, hopeful, "ready"—and blissfully naïve! Five years and a global pandemic later, we are still excited and hopeful, eager to serve, but perhaps a bit more seasoned.

Through it all, we have sought to be an ordinary church proclaiming an extraordinary gospel. It’s been a joy to witness God’s Word taking root in hearts and transforming lives from the inside out.

This post originally appeared on our SG Missions blog.

An update from Andy Farmer, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, USA…

Our 2024-25 US Church Planting Cohort kicked off with a retreat in Glen Mills in late September. Five men gathered with me and Nick Kidwell for a time of relational connection, instruction and strategic thinking for church plants that are anticipated to launch over the next twelve months.

The cohort this year consists of:

• Mario Figueroa, who is planting a bi-lingual church in Tampa, FL in connection with Grace Church of Orlando.

• Eric Huber, who is planting a church in Galloway, NJ out of Greentree Church in Egg Harbor, NJ.

• Adam Penird, who is planting a church in North Manchester, IN out of Christ Covenant Church in Winona Lake, IN.

• Nathan Smith, who is planting a church in Coatesville, PA out of Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA.

• Howard Varnadoe, who is planting a church in Springhill, TN out of Redeeming Grace Church in Franklin, TN.

We began our monthly zoom calls in October talking about how to gather and pastor folks toward a church plant. In the next few months we’ll be talking about things like assessing locations and meeting facilities, developing missions and evangelism strategy and planning for plurality. 

Please pray for these men as they work toward the requirements for approval of their plant proposals in their regions and for their families as they begin to make transitions toward the church planting experience. 

This blog was originally shared on our SG Missions blog. Click here to see the original post.

The National Church Planting Group is looking forward to gathering again at this year’s Pastors Conference. We’ll be hosting an Info Meeting that will be held Wednesday, November 6th from 3-4 pm at the conference hotel. We hope those of you who are attending the conference can join us!

At Sovereign Grace Churches, we seek to serve both church planting candidates and local churches in a number of ways. You can read more about the Assessment for Church Planters, the Small Towns Initiative, and the Antioch Program in more detail on our SGC Pastors website. We also have a number of tools and resources available there to serve church planters.

See you soon in Orlando!
Joel Shorey

Joel Shorey serves as the lead pastor at Redeemer Fellowship and Director of Church Planting with Sovereign Grace Churches.