As we celebrate the Easter weekend with our churches, there are so many glorious realities to be shared. Not least, the reality that Jesus was forsaken and alone, so that we would never have to be. It’s one of the most overwhelmingly glorious realities of the cross. You and I, in Christ, will never be forsaken. We will never be truly alone.

It’s such an amazing reality. He’s always listening, always with us, and always eager to hear us, and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead...

1. Please pray for all of our Churches over this Easter weekend, that the Gospel would be preached all over the world and that many may come to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour as a result.

2. Please pray for our brothers in Pakistan as they continue to outreach to those working in the brick factories, a seven day a week, early to late job. Just in the last few weeks, six men and women have given their lives to Christ and responded with baptism. Please pray that God would help these new converts to stay strong in the faith, and that there’d be many more baptisms to come.

3. Please pray for our Pastors College work in Africa. To date we have three colleges keen to represent Sovereign Grace Churches in Africa… Copperbelt Pastors College in Zambia, Grace Life College in Liberia, and in addition, Michael Granger & Josh Pannell are eager to launch an SGC Ethiopia Pastors College in the back end of 2021 as well, making up the third. Understanding that not everyone can get on a plane and come overseas for a year, please pray that God gives everyone involved wisdom in this great endeavour, and that many pastors may be trained, equipped and deployed in Africa as a result.

4. Please pray for Dyonah Thomas, our Liberian Leader, as he struggles with some health challenges, in particularly with his heart. Though the symptoms are mild, please pray that the Lord gives the doctors wisdom as to next steps, as he heads over to Ghana for some medical tests, and that healing may be brought to Dyonah’s body. Please also pray for Mai, Dyonah’s wife, as they work this through together as a family.

5. Please pray for our missionaries that have crossed so many boundaries to be out in the field and who are there desiring to proclaim Christ and see Churches planted, often in hard ground places.. To date we have families in Turkey, South East Asia, Croatia and Ethiopia. Please pray that the Lord would bless them, keep them, and establish the work of their hands.

… He always listens, and so thanks for praying!

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta, Australia…

It is a such joy to report on some of the key developments that are happening here as we seek to move forward in Sovereign Grace Churches Australia. The Lord continues to be so good us, and so here are some headlines for you:

Pastoral Internships

We currently have three men in the process of pursuing whether God is calling them to Pastoral Ministry! At Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney,  there is Andrew Leung who already assists Dave Taylor on the Emerging Nations team and is now taking an extra day off work to give himself toward further study and training, and Simon Walker who has taken 6 months off work to undertake a full-time internship involving a mixture of study, character formation, and practical ministry experience. At Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Richard Song is now working for the church one day a week to explore his calling to ministry through study, fellowship with me, and practical ministry experiences. We are so grateful to God for these men, their wives and families, and their joy to sacrifice for the sake of our churches! 

Andrew Leung

Simon Walker

Richard Song

Leadership Bootcamp

Dave Taylor is conducting a year long ‘Leadership Bootcamp’ for 18 men and women between our two churches, as well as a number of attendees from outside Sovereign Grace. This course is designed to help attendees see that biblical leadership is leadership which is fuelled and formed by the realities of the gospel, not by pragmatics of secular business texts, and to help them grow in their leadership in whatever sphere God has for them. 

#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1617320266103_209596 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid { margin-right: -20px; }#block-yui_3_17_2_1_1617320266103_209596 .sqs-gallery-block-grid .sqs-gallery-design-grid-slide .margin-wrapper { margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; }

Outside Interest

Within a short-time of us praying and asking for openings the Lord has brought about three new opportunities to connect with people who are interested in exploring a partnership with Sovereign Grace in some form: a desire for a church plant in their city, an adoption of an existing church, and a church planter! Only the Lord knows what will come of this, but nonetheless it’s a joy to introduce these new friends to SG and to share with them our love for our family of churches, our appreciation for our doctrine, values, and practices, and to see their enthusiasm!

Future Plans

With a desire to build upon the good work and the health of our two current churches, our hope is to see planters trained, pastors cared for, and enduring churches built all across Australasia, and to do it as friends! To help make more of that happen, I now give some of my time each week to making new connections and relationships in the Seminary and Church Planting world, as well as establishing pathways, and creating resources to connect us with future planters, pastors and churches. To that end, we are aiming to start a ‘Leadership Podcast’ in the coming weeks, where we plan to steal all the good stuff we’ve learned over the years from Sovereign Grace Churches and share it with Australian Pastors. We’re also aiming to make videos to help newcomers understand how they can actually take next steps with SG here in Australia. 

Please keep praying for us in all of this. We so need the Lord. May all the glory be His!

An update from Carlos Contreras, Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Regional Leader for Mexico…

Last year, a week before the world shut down because of COVID 19, we were able to host 2 Preaching workshops as we have done for the past 7 years. This year we weren’t sure that we would be able to continue this very significant ministry to pastors in Mexico. However, we were encouraged by many pastors that were asking us to do so by saying that Expository Preaching had become a priority in their ministry. So, we are so grateful that we were able to host our two Workshops, one in Sovereign Grace Church in Guadalajara and the other one in our church in Juarez.

We have been on partnership with The Charles Simeon Trust now for 8 years hosting and teaching Christ Centered Expository Biblical Preaching to our pastors as well as other hundreds of pastors in Latin America . We believe that this is one of the best ways we can serve the body of Christ and share with others what we have enjoyed in Sovereign Grace as one of our shared values. That is being faithful to the biblical text and Preaching Christ from all of Scripture.

IMG_0753.jpeg

Our theme this year was “Preaching the Wisdom Books” by studying the Book of Job. And, even though the registration was limited to about 30 pastors per site, we were glad to see that the majority of attendants were returning pastors from previous years. Most of the SG pastors in Mexico and Costa Rica have been to multiple workshops now and thus serve as instructors or Small Group Leaders, so we, as a family of churches, are able to personally serve and encourage many pastors as well as develop lasting relationships with them.

We pray that as the pandemic ceases in the coming months, we can continue with our plans to expand our reach and open other sites in Mexico and Central America so that we can continue this important ministry to the extended Body of Christ in Latin America.

An update from Ed O’Mara, Lead Pastor of CrossPointe Church in Arnold, MD, USA…

I had the privilege of accompanying Joselo Mercado to Costa Rica from 19-22 February. We served at the Por Su Gracia pastors conference and visited two churches exploring adoption in Sovereign Grace. Chespi Sandoval, Lead Pastor of Casa Vida Playa Azul, and Rodrigo Fournier, Lead Pastor of La Vina Escazu, organised the conference which was hosted at La Vina Escazu’s building in San Jose. These two men are godly and gifted brothers who share our values and long to serve the body of Christ in Costa Rica by equipping pastors to lead their local churches well.

Joselo did an outstanding job preaching in two plenary sessions while we both also participated on panels discussing biblical missiology and pastoral care amid cultural currents. The eagerness and gratitude of the pastors gathered was palpable and it was clear that we are seeking to build God-glorifying churches with the same core values. At the conclusion of the conference we met with a group of leaders interested in joining Sovereign Grace, including Rodrigo and Chespi. It was a time of refreshing fellowship, care, encouragement, and prayer that highlighted the unity of the body of Christ. This budding partnership is already providing great comfort to our new friends who can at times feel alone in the work of ministry!

On Sunday we visited Casa Vida Playa Azul. Playa Azul was once a tourist beach town but it has fallen into poverty. Chespi is a humble and faith-filled man who relocated his family from San Jose to establish a church that would reach the young people of Playa Azul. Their church is building a campus with amenities like a swimming pool, soccer field, and dormitories in addition to their meeting facility so as to provide a place for the community to gather. Through these relationships, they are reaching the lost of Playa Azul. I preached the morning message and Joselo, myself, and Bob Wright (a member of Covenant Fellowship who has a home in Costa Rica) spent the remainder of the day with Chespi, his wife (Milena), and his son (Emanuel). Again, this time was focused on encouraging and strengthening Chespi’s family in their gospel work and caring for their souls.

It was humbling to be reminded that these times of fellowship that are part of our normal experience in Sovereign Grace are not the normal experience of so many pastors in our world. Extending the gospel mission is not merely a church expansion plan, but it has real impact on people, communities, and pastors who desire partnership. What a great grace it is to share the riches and values God has blessed us with, in Sovereign Grace, with like-minded brothers and sisters around the globe. What a privilege to be interconnected in our common gospel mission!

Joselo, Ed, Bob, Rodrigo and his wife, at dinner after conference.jpeg

20190901_034017000_iOS.jpg

In Sovereign Grace Churches, we are passionate about planting and strengthening churches all around the world, for the glory of God. That’s our passion, that’s our desire, and so Jesus is our only hope!

Without him we can do nothing. Without him we labour in vain. We so need Jesus, and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead...

1. Please pray for Richard Song of Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta, Australia, Andrew Leung of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney, Australia, and Simon Walker of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney, Australia, as they begin (and continue in Simon’s case) Pastoral Internships in their Church’s. That the months ahead would be fruitful, clarifying and faith building for these men.

2. Please pray for La Vina Escazu in Costa Rica, Igreja Nova Vida in Brazil, Casa Vida Playa Azul Church in Costa Rica, and Sublime Gracia Church in Colombia, as they pursue formal adoption into Sovereign Grace Churches. These are exciting moments, and so may God gift wisdom and grace to everyone involved.

3. Please pray for Jeffrey Jo in Manila, Philippines; Cornelio Ebo in Cebu City, Philippines; Dyonah Thomas in Liberia, JP Ravuri in India & Mario Vucenovic in Croatia, as they continue to work through the Sovereign Grace Churches ordination process and begin to take their final exams in the next few months.

4. Please pray for Nathan Smith (Lead Pastor) and Grace Church Bristol, UK, as they continue to ‘do life’ in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They have spent nearly 8 of the last 12 months in lockdown of some form in the UK, and though the Lord has been faithful and even added Church growth during this time, it’s certainly been difficult for them all. Please pray that this difficult season would soon come to an end and that they would know the nearness of God to them in this.

5. Please pray for the SGC Leadership Team as we continue to pray, discuss, and plan for global expansion in Sovereign Grace Churches. We so need His wisdom. Please also pray for Todd Peterson (Pastor of Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, Texas) Pat Tedeschi (Pastor of Green Tree Church, New Jersey), Allen Dicharry (Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Midland, TX), Pete Schefferstein (Pastor of Lakeview Christian Church, New Orleans) and Leo Parris (Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church, PA) as they continue to work on the International Partnership Program together. In addition, please pray for our Emerging Nations Representatives Team, as they continue to work with our Global Partners around the world, in a whole range of different ways, to see Churches planted and strengthened for the glory of God. 

… Thank you so much. We appreciate your prayers very much!

26bc2e34-82e7-4b1a-a83f-c3cbbf5eff9a.jpg

An update from Dyonah Thomas, Lead Pastor of Grace Life Church, and Founder of Grace Life Churches, and Roland Blackie, Grace Life Director of Church Planting…

We remain extremely grateful for your continued care, encouragement and support in the advancement of the Gospel work here in Liberia and the region. It is amazing to see how the Lord has encouraged us and brought us closer and closer to him through our friendship and partnership with Sovereign Grace.

As we write we want to reflect on the following areas that we are seeing gospel fruit being born...

1. Church Planting

Through monthly mentoring with Dave Taylor, financial support from Sovereign Grace and both of those things spilling over into our Church Planting Teams, we have been able to prepare for a new Church Plant in Kingsville. 

Kingsville  is a community of over 5000 residents. Most of last year we started training the team and planting gospel seeds by serving the community in several opportunities that the Lord gave us:

• Medical outreach in the community. We ran three different medical outreaches to this community. The area is served by just one small clinic, without drugs mostly, and the only functioning hospital is 15 miles away. Five Nurses and one doctor from two of our Grace Life Churches joined the Kingsville team to share the gospel and serve in this way. Over 200 people were screened, treated and given medication. 

• School planting ahead of the church plant. This community has several hundred children that do not attend school because there is only one public school and many live several miles away from it. A Kingsville team therefore started the Awana Program and secured a temporary and unfinished building, with a dirt floor, on a year and half lease, to launch the only Christian primary school in the area. We got certification for this in the first week of December, and now have 85 students enrolled  K-6 grade. We are already working on a more permanent space for the school, for once our lease runs out.  

2. Agriculture

Sustainability is a big issue in Liberia and the region, and so we’ve developed a system where our Church planters start farms. This will supply food for the Pastor and our Pastors College, as well as supply food to the local markets to generate income for our Church Planting pool fund . 

Our farm in Guinea has already started bearing food - primarily vegetables, and our Liberian land is presently being cleared for animal husbandry. God has gracious saved and is aiding very good leaders, who are also farmers and business leaders as well. 

3. Pastors College

One of the highlights of our last year is the Pastors College building. With over 100 students, from four Nations, in three programs, students gather four to five times a year for learning, and in the evenings they sleep on mats on the floor in our building. A building that has been rapidly wearing out. 

Yet with your help and support, from generous brothers and sisters in Sovereign Grace, we have been able to partner together to move forward with our new and permanent Pastors College building.  We have now been able to complete the laying of blocks and casting concrete on the first floor. This is huge for our students and the ongoing training of faithful shepherds of the Lord. We are waiting for the next week to remove the wooden frame, as we trust the Lord to continue working. Blessedly, all that was needed to complete the first floor, the Lord has provided.

Just last week, it was a great joy for us to have Jeff Purswell teach the Biblical Theology course via Video, and for him, Ben Kreps and Josh Blount, to participate in a live zoom panel for our students. Students thought it was excellent, and such a deep learning curve that many said, “Wow! I now see the Bible is actually a unifying text unfolding God’s single redemption story.”  

We remain extremely grateful that the Lord is giving us more and more opportunities for us to share the gospel and train faithful pastors to lead, and we’re grateful that we get to do this with Sovereign Grace. Thank you so much. 

An update from Joel Bain, Senior Pastor of Grace Family Church, Caymanas Estate, St Catherine, Jamaica…

On Sunday, January 3, Grace Family Church celebrated our second anniversary. The fog of daily life that has been a feature of living through the COVID pandemic here in Jamaica meant that we’ve arrived at that milestone without much anticipation. For most of 2020, we were glad to make it from Sunday to Sunday, grateful to be able to gather to encourage each other with the unchanging truth of the gospel as we all walked through uncertain times. But the landmark of two years as a local church was a surprising and delightful shock that opened my eyes to the tremendous grace of God to us in the midst of his bitter providence. 

In God’s kindness, we’ve been able to have in-person worship services between June 2020 and now. When we were resuming after an enforced break, we expected our numbers to be lower and for people to be tentative about gathering. But much to our astonishment, our numbers have grown and people have been enthusiastically attending, with many inviting friends and neighbours to come with them. 

In December, we received our second cohort of members. We’re now 30 adults and 15 children, and our Sunday attendance is averaging close to 80. The strangeness of this time is captured well in the fact that since we resumed services we have met, gotten to know, and received people as members and yet we have never once hugged them! But our friendships are genuine and our fellowship is joyful and we’re learning to pray for one another and to meet each other’s needs. Our relationships are deepening and God has been graciously leading us to face struggles and sin and suffering. As pastors, we have become aware of our insufficiency and helplessness, but more aware of and thankful for the sufficiency of the gospel and the help of the Spirit.

The reality that God has stripped away so much from our lives serves to highlight the gifts he has continued to generously provide. Gathering has become more precious to us, we have become more precious to one another, and His word has become more precious to our hearts. Recently, as we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark, one of our new members shared with me how he was being impacted by the consistent, faithful, expository preaching and our connecting the dots in the text as we go, and how much his appreciation for that particular gospel has grown. Together, we really are seeing how God is slowly and steadily shaping in us the image of Christ as we grow in understanding Jesus.

Recently, our elders had a one-day retreat. Sean, Sheldon, and I were able to take stock of our journey so far, and to pray and plan for the coming months. We’ve recognized that even though it is still a difficult season, we need to be deliberate in our efforts to lead our people towards maturity in their faith and faithfulness in their witness. Please pray for us in this. We are once again heading into a new lockdown, for most of this month of March (at the very least). Please pray that the Lord’s will be done here in Jamaica. 

An update from Josh Pannell, Pastors College graduate, and Missionary to Ethiopia, Africa…

Greetings from Africa!

Just four weeks ago my family moved from the US to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to work alongside the Grangers at Trinity Fellowship. In all the ups and down of this transition, we’re glad to say that we’re more aware of grace than anything else: God’s grace in calling us to Ethiopia, God’s grace in providing the funds we need, God’s grace in settling us into our new home and new rhythm of life, and God’s grace in sustaining us through it all. “Hasn’t God been kind” is the chorus of our home.

For over a decade, my wife and I have desired to help with church planting, and it’s been a dream of mine to help train and equip pastors. While we’ve never been sure where the Lord would place us, we’ve always hoped it would be Africa. God used our time at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville both to affirm these desires through our pastors and to introduce us to Michael and Kenean Granger, dear friends who have now become ministry partners. God has given us strong desires to come alongside the Grangers, and he’s given Michael and me the same vision for church planting and theological education in Africa.

After two years of prayer and counsel, we’ve committed to two years in Addis Ababa. We trust that God will use this time to confirm in our hearts a long-term call to labor for his kingdom in Ethiopia. We’re following the path the Lord has laid before us, knowing that he will continue to provide the grace and wisdom with every step.

Leaving behind our friends, family, church, and culture has been difficult. We’ve shed many tears and said too many goodbyes. But in all this God has shown us more clearly what it means that he is our dwelling place (Psalm 90:1), and we have experienced more keenly the unshakable joy that is ours in Christ (Psalm 16:11). Perhaps the greatest blessing in all this has been the gift of a wife and daughter who are wholeheartedly enthusiastic about this move. I don’t drag a family kicking and screaming behind me; I lead a family who is running with me and cheering me on. Even in the difficulties, they are unshaken, and their faith serves as a model for me to imitate. What a kind gift from God.

My and Michael’s dream for Trinity Fellowship Church is simple and the same: we want it to be a gospel-centered church that plants gospel-centered churches, and we want to equip Ethiopians to pastor these church. Michael’s giftings are in church planting and pastoral ministry. My giftings are in teaching and theological education. Our prayer is that God would use these complementary giftings to build a network of strongly gospel-centered churches in Ethiopia. To our joy, God is answering these prayers quicker than we dreamed, and Michael and I have already begun laying the foundation for a future pastors college here in Addis.

As I reflect on all God is doing in my family and in Trinity Fellowship, I’m so grateful for our partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches that has made this possible. You’ve trained us, counseled us, and directed us. We’ve felt your support, your enthusiasm, and your encouragement every step of the way.

God is on the move here in Addis, and he is using your gifts and your prays to accomplish great things for his kingdom. Thank you so much for partnering with us in the gospel.

With gratefulness, Josh Pannell

In the last month we’ve had four Global Churches formally asked to be adopted by Sovereign Grace. We are thrilled to announce that all of the following have now become Candidate Churches, and so will formally begin the ordination and adoption process. With great joy, here’s a bit about them…

La Vina Escazu - Costa Rica

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches…

I met Rodrigo Fournier, Lead Pastor of La Vina Escazu in San Jose, Costa Rica when I spoke at a conference alongside of my friend Joselo Mercado in February 2020 in San Jose. Rodrigo was not only my capable translator when I preached during the conference, he had also invited me to preach at his church the Sunday after the conference. On that Sunday, Jill and I found La Vina Escazu, a church of 600 people, to be very similar to a Sovereign Grace church. There was a palpable passion for Christ in their singing, a warmth in their relationships, and a gospel-centrality that marked their Sunday service.

Since that Sunday in February 2020, Rodrigo and I have talked about every 6 weeks. In those conversations Rodrigo became a friend as we got updates on each other’s lives, and he told me that he first became aware of Sovereign Grace by listening to CJ Mahaney’s sermons.As Rodrigo and his elders interest in Sovereign Grace grew, we had conversations about our polity, our Seven Shared Values and our new Statement of Faith, all of which seem to confirm that Sovereign Grace could be a denominational home for La Vina Escazu. On February 25, 2021, a year after I met Rodrigo, the elders of La Vina Escazu sent me a signed Letter of Intent formalizing their desire to be adopted into Sovereign Grace. I’m so excited about the possibility of our family of churches having another church in the nation of Costa Rica.

Igreja Nova Vida - Brazil

From Bert Turner, SGC Representative to Brazil…

“Faithful” is a more biblical (and important) descriptor than “heroic,” but they both apply to our dear friends at Igreja Nova Vida (INV) down in the southernmost state of Brazil – Rio Grande do Sul. These precious saints have faithfully persevered through being abandoned by a former denomination, the tragic death of their senior pastor and the difficulties of living the doctrines of grace in an area where they are little understood or celebrated. Yet, they are joyfully serving Jesus, and, to our joy, eagerly pursuing adoption by Sovereign Grace Churches. The INV leadership team officially signed a letter of intent to become a SGC candidate church last month.

I first met their pastor, Emerson Soares, when I was in São Paulo, Brazil in 2018. He flew 800 miles just to meet over the possibility of the adoption of INV by SGC. Since then, we have developed a warm and deep relationship. Emerson has attended the Pastor’s Conference twice (once with is wife, Tati). I have been twice to visit them in Rio Grande. Emerson is progressing quickly through the ordination process. As a sign of his favor, the Lord was kind to recently give INV a new, larger and better meeting place. Even during COVID restrictions they are seeing new visitors.

Casa Vida Playa Azul Church (CVPA) - Costa Rica

From Joselo Mercado, SGC Representative to Latin America…

I still remember this man full of enthusiasm coming up to greet me after preaching at a conference in Santo Domingo. Between laughs and tears he told me that he wanted to be able to communicate the gospel with the passion that I had done and that he wanted to talk about his family in a similar way. From that conversation was born a friendship that we have cultivated for several years. After several visits to Costa Rica, serving together in conferences, having dinner and laughing, Chespi Sandoval and Casa Vida Playa Azul Church (CVPA) asked to be adopted by SGC.

It is evident that both CVPA and SGC are compatible in the gospel-centered values that define our mission. We hope that in time God will give us direction to confirm this relationship and to continue the work of proclaiming the gospel in Costa Rica.

Sublime Gracia Church - Santa Marta, Colombia

From Joselo Mercado, SGC Representative to Latin America…

Jacobis Aldana is a young pastor with many gifts. In addition to being the pastor of the Sublime Gracia church in Santa Marta, Colombia, Jacobis works in public relations and web development of several recognized ministries in Latin America. Because of God's gifts, many ministries want Jacobis to become part of them. So why does he want to be part of SGC? Centrality and application of the Gospel, this is what summarizes the relationship we have with Jacobis and his precious congregation.

Our relationship describes the mutual desire to encourage each other in the truths of the Gospel, our desire to fellowship for our benefit and that of our families, and enjoy the values we hold dear. Jacobis has built a church where the Gospel is not just academic knowledge; it is a truth that applies on a day-to-day basis. So he wants to be associated with a church group that values the same.

November 10th 2020 will be remembered as a historic day for our family of churches because, on that day, the Sovereign Grace Churches Council of Elders unanimously voted to approve our new Statement of Faith.

From one angle, this action was unremarkable, as our churches have from the start defined themselves theologically. By God’s grace, we have avoided many a theological pitfall, and our gospel-centrality - SGC was “gospel-centered” long before that phrase was fashionable - has remained steadfast. 

Even still, as the culmination of a careful, seven-year process of theological formulation, discussion, revision, and review, the Sovereign Grace Churches Council of Elders ratified a new Statement of Faith that will function confessionally for every ordained pastor in our denomination. Every ordained pastor right around the world... And that’s a big deal!!

Jeff Purswell, the Dean of our Pastors College, says this about our Statement of Faith,

“The new Statement of Faith is precious to us. It is an affirming, clarifying, and mission-strengthening gift. Its very existence declares that the pastors and churches we serve stand united in, and devoted to, God’s revelation in Holy Scripture. Its affirmations of great biblical doctrines root us in historic Christian orthodoxy and the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Its careful distinctions draw vital boundaries to guard against heresies ancient and contemporary. Its distinctive elements express specific convictions our churches hold dear. Its doxological tone captures the goal of all biblical truth—to lead us into a deeper knowledge of the Triune God, that we might more genuinely worship him, all to the praise of his glory.”

How true this is! And such qualities only clarify and bolster the mission of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world. In headline, this Statement of Faith gives our global work the necessary guidance and guarding we need in this great mission, helping us to ensure faithful ministry, by God’s grace, for many generations to come.

To mark this historic moment in Sovereign Grace, we have established a dedicated website for our Statement of Faith: webelieve.sovereigngrace.com, which you can find here. This website is your "one-stop-shop" for the Sovereign Grace Churches Statement of Faith. Please take a good look at it.

May this Statement of Faith protect our family of churches, strengthen our theological unity, charge our global mission, and deepen our worship of God, all around the world.

In Isaiah 66.1-2a we read the following,

'Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.”’

This is the sheer magnificence of God. He is the author and creator and sustainer of all creation. For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things… And what confidence that powerful reality should give us as we pray to Him. All of creation, His wonderful hand has made, and so here’s how we can be praying to Him in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for Jeffrey Jo in Manila, Philippines; Cornelio Ebo in Cebu City, Philippines; Dyonah Thomas in Liberia, JP Ravuri in India & Mario Vucenovic in Croatia, as they continue to work through the Sovereign Grace Churches ordination process and begin then to take their exams in the next few months.

2. Please pray for Ben Kreps, Josh Blount & Jeff Purswell as they teach at the Grace Life Pastors College in Monrovia, Liberia, 8th-19th February. Although the teaching will be online, may it be a rich time of teaching and training for our brothers in Liberia, and would many hearts be refreshed, and many relationships be formed and blessed as a result.

3. Please pray for Jorge and David Del Castillo who at the end of a fruitful season (report below), now find their recent church plant, Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, having to once again meet online due to the second wave of the covid pandemic. Please pray that God would continue to provide for this new church in resources, grace and wisdom.

4. Please pray for Zicky Chanda, her four sons, and the members of Christ Community Church in Ndola, Zambia, as they mourn the death of our dear Wilbroad. Our friend and fellow Sovereign Grace Pastor, indeed the first to ever be officially ordained in Africa, will be dearly missed. Please pray also for Doug Hayes, our Sovereign Grace Representative to Zambia, as he seeks to care for the family and Church by taking a trip to be with them, 3th-10th February.

5. And finally, please pray for the 38 countries that we have Sovereign Grace work going on in, outside of the United States... Australia, Bahamas, Belarus, Benin Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leonne, Somalia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Venezuela & Zambia So many Nations, yet all held in His Hands. … May we trust Him, may we keep looking up, and may His grace abound to us all.

The following is an update from Michael Granger, Lead Pastor of Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Over the course of our Covid-19 quarantine Trinity Fellowship wrote, recorded, and produced a music album about sin and the gospel… Wow! I’ve attached the Christmas song they produced entitled “Kidus” at the end of the this report. Please don’t miss it. Enjoy…

Our plan for planting a church in Ethiopia was always broken up into two phases, firstly a Soft Launch with our planting team; followed by the second, a Hard Launch (or Official Launch) in which we begin publicly ministering to our community. I am so pleased to report that on Sunday October 4th of 2020, Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa had its soft launch in our home. We began with a call to worship from Isaiah 40:9-11 “Behold your God”. That was followed by Abenezer beginning the singing portion of our worship service with Bob Kauflin and Jon Althoff’s song He is Our God.

Our singing was followed by a pastoral prayer and then I preached from Hebrews 11:39-12:2 Looking Unto Jesus. It was the first sermon of a 3-part series entitled Why We’re Gospel Centered. Finally we ended our service by taking communion together. It was a sweet time with one another and with our dear Savior. The last words of the service were, “As my dear pastor and friend CJ Mahaney always says, “I wish tomorrow were Sunday!”

Then, in mid-November we moved from our house to a 200 seat theater in the Bisrate Gebriel neighborhood of Addis Ababa. That was a massive answer to prayer because it is right smack dab in the middle of where we had been praying for a location to meet. Finally on the very last Sunday of the year, December 27th, we celebrated the official launch of Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa. We called it a Very Merry Church Plant and with much merriment of heart I’m so pleased to report that by the grace of God we made in as a 2020 church plant! Our text for that Sunday came from Luke 2:25-35 on Simeon’s response to the Messiah. The sermon was entitled God in our Hands. And we had the chance to sing one of our very own Christmas songs. Abenezer Dejene, our Director of Music wrote and recorded Kidus (attached below) which we sang as a church.

In my opinion, it felt like a very fruitful Sunday, and we're stunned by the grace of God. My brother-in-law, who was serving as usher tells me there were around 150 people in attendance. That might be an exaggeration of 1 or 2 dozen, but he’s confident with his figure. And, after the service there was a buzz of excitement in the air. As for me, my heart is full of joy, a very very deep joy that I get to be a part of what God is doing in East Africa. I just can’t believe it! My heart is also flooded with thanksgiving at the generosity of the Lord in giving us such wonderful friends and such a marvelous Ethiopian planting team. And now, by the grace of God, we find ourselves two sermons into our series on Paul’s epistle to the Philippians. Praise God!

An update from Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg, on a trip he took to Colombia in late 2020…

A couple of days ago in comfortable 80 degree weather, and we are today expecting 3-6 inches of snow!

I arrived home late on Monday night from Santa Marta, Colombia after visiting Iglesia Biblica Soberana Gracia and Pastor Jacobis Aldana.  To be honest, I really did not feel like getting on a plane and visiting another continent in the middle of the pandemic, but my wife, Kathy, really encouraged me to continue the work of encouraging pastors and churches. I am so pleased she did, as the trip could not have been better!

I will just give you some of the highlights...

• The main purpose of the trip, which was accomplished, was to present the church membership with the possibility of starting an adoption process.  The church response was very encouraging, about 5 of the keys leaders of the church communicated their gratefulness to SGC and the impact that Jacobis relationship with me have had in the life of the church.  

• I Was able to spend time with Jacobis and his family, his wife was super grateful for conversations, laughter and care.  Kathy also sent her a very touching note, that she said was something she needed to hear at this time. 

• A prospective church planter from Bogota came to spend the weekend with his wife.  I have been meeting with him for some time and Jacobis has been reaching out to him.  He is considering moving to Santa Marta to be at Jacobis’ church and walk a process there. 

• I had a meeting on Friday with two pastors in Barranquilla.  This church was planted by the church in Santa Marta.  For a couple of years Jacobis would take a two hour bus ride every Sunday after completing his sermon in Santa Marta to preach in Barranquilla.  Out of that effort Iglesia Biblica de la Ciudad was born.  Barranquilla is a city of 2 million. The two elders of the church in Barranquilla are interested to see the possibility of adoption. I already have a relationship with one of the elders, I meet with him on a monthly basis for the past 18 months. 

• The Santa Marta church is helping plant a church in Valencia, Jacobis native town.  This is a rural community 10 hours away.  Our local church help them buy a vehicle that is allowing Jacobis do trip to invest in the leaders in Valencia.  

I’m very optimistic about the relationship with the Santa Marta Church. Jacobis is a very bright, godly man. His main desire to be part of SGC is because of the centrality of the Gospel, he gets that and from my perspective that is the hardest value to get. In my opinion, of all the relationships I have, he is very ahead in the process.  

Jacobis will be starting the 9 month ordination process early in 2021.  We will hopefully have another trip with a mid-Atlantic elder to continue the process, and then in early 2022 me and my family will look to go and spend 3 weeks there to once again move things forward. 

Thank you so much for allowing this ministry to happen! 

An update from David Del Castillo, Pastor of Gracia Soberana Santa Cruz…

Dear Friends,

Last time we made a report was in August and we were ready to start the face to face meetings again. In this process there were many considerations, but we saw fit to start again and with the help of the Lord, we were able to gather from September to December without interruption.

Although it has not been easy to effectively invite people to Church during this time, we see how the hand of God has not left us and several people have come. Because not all churches have been able to return to face-to-face meetings, there are people who have visited us and in some way the fact of being able to meet has been a great opportunity for people to meet us and come. Also the series of ¨Knowing our brothers of Sovereign Grace¨ has represented a great way to receive support and enable some to know us when they see the videos, and so thank you to the ones who made them.

Since we have returned to gathering, we are preaching on the book of Mark and it is being a great blessing for us.

In the previous report we presented Fabricio and Gigliana Salazar as a point of prayer, a couple who wanted to be part of the plant, and we want to inform you that they are here now from the beginning of January 2021. Fabricio is praying to serve in the ministry and studies in “Integridad y Sabiduria” , a ministry of Pastor Miguel Nuñez. Gigliana has a lot of experience in children's ministry, having served and been a part of it for many years. They are a true answer to prayer!

Something else that we want to tell you, where we saw God's faithfulness and his incredible sovereignty, was in a children's activity. Brother Frank Huck from the Arche church in Germany, included us in his program of Christmas gifts to children, they have this program where they help ministries to give gifts at Christmas time, they give them to the children while Gospel is preach to them. We were notified that the money had already been sent, something we did not ask for, but we appreciate the generosity.

When we found out, we were happy, but we did not know how we would do the event, that same week we learned that Fabricio and Gigliana would have to come to Santa Cruz to sign a document. So we took advantage of their visit and skills, so that together with them we held the event, as Frank's church was very generous and they gave us enough for 80 children and in our event we only gave away 42 gifts, the next day we went to the Oncological Hospital and gave the rest to the children who were there. They were two beautiful opportunities to tell children about the true meaning of Christmas.

This time has also been very good in training, as Jorge, David, Fabricio and another brother from the church (Jose Manuel) have taken workshops at Simon Trust on the recommendation of Abelardo Muñoz from the church of Mexico in Juarez, who told us that due to the pandemic they were doing them online. Likewise, I was invited to a pilot workshop given by “predica fiel” Ministry which has been very good and in parallel, I was also able to start again classes at Southern Baptist Seminar after a break for over a year for moving and planting the church.

Please join us in praying that the Lord will let us go back to face to face meetings, something we have had to stop again due to the increasing cases of Covid in the second wave here in Bolivia.

Thank you so much for the support you are for this church, God has really been faithful.

I hope God is blessing you as well.

An update from Mike Seaver, Lead Pastor of Risen Hope Church in Summerville, SC, USA, and head of our Global Coach Training… We are so grateful for his labours!!

One of the greatest assets we have as Sovereign Grace Churches is church planters. These are gifted, called, and qualified men that will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and plant new congregations throughout the world. At Sovereign Grace, we want to give these men a great theological education (Pastors College) and we want to give them practical help when they hit the ground in church planting (gospel coaching). It is with this second aspect in view that we sought to train SG Certified Global Coaches to help our global church planters.

Under Dave Taylor's leadership, Greg Dirnberger and I spent several months training these Global Coaches. The Coaching Certification consisted of a four day intensive training, followed by monthly "Trihorts" where those students being trained would be coached, observe coaching, and then coach another student. These monthly sessions then turn into longer experiences of coaching where the student grows in his ability and confidence to coach as well as receives feedback on his coaching. The student also receives monthly coaching on real life situations of his current pastoral ministry.

Well, in early December 2020, ten Sovereign Grace pastors completed this certification. (Ken Delage, Bert Turner, Kyle Huber, Allen Dicharry, Erik Rangel, Ed O'Mara, John Reyes, CB Eder, Pat Tedeschi, and Josh Murphy). Our "Zoom Graduation" turned into a time of encouragement with each guy recounting how he had grown during the training and the benefit each of them felt as they were regularly coaching and being coached through a global pandemic.

This team of Global Coaches have already been a blessing to our global church planters and we look forward to seeing how this investment will bless SG in years to come.

While the global pandemic that started in 2020 brought many challenges, not surprisingly, the light of Christ has shone brightly in the darkness. Over the past two or three years, Todd Peterson, an elder at Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, TX (led by Ricky Alcantar) and a member of our Emerging Nations Team, developed a relationship with a pastor in India from the Andrha Pradesh region. His name is Jayaprakash. We call him JP.

Todd has had the opportunity to visit JP in India. And as the pandemic affected JP’s village, Todd sought to find a way to help. Asking his local church for help, the members there raised money to help JP buy food to share with the villagers. This is particularly significant for two reasons: one is that most of the villagers are day laborers so food was scarce and two, the village is very segregated. Hindus live on one side. A few Christians and Muslims live on the other side. But when JP was able to purchase this food and create bundles to share, some of his church members went to the Hindu side of the village and gave it away. The result is that some Hindus have visited JP’s church, some even being born again! What a glorious gospel! What a glorious partnership between one small church in El Paso and a small church in India! As one church shares resources with another the result is life changing—Hindus becoming Christians!

If you are interested in more details, please watch the video below. It’s an update that Todd gave Cross of Grace Church.

Psalm 93, ‘The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from old; you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, for evermore.’

None of us really knows what the weather ahead looks like in 2021, but what we do know, and what we can be absolutely confident about, is that the LORD reigns! The majestic and mighty LORD, our sovereign protector and ruler, He reigns!!

What a wonderful truth!! Here then is how you can be praying to Him for us in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for our work in Pakistan. One of the annual activities of the Pastors there is a Christmas Outreach, an outreach that involves 370 small village churches who endure great trials and persecution for their faith. Please pray that the seeds that have been sown in 2020 will be harvested in early 2021. For many years the Lord has been blessing the ministry of these Pakistani Pastors, increasing the number of small village churches they support and together, they have seen many people come to faith in Jesus Christ. Please pray that great favour will once again abound to them in 2021.

2. Please pray for our two Church Plants that have recently taken place in the Philippines, under the leadership of Nilo Ebo - Davao City, led by David Quir, and Negros, led by Peter Magquilat. Both of these Churches have a history with Sovereign Grace and are now pursuing adoption with us. Please also pray for our Churches in Surigao del Sur, Mindanao, who have recently been devastated by Storm Vicky. Especially our church in Cabangahan led by Rolando Agyang, whose house, church ministry centre and farm were all destroyed by a landslide. Please pray for Jeffrey Jo and his church as they seek to care for these churches and help with the rebuild.

3. Please pray for the Emerging Nations Team as they begin to make tentative travel plans for 2021. It can be hard to make plans at this time, but God-willing there’ll be trips for Doug Hayes (Ethiopia, Zambia) and Allen Dicharry & Aaron Mayfield (Nepal) in late January. Please pray for God’s guiding and covering hand in these endeavours, and that if they are able to go, that these trips will be a great blessing to our brothers and sisters on the ground in these countries.

4. Please pray for Croatia and our Pastor there, Mario Vucenovic, as they seek to navigate their way through what has been a very difficult season for them. Just before Christmas the country was in 75% lockdown because of the Coronavirus and then on December 28th, Zagreb and the surrounding areas experienced a major earthquake. Please pray for safety for the people and also for many opportunties for the Church in the coming weeks and months to minister the gospel. People there are feeling lost, helpless and without hope for the future, and so in Jesus, may they find all the answers they need.

5. Please continue to pray for me (Dave Taylor), Mark Prater and the SG Leadership Team as we continue to pray, discuss, and plan for global expansion in Sovereign Grace Churches. The last few months of team conversations have been wonderful and we’re certainly moving forward! We greatly value your prayers though, that His wisdom and grace would abound to us in this great endeavour, and that we’d look to the future with clarity, faith and courage.

… With so many different weather's to navigate, may we never forget: The LORD reigns!

Rather than give you several different updates this month, I wanted to share with you this one 20 minute video to watch.

During out recent Pastors & Wives Livestream Event on November 11th, 2020, I had the privilege of giving an update on what God is doing through our small family of churches around the world. On paper, you’d assume that 2020 has been a terrible year for Global Missions, and yet nothing could be further from the truth!

As you watch this video, I hope it encourages you, excites you and reminds you just how glorious He really is. For this is all the Lord’s doing, and so may it always be marvelous in our eyes!

20200105_001527000_iOS.jpg

Psalm 139.7-10 declares, ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there you hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.'

There is nowhere we can go where we are outside of God’s presence, nowhere, and that’s one of the many things that makes prayer such an incredible and daily opportunity. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is always present, always with us, and always eager to hear us.

And so here’s some specific things that you can be praying for, and talking with the King about, in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for the many countries, churches and pastors that are presently experiencing the second or third waves of the Coronavirus, that God may protect them in the midst of this Pandemic, and that they may know His peace at this time.

2. Please pray for Michael Granger and Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, asking God to keep them safe in the midst of fighting and unrest in Ethiopia. Please pray that this will be a new beginning for a free and united Ethiopia, as a beacon of gospel light to a very bleak and dark part of the world,

3. Please pray that God would draw many unbelievers to Sovereign Grace Churches around the world, as we hold our various Christmas related services and events. Pray also that God would give the members of our Churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelieving family members, friend, neighbours, and coworkers over this holiday season.

4. Please pray for four Churches that have been relating to us for some time and who have now formally requested adoption into Sovereign Grace Churches: LaVina Escazu in San Jose, Costa Rica (Pastor Rodrigo Fournier); Casa Vida Playa in Playa Azul, Costa Rica (Pastor Chespi Sandoval); Iglesia Soberana Gracia in Santa Marta, Colombia (Pastor Jacobys Aldana); and Igreja Nova Vida in Rio Grande, Brazil (Pastor Emerson Marts). This is wonderfully exciting for us and so please pray for everyone involved in this process.

5. Please also continue to pray for me (Dave Taylor), Mark Prater and the SG Leadership Team as we continue to pray, discuss, and plan for global expansion in Sovereign Grace Churches. There are so many opportunities, and so please pray that wisdom and grace would abound to us all in this endeavour, and that we’d look to the future with faith, courage and understanding.

… There’s a big world out there, and yet He really does hold it in His hands.

An update from one of our pastors (identity concealed for security reasons)…

In October, one of our churches sent a small team into Belarus, primarily to bring aid to churches. 

The international shut down from COVID-19 has created a serious burden and pressures for many Belarusian pastors. In addition, Belarus has been experiencing widespread political unrest following elections in early August that have been condemned internationally as being fraudulent. Massive crowds in the hundreds of thousands gather for protests in the capitol each week, and  approximately 12,000 people have been arrested and many have been beaten and tortured.

However, we know the gospel proceeds in all circumstances. And so the gathering of these protesters has provided many amazing gospel opportunities in a country where public witness and preaching is illegal. 

Some of the aid taken to Belarus is being used to help these churches care for people who have suffered under government reprisals. Other parts of the aid will be used to help a church, barely five years old, to plant their first church in the next few weeks. Nothing stops what God has committed to accomplishing!

The men who traveled to Belarus shared the joy of receiving an overflow of thanksgiving from the Belarusian churches. These churches experienced that neither global pandemics nor political unrest can stop the care of God’s people for one another. The time shared together was a true Philippians 1 moment.

Please be praying that the gospel will flourish in Belarus. Ask God to give pastors wisdom in how to lead their churches during severe political unrest. And pray that new churches would be planted to the glory of God. 

Incredibly, two of the churches in Minsk, that have been actively preaching the gospel during the demonstrations, and who we’ve been relating to for some time, are actively interested in becoming Sovereign Grace Churches. Please pray for all involved in this.