The team from Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN) visited Sydney, Australia in July to serve SGC Wahroonga.

An update from Leo Parris, US Global Missions Coordinator for Sovereign Grace Churches, and Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…

It was a busy summer in our global partnership in Sovereign Grace Churches. By God’s grace, more and more of our churches in the West are building relationally with others around the globe to make disciples of all nations for the glory of Christ.

Below is a snapshot of some of the ways our churches fostered global partnership.

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Pastors visited Local Churches

For the past several years, Marty Machowski has travelled to Lord’s Grace Church in South Korea to strengthen pastor Songhwan Kang, and to preach at the church and a conference. Marty is carrying forward the many years of faithful ministry that Larry Malament invested in this church before the Lord took him home. 

Marty Machowski, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA) has travelled to Lord’s Grace Church in South Korea over the years to strengthen pastor Songhwan Kang and his church.

Josh Montague is a Pastoral Resident at Cross of Grace Church in Chaska, Minnesota. Josh has worked with Training Leaders International (TLI) for many years and has recently begun pouring into our SG pastors and pastoral candidates in the Philippines, walking them through the TLI curriculum on faithful exegesis and exposition. Josh, along with Chris Oswalt and Robert Sidlow, travelled there this past February and September, and Josh will return in December along with Ryan Chase.

Josh Montague, Pastoral Resident at Cross of Grace Church in Chaska, Minnesota together with Chris Oswalt and Robert Sidlow have poured into our SG leaders in the Philippines.

This is just a taste of how God is using our pastors to equip and care for our global partners as we continue to expand globally, but there are more examples! David Quilla in Pakistan. Chris Deloglos in Bolivia. Jared Mellinger in Germany. Jeff Purswell in Australia. Dave Taylor in the Philippines & Mexico. Bart Lipscomb and Doug Hayes to many locations in Africa… Many pastors travelling to Ethiopia. Oh yeah, and Bert Turner spent 5 weeks in Brazil! Wow! Thank God for the gifted and faithful pastors that Christ has gifted to Sovereign Grace Church. Isn’t it amazing how he is using them globally? To include a list of all the activity of our pastors would require a series of posts!

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International Teams

Many of our churches also sent teams of members to strengthen our global partnership this year. Different teams focused on construction, VBS, Youth Camps, direct evangelism, and fellowship.

Rancho 3M

Sovereign Grace has a long and rich partnership with this orphanage and school located in the dessert valley of Guadalupe, Mexico. Lakeview Christian Center (New Orleans, LA), Risen Hope Church (Summerville, SC), Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN), and Center Church (Phoenix, AZ) have all sent or plan to send teams this year to partner with this wonderful ministry. This orphanage continues to work in close relationship with our churches in Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. In the future, the leadership of Rancho 3M hopes to plant a Sovereign Grace Church on the ranch site.

Lakeview Team

Risen Hope Team

Playa Azul, Costa Rica

This year, Covenant Fellowship Church led 2 different teams to visit Iglesias Biblica de Playa Azul to continue growing our partnership there. The first team engaged in construction projects while the second one held a YouthCamp. The first team was made up of 4 different Sovereign Grace Churches, all partnering to invest in our global partnership. Both teams also had the joy of worshiping with the new church plant in Jaco, Iglesias Gracia Soberana. Trinity College also sent a team to work with this church earlier this Spring.

Construction team from four different SG churches.

Team of youth, youth leaders and parents holding a Youth Camp.

Running A VBS Sydney, Australia

In July, Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN) sent a team to lead a Pirate themed Holiday Kids Club at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga in Sydney, Australia. The hope of this trip was to reach young families and school-aged kids around the local area with the gospel, which they did with great zeal. A WAC (We Are Conquerors) evangelistic bi-weekly Kids Club was able to be launched off the back of this trip.

Church Strengthening Trips from Toronto

In February, Sovereign Grace Church of Toronto sent a small team of folks to pour into the new church plant in Sovereign Grace Church in Nairobi, Kenya. Then, they also sent a different team to strengthen Trinity Fellowship Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. These were relational trips aimed at having mature folks from their church come along side to encourage folks at these other churches.

A team from SGC Toronto, Canada serving Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Another team from SGC Toronto, Canada serving a new church plant in Nairobi, Kenya.

And these are only some of the trips that have happened. In addition to visiting Rancho 3M a couple of times, Mercy Hill Church (Fredericksburg, VA) and Kingsway Church (Midlothian, VA) joined forces to send a couple teams to Bolivia in La Paz and Santa Cruz. Greentree Church (Egg Harbor Township, NJ) will send a team in early October to partner with Pat Tedeschi and Oasis Church in London there. 

All of this is visible grace in our family of churches. God is not only growing our churches globally in size and impact, he is expanding our hearts as well. May 2026 continue to be full of activity as we work together across many nations to proclaim the gospel and together support the maturation of the Body of Christ.

If you would like to learn more about how to connect your church to our global partnership, contact Leo Parris, US Coordinator of Global Missions, at lparris@covfel.org.

Team members from Cornerstone Church of Knoxville, TN travelled to Sydney Australia in July to serve SG Wahroonga and their Holiday Kids Club.

An update from Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, and Key Leader for our work in LATAM…

In July we had the joy and privilege of holding our very first Pastoral Training Retreat in Colombia, a milestone for the growth of gospel ministry in that country and across Latin America. This gathering marked the beginning of what we pray will be a long-lasting investment in raising up and strengthening pastors who serve faithfully in their local churches.

Pastors and leaders traveled not only from across Colombia—cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Santa Marta, Cali, and Bucaramanga were represented—but also from Costa Rica and Bolivia, highlighting the regional impact of this retreat. Altogether, around 30 pastors and leaders participated, many of them bivocational men who labor sacrificially to shepherd God’s people while also providing for their families.

The retreat was intentionally designed to be both theological and relational. Rich Richardson and I were there to lead the training sessions and to continue cultivating relationships with the pastors. Their presence helped establish a sense of partnership and trust, reinforcing that Sovereign Grace is committed not only to sound teaching but also to long-term relational investment.

The main teaching focus of the retreat was the Seven Shared Values of Sovereign Grace—a framework that shapes our identity and practice as a family of churches. Each value was carefully unpacked, showing how these biblical convictions ground our mission and ministry. Pastors were encouraged to not only understand these values but also to apply them in the context of their local congregations. This was not merely theoretical instruction, but a call to embody these values in preaching, leadership, and daily pastoral care.

A particularly helpful session was led by Bob Wright, who taught on the topic of biblical generosity. Bob reminded us that generosity flows from the grace we have received in Christ, not from external pressure or human obligation. He traced biblical principles from both Old and New Testaments, demonstrating how gospel-shaped generosity becomes a powerful witness in our churches and communities. His teaching resonated deeply with pastors who minister in contexts where financial challenges are real and ongoing, and many left encouraged to model and cultivate a culture of generosity in their own congregations.

While the pastors were being trained, my wife Kathy gathered with a group of 12 wives who were present. This was a precious time of fellowship and encouragement for these women, many of whom quietly and sacrificially support their husbands’ ministries. Kathy listened to their stories, prayed with them, and shared insights from Scripture about walking faithfully with the Lord in the midst of the unique joys and challenges of ministry life. For many of the wives, this was one of the first times they had been intentionally included and cared for in this way, and their gratitude was evident.

One of the most significant moments of the retreat was the ordination of Jacobis Aldana as the first Sovereign Grace pastor in Colombia. This was a historic step, both for Jacobis personally and for the churches in Colombia that he represents. His ordination was a visible demonstration of our shared mission to establish healthy, gospel-preaching churches led by qualified pastors. It was deeply moving to see pastors and leaders from multiple cities and countries join together to affirm and celebrate this important milestone.

Afternoons allowed space for fellowship, prayer, and brotherhood among the pastors. Many of them serve in isolation, often without a network of like-minded leaders to encourage them. For them, simply being in a room with other pastors who share their joys and struggles was deeply refreshing. We heard testimony after testimony of how life-giving it was to pray for one another, to share meals together, and to realize, “I am not alone in this work.”

God was clearly at work. We saw men and women leave with renewed faith, strengthened convictions, and practical tools to better serve their churches. Some commented that this was the first time they had received focused training for their pastoral role. Others expressed gratitude for the relational depth they experienced, saying it was exactly what they needed in a season of weariness.

We return with great hope that this retreat was not simply an event, but the beginning of an ongoing work. Plans are already in motion to continue training pastors in Colombia on a regular basis, with the vision of equipping a new generation of leaders who will plant and strengthen churches throughout Latin America.

Please join us in praying that God would use the seeds sown in these days to bear much fruit for the advancement of the gospel in Colombia, Costa Rica, Bolivia and beyond.

August/September marked the start of the US Pastors College in Louisville, Mexican Pastors College in Juarez, and Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Ethiopia. So much to be excited about as we consider both the year, and fruit, ahead…

US Sovereign Grace Pastors College

An update from Jeff Purswell, Dean of the US Sovereign Grace Pastors College in Louisville, KY…

In August, the US Pastors College kicked off its academic year by welcoming our 27th class of students. We are once again humbled by the sacrifices that these men, their wives, and their children made as they left their homes, churches, communities, and, for some, their home culture to pursue training for pastoral ministry.

Thirteen men have joined us in Louisville this year: eight from the US, three from Canada, and two families from the Philippines who braved the visa application process, jetlag, and the challenges of life in a foreign country to be a part of this year’s class. It is a diverse group: the students range in age from 22 to 41 and come from a variety of vocational backgrounds. All of them are married, and they brought with them 24 children (and one due to be born this month!).

At least four of the students are actively pursuing church planting, while the rest are eager to serve in a variety of contexts. Observing the combination of these students’ academic eagerness and their relational bonding gives us great encouragement for what the Lord has in store for this year. And we are once again reminded of the sacrifice of our churches in sending such quality men and women to be equipped in the college. Please pray for these men, their families, our instructors, and all that goes into the PC year—that the outcome would be faithful and fruitful laborers for the harvest, whose lives, families, and churches are built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Pastors College of México

An update from Edgar Flores, Pastor at Gracia Soberana Ciudad Juárez, Mexico & Dean of the Pastors College of Mexico…

We are thrilled to begin the 2025-26 year of the Pastors College in México. By God’s grace, our first PC graduation was in August. This PC year, we have four students: Alejandro Mascareño (Baja California, México), Eli Warren (Ciudad Juárez, México), Isaac Alarcón (Guadalupe, México), and David Calvo (Costa Rica). Three students and their families moved into the apartments on the church premises. Two students are exploring the possibility of planting Sovereign Grace churches. Eli Warren desires to plant a church in the west of Ciudad Juárez (one of the most troubled parts of our city), and Isaac Alarcón is exploring the possibility of beginning a church in Rancho 3M, a children's home in Guadalupe (one hour from our city). The Ranch is deeply connected to Sovereign Grace, and having a Sovereign Grace church in Guadalupe has been a desire for years.

Our desire for the Pastors College of México is to be known as a Sovereign Grace Pastors College. We want the College to be profoundly rooted in the shared values and virtues that Sovereign Grace embraces and in our Statement of Faith. By God's grace, the number of professors who will give classes in-person is growing, and this is the second year of Greek classes. We desire that our students will continue to cultivate a life of godliness throughout the year and be fully immersed in the life of our local church. It is an exciting year—thank you for praying with us as we equip future Sovereign Grace pastors. 

Graduating class of 2024-25.

A welcome gathering for the new class of 2025-26 and their families.

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Trinity Fellowship Pastors College

An update from Josh Pannell, Dean of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia …

Greetings from Addis Ababa!

In the Lord’s kindness, a new year of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College has begun. This year, God has entrusted us with nine students: five from Trinity Fellowship in Addis, three from Nairobi sent by Brian Kiama, and one from Pakistan. The brothers from Nairobi are especially a mark of the Lord’s kindness to us, as they are the first students sent from a church planted by a TFPC graduate. Our brother from Pakistan represents a network of churches pursuing Global Partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches, and we rejoice to serve him here, trusting the Lord to strengthen many in Pakistan through his training.

Once again, many Sovereign Grace pastors have gladly agreed to cross oceans to teach these men: Steve Whitacre, Joseph Stigora, Jace Hudson, Mark Prater, Mark Alderton, Joel Bain, Jeff Purswell, Pete Payne, Andy Farmer, Dr. Josh Blount, Rick Gamache, and Brian Chesemore. Alongside them, six classes will be taught by TFPC graduates now pursuing MTh degrees through our partnership with Union School of Theology in Wales: a joyful sign of the maturity God is quickly working.

This year’s graduation will also mark our fifth anniversary as a pastors college. We give thanks for all the Lord has done, and we ask him to raise up more faithful shepherds for many churches from these men. Truly, the Lord is kind.

Over on the Mark Prater Podcast, our Executive Director recent gave an “around the world” update on so many things that have been taking place in Sovereign Grace Churches.

With so many stories to tell, please listen in… How great is our God!!

Around The World - Global Updates (Mark Prater)

Charles Spurgeon, in his book “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life," writes:

        “Do not bring before God stinted petitions and narrow desires, but remember, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above your ways and His thoughts above your thoughts. Ask, therefore, after a Godlike fashion, for great things, for you are before a great throne.” 

In God’s amazing kindness, you and I get to come before his “great throne” and ask Him for “great things”. It’s an astounding reality, and so here are some ways you can be praying for our Global endeavours over the next month…

1. Please pray for the four U.S. church plants that are launching this month: Trinity Church of Galloway, NJ (Sept 14th), Hope Community Church, Springhill, TN (Sept 14th), Cross of Grace Church, North Manchester, IN (Sept 21st) and Emmanuel Church, Coatesville, PA (Sept 21st). May the Lord bless the labours of the church planting teams and may many unbelievers come to know Jesus through these noble endeavours.

2. Please pray for the many Pastors College students and their families that begin their 2025-2026 year in their PC’s this month: 13 students in the US Pastors College, 8 of them coming from the US, 2 from the Philippines and 3 from Canada. 4 students in the Mexican Pastors College, 3 of them from Mexico and 1 from Costa Rica; and 8 students in the Ethiopian Pastors College, 5 of them from Ethiopia, 2 from Kenya and 1 from Pakistan. Please ask God to provide for them and to give them much grace over the next year, as they learn to watch their lives and doctrine closely.

3. Please pray for Dave Taylor as he heads to South Korea, following on from the leadership team retreat in LA, to serve Songhwan Kang in Seoul, as Lord’s Grace Church celebrates their 15 year anniversary. Please pray that Dave will be a blessing to them and will be able to serve Songhwan, the Lord’s Grace Church pastoral interns and the Church well during this stay.

4. Please pray for the many ladies coming together in the Philippines for their ‘Ripple Women’s Conference’ this month, looking at the ‘Habits of a Godly Woman’. Please pray that both speakers and members alike will be envisioned, encouraged and built together as they gather together in this way.

5. Please pray for the Greentree Church missions team as they head to London this  month to work with Pat Tedeschi in evangelism; Josh Montague (Chaska, MN) and Chris Oswald (Kansas City) as they visit the Philippines with TLI; and Doug Hayes as he travels to Covenant Mercies locations in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Liberia.

  … As we come before this ‘great throne’, may His grace truly abound to us all.

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

In early August, we had the joy and privilege of hosting Jeff and Julie Purswell here in Australia for our TOGETHER 2025 combined churches retreat. We went away to the coast for the weekend and, even though it rained the whole time, that didn’t spoil it at all. We enjoyed rich fellowship, fun, worship, and time sitting under God’s Word. It was a special event for us as we held our largest church retreat yet, with over 340 people attending, and it marked 15 years of Sovereign Grace Churches Australia. It truly was memorable.

Over the weekend, Jeff unpacked the theme The Glorious Christ across four sessions, which you can listen to here. I highly recommend listening to these sermons. They were passionate, carefully exposited, clearly applied, and powerfully exalted Christ in our hearts and minds. God was very kind to us as He helped us sing with joy and faith, minister to one another with our gifts, and knit us together in love. It truly felt like one big family.

Jeff and Julie brought with them such warmth of love and an intentionality to greet, welcome, serve, and care for our churches. It was a joy to watch them in action—often catching them in prayer or embracing someone they had just met as if they were lifelong friends. This is one of the beautiful things about our partnership in the gospel across Sovereign Grace Churches!

We also held a separate training day on the Thursday before the retreat, where Jeff gathered with all of our pastors in Australia to look at the need for doctrinal fidelity and gave an edifying overview of the Pastoral Epistles—whetting our appetite for the PC Course in 2026. At the same time, the wives met with Julie and were blessed and encouraged by her example, experience, and endurance. That evening we all gathered together for an SGC Australia Pastors and Wives dinner, feasting on smoked lamb, sharing stories, and simply enjoying being together.

True to SGC form, “we may be small… but we are slow!” Yet despite this, the Lord is on the move here in Australia among us. There is a wonderful unity across our two pastoral teams and our churches. We have seen two pastors ordained this year, with more hopefully to come. Both of our churches are stepping out with even greater intentionality in evangelism through the Bridge Course, and we are seeing more people come to faith.

It is our hope that as we build well—and build slowly—we lay a foundation for the future: playing our small part in the gospel ecosystem of Australia, aiming to reach new people one at a time, to plant more churches in the coming years, and to raise up future pastors. We would love your continued prayers as we seek to plant and strengthen churches here in Australia.

We are already looking forward to our TOGETHER 2026 one-day event with the Global Leaders and Leadership Team!

Last month, we had the graduation ceremony for the Sovereign Grace Pastors College Class of 2025! The class included nine men from five U.S. states and two countries. Having completed a year of rigorous theological training and mentorship, their passion for Christ and commitment to gospel ministry was evident, and we’re excited to see how God will use them as they return home to serve their churches and communities.

To give you a small taste of their exciting and strategic deployment, here’s where they’ve all headed on to…

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Leyton Adams
Cornerstone Church, Knoxville, TN

“At the Pastors College, we prioritize watching our lives and teaching, and our professors have modeled that before us so well. I have had the privilege of seeing men who are brilliant in their understanding of God's Word and genuinely pious in their posture to it. As John Owen said, they are men whose "... heart is cast indeed into the mold of the doctrine that the mind embraceth ... [and] have communion with God in the doctrine [they] contend for." Their combination of doctrine and life, head and heart, is a model which I want to imitate.”

Leyton will be returning to Cornerstone Church to help lead the Young Adult ministry, teach Sunday classes, and work with their outreach ministry.

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Asher Donohue
Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA

“This year at the Pastor's College, God has taught me to rely on him in new ways. I have learned that my own ability or understanding cannot lead me, but must be surrendered to the one who is sufficient for every task. Through the training, fellowship, and discipleship of this year, I approach ministry opportunities in the future knowing that God's grace is sufficient in my weakness. My job is simply to follow in the footsteps of the Savior and of those who have gone before me. As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.’”

Asher will be leading the youth ministry at Covenant Fellowship, serving as an assistant editor at Sovereign Grace Publishing, and pursuing ordination.

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Austin Loke
Sovereign Grace Church, Wahroonga, Australia

“Three themes that marked the entire year are: the surpassing preciousness of God's Word, the cruciform nature of the Christian life and pastoral ministry, and the fact that the Pastors College is custom-designed to be a training ground for faith. Coming into the Pastors College, I thought my life was pretty Word-centered, but class after class left me with a sense of my under-appreciation and under-application of His Word in my life, and has rekindled a burning desire to know and live off every word that comes from the mouth of God. Also, the cumulative effect of instruction from many pastors has left a distinctly cross-shaped understanding of pastoral ministry.”

Austin will be returning to Sovereign Grace Wahroonga, Australia, and working part-time as a Pastoral Candidate and overseeing discipleship, as well as preaching.

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Titus Miller
Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, KY

“The Pastor’s College was a life-changing gift that strengthened my heart and mind for gospel ministry, as well as my marriage, friendships, and personal faithfulness to Christ. It provided rich theological training, wise mentorship, and deep friendships that I will carry with me into future ministry. God used that season to clarify my calling and cultivate humility and joy in serving His church. I’ll always look back on it with gratitude and awe at God’s kindness in giving us this last year in the PC.” 

Titus will remain at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville to continue to receive training for pastoral ministry.

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Brayden Peterson
Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, TX

“One thing that the Lord has taught me this year is that my love for others must flow from my love for Him—my primary call is to love Him with all I have, and then through that, my love for His people should overflow.”

Braden Peterson will be serving as a Pastoral Intern at Cross of Grace church, leading the young adults and young professionals groups.

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Mikey Roman
Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA

“The PC was a year of intense study as well as intense growth. The classes were often theologically dense, which challenged me and pushed me to study God’s word. They were also pastorally rich, which prepared my heart and mind to go back to Covenant Fellowship. The friendships made through the whole year were such blessings and I believe will last a lifetime.”

Mikey will be returning to Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA where he will enter into a two-year pastoral residency with the intent of either planting a church or serving in international missions when his residency is completed.

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Erik Schmaltz
Sovereign Grace Church, Midland, TX

“I have longed to attend the Sovereign Grace Pastors College for over a decade, but God saw fit for me to wait until I was 42 years old. What an incredible experience my family and I have had this year at the PC! Erin's and my marriage has been greatly strengthened, equipping us to love and support each other as we head back into ministry. We've watched our four kids mature in their love for God and His church. I now have a much deeper love for God, a greater desire to understand His Word, and the confidence to serve His people. We will forever be grateful for the dear friends we've made this year with the other PC families and the members of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.”

Erik will be returning to Sovereign Grace Church in Midland, TX where he will continue to serve on staff and complete his elder ordination.

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Joel Seric
Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta, Australia

“This year of studying at the PC has been profoundly impactful for my family and I. God has used the church community of Louisville to encourage us. God has used the teaching of the PC to provoke my thinking and humble me before Him. God has used our time here in the States to grow our marriage. God has grown our affection for Sovereign Grace and its emphasis upon partnership.”

Joel will be serving as a Pastoral Resident at Sovereign Grace Church of Winter Garden in Florida.

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Zach Taylor
Living Hope Church, Fayetteville, AR

“Though I had had a solid theological education prior to coming to the PC, I feel significantly more equipped for pastoral ministry because I attended Pastors College. God used the PC to deepen my hunger for God's Word. My wife and four kids would tell you that God has grown me as a husband and a father. I feel so much more prepared to apply the Word to my life and the lives of those whom God has called me to pastor. Lastly, my time at the Pastors College has grown me to be more like Christ, not only through the regular, intentional instruction I received, but also the close friendships that were forged during our 10 months in Louisville.”

Zach will be returning to Living Hope Church in Fayetteville, AR, where he will serve as the worship pastor and attend to other pastoral duties.

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Please join us in honouring their achievement and praying for the fruitfulness of their ministry in the days ahead. To God be all the glory!

An update from Ed O’Mara, Lead Pastor of Chiesa Grazia Sovrana di Torino, Italy and SGC Area Leader for Europe…

From 11-16 August, Grace Church in Bristol, UK hosted its annual G2 Youth Camp. Nearly 30 youth between the ages of 11 and 17 attended. There were youth from churches in England, Wales, and Italy who joined the week and camped out in the countryside of South Wales. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual strengthening. During the week, the youth studied the book of Ephesians through morning Bible studies. In the evenings, they gathered to worship in song and to hear preaching on the first half of Daniel. The Lord moved among these young people to give them a greater understanding of the gospel and to help them walk faithfully before the Lord, prizing Him as the greatest treasure.

The time was also filled with plenty of fun and relationship building as well. The youth did a scavenger hunt through a nearby seaside town, competed in a laser tag battle, played sports and board games, did crafts, and went to the sea. Meanwhile, everyone ate their share of sweets, spent a lot of time laughing together, and enjoyed nights around a fire (with the obligatory accompaniment of s’mores and hot chocolate!) and gazed at the stars in awe of the Lord’s creation. The week was capped off with a very entertaining talent show put on by the youth.

While this camp was a great blessing to all who attended, it was also extremely spiritually significant. In a continent where the influence of the gospel is waning, it is vital that we faithfully invest and transfer the gospel into the next generation. Our churches, in future years, will not be healthy if we do not take on this responsibility with intentionality and great care. Each step, including this G2 Youth Camp, by God’s grace, presses the gospel deeper into the hearts of the young people who will lead and serve their local churches in years to come.

Our hope is that continuing this context will deepen the discipleship of our youth and develop in them a love for the local church. We pray that they will see the importance of keeping the gospel central and will invest their own lives in faithfully following the Saviour. Please join us in praying that the Lord will bear much fruit and that He will continue to raise a generation of young people in Sovereign Grace, not only in the UK and in Europe but across the globe, who are passionate for Jesus and His gospel and eager to serve their local churches.

An update from Joshua Varnedoe, Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church, North Knoxville, Tennessee, USA…

On Sunday, August 17th, Christ Community Church opened its doors to the community of North Knoxville. This morning was the product of two and a half years of prayer, discussion, planning, and more prayer! It was a celebration of the Lord’s faithfulness to both Cornerstone, the sending church, and Christ Community.

Since its founding in 1990, Cornerstone has been gripped with a passion to reach the lost. Over the years, this has been illustrated by its vibrant campus ministry at the University of Tennessee and the church’s love for church planting. In the last 15 years, CCK has planted 3 churches: Redeeming Grace in Franklin, TN, Trinity Grace in Athens, TN, and Christ Community in North (downtown) Knoxville.

Christ Community Church was planted so that those living in the North Knoxville community might hear the Gospel and trust in Jesus Christ by faith. One of the reasons why this part of town was such an attractive location for a new church was the lack of spiritual life. The philosophies and priorities of man reign supreme in the coffee shops, the grocery stores, and in the neighborhoods. Our mission is to bring light into dark places by preaching the Gospel of Christ which is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

Cornerstone Church has sacrificed in significant ways for this church plant, most pointedly in the people they have joyfully sent out for the cause of Christ. Represented in the church plant team are families who have been members of CCK for decades. A large number of them became Christians and got married through CCK’s campus ministry. Still more have been faithful servants in the church—community group leaders, musicians, children’s ministry teachers, and the list goes on. However, because they love the mission, they eagerly volunteered to help start a new church in North Knoxville. Most of our team live within 10 minutes of where Christ Community is located, and they have been boldly inviting their neighbors, co-workers, and friends to come on a Sunday morning.

The Lord graciously provided a meeting space for Christ Community through a local Baptist church. We began renting their gym and some classrooms earlier this year and have gradually updated our new space with fresh paint, new lights, wall décor, etc. Finally, after months of hard work, Christ Community was ready for our first Sunday.

Our first service was a joyful occasion. God’s grace was on display as members of the planting team arrived early to prepare for the meeting. As the morning progressed, we were shocked by the number of new faces that came through the door. Many had heard about Christ Community from friends and neighbors. One family had been waiting for us to launch all summer!

We sang songs celebrating the grace of God in Christ, we prayed together, we began our series in the Gospel of Mark, and we received the Lord’s Supper for the first time as a church. The Lord was present with us, and we were aware of his pleasure in our gathering. 

Looking forward, much of our focus and energy is being devoted towards outreach and evangelism. We’re spending a lot of time thinking about creative ways to engage our community. We want to build new relationships and invite more people to join us on Sundays. Who knows who might walk through the doors of Christ Community Church! May the Lord of the Harvest receive all the glory for what he has done and for what he will do!

There’s no doubt that for many years now, our music has played a significant part in seeing Sovereign Grace Churches planted and strengthened across the world. Not least in Latin America. With that in mind, here’s an update from Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music, as he talks about Gracia Soberana Música…

The Lord has kindly enabled us to serve Spanish speaking churches increasingly through Gracia Soberana Música this past year. Fabrizio Rodulfo has been leading these efforts and the fruit is both abundant and encouraging. Here are just a few of the highlights.

For the first time, we released a Spanish version of an album, Knowing God, only three weeks after the English release. We used that as an opportunity to rebrand from “Sovereign Grace Music en Español” to “Gracia Soberana Música.” That made the name more accessible to Spanish speakers and created a stronger connection to our family of churches known as Iglesias Gracia Soberana.

This year we also launched a fully Spanish website identical to the Sovereign Grace music website but with all our Spanish (and Portuguese) music. As part of the website, we translated and posted a number of my blogposts from my Worship Matters blog.

In July, we released an album of 12 newly translated hymns entitled Himnos. It contains seven traditional hymns and five modern hymns from Sovereign Grace Music. It’s already racked up 1.5 million streams on Spotify.

In an effort to serve Hispanic churches with theological training in music and worship, we started producing an AI dubbed version of the Worship Matters Video Intensive. I speak a tiny bit of Spanish, but this makes me sound fluent. We hope to have all the videos translated before the end of the year. We also began a fully Spanish podcast hosted by Fabrizio and Luis Carlos Asencio, who serves with Mario Figueroa at Vine Church, in Tampa, Florida. The podcast is called “Acorde a la Gracia” (In Accord with Grace) and is modeled after Sound Plus Doctrine, contextualized for Latin America. 

We also hosted eleven writers in Louisville for the second Spanish Songwriters retreat. The spirit of unity, faith, and joy, not to mention the great songs, were all evidence of the Lord’s kindness to us. We plan to record a live album based on Ephesians next March in Juarez, which we’ll release at the Fieles a Su Llamado conference in August. Providentially, the Files conference this year will be similar in content to some of the WorshipGod conferences we’ve been hosting in the US. 

Fabrizio also had the opportunity to travel to David del Castillo’s church in Santa Cruz, Iglesia Gracia Soberana, to share our values with area leaders and musicians and to strengthen the connection of GSM with our Latin churches.

We’re hoping in the future to continue doing what we’ve been doing, and also expanding the reach of Gracia Soberana Música through translating and writing children’s songs and Christmas songs. Similar to Sovereign Grace Music, our heart is to serve Hispanic churches by producing Christ-exalting songs and training for the Church from our local churches. 

We’d appreciate your prayers for all these endeavors, and are grateful for the opportunities the Lord has given us to proclaim the glorious gospel in song to our Hispanic brothers and sisters throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. 

An update from Andrew Leung, Pastor at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga, Sydney, Australia…

A few months ago now, in March 2025, I had the joy and privilege to once again attend the Sovereign Grace Asia-Pacific Pastors & Wives Conference. It served as a wonderful opportunity to hear first-hand how our fellow pastors and wives serving in the Asia-Pacific were tracking, specifically how God has been at work in their lives, as well as in the churches they lead. It was great to be able to hear so many stories of God’s evident kindness and mercy among the churches in the Philippines, Pakistan, India and Korea, and to be able to pray for and alongside them.

Not only were the participants fed from God’s Word, bringing refreshment to the souls of many who serve in the gospel frontline in the Asia-Pacific region, the open Q&A with panels was a standout as we together discussed and thought about some of the potential cultural blindsides in how the gospel affects life and ministries.

The testimonies from brothers and sisters who face the many different challenges unique to their nation were simply faith stirring, and a reminder that despite the different challenges, we have the same God who comes alongside each one of us, doing His work building his church.   

We also had a session for pastors and leaders interested in becoming a part of Sovereign Grace, and opportunities to ask questions. It was heart-warming to see the room packed to the brim, and opportunity for conversations to be had over pizza. There were stories of pastors who have served their church for years, and having seen their church grow and multiply, are now experiencing challenges in ministry and desiring others to walk alongside them in ministry. They were encouraged to see the fellowship and interconnectedness amongst the family of churches in Sovereign Grace, knowing they do not have to do ministry alone. 

God is on the move, and the promise of our Risen King rang throughout this trip for me, as the gospel advances in the Asia-Pacific… “And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20)

What a wonderful King we serve!

In a recent ‘Quarterly Prayer Requests’ email, Mark Prater wrote the following…

In his timeless classic, “The Christian Ministry” Charles Bridges writes, “Prayer implies the renunciation of all dependence upon our best preparations, ministerial gifts, or spiritual habits; an acknowledgement of their insufficiency to qualify us for the discharge of our commission; and a simple dependence upon our Glorious Head for his present influence.”

Why do we pray for one another as a family of churches? Because prayer is a renunciation of our self-dependence and an expression of our complete dependence on God for His present influence, provision, help, and power. Prayer is a regular reminder that we cannot accomplish all that God has called us to do without asking for His "present influence.” 

God loves to hear our desperate, dependent prayers for one another and for our shared mission. Therefore, here’s some ways you can be praying for our family of churches and our shared mission in the month ahead…

1. Pray that God would give the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities, workplaces and on our campuses. Pray for the saving grace of God to reach many.

2. Pray for the 5 U.S. church plants that are launching this fall in Coatesville, PA, Galloway, NJ, North Knoxville, TN, Springhill, TN and North Manchester, IN asking God to draw unbelievers and the unchurched to those churches, and to bless the labors of the church planting teams.

3. Pray for the first Sovereign Grace Latin America Pastors Retreat in Santa Marta, Colombia this month, which is the first of its kind outside of Mexico, when pastors from Colombia, Bolivia and Costa Rica will gather to build relationally, give updates, and pray about building Sovereign Grace Churches in Latin America in the future.

4. Pray for Jeff and Julie Purswell as they travel to Sydney, Australia to serve at the Sovereign Grace Churches, Australia, Together 2025 event, August 8-10, 2025, when the pastors and members of our 2 churches in that nation will gather for worship, teaching, and fellowship. Pray for Dave Taylor and Riley Spring asking God to give them grace to lead this important gathering.

5. Pray for our new 2025-2026 Pastors College students and their families from 3 different nations who will be moving to Louisville, KY before classes start at the end of August, asking God to provide for them and to give them grace to grow over the next year while at the PC.

6. Pray for the Sovereign Grace Churches Executive Committee retreat in Glen Mills, PA, August 19-22, 2025, asking God to give the 9 men on this committee wisdom and help in fulfilling their responsibility of overseeing and evaluating the Leadership Team.

7. 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.

Thank you so much. May our dependence only bring about more of His great influence, all for His glory alone.

An update from Bart Lipscomb, Senior Pastor of Christ Church of Conroe, Texas and SGC Area Leader for Africa...

One of the highlights I have as the Area Leader for Africa is getting to go and visit our churches in person! Recently, that included two stops in the southern part of the continent, Christ Community Church in Ndola, Zambia and Sovereign Grace Church Windhoek in Namibia.

What a welcome it was to be greeted upon my arrival at the Ndola airport by members of the leadership team and their families! Only to be followed up by getting to join in their weekly prayer meeting at one of the member’s homes. That was a special evening.

The next day, Ector Makaliki, McDonald Chanda, Stephen Lubakila and myself were able to spend an unhurried morning talking about a wide range of subjects and hearing updates on the church. That included a stop to walk a piece of land which the church owns in a thriving part of town and hopes to soon be able to build on. Please pray for city leaders to finally approve that project as they have been waiting a long time! 

Then, on Sunday, we gathered with the whole church in worship. Some of the songs were in English. Some of them were in Bemba. Yet, as is always the case in Christ, we enjoyed a spiritual unity which doesn’t flatten cultural differences into the lowest common denominator. But, instead, rightly celebrates those distinctions while still managing to grow us together!

But, perhaps my favorite part of the time in Zambia was eating dinner that evening with the tireless servants who lead the ministries of the church and to listen as each of them shared their love for their local church and their faith for how the Lord is at work. I came away from that time very encouraged!

That however, was only the first leg of the trip! I also then had the opportunity to fly over to visit the Krugers in Namibia. What a beautiful country!

Josh is doing an outstanding job leading that new church. And, it was a real joy to get to know his family better, especially his two boys, who taught this sheltered American all about cricket and rugby! As we all know, church planting is a sacrifice, not only for the planter. But, also for his family. So, what an honor to be able to tell them, on behalf of SGC, how thankful to God we are for them and for what they are doing!

I wish I could have been there for a Sunday as well. But, the next best thing was getting to be a part of a mid-week small group where they gather in a living room to talk about and apply the messages from the Sunday series in the Gospel of Mark. It was a happy thing listening to them dig into the depths and wonder of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry, which Josh had just preached on.

The Lord is clearly bringing some solid folks to help form the core of this new body. Pillars like that are a much-needed gift to any new church family. And, I’m eager to see this next phase for SGC Windhoek!

As I was returning home to Houston and reflecting on all the ways the Lord went before and answered our prayers, over and above what we had even asked, I was filled with fresh gratitude for you, our family of churches. Your generosity, prayers and involvement are what make stories like these possible.

What a gift that the Lord chooses to use ordinary folks like us and local churches like ours to see the Gospel go forward, all for the glory of Christ and the good of His people!

Todd Peterson (Pastor at Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, Texas), together with Erik Rangel (Lead Pastor of Legacy Church in Yuma, Arizona) are our SGC Representatives to India. Here is an update from Todd on their recent trip…

In June, Erik Rangel and I were able to make our annual trip to India for 11 days. Our first stop was to visit Pastors Caleb, Sidhanta and Sunil from Church on Mount Zion (CMZ), in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. We have been getting to know Caleb and Sidhanta for about three years now, but this was our first time meeting pastor Sunil. CMZ has been an official partner candidate church for over a year now and Caleb and Sidhanta started the ordination process in 2025.

I think that Erik would agree that the time spent with the pastors on this visit contained some of the most significant biblical vs. cultural breakthroughs that we’ve had in our visits to India. The Lord had brought to light through previous conversations some important personal areas that we needed to press into beginning with the pastor’s marriages and families. Talking about these types of personal matters, even among pastors, is very countercultural, and we knew that these would be watershed conversations that would help determine how far our partnership would be able to move forward.

We spent two whole days just talking through what the Bible calls us to as pastors leading and loving our wives and children. By God’s grace, we were able together to explore the seldom, if ever, discussed topic of the health of the church in light of the health of the pastor and his family. We discovered some real cultural pressures that prioritize the needs of the congregation over the needs of the pastor’s family. We were moved by the humility and openness of each of the pastors during our discussions.

We were even able to cross one more cultural boundary and bring the wives into the conversation on the second day. The time together was met with tears of joy from their wives as they shared that no one had ever endeavored to pastorally meet them in such a personal way. After the time with their wives, we were able to all have a nice lunch together, and you could tell that God was using that time of honesty and transparency to bond us all closer together than we had been during the previous visits.

This time together has given us plenty to work on in the near future as the Lord has brought down some significant barriers that we believe will allow Him to work in many areas of their lives and ministry, bringing us closer to an understanding of what we mean by partnership in SGC.  

We then traveled south to Gundugolanu, Andhra Pradesh to visit our good friend Pastor Jaya Prakash (JP). In March of 2023 at the Asia-Pacific Pastors Conference, as we were ending a three-month time of prayer to get direction for our continued futile attempts to start a pastors college in Andhra Pradesh, the Holy Spirit very clearly directed JP and me to pursue building a full-fledged English-medium school in Gundugolanu instead of a pastors college. We were not expecting this in any way. The only school in that area for children up to 8th grade is a series of outdoor sheds that currently houses 1400 students. God told us that this would be the primary means by which he would spread the gospel in this area. We have been working on all of the complex corporate, legal and governmental requirements ever since.

With that process almost complete, this trip was about determining the land to be purchased for the location of the school as well as meeting with consultants, civil engineers, and a few of JP’s acquaintances that God has brought forward to help us with this project. God continues to go before us in each step, breaking down barriers and bringing people from apparently out of nowhere that are helping us to move this project forward. The first phase of the project will be a 20,000 sq. ft. building with a capacity of up to 600 students that we hope to open in June 2027.

On the church front, by God’s grace JP’s current church building is now too small and we talked about the plans and funding for expanding the church, which is especially challenging since it was built on top of his house. At the writing of this update, God has provided all of the funds for the expansion between the church congregation, donations from partner churches, as well as a grant from the SGC Asia-Pacific Development Fund, and they are excited to get started!

We also had some time to talk about a long-term plan for gauging the desire for and parameters of partnership with other churches/pastors in the area. This is a very slow process in India since the idea of partnership at a village level is almost completely foreign outside of financial partnerships.

Please continue to pray for us. We believe God will show us the way forward if it’s His will to draw churches together into partnership, for the sake of the gospel in this region of India.

Ray and Rebecca Clancy.

An update from Ed O’Mara, Lead Pastor of Chiesa Grazia Sovrana di Torino, Italy and SGC Area Leader for Europe…

For 25 years, Calvary Church has been proclaiming the gospel to the needy city of Galway, Ireland. In July 2000, Ray and Rebecca Clancy and their children relocated from Southern California to the west coast of Ireland to plant a church in the city. Since 2000, many things have changed in Galway. The once monolithically Irish city has diversified, modernized, and grown incredibly. During this time, Ray also grew in his appreciation for the doctrines of Grace and began developing a friendship with Sovereign Grace, and in particular with Ron Boomsma, who was then serving the Sovereign Grace church in Pasadena. Through this friendship, Ray and Rebecca received care and became much more closely associated with SGC, attending conferences and accessing our materials to serve their church.

The result of these changes and the Clancy’s friendship with SGC is a church that embodies the culture and values of Sovereign Grace. The church is filled with a diverse mix of people of different ages from various countries and backgrounds. Yet, the thing that stands out to me every time I visit is their love for one another and their commitment to serve one another. The leaders of the church have consistently led the people to the foot of the cross and this has formed a church family that celebrates and applies the gospel!

As time has progressed, Ray and his leaders decided to pursue a formal relationship with Sovereign Grace. I have been working closely with Ray and another leader (Stephanus Meiring, married to LuAnne) for about 2 years. During this time we have focused on what it means to be part of Sovereign Grace. We have studied the Statement of Faith and our shared values and virtues. We have looked at our polity and how this will function in Europe and what part each local church will play. Most of all, we have built a close relationship and have cared for one another and encouraged one another.

Most recently, Ray and his leadership team signed on to become a Candidate Church in recognition of pursuing full partnership. In June, I visited the church for 4 days. During this time we focused on the ordination process and the particulars of the Book of Church order. I was also privileged to meet with their men’s group and to observe, first hand, how Calvary is passionate about living together in the good of the gospel. I also had the opportunity to meet with several leaders, to enjoy fellowship with the broader church family, and to preach the word on Sunday.

Stephanus & LuAnne Meiring

Looking ahead Ray and Stephanus have begun studying for their ordination tests. Our hope is that, as these men complete their ordinations, we continue to strengthen our relational connection not only with Ray and his team, but with the entire church as they become full partners in SGC. We also look forward to continuing to build SGC in Europe and see Calvary Church of Galway as a key component to what the Lord is doing among our European churches.

While there is much I could write to commend this church and its leaders, the highest encouragement I can give is what I feel most appropriately describes Calvary Church: they are gospel-people! It is an honor to be building together with them in Europe and an honor to be bringing them into our family of churches! If you find yourself in western Ireland, certainly do touristy things… but make time to encounter Jesus with this wonderful church!

An update from Leo Parris, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania and US Coordinator of Global Missions in SGC…

In the beginning of July, Covenant Fellowship Church sent a construction team to partner with Iglesia Biblica de Playa Azul for the fifth consecutive year. Each year, the ties between our churches strengthen, our mission is galvanized, and our awareness of God’s global heart is enhanced. More than 80 people from our church have participated in these trips over the last several years. More and more folks in my church are carrying the people and mission in Costa Rica on their hearts. These trips have given us the privilege of watching this candidate church grow from 15 people to 50, plant a church, and continue to grow. This year was a particular joy as individuals from 3 other Sovereign Grace Churches participated. This has built our local partnership in the US and brought more Sovereign Grace churches into the mission in Costa Rica.

This year, we also sent a team of Youth, Youth Leaders, and Parents to hold a Youth Camp in Playa Azul. We did this the week after the construction team. More than 30 youth from 4 SG candidate churches participated, along with several other churches. Together, we worshiped, listened to God’s Word preached, played a ton of games, and built lasting ties. Chespi Sandoval, Alvaro Poveda, Jared Torrence and I shared the pulpit together. 

Both teams had the joy of worshipping in Playa Azul and Jaco on the Sunday of the trip. The times of singing and preaching were powerful. Each church is full of new believers that are passionate and expressive in their praise. 

God is on the move in Costa Rica. In La Gracia Iglesia in San Jose and Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Cartago we already have SG churches. In Playa Azul, Jaco, and many other places we have churches nearing full status as Sovereign Grace Churches. Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Jaco is in the midst of a Bridge course right now. Many people are coming to Christ and learning the freedom and power of the gospel. And because of these trips, our church in the suburbs of Philadelphia is deeply invested in this progress of the gospel. 

Short term missions trips are expensive and require a lot of resources to plan, but there is no better way to build a global conscious into a local church than through real relationships with people in other places. 

The church in Playa Azul is praying that more churches will send teams to facilitate their mission. My hope is that there would be an increase in our churches engaging in annual trips like this one so that our global denomination increasingly functions as a family of churches reaching the nations together. Our construction trip is open to members of other Sovereign Grace Churches. Contact Leo Parris if you are interested in joining. 

Check out this video recap of our Youth Camp!

An update from Jeffrey Jo, Lead Pastor of Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries in Manila, Philippines, and National Leader of Sovereign Grace Churches, Philippines…

The late JC Ryle once said, “What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” This has always been our hope with the PPI or Philippine Pastors Institute in Mindanao. With no bible school or seminary that is faithful to reformed theology, false teachings and twisted, corrupted ministry philosophies are rampant in the southeastern region of Mindanao. And with most of our pastors already in their prime years, God has used PPI to face these challenges for the future of the gospel and churches in the southern, muslim-dominated part of the Philippines. Without intentional and ‘sacrificial’ efforts, inspirationally born out of our gospel fidelity, Mindanao remains a catch basin for the overflow of false teachings from wolves in sheep’s clothing, enemies of the cross of Christ! Facing all the dangers of travels both in land and in the air, it is the love of Christ that compels us to always go back and serve our churches in this region, leaving our families and local churches for a while to spend quality time in training our church leaders in the ways of the scriptures.

June 8th was the graduation of the second batch for level 1 of PPI. Level 1 deals with foundational theology, our 7-shared values and 7-shaping virtues. It is a 9-month study where students gather every Saturday from 9AM until 4PM. The goal of level 1 is to make sure that our young pastors and children’s ministry teachers (mostly ladies) know and teach the right doctrines both to adults and to our children. Proverbs 22:6 highlights the lasting impact of early training. While not a guarantee, it suggests that the foundation laid in childhood will likely grow with a person, making it part of his journey of life.

There were 19 enrollees but only 11 made it. Four men serve as local elders in our three churches, while the remaining two men are lead pastors of their own churches that do not belong to SGC but have shown interest in partnering with us. The five ladies are either pastor’s wives, serving their women’s ministry or are children’s ministry teachers.

One of the graduates by the name of CJ, a youth leader from Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries, Tandag City said, “I thank the Lord for helping me finish the PPI course. PPI taught me the significance that every belief and doctrine should be based on the Bible.” Pastor Arnel of CFF Adlay said, “I have humbly learned that our salvation is all of God’s doing by Christ and in Christ, and that apart from His kindness, we will never be saved.” Pastor Jun of CFF Paniquian said, “I am grateful for PPI and Sovereign Grace Churches for allowing us this much needed training for pastors in Mindanao. I have learned not to take biblical interpretations lightly and that it should only be taught in its’ proper context.”

We are blessed to have Rey Lacbayo, one our ordained SG pastors, faithfully teach these students for 9 months and to serve them with humility and friendship. I am also grateful for Francis Mariano, an ordained SG pastor as well, who visits PPI every 3 months to serve alongside Rey in teaching and training our students. I also would like to acknowledge all the prayers and support of our local church elders for allowing us to serve our church leaders down south of the Philippines. And with never-ending gratitude to our SGC Leadership Team, thank you for all the trust, partnership and friendship that is so heartfelt, inspiring us to serve the gospel of Christ even more in these last days. I hope to see the next generation of SGC pastors in the Philippines who will continue to keep the gospel aflame, plant more Christocentric churches and be filled with humility, love and joyous commitment.

Sovereign Grace exists to plant and strengthen churches for the glory of God, and in His kindness, we are presently in the process of planting six churches in the United States.

Recently, two of these Church Planters joined Mark Prater, our Executive Director, on his podcast. They both have such good stories to tell, so please listen in… I believe you’ll be seriously encouraged!!

Eric Huber: Galloway, New Jersey - Planting 14th September

Nathan Smith: Coatsville, Pennsylvania - Planting 21st September

Exciting times!!

In John 15.4-5, Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Those final few words give us such an important and sobering God-given perspective on how much we’ll be able to do for the Lord by ourselves. How much? Nothing, nada, nought, zilch, diddly squat, empty handed, blank space, nil ... So, oh my, how we need the Lord don’t we! If we’re going to be able to do anything, the main thing we need is Him!  For apart from Him we really can do nothing!

With that in mind, here’s how you can be praying for some of our Global endeavours in the month ahead...

1. Please pray for the 20 young adults who are heading to Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney, Australia, from Cornerstone Church, Knoxville, US, 5th-14th July, to run a Kids Club with 50+ children from both inside and outside of the Church. Please pray that God would bless their ministry as they seek to share the gospel with both kids and adults alike, and that the great joy of Sovereign Grace partnership would be cultivated and enjoyed by everyone involved.

2. Please pray for the Sovereign Grace Philippines Regional Assembly of Elders, as they gather together in Cebu, 9th-12th July. During their time together they’ll be talking through the growing number of Churches interested in partnership with Sovereign Grace in the Philippines, the various updates needed and recommended for the SGC Philippines Book of Church Order, as well as whole host of ministry matters. May the Lord give these brothers great wisdom and insight as they gather together in this way, and extra measure to Jeffrey Jo as he seeks to lead this time.

3. Please pray for Bart Lipscombe, SGC Area Leader for Africa, as he heads to Zambia 11th-14th July, and then Namibia, 14th-18th July. Please pray that he’d be a great blessing to each of the pastoral teams and churches that those trips represent, and that He’d give Bart wisdom and insight as to how to serve them, encourage them and come alongside them well.

4. Please pray for the SGC LATAM Pastors Retreat, in Santa Marta, Colombia, July 15th-17th. There’ll be ten pastors from Colombia, six from Costa Rica and two from Bolivia, who will be attending the retreat, which will be led by Joselo Mercado (Key Leader in LATAM) and Rich Richardson (SGC Area Leader for LATAM). This will be the first retreat of this type outside of Mexico, may it be wonderful encouragement to all of our Pastors in this region.  

5. Please pray for the two teams from Covenant Fellowship that are headed to Playa Azul. The first team heads June 30th-July 7th, to complete a construction project and to build together in partnership and relationship as churches. Then July 7th-14th, the second team is a team of youth that are headed over to lead a youth camp for local kids, plus any kids from our local Sovereign Grace Churches that are there. Please pray that this would be a great blessing for everyone involved.

6. Please continue to pray for Michael Ostanin and Arche Church, Dnipro, Ukraine. That the war would soon come to an end, and that whilst they wait for that moment, that the light and hope of the gospel would shine brightly in the midst of darkness and suffering, and that the manifold wisdom of God be revealed through His church.  

… Thank you so much for prayers. As we abide in Him, may His grace truly abound to us all.  

In Romans 11.36, we read, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” And as I look back now, just a week on from celebrating our fifteen year anniversary as Sovereign Grace Church, Wahroonga, Romans 11.36 is without doubt my full-hearted declaration. It has all been His work, and it is marvellous in our eyes.  

Humanly speaking, our story actually began back in 2004, when God led Mike Pasalich to write to C.J.Mahaney to see if Sovereign Grace would ever consider planting a church in Sydney, Australia. This letter, through a long chain of God-inspired events, would lead to our move. A move that was unexpected, unforeseen and unanticipated by us, yet a journey that God had so clearly began. We would’ve never even come on holiday to Australia if left to ourselves, it’s so far to come from the UK!! But God had other plans, and so in June 2010 my wife and I, along with our three small children, got on a plane to relocate to Sydney, Australia from Newport, Wales, to plant the church. Full of hope, full of faith, full of unknown, and yet full of clarity that this story had truly started with Him.

Did that make the transition easy? No. Honestly, it was really hard to be in a foreign land, 10,500 miles away from family and all that knew of as familiar. I had never actually planted a church before, nor been a lead pastor, nor ever pastored in a very different context to my own. But as I look back now with my family, fifteen years on, our view is filled with grace, grace and more grace.

In the last fifteen years, we have repeatedly seen His saving grace, with so many people: Jiy Lim, Celia Tan, Nick Gordon, Bri Edwards, Nick Beed, Steve Jackson, Momch Pasalich, Ryan O’Gorman and Annette Packham, to name but a few, coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Some of these dear Saints we still get to worship alongside on a Sunday, others have already gone on to be with Jesus, and each one of them, is a wonderful trophy of grace.

There’s also been restoring grace, as so many of our folk have arrived at Sovereign Grace over the last fifteen years having previously given up on church or God, for a whole variety of reasons, and yet have been gently and wonderfully restored by His hand.

There’s also been sanctifying grace, where lives and marriages and families and workplaces, have been totally transformed by the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Lives that have been touched by the King, and people then who are being changed from one degree of glory to another by His gracious hand.

Then there’s been sustaining grace. Job tells us, ‘For as sure as sparks fly upwards, troubles fall’, and we’ve seen that. Health challenges, marriage challenges, relational challenges, parenting challenges, financial challenges, we’ve experienced them all... But what we’ve also seen time and time again is His people being carried in the grip of His grace and never let go.

And then there’s been His provisional grace. Since our very inception in 2010, God has provided for us as a church in incredible ways. Financially, we’ve rarely gone without.  In facilities, He’s always provided for what we need, often in abounding ways. And in personnel, His provision has always been a wonder to behold – musicians, worship leaders, pa, media, graphic design, set up, hospitality, welcoming, group leaders, sphere leaders and pastors. He’s provided it all.

In His abounding grace, He’s even given us the opportunity to send out our first church plant, Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta in September of 2019, and watch the birth of Sovereign Grace Churches, Australia. Then there’s been the amazing work of His grace in Asia-Pacific, in places like South Korea, Nepal, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, in which He’s so kindly allowed us to be a part. It’s all so much more than we ever imagined we’d get to see when we arrived in 2010, but so indicative of the gracious and kind God He is.

For from him and through and to him are all things. He’s such a kind and gracious King... It’s all His work and always will be... And so may all glory go to Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Below is a video that we put together for our anniversary celebration. Fifteen years of grace. Enjoy.