Archives for April 2015

We had the privilege of participating in and representing Sovereign Grace Churches at The Gospel Coalition's first ever Hispanic Conference in Orlando, FL. Abelardo Muoz, the official live Spanish translator for TGC, and Rich Richardson, our Director of Global Missions, joined me at the conference, along with Bob and Brittany Kauflin, Joselo Mercado, and Mauricio Velarde. ...

With each new study of sexual offenders, we learn more about their patterns of behavior and the way they target their victims. So it is important to train all our childcare workers to recognize the warning signs. While we've done annual training for our children's ministry workers, it wasn't until we partnered with Ministry Safe that we recognized this is a church-wide iss...

An apple seed is really small, but with a seemingly immeasurable inside. Inside the miniscule there is the massive. One seed has within it a tree which will "give birth" to hundreds of apples which can generate a thousand orchards able to produce millions more apples. It isin C.S. Lewis's memorable line in The Last Battle"bigger on the inside than on the outside." Welcome...

Last week our Regional Leaders gatheredin Frisco, TX (the Dallas area) to pray, learn,andplan together. These men play a strategic role in leading the elders in their regions, therefore much of our time was given to sharpening our understanding of the role of the Regional Leader. Our Executive Director, Mark Prater, joined us for the first half of the retreat and presente...

Eighteen pastors. Gallons of coffee. Pages of sermon notes. One purpose: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Last week Jeff wrote a post asking for prayer for Sovereign Grace's fourth Expository Preaching Practicum. As one of the participants, I can testify...

Two weeks ago the Northeast Regional Assembly of Elders made the unanimous decision to form a new region known as the Lower Great Lakes Region. The formation of this region includes churches in Indiana, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Toronto, Ontario. This new region not only reduces the Northeast Region to a more manageable size, but also helps us be mo...

This week we have the privilege of hosting our fourth Expository Preaching Practicum designed to serve the pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches. We invited 18 of our pastors for three intense days of preaching, evaluation, and discussion, with the goal of serving and equipping these men as they seek to preach God's word with precision and passion. I am leading the practicu...

The Regional Assembly of Elders in our Midwest-Northwest region gathered for its first annual retreat. We are excited to share how God graciously met them in a variety of powerful ways during their time together ... They celebrated a new church adoption with Crosshaven Church of Belleville, IL. We are grateful to welcome pastors Chris Oswald, Rodney Fickas, and Victor Ch...

Zach Varnell, a pastor at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville, leads a college campus ministry called Volunteers for Christ. This group gathers once a week at the University of Tennessee to worship together, encourage students, and spread the gospel throughout their communities. And word is getting out about this weekly gathering. NBC recently featured this ministry on their ...

This post was originally published on the Worship Matters blog. Through the years I've been grateful for the many booksGod has usedoutside of Scripture toexpand and deepen my relationship with him. In the late 70smy wife, Julie, gave me Martyn Lloyd-Jones'Studies in the Sermon on the Mountfor my birthday. As I read through it, my eyes were opened to the necessity of humi...

The following questions highlight a series of blog posts Jeff Purswell wrote back in 2010 addressing common questions about how Christ's crucifixion and resurrection relate to each other in Scripture. We thought they would be timely encouragements as we prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday! 1: Will focusing on the cross lead us to neglect the resurrection? Sovereign Gr...

Dear friends, As I've traveled to our churches over the last year and a half, I've heard so many good stories of how God is using the churches in Sovereign Grace to advance the gospel to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. I am eager for you to hear some of these stories. So, over the next year we are producing quarterly Mission Videos that will not only in...