We had a wonderful evening at our recent Christmas Eve Services across both our churches, where we celebrated the birth of Christ our Saviour! It was a sweet time of reflecting on the Christmas reality - that God took on flesh and was born to save mankind from sin and death. We lifted our voices to sing carols and enjoyed a festive supper afterwards.

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

Christmas Eve at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

If you came along, we’re so glad that you could be with us!

You’re welcome to join any of our Sunday gatherings:

Sundays 10am & 5pm at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga
Sundays 10am at Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

Hebrews 12.1-2, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great cloud a witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.'

We are all in a race, the great race, indeed the greatest race of our lives! And so looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the One we all need so much, here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for Marty Machowski (Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA), as he heads to South Korea from January 10th-20th. He’ll be jumping into teaching the day after he arrives, serving at a seminar designed to teach couples about the work of the Spirit in the family home. Please pray for clear weather and no flight delays, as well as strength and stamina amidst a full schedule. Please pray that the Spirit of God touches the lives of the folk that attend. Please also pray for his time with our very own Songhwan Kang, Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church, as he seeks to encourage and bless him and his wife, Miran. Songhwan has been reaching out to a group of pastors in his area who have shown interest in learning about our Sovereign Grace values, and so please pray for Marty as he teaches them.

2. Please pray for Ed O’Mara (Lead Pastor of Chiesa Grazia Sovrana di Torino, Italy and SGC Area Leader for Europe), as well as Rocco Dalia (Co-planter in Italy) as they travel to Catania, Italy for 4 days at the end of January to meet with the leaders and congregation of Chiesa Grazia di Verità. The church is pastored by Giuseppe Fortuna and they are exploring adoption into Sovereign Grace Churches. The goal of this time is to help them take the next steps and continue to build toward interdependence in the broader European area. Please pray for clarity and wisdom for all involved such that Christ would be glorified, local churches would be well served, and the gospel would advance across Italy. 

3. Please pray for the US Church Planting Assessment taking place in Costa Mesa, CA on January 16th-18th. Please pray for the four prospective church planting couples who are being assessed. The hope of the assessment is to encourage these couples, identify their distinct gifts and strengths, and evaluate any potential risks for church planting. Please pray for the assessment team, that they might experience Spirit-empowered discernment, care, and encouragement. Please pray that the evaluation might serve not only the prospective church planting couples, but also the respective sending elderships and church planting committees. Please pray that the weekend might result in the deployment of called and qualified church planters who will plant healthy Sovereign Grace Churches.

4. Please pray for Brian Kiama (Church Planter into Nairobi, Kenya) and Jonathan Leslie (Co-Planter in Kenya), as they seek to soft-launch their Church Plant on Sunday 5th January. Please pray that God would bring the people that He wants to be a part of this new endevour, and that His Word would speed ahead and be glorified in Nairobi and beyond.

5. Please pray for the Sovereign Grace Churches RELAY Conference, January 2nd-4th in Glen Mills, PA. Over 650 young adults from Sovereign Grace Churches in a few different nations will be attending this conference. Please pray that God meets with the next generation of Sovereign Grace in wonderful ways as we gather in this way.

*This list was originally posted on our SGC Missions blog. Click here to visit the original post.

We are looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour across our churches in Sydney on Christmas Eve!

If you’ve been looking for a church to visit or attend at this time, please know that you’re welcome at these services!

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Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta

When: 6pm, Tuesday 24 December
Where: Parramatte East Public School (Gaggin St, Parramatta)
A light supper will be served after the service.

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Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga

When: 5pm, Tuesday 24 December
Where: Fox Valley Community Centre (Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga)
Drinks and treats to follow the service.

What a great night we had at SG Wahroonga at our gingerbread house night! We are so thankful for everyone who came and joined us!

The ladies of SG Parra had a fabulous evening opening up our doors at Iron Street for a Women’s Wreath Night!

It was a sweet time of fellowship and wreath-making with friends and family! One of our ladies, Ali Oliver, shared a short, yet impactful Christmas devotion, which reminded us all of what Christmas joy is founded upon: the birth of a Saviour. Our Saviour! We also had the opportunity to invite our guests to SG Parra’s Christmas Eve Service as well as next year’s Bridge Course! Please pray that God would continue to work powerfully in the hearts of the ladies through what was shared on the night.

We’re already excited for our next one!

This year’s Pastors Conference was such a blessing! We had over 800 people from 21 different nations in attendance. Heard the Word of God read in 6 different languages. Enjoyed excellent preaching from Jared Mellinger, Jon Payne, Jeff Purswell, C.J.Mahaney, and Mark Prater, as well as in all the breakout sessions, and we sang, fellowshipped, prayed and ate together for three wonderful days. 

For those traveling in for the conference, it was worth every mile of the trip. Here is a sampling of how it impacted some of our internationals...

Josh Kruger Jr. (Namibia)

After nearly a year of being on the ground and working towards a church plant, being able to attend the Pastors Conference was not only refreshing…as in “Yes, this is what we are all about”. But it was refreshing as a young church planting pastor to be surrounded again by like-minded men and their wives. Men who think, process, consider, enjoy, and prioritize their lives and ministries around, firstly Scripture and secondarily around our own Statement of Faith. It was a blessing to look men that represent churches in the eye and thank them for their partnership, support, and prayers.

Songhwan Kang (South Korea)

I would like to thank SG again for allowing me and my wife to attend the pastors conference. This conference always gives my wife and I a new strength and grace to serve the church. What I realize every time I attend is that SG's friendship and passion for the gospel are outstanding. Also, at this conference, I was deeply moved to discover SG's desire to build God's kingdom with the next generation.

Austin Loke (Australia)

I really appreciated the specifity and applicability of all the messages, which gave to us specific things to head home with and run hard towards. I was equipped to rail against fruitless remembering, stirred to a more fervent pursuit of godliness, provoked to yearn for eyes to see God's grace in the lives of others, envisioned with a transmissional view of ministry, and emboldened with an enduring faith to not shrink back but press on!

Jeffrey Jo (Philippines)

Through Jarred’s preaching, I was reminded to have a spirit of Barnabas, to always see the beauty of God’s grace at work in the lives of others and to choose to encourage others and avoid hyper-evaluation in someone’s life. I can exercise this by continually reflecting the heart of God towards my life and others.

Richie Song (Australia)

It was beautiful to see and hear about the incredible work God is doing in Sovereign Grace churches all around the world - transforming lives, growing communities of faith, healing the broken, and bring hope to places we may never see firsthand. It was inspiring and encouraging to hear stories of how God is moving powerfully though His people and spurs me on for the mission here in my local area!

Norman Pedd (Spain)

I was really encouraged with the main sessions, the way to look at the past with a healing vision, to walk in the present with a Godly grace, and an encouraging grace, and with a challenge for the future in preparing others for the ministry. A special gift was the time we passed as SGC Europe, in time of sharing, communion and prayer, so thankful to the Lord for all.

V & I (Belarus)

We thank God for the opportunity and privilege to attend the conference in Orlando. My wife and I were attending the Sovereign Grace Conference for the first time. It was an answer to my prayers as this has not been an easy year for our family. All of the sermons were just right to my heart. Our young church is four years old, and I have often thought about what could be done differently. I have regretted some decisions, and C.J. Mahaney's sermon was just what I needed. I felt spiritually renewed and encouraged. The friendliness, openness and family atmosphere at the conference was a great encouragement to us. We lived together with the European group and the evenings were an unforgettable time. We thank all the organizers and those who helped to make this conference possible for us.

Matt Chapman (England)

Gathering as a European group was for me one of the true highlights of this year’s Pastor's conference. The deepening friendships, along with the growing sense of partnership we experienced, left me full of fresh faith and expectation for what the Lord is doing through Sovereign Grace in Europe.

Andrew Leung (Australia)

The Pastor's Conference is always one of my highlights of the year! This year is no different. Faithful and passionate teaching of God's Words that stirs the heart and soul, as well as the joy and privilege of singing next to hundreds of pastors and wives that we get to serve alongside in the trenches. This year, real life testimonies of 'not-so-young' pastors being involved with church plants, notwithstanding the cost, has been faith stirring. Blessed to hear these stories firsthand and spurred on to continue laying down our lives for the glory of God, in service to His people and His mission!

If you missed the conference but would like to hear the talks then good news, all of the audio and video of the main sessions is now available on the events page. In addition, all of the audio from each of the breakout sessions is now available on the same page.  Head here: CONFERENCE RESOURCES

God accomplished so much through our short time together in Orlando. Our partnership was strengthened, vision for our shared mission was expanded, and our relationships were deepened. How blessed we are!

We’re very excited to announce that in March next year we will be having a marriage retreat to serve all our married couples! We will have the privilege of having Rob Flood out from our sister church Covenant Fellowship Church. Rob is a wonderful man of God who has a hard fought beautiful marriage. Once you get to know Rob’s story, you’ll realize, their marriage was far from automatically blissfully, in fact, quite the opposite. This desperation has led them to search the scriptures, gain counsel, and fight to find a way to love each other deeply.

Details:

DATE: 28-29 MARCH

VENUES: THORNLEIGH COMMUNITY CENTRE (FRIDAY) // DON MOORE COMMUNITY CENTRE, CARLINGFORD (SATURDAY)

Early Bird Registration $60 - https://sg.elvanto.com.au/form/b6d89f15-4178-40bd-b130-474a6f52400b

https://anz.sovereigngrace.com/marriage

We are so thankful to God for the amazing time we had over the weekend at our first SG AUS MEN’S Conference with our dear friend Eric Turbedsky serving us. It was a special time as the men of our churches gathered together united in our devotion to Christ.

Earlier in the year we had an awesome Women’s Conference which was really well attended, but we have more women than men and so we assumed our men’s conference would have far less men attend. Instead, we had more men come! So much so that we were only just able to fit into our ministry centre. But that added to the fun as we squished in and made it work.I think there was a collective sense of brotherhood and joy to be gathering as men of God.

We ate together, played dumb fun games together, sang hearty, manly songs together and sat under God’s word together. Our theme was “Christ Our Captain”, where we wanted to have our men see that Christ is not just our saviour but also our captain and Lord who gives us our marching orders for life. Eric preached three powerful messages from this theme, three marching orders from Christ our Captain: Love, Fight, Rest! These messages resonated with the guys helped clarify their life, particularly around Christ’s call to love his people, the church. On this idea Spurgeon remarked in his last ever sermon:

Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters; but if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. These forty years and more have I served him, blessed be his name! and I have had nothing but love from him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if so it pleased him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day! Amen

As Pastors, we were so pleased to see the level of enthusiasm and devotion of the men of our churches. If you want to see a video slideshow of the event, please click here!! .

A big thank you to all those who helped make this happen, especially Sovereign Grace Church of Orange for releasing Eric to come and serve us so well.

We hope that God will use events like this to help us stand on His word, resist the cultural downgrade of masculinity, and build Godly men for the future. Our plan is to do this again every two years, I am already excited for 2026!

‘Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13

An update by Mark Prater, Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches.

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

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

Sovereign Grace Churches Fourth Quarter 2024 Prayer Requests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The annual Sovereign Grace Pastors’ Conference is coming up next week. This is a conference for pastors & pastor’s wives of Sovereign Grace Churches around the world to come together for a time of teaching and fellowship. There will be a team of people attending from SG Aus who will be attending this year. Please be praying for their time over in the States as they attend this conference - that they might come away from it refreshed, and reinvigorated for the Kingdom work that God has called them to.

RELAY is a Sovereign Grace Conference for Young Adults (18-30 year olds) in Philadelphia in the US from Jan 2-4 2025. It was an amazing time last year and those who went couldn’t recommend it more highly!

Are you interested? If so, contact admin@sgparra.org.au and we will add you to the list of people who are asking the question!

Go here for more details!

I am glad to let you know that Brendan Willis, along with Dave and Emma Taylor have come together to make a podcast for parents, 'The Imperfect Parent: Gospel Hope for Imperfect Parents'.

Whether you're on top of your game as a parent or feel like you're just about to sink we think you'll love it!

I want to draw your attention to Episode 4 which discusses Gentle Parenting, spanking and spoiling kids. How should we think about discipline? This is a great biblical, balanced and culturally aware discussion of a vitally important yet sensitive issue.

Subscribe below!
Apple:

Spotify:

YouTube:

An update from Dave Taylor, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Sydney and Director of Global Missions for Sovereign Grace Churches.

One of the most striking quotes from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that I believe conveys both his strong burden for evangelism and his great heart for the lost, is as follows. He writes…

             ‘If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies, and if they would perish, then let them do so with our arms wrapped about their knees imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled – then let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.’

For all of us, even now, there are so many in our neighbourhoods and nations that don’t know Jesus. They are far from Him and on a collision course with Hell. Yet we know a Saviour who can change their lives in a moment. Who can turn their lives and destinies around in a moment. For we can’t save them ourselves, but we can point them to a Saviour who can!!

So here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead, as we seek to win the lost to Jesus…

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 over this next month.

2. Pray for our new Director of Church Planting, Joel Shorey, Sr. Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship, Newark, DE, asking God to give him wisdom, discernment, and grace in helping us plant more churches in the United States, so that so many more may hear about Christ.

3. Pray for the Fieles A Su Llamado Conference in Juarez, Mexico, August 7-9, 2024, asking God to encourage, equip, enthuse and strengthen the pastors and wives attending from Mexico and Latin America. Pray also pray for Carlos Contreras as he leads this strategic conference.

4. Pray for our new 2024-2025 Pastors College students and their families from 2 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. That may be prepared well to bear much fruit upon their return home.

5. Pray for Brian Kiama, a 2022 Trinity Fellowship Pastors College graduate in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as Jonathan Leslie, a US Pastors College graduate in Indianapolis, US, as they move their families to Nairobi, Kenya, later in August for Brian, and September for Jonathan, to plant a Sovereign Grace church in Nairobi, asking God to provide all they need to advance the gospel in Kenya.

6. Pray for me, Dave Taylor, as I head to Zambia and Namibia, 9th-20th August, to encourage the pastors there, serve the Church in Zambia, and spend time with the Church Planting group in Namibia, as they prepare to ‘go live’ and launch.

   … ‘If Hell must be filled – then let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.’*

*This post was originally shared on our SGC Missions website. To view the original post, click here.

Mark your calendars, clear your schedule, and register now for the Men’s Conference, 18-19th Oct!

The theme for the conference is ‘Christ Our Captain’ and we have the privilege of having Pastor Eric Turbedsky from Sovereign Grace Church of Orange make the trip out to teach and help us to orient our lives around Christ and his mission. The aim is for the men of our churches to gather for an extended time of fellowship, worship and also some stupid fun!

Register here, more details here.

We are so pleased to announce that we will be holding our next SG Aus TOGETHER Conference next year: 8-10 August 2025!

We are also extremely excited to announce that we will be having Jeff Purswell coming out to teach at the conference. Jeff is a dear friend, who currently serves as a Pastor at the Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville and also as the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College. We are so looking forward to having him and his wife Julie join us for our weekend away as a family of churches.

Please lock in the date in your calendars! More information to come!

As Director of Theology and Training for Sovereign Grace Churches,  Jeff Purswell (MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the Dean of the Pastors College. He is the editor of Bible Doctrine (an abridgment of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology), an editor and contributor to Scripture and the People of God: Essays in Honor of Wayne Grudem, and he contributed a chapter to Wordliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World.  He serves on the board of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and is a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. He and his wife, Julie, have two sons.

For more of Jeff’s story about how he came to the Pastors College, as well as his burden for the role of the Pastors College, listen here.

I am posting this on the eve of the launch of the new Sovereign Grace Music album ‘Knowing God’. Head to sovereigngracemusic.com to find all the resources, videos, charts, lyrics etc.

This album was inspired by the 50th Anniversary of J.I. Packer’s classic ‘Knowing God’. If you have never read that book…then you need to delete your current book list and pick up a copy!

I hope this album will serve you and your church with its incredible lyrics and melodies for corporate and personal worship.

We’re excited to announce that we have a theme and speaker locked in for our SG Australia Men’s Conference, ‘Christ Our Captain’ with Pastor Eric Turbedsky from Sovereign Grace Church of Orange. Eric is a dear friend and a man I deeply respect, he has a wonderful family and has been a faithful and fruitful church planter and SGC Leadership Team member over many years. Eric will help us to orient our lives around Christ and his mission. We will also aim to have some stupid fun together, as well as eat some good meat.

Stay tuned for booking and registrations details launching soon.

Also, we have changed the structure that the ‘social’ element will be mixed in with the sessions. So we will start Friday night with our first teaching session.

Lock this into your calendar, and get excited!

18th OCT - 7pm for an 8pm start finishing 10pm

19th OCT - 9am for 9:30am start finishing 5pm

@ 27 Iron Street North Parramatta.

Eric’s primary responsibilities include preaching, vision casting, leading the pastoral team, and developing new leaders. He grew up in Pennsylvania and served as a pastor in San Diego before coming to Orange to plant our church in 2009. Eric and his wife Kirsi have five children and live in Santa Ana.

Please be praying for Joel and Jamie Seric with their kids Amaliah and Tobias , as well as Austin and Ivy with their children Nathan, Abigail, and Jesse; as they all leave to go to Louisville Kentucky in the US for 10 months to attend the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors College, the PC. The PC is a 10 month intensive Pastoral training program situated within a local church, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, where Bob Kauflin, Jeff Purswell and CJ Mahaney are pastors. It’s a fantastic program, it’s intense, it’s relational, it’s fun, and I am very excited for these guys!

Recently, we had the sweet privilege of having Jim and Trish Donohue from Covenant Fellowship Church PA come to Australia to serve our family of churches. It was a tremendous blessing to have Jim teach and equip both churches and their pastoral teams on mission and evangelism, as well as having Trish teaching at the inaugural SG Aus Women’s Conference.

We are so grateful for Jim and Trish and their hearts to serve and lay their lives down for the Church and for the lost. We look forward to seeing the fruit that will be borne from the seeds sown during their time with us.

Recently, we held our inaugural Sovereign Grace Australia Women’s Conference. The theme of our time together was: When Life Is A Lot, and Trish Donohue gave three helpful talks which spoke into our sense of overwhelm in the midst of a full and busy life!

It was a sweet time of fellowship between our two Sovereign Grace Churches here in Australia and a timely opportunity for many of us to slow down for the day and hear what God’s word had to say about lies we may believe, comparison with others and distractions in the busy-ness of day-to-day life.

The talks are now available on the Sovereign Grace Parramatta streaming channels on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify or on their website.