Our family of churches will gather in November for the annual ‘Pastors Conference’ and I am sure it will be awesome! Sadly, due to border closures, at this stage our Australian pastors won’t be able to attend.

Every year we all try to make room in our budgets to head over in order to continue to grow in our friendships as a family of churches, as well as all the amazing times of worship and teaching.

If you are interested in Sovereign Grace Churches and want to know what it’s all about, then why don’t you consider saving up and coming with us next year?

We will post more news of any Livestream options etc for this year once we have it.

https://www.sovereigngrace.com/blog/2021-pastors-conference

Introducing the new Sovereign Grace Journal. A publication of original theological, practical, and devotional articles written by and for the pastors and members of Sovereign Grace Churches to strengthen your soul. The Sovereign Grace Journal will also include book reviews, resources, and more.

I am very please to write to you and commend this new resource produced by our family of churches, Sovereign Grace. They have resurrected their theological journal to help serve our churches to be theologically informed for loving Christ more in our world today. Click here to read it online.

Below a post from Mark Prater, our Executive Director, introducing it:

“On behalf of the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team, I want to invite you to read the first edition of the “Sovereign Grace Churches Journal.” The journal is not a new idea, for our Founder, C.J. Mahaney led in the publishing of a journal that served our family of churches years ago. We thought this was a good time to resurrect his idea with the aim of fulfilling the same purpose he had, which is to serve the pastors and members of our churches in Sovereign Grace. With that purpose in view, the articles in the journal are written in a way to equip our pastors, strengthen the members of our churches, and to help us celebrate the gospel values that we share. Our hope is that the journal will help us to know Christ more, love Christ more, and fortify the gospel partnership that Christ has given us.

The theme of this first edition is, “Christ Our Treasure.” We chose this theme because we, who were once alienated from God because of our many sins, have now been reconciled to God through the death of Christ on our behalf on the cross. In response to this great salvation, we want to be a people who obey Christ, serve Christ, love Christ and treasure Christ. Our desire is that Christ would be preeminent in all that we do. The articles in this journal, written by Sovereign Grace pastors throughout the world, are intended to help you to do just that, make much of Jesus Christ.

I want to thank each of the pastors who are contributing articles to this first edition of our journal. I also want to thank our Executive Editor, Jeff Purswell, and our General Editor, Jared Mellinger. Jared has done the bulk of the work in assembling this journal, and I thank God for him and his labors on your behalf.

As you read through this journal, my prayer is that every article would help you treasure Jesus Christ with all of your heart, mind and soul.

Treasuring Christ with you.”

Many people aren’t aware that Sovereign Grace Music is connected to Sovereign Grace Churches but they are! In fact, the music from SGM is designed out of and for Sovereign Grace Churches globally to help our churches worship God truly and passionately no matter our circumstances. And this latest song does just that!

Christ Will Be My Hideaway, based on Psalm 91, reminds us that Jesus will always be our refuge, even in the midst of a pandemic.

VERSE 1
I will dwell within the shelter of the God who reigns above
I will rest beneath the shadow of the mighty King of love
Though a sickness hides in darkness, though a plague destroys by day
I will stand upon His promises, Christ will be my hideaway

Christ Will Be My Hideaway was released on January 22, 2021 by Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. Words and music by Tim Chester, Bob Kauflin, Nathan Stiff, David Zimmer, Lacy Hudson, and McKenzie Fuller. Produced by Grace Nixon. Vocalist: McKenzie Fuller.

The Sovereign Grace Churches Australia Leadership Bootcamp has begun! With a number of members from our churches plus outside guests, these men and women have begun a year long journey to discover how to lead biblically. They will cover many topics from humility, grace, character, and servanthood to planning, strategy, and priorities. It will be deeply theological, heart oriented, and practical!

Our Statement of Faith isn’t a document to be put on a shelf somewhere to collect dust, but a gift to our churches that can be used in various ways to guide, build and encourage our faith both as individuals and local churches. To this end, I’m pleased to have these videos by Jeff Purswell featured here to help you along the way.

These videos will help you get a better understanding as to how our Family of Churches functions confessionally, united by truth!

Clink on this link to access and enjoy the Statement of Faith https://webelieve.sovereigngrace.com/

Church planting is one of the ways we advance the gospel of Jesus Christ together in Sovereign Grace. Church planting is also a glorious adventure for each location provides new opportunities to be creative, grow in grace, learn what serves the surrounding community and, ultimately, share the good news of Jesus Christ. See below for an update on one our US Church Plants.

While we definitely want to be employing church planting strategies, every method doesn't work the same in every place. Matt Turner's church in Prattville, Alabama (USA) is no different. Planting a church in the Bible Belt in the southern USA means that most people know about Jesus, attend church a few times a year and think they'll go to heaven. This provides unique challenges for Matt and his church.

Our first quarter Sovereign Grace Mission Video is a quick peek into what is happening through Sovereign Grace Church in Prattville. The gospel is being proclaimed through the members of the church in their everyday lives. And it's thrilling to hear about because they're faithfully sharing the life changing gospel with the lost.

Take time to watch. And consider giving to Sovereign Grace Churches to partner with the mission of local churches like Sovereign Grace Church in Prattville, Alabama.

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

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

Pastoral Internships

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

Simon Walker

Andrew Leung

Richard Song

Leadership Bootcamp

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

Outside Interest

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

Future Plans

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

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

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches…

"If we were really convinced that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer, as Scripture repeatedly teaches that he does, then we would pray much more than we do. If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all.” Wayne Grudem

Friends, may we be convinced that God does bring about remarkable changes in response to prayer. And as we pray for one another in Sovereign Grace, using the "First Quarter Prayer Requests" below, let us believe that our prayers will accomplish much for the good of the gospel, and the glory of Christ alone!

• Pray that God would give the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers in our communities and workplaces.

•  Pray for Matt Turner and his team as they plant Sovereign Grace Church in Prattville, AL asking God to provide for them, and give them opportunities to share the gospel in the Prattville area.

• Pray for Zicky Chanda and her four sons as they grieve the loss of their husband/father, Wilbroad Chanda, who was the Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church in Ndola, Zambia asking God to comfort them and the church in Ndola. 

• Pray for Bob Kauflin and the Sovereign Grace Music Team as they begin the work of producing a new album featuring the Psalms.

• Pray for Eric Turbedsky (Director of Church Planting) and Joel Carlson (Sr. Pastor of Emmaus Road Church in Bozeman, MT) as they start a “Small Towns Initiative,” which will equip church planters to plant Sovereign Grace churches in smaller communities asking God to give them and their team wisdom.

• Pray that God would give the Sovereign Grace Churches Leadership Team wisdom for how to expand globally in a way that preserves our theological convictions, gospel values, and allows us to continue to build relationally.

• 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.

An extract from our Emerging Nations blog…

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

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

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

Update on Pastor JP and India

From Bob Kauflin (@bkauflin) , Director of Sovereign Grace Music…

Not too long ago I took one of my grandsons out for a bagel and asked him a question. “What’s the most important thing in the world?” I told him it had to be a person or an object. 

After a long pause, he responded, “The Bible?” “That’s right,” I said. 

I went on to say that apart from God’s Word, we would have no way of knowing God’s thoughts, commands, warnings, or promises. We’d be limited to general revelation, which gloriously declares aspects of God’s character and deeds, but is silent when it comes to our separation from God and his plan to reconcile us to himself through Christ.

The Bible is an unspeakably precious gift that men and women have given their lives to protect, proclaim, and publish. So it makes all the sense in the world to spend as much time getting to know God through his Word as we can.

A Plan for Reading

As 2020 comes to a close, a lot of us are thinking about a Bible reading plan for 2021. I’ve spent numerous years since 2001 reading through the Bible. It’s always a rich, rewarding practice, whether I’m reading through a study Bible, using the McCheyne Bible reading plan, or benefiting from the Prof. Grant Horner plan.

When I want to slow down and go more in-depth I’ll read Scripture along with a trusted commentary (Christopher Ash on Job and Greg Beale on Revelation were both fantastic). 

But a couple years ago my church committed to reading through the Bible and I decided to use the 6 volume ESV Reader’s Bible. 

Wow. 

I discovered early on that I do better reading the Bible in a year when I seek to finish early, rather than always trying to catch up. So I aimed to read 25 pages each time I sat down. I didn’t always achieve that, but I succeeded often enough to enable me to finish by the end of September.

READ THE FULL POST

2020 has been a year like no other in recent memory. Who isn’t looking to 2021 with expectation and relief? But unless our hope for a new year is grounded in something more than wishes, good intentions, and resolve, we have no reason to think that the new year will make us any more secure, happy, or well-off.

The foundation for our hope lies in one place: the promises of God revealed fully to us in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If God would give his only Son to pay for our sins, how will he not also give us every good thing? (Rom. 8:32) Even when those “good things” don’t look like what we expected, we can be confident they come from a wise, sovereign, and loving Father.

Thousands of years ago, David said, ““Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:16) God knows every one of our days and holds them in his hand before we even live them.

This past year one of the Sovereign Grace songwriters, Dave Fournier, brought a set of lyrics to our songwriting retreat called, “All of Our Tomorrows,” eventually set to a beautiful tune by Ryan Foglesong. The song is a prayer that acknowledges and prays for God’s careful, wise, personal, and faithful involvement in the lives of those Christ has redeemed. It speaks to our need for guidance in the future, comfort in loss, and strength for all our days.

We recorded a simple video of the song this year and plan to record a full version next year. We pray God would use this song and the truth it proclaims as a means of faith, comfort, and hope for all of your tomorrows.

VIDEO & LYRICS

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

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

Pastors and Wives Livestream Event

Recently, our church in Fayetsville, AR (USA) shared this year-end video with the members of their church. Living Hope Church has a stated mission to pursue Christ and his mission of making disciples. The three ways in which the church practically embodies to live this mission is by: Enjoying, Encouraging and Evangelizing.

This video is a peek into the ways that God has allowed this church to fulfill this mission despite the pandemic and all the hurdles that 2020 brought with it. And really, it’s the story of God’s grace to a small church that not just grew in size over the past year, but grew with a community of believers committed to the same mission. Take a look at what God is doing in one small corner of the world!

Throughout this year, all of us have experienced countless challenges and adversities. And as a church plant, we faced the foothills of this year like it was...

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of SGC Global…

As a family of churches we exist to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ by planting and strengthening churches throughout the world for the glory of God. Together, we help local churches plant other local churches to reach the lost with the gospel as one means to fulfill our mission.

That’s one of the reasons that I thank God for Sovereign Grace Church in Sydney, Australia who in September 2019 planted a church about 30 minutes away in the city of Parramatta. Sending some of their best, including Lead Pastor, Riley Spring and his family, our Sydney church was motivated by the glorious mission to share the gospel with their neighbors. What no one expected was the global pandemic that would provide opportunities for creative thinking and a different dependence on the wisdom of God on how to plant a church during a pandemic. This mission video gives you a snapshot of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta's story of grace as they seek to share the gospel of Christ with their community.

As you watch and listen, join me in thanking God for these saints. For many of us, they are thousands of miles away. And even if they are close, our stories are intertwined in a shared mission with the goal to make much of Christ and see the lost find salvation in Christ. Our shared mission knits us together.

And, of course, none of this would be possible without your consistent and faithful financial giving to Sovereign Grace Churches. Thank you for your generous support of our shared mission. If you would like to learn more about how to give, please visit us here.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever" (Eph. 3:20-21, ESV).

You can watch the video here

webelieve.sovereigngrace.com/

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of SGC Global…

November 10, 2020, will be remembered as a historic day in our family of churches because, on that day, the Sovereign Grace Churches Council of Elders unanimously approved our new Statement of Faith. I believe this momentous decision is historic for two reasons.

The Process of Approving our Statement of Faith

First, the process of studying, rewriting, reviewing, and approving our Statement of Faith involved all of the pastors in Sovereign Grace. In particular, our Theology Committee comprised of 7 Sovereign Grace elders, led by Jeff Purswell, our Director of Theology, put in countless hours to rewrite our Statement of Faith with theological precision and a pastoral tone that will serve generations to come in our family of churches. Our Statement of Faith was sent to every church in Sovereign Grace, giving every pastor the opportunity to ask questions and provide input before submitting it for approval. The approval process not only involved the Council of Elders, but it also needed to be approved by our Regional Assembly of Elders, which means that every pastor in Sovereign Grace had an opportunity to vote to approve this theologically unifying document. And I'm happy to report that on November 30, 2020, every Regional Assembly of Elders did approve our Statement of Faith. My point is that the process of developing and approving our statement of faith is historic because it was a denomination-wide effort. "Historic" is a word thrown around far too casually. Still, I believe it applies here—we're not aware of a recent example of such a careful, detailed statement being formulated by a denomination in such close partnership with the pastors of that denomination. 

The Content of our Statement of Faith

Second, our new Statement of Faith's approval is historic because of its rich, biblical, doctrinally sound, God-glorifying content. I thank God for the hard work the Theology Committee did over the last seven years to produce a Statement of Faith that will protect our family of churches, strengthen our theological unity, and deepen our worship of God. Good theology always leads to passionate doxology. Therefore, I can't wait for you to read our Statement of Faith because it will not only increase your knowledge of God and his Word; it will also deepen your worship of God.

A Dedicated Website for our Statement of Faith

To mark this historic moment in Sovereign Grace, we have established a dedicated website for our Statement of Faith: webelieve.sovereigngrace.com, which you can find here. This website is your "one-stop-shop" for the Sovereign Grace Churches Statement of Faith. Before reading our Statement of Faith, take time to watch the intro video where Jeff Purswell explains the significance of this theologically unifying document for our family of churches. When you read the Statement of Faith, you can use a digital version or an Editors Edition. If you would like to order a print version of our Statement of Faith, you can do so on our website.

Sovereign Grace Churches is a confessional family of churches. At the heart of our union is the truth of God's Word that we believe, cherish and proclaim together. The reason this is a historic moment for our denomination is that our Statement of Faith represents a summary of the teaching of Scripture on key points of doctrine essential to the beliefs, conduct, and witness of our churches. And it's historic because the unity we enjoy is not only relational and full of love but also doctrinal and full of truth. We hope that as you read the truths contained in our new Statement of Faith, you would rejoice and join us in saying, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory" (Psalm 115:1, ESV).

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of SGC Global…

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Well, of course, it’s 2020!” to describe another unusual event seeming to characterize this year? Let’s face it, 2020 was a challenging year filled with cancellations, restrictions, mandates, angst, disappointments, and frustration. As we near the end of 2020, we just want it to be over.

But I want to propose something that may seem counterintuitive, and yet very biblical. I believe that given the unique challenges we have all faced in 2020, this is a great year for us, as Christians, to be exuberant in expressing thanks to God. In fact, Scripture tells us that it is God’s will that we give Him thanks in all circumstances: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess. 5:18, ESV) It’s that phrase, “in all circumstances” that tells us there is no aspect of our lives, or of this unique year, that is excluded from us giving thanks.

To say it another way, we should be able to thank God for the cancellations and disappointments we have experienced this year because our gratitude is an expression that He rules and reigns! In his book, Thanksgiving: An Investigation of a Pauline Theme, David Pao writes, “For Paul, to give thanks ‘in all circumstances’…is a call to lead a God-centered life. To ‘give thanks in all circumstances’ is to live under the Lordship of Christ in all that we do.”[1]

Why should we be exuberant in giving thanks to Christ in a year we just want to end? Because our thanksgiving is an acknowledgment that as our Lord, He rules and reigns over all the circumstances we have faced this year. Therefore, in light of this God-centered biblical truth, I want to tell share with you just some of the things I thank God for in Sovereign Grace this year that reveal His good rule and reign in our lives.

I thank God for how the members of Sovereign Grace Churches have grown in Christ this year.

As I’ve talked to members of our churches in Sovereign Grace this year, a consistent refrain that I hear is how God has used a global pandemic to cause them to reflect upon what’s most important, including their relationship with Jesus Christ. Members of our churches have not only reordered their priorities, as I’ve listened to them, I hear a greater satisfaction in, and love for Jesus Christ.

I thank God for how He has tested the unity in our churches this year.

God has been good to use the challenges of 2020 to test the unity we have in Christ in our churches this year. Differences regarding masks, political affiliation, and whether ethnic prejudices exist or not, have uniquely highlighted the need for us to be people who are “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). I thank God for how He has used 2020 to show us that true, genuine, lasting unity can only be experienced in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thank God that He has tested our unity in Christ, and we have been found to be a people who “are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27b).

I thank God for how He has used 2020 to reveal the power of the gospel

In a year of cancellations and shutdowns because of COVID-19, God has shown us that the power of the gospel can’t be shut down by a virus. Even when our churches couldn’t gather together in the Spring, the gospel was still being proclaimed and the lost saved, like a 49-year-old man in Fayetteville, AR who heard the gospel from the members of Living Hope Church and was born again. By God’s grace, we also planted churches in Sydney, Australia; Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Prattville, AL during a global pandemic. These are just some of the ways I see that God has used 2020 to show us yet again, the power of the gospel, which I thank God for!

I thank God for how He used 2020 to show us that we are sojourners who are headed home.

I thank God for how He has used the daily COVID numbers, unique frustrations, and growing divisions in our fallen world to remind us as Christians that we are sojourners who are headed to our eternal home. Hasn’t 2020 has heightened your appreciation for the promise of eternal life that we have in the finished work of Jesus Christ? In a year marked by trouble, Jesus says to us, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3). I thank God for how He has used the challenges of 2020 to remind us that we are sojourners headed to our promised eternal home.

These are just some of the things I thank God for in Sovereign Grace this year. Now, let me ask you, what do you give God thanks for, even in 2020?

[1] Pao, David W., Thanksgiving: An Investigation of a Pauline Theme (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 104.

From Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology for Sovereign Grace Churches…

Some of you will be familiar with the "Pastors College Bibliography" (PCB) I put together a number of years ago to serve our pastors. I'm happy to let you know that the bibliography has been completely updated and greatly expanded, and it's now available for your use. We've created an online version that is available on the PC website here.

Here are a few features of the new PCB:

• The focus of the PCB is on biblical studies, exegesis, and preaching. We don't include all books from all the disciplines of theological education, but specifically works to help you interpret the text of Scripture, ultimately for the purpose of teaching and preaching.

• We put this together with the pastor in mind. Therefore, the PCB isn't an exhaustive list of books from a wide array of theological perspectives, nor is it designed for Ph.D. students. It's intended as a guide to the most important works for a pastor, taking into account the demands on his time and resources, and the focus of his labors -- the proclamation of God's Word.

• At this point, the bibliography is only partially (and somewhat unevenly) annotated. However, the "commentary" section is fully annotated. Comments are provided for every commentary listed, including (in most cases) a "first choice" for pastors.

• Commentaries are listed for every book of the Bible in two categories: (a) "Exegetical" works are more technical (typically commenting on Hebrew or Greek) and focus on providing the reader exegetical help; (b) "Expository" works are less scholarly, give more attention to theology and application, and focus on providing expository help (this category includes those books that provide actual expositions, e.g., Crossway's "Preaching the Word" series). Of course, there is often overlap between these general categories.

• Items marked with an asterisk [*] are top recommendations in each category. There's obviously a subjective component to this, but we're pretty confident about the value of the resources.

• By its very nature, this is a work in progress -- not every category is equally covered, and certain categories will be filled out over time. At this point, we've given the most thorough coverage to commentaries.

• We will update the PCB regularly as new resources appear.

I pray this resource will be a helpful guide as you labor to study, cherish, and proclaim God's Word to the dear folks in our churches.

PASTORS COLLEGE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 many, Christmas is far from “the most wonderful time of the year.” But when grief feels unbearable, when our resources are depleted, when the shame of sin crushes our spirits, and when heaven seems an eternity away, Christmas brings unimaginably good news: namely the reality that heaven has come to us.

Sovereign Grace Music seeks to capture that reality in their newest album, a Christmas album. It’s do good!

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, ESV)

Watch a video of the first song here:

Official Music Video | Sovereign Grace Music Written by Lisa Clow and Bob KauflinFrom the album Heaven Has ComeThis video contains people who are processing ...

From Bob Kauflin, Director of Music for Sovereign Grace Churches…

Every Christian parent longs and prays for the day their children will come to understand, love, and apply God’s Word to their lives. And they’re overjoyed when God provides tools that help them achieve that end. 

WonderFull: Ancient Psalms Ever New, by Marty Machowski, is one of those tools. Marty has served parents by writing a book that is engaging to kids of all ages, rooted in theological study, and eminently gospel-centered and Christ-exalting. 

The ages of our six kids spans 15 years. I remember how difficult it was to find a devotional they all could benefit from. WonderFull would have fit the bill. While it’s written for grade school children, the illustrations will keep younger ones involved, and older children will find opportunities to dig deeper through keeping a journal or using the Appendix that explores 25 psalms in more detail.

Like his book, The Ology, Marty sets his study of the psalms in the context of an endearing relationship between a young boy, Oliver, and his grandfather. But that story only supports and complements his unpacking of the salms. And what an unpacking it is! Parents will be learning alongside their kids about the Psalms: who wrote them; their structure and flow; how they speak to our fears, suffering, joys, sorrows, confusion, sin, and shame; and most importantly, how they point in so many ways to Jesus, our gracious Savior and King.

I can’t thank God enough for Marty’s desire to serve families by producing resources that help us treasure and respond to God’s Word and the gospel. And even though all our kids are grown and married, I can’t wait to read WonderFull  to my grandkids.

In Matthew 18, Jesus looks at Peter and says, 

‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’

Without doubt, it is Jesus Himself, who is triumphantly committed to building His church, and for the last ten years, we have seen that again and again at Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney.

Just a few weeks ago now we got to celebrate the ten year anniversary of our church. A church that we had the privilege of moving over from the UK to start in September 2010, and a church that has been an object of His unchanging grace throughout our whole story. 

Our story as a church started 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 my wife and I, along with our kids, to relocate from Newport, Wales in 2010 to plant the church. A move that was so unexpected and unanticipated for us, yet a journey that God had so clearly begun, and a journey through which we have consistently seen His grace.

In the last ten years, we have repeatedly seen His saving grace, with so many people, people like Ange Eastwood, Jiy Lim, Celia Tan, Nick and India Beed, to name just a few, coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and whom we now get to worship alongside on a Sunday, for the audience of One. There’s also been His restoring grace, as so many of our folk have arrived at Sovereign Grace over the last ten years having previously given up on church or God, for a whole variety of reasons, and yet have been so gently and wonderfully restored by His hand, and whom we now get to serve alongside.

There’s been His 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 His sustaining grace. ‘For as sure as sparks fly upwards, troubles fall’, Job tells us, 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 again is people being carried in the grip of His grace, and never let go.

And then there’s His provisional grace. Since its very inception, 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, even then giving us the opportunity to send out our first church plant, Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta in September of last year. 

Without doubt then, He is building His church. He started it, it’s all come from Him, and He’s still building it today... And so may all glory go to Him.

Ten years on, it’s all the Lord’s doing, and so may it always be marvellous in our eyes. 

Soli Deo Gloria

Below is a video that Abi Chavez, a member of Sovereign Grace Church, Parramatta, put together for us, to help us remember the past ten years. Enjoy.

A collection of photos remembering 10 years of God's faithfulness to us as a church.