We are excited for our very first SG Ladies Podcast, ‘For Such A Time As This’, to be launching! You can find it on Apple, Google Podcasts or Spotify. It is hosted by Emma Taylor and Janelle Pearce, members of Sovereign Grace Church Sydney, two women who love Jesus, their church and their families and who want to be submitted to and shaped by God’s word.

The first season is 6 episodes long and will drop every 2 weeks.

We hope you find this helpful in spurring you on to follow Jesus, knowing he has put you in the perfect time and perfect place, for such a time as this. Enjoy!

In July we had our ‘Together 2022’ Retreat and it was amazing! God met us so powerfully over the weekend through His word and Spirit as we gathered as two churches for the first time. We spent the time in our sessions looking at the biblical basis for Church Partnership, how the Cross brings us together, and how we can have power to run together into the future. We had so many great meals, fun times with the kids, and many chances to make new friends. Watch the video below to get a taste of our time away at the beautiful Collaroy Centre.

If you are interested in finding out how you can be apart of our family of Churches head here

If you’d like to listen to the sermons from our weekend away, head here

Are you wondering if you or someone you know is called to pastor or plant a church? Our Academy exists to help you answer that question and be equipped for the task. Please take a moment to watch our video and consider whether this could be for you or for someone you know!

Head to our Academy page to make an enquiry about our 2023 year

We are in the process of beginning our search and intake for the 2023 ‘Pastors and Planters' Academy’.

Perhaps you are wondering if God is calling you to ministry, or you’d like to be coached and mentored toward that end, maybe you part way through or nearly completed your theological studies and you now want to start putting into practice, then perhaps you should consider the Academy.

At the heart of the Academy is an emphasis on how to Pastor the precious people that God has placed in our path. It’s theologically rich, academically rigorous, but that’s not its focus, it’s focus is to help take deep theology and shape a man to then pastor like Jesus.

The Academy is open to all gospel hearted men who are willing to apply.

Head here to begin an enquiry!

We’re excited to be launching our first Sovereign Grace Churches Australia conference named ‘Together’. The aim is to gather with all of our churches, and friends of our churches, here in Australia for a weekend of fellowship, worship, and making memories together!

This year our theme is: ‘Side by Side For The Gospel’. Where we’ll be discussing what biblical and gospel centered partnership looks like as we seek to pioneer a new denomination in Australia and extend our family of churches across our great land. We’ll heading to the beautiful ‘Collaroy Centre’ in Narrabeen for the weekend.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Sovereign Grace and would like to attend, please contact Riley Spring (rs@sgparra.org.au), we’d love to meet you!

In May Brendan Willis and Riley Spring were able to attend the ‘Reach Australia’ 2022 National Conference in the Central Coast. Reach Australia is a fellowship of like-minded ministers and networks coming together to to see healthy, evangelistic and multiplying churches reaching the lost across Australia. They have already seen over a hundred churches planted and they aim to see 200 new churches birthed in the next decade, which is an ambitious goal for the gospel.

We loved our time at the conference, singing with over 800 ministry leaders, hearing the Bible preached, along with practical talks to help improve ministry, as well as all the conversations and meetings we had with others. It was such a joy!

Below is a testimony from Riley Spring, Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, reflecting on the latest Regional Assembly of Elders that the SG AUS team went on.

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“One of the greatest joys I have as a Pastor is that I am not doing this alone. Not only do I have the blessing of pastoring an incredible and supportive church here at Parra, but I get to work with, plan with, and be supported by Sovereign Grace Churches, especially, with Dave Taylor and Brendan Willis at Wahroonga.

This not only blesses me, but blesses our local church also! As a family of churches we are better together. We collaborate, support, send help, have better ideas, give better feedback/rebuke, etc etc.

Last week our partnership was on full display. Dave, Brendan and I went on our Annual Regional Assembly of Elders trip…a fancy word for a Planning Retreat! We also invited all the Academy Students along for one of the nights and it was such a great time. We spent time in worship, study, prayer, planning, and hanging out. Through that time we got better clarity and vision for the future of both of our churches and for SG AUS as a whole…AND we had some AWESOME ideas for our first annual retreat as SG AUS, ‘Together 2022’!

And then on Sunday, Richard Song went and preached at SG Wahroonga to serve them and he was joined by Maddie Lick who played drums to help them out with some shortages on their roster.

All in all, our partnership in the Gospel makes gospel ministry all the sweeter and more enjoyable. And one thing I’d love for us is to see this partnership not just as ‘the Pastor’s’ thing but ‘our’ thing as a whole church. That we ALL get the fruits of this and we all contribute to our partnership.”

We had a fantastic week being served by our friend Pastor Andy Farmer from Covenant Fellowship Church. Amidst spending time with our pastors and key leaders Andy spoke at four different events and served us so well!

1. Small Groups Training Day’: where Andy spoke about how to effectively give lead and counsel as a small group leader as well as how to best care for people struggling with varies mental health issues.

2. Preaching at Sovereign Grace Sydney on Galatians 5:25 - 6:5, helping us understand what bearing each others’ burdens looks like and encouraged us to walk together in the Spirit and look after each other as we seek to follow Christ. Listen to that here.

3. ‘Dealing with the Realities of Mental Illness”. A public event we hosted where Andy was able to preach powerfully from the Psalms and then provide clear guidance on how to navigate through the mental health world. Listen to that here:

4. Pastors and Planters Academy: Andy spoke to our five students in more detail on many of the themes already covered and then spent time putting them in the counsellors seat and giving them training in how to most effectively counsel.

This is just one of the reasons that we are so grateful for our partnership with other Sovereign Grace Churches around the world!

From Mark Prater, the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches and Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church Glen Mils PA:

2nd Quarter Prayer Requests:

In his book, “A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers,” D.A. Carson makes this observation about Paul’s prayers: “Paul’s prayer is the product of his passion for people. His unaffected fervency in prayer is not whipped-up emotionalism but the overflow of his love for brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.”

As a family of churches, may our fervent prayers for one another be the overflow of our love for one another, and may our prayers for one another strengthen our unity. To that end, attached are the Sovereign Grace Churches Second Quarter 2022 Prayer Requests. Please consider praying for our family of churches in a future Sunday service, or corporate prayer meeting in your church.

Thanks for praying,

Mark

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

• Pray for the churches in Dnipro, and Sinelnikovo, Ukraine that Sovereign Grace is relating to, and sending money for relief efforts, asking God to protect them, and to use them to offer gospel hope as the war continues in that nation.

• Pray for the 8 men who will be graduating from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College in June asking God to give them perseverance to finish their PC year, and grace for their transitions back home and/or into their next step in pastoral ministry.

• Pray for the WorshipGod 22 Conference, July 27-30 in Louisville, KY asking God to equip worship leaders, musicians, songwriters, vocalists, and tech folks to return home and serve their local churches even more effectively.

• Pray for the 5 men in the Sovereign Grace Australia Pastors and Planters Academy asking God to use this next year to equip them for future pastoral ministry or church planting opportunities in Australia and the Asia Pacific part of the world.

• Pray for the short-term missions trips that different Sovereign Grace churches are leading over the summer to Guadalupe, Mexico; Playa Azul, Costa Rica; and an outreach to Muslims in London, England asking God to open hearts to hear and respond to the gospel.

• 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.

We’re excited to be launching our first Sovereign Grace Churches Australia conference named ‘Together’. The aim is to gather with all of our churches, and friends of our churches, here in Australia for a weekend of fellowship, worship, and making memories together!

This year our theme is: ‘Side by Side For The Gospel’. Where we’ll be discussing what biblical and gospel centered partnership looks like as we seek to pioneer a new denomination in Australia and extend our family of churches across our great land. We’ll heading to the beautiful ‘Collaroy Centre’ in Narrabeen for the weekend.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Sovereign Grace and would like to attend, please contact Riley Spring (rs@sgparra.org.au), we’d love to meet you!

Please be praying for these men and their families!

On Wednesday 23rd March, we are welcoming a very special guest speaker Andy Farmer from Covenant Fellowship Church (a SG Church in the US) to speak on a very important and sensitive topic: ‘Dealing with the Realities of Mental Illness’. The topic is one that affects us all wether personally or with people we know and love. There will be more details to come but for now put the event in your calendar.

This Month Sovereign Grace Music will be releasing the first half of the new Psalms album, ‘Unchanging God Vol.1’! Already there are a number of songs available and they are fantastic, head here to pre-order the new album.

From the Sovereign Grace Music Website:

“For centuries, the church has gathered to sing God’s Word back to him, especially the Psalms. That’s because the Psalms teach us that neither dark despair nor jubilant celebration is out of place when God’s people approach him. Through the Psalms we learn to tremble before God’s majestic holiness even as his steadfast love invites us to draw nearer. In every situation he is our refuge, shield, comfort, deliverer, and king. He is our unchanging God. And now, Jesus Christ has enabled us to sing the Psalms with a faith and joy that only the fully forgiven can experience.

We pray these songs we’ve written from the Psalms would lead you to gladly say with the Psalmist, “Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word” (Psalm 119:74).”

Friends, please join us in praying for these issues from around the world:

Sovereign Grace Churches First Quarter 2022 Prayer Requests

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

• Pray for Christians in the Ukraine asking God to protect them, and to use them to offer gospel hope as the war continues in that nation.

• Pray for the 13 churches in the Philippines who have taken the first step of formalizing a partnership with Sovereign Grace by becoming Candidate Churches. Please pray for the elders in each of those churches as they study and work through the Sovereign Grace ordination process.

• Pray for Dave Taylor and Mark Prater as they lead a Global Leadership Development retreat, April 7-11, asking God to help them equip leaders from 5 different nations.

• Pray for Eric Turbedsky (Director of Church Planting) and Ricky Alcantar (Sr. Pastor of Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, TX) as they lead the “Antioch Project”, including a retreat in May, as they continue to equip Sovereign Grace pastoral teams to plant new Sovereign Grace churches.

• Pray for the 4 Sovereign Grace Church Plants that we have planned in the Asia-Pacific

  part of the world over the next 24 months: Cavite – Philippines (2022/23), Bonbon –

  Philippines (2022/23), Negros Occidental – Philippines (2022/23), Kathmandu – Nepal

  (2022/23)

• 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.

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.

The newest SGC Journal is out. It is devoted to our new Statement of Faith. Click here to read it online.

Over our Summer time new episodes have been added to the ‘Grace and the Adventure of Leadership Podcast’. In particular i’d like to draw your attention to two great episodes featuring guests from Sovereign Grace more broadly.

1. 'Knowing the Gospel in our Preaching' with Jared Mellinger from Covenant Fellowship Church

2. Knowing the Gospel in our Singing with Bob Kauflin from Sovereign Grace Music.

These two episodes are longer and full of incredible insights from these two gifted friends of ours!

Listen to them on your favourite service here: https://linktr.ee/sgaus

We are very excited that after much planning and preparation our inaugural Academy has kicked off!

On Tuesday 1 Feb, we had our Orientation Dinner with the Academy students and their wives to meet one another, share a meal and gain an overview of the year. On Wed 2 Feb, we had our first day of class. We began with worship and prayer, gave the guys some of their text books for the year (Systematic Theology - Grudem, Historical Theology - Allison) and their reading for Module 1: ‘The Theology and Practice of Pastoral Ministry’.

This unit is designed to help them gain a theologically informed understanding of the role of a Pastor as biblically defined. The primary model in the Scriptures is that of a ‘Shepherd’ and, therefore, Pastoral ministry ought to geared around pastoring the precious flock of God that he is called to serve by the Chief Shepherd. 

We began by sitting under two seminal messages from CJ Mahaney - ‘The Pastor’s Charge’ Part 1 and Part 2 and then in the afternoon they got stuck into their reading assignments and discussion groups.

The Program for the Year

Over the year, we will focus on their character, convictions, competency, and compatibility.

Every week the Academy students will gather to study through 10 different modules designed to help equip and train them for a life-time of fruitful ministry. They will have reading and assignments to go along with these days together.

Monthly, they and their wives will come together for our 'Leadership Cohort' growing in their marriage, parenting, and family life.

They will be placed in Fellowship Groups to further grow in key areas of character and holiness.

Please be praying for our students and their wives:

Andrew and Kat Leung, Richard and Rebecca Song, Jack and Zara Packham, Austin and Ivy Loke, Joel and Jamie Seric

We’re excited to share our new Ordination Resources. These resources have been on our minds for several years and it’s a joy to share them with you now.

Our vision for these resources is to help equip church leaders who are pursuing ordination. While these resources do not immediately result in ordination and are not required for ordination, we believe they are valuable training and materials that can assist a pastor’s pursuit of ordination in Sovereign Grace Churches.

We currently offer 4 stand-alone courses:

• Biblical Theology

• Homiletics

• Systematic Theology 1

• Systematic Theology 3

We’re excited to see how these courses (and any future courses/resources that we add) will serve to provide a deeper understanding of Scripture and theology for the purpose of pastoral ministry!

If you are not pursuing ordination in Sovereign Grace, these classes are seminal and will still richly bless you and we cannot recommend them highly enough!

In the past 35 years, Sovereign Grace Music has produced Christ-exalting songs and training for local churches from local churches including albums for worship, songs for kids, Spanish albums, a Portuguese album and three Christmas albums.

This Christmas season, enjoy celebrating the unimaginably good news of the birth of Jesus and the mystery of God become man in song:

Heaven Has Come

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: heaven has come to us.

Prepare Him Room

The reality of the incarnation, the Son of God taking on our flesh and bones to save us, will be an eternal source of wonder, gratefulness, and joy. These fourteen songs are our attempt to capture that mystery in song. The long night is over and the light of the world has come. Prepare Him room.

Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God become Man

Savior contains twelve truth-saturated songs, suitable for worshiping God year-round. Each song ponders and celebrates the reason for Christ’s coming.

We are very excited to announce to you that in 2022, after a lot of planning and hardwork, we are launching a 'Pastors & Planters Academy' to teach men how to build their lives, families and churches upon the gospel of Jesus Christ here in Australia so that we can reach more people and plant more enduring churches.

To learn more, please head to: https://anz.sovereigngrace.com/academy

Incredibly, even before getting the word out too much about this, we not only have Richard Song (Parramatta) and Andrew Leung (Wahroonga) signed up for 2022, but four other men from our churches who have also expressed an interest and applied.

If you or anyone else you know might be interested, then please check out the link above. We are very excited about the road ahead in this regard, and are looking forward to launching the Academy!!