Many of you have kindly inquired about my leave of absence and how I will be spending my time during this season. Before I give you an update, I want to take this moment to thank each of you who have expressed your encouragement and your support in prayer.
Some of you have asked where I will be attending church during my leave. That’s a good question, as it’s not uncommon for pastors to take a leave in a church that is away from their home congregations, and this seems wise. During my leave of absence I will be attending Capitol Hill Baptist Church where Mark Dever is the senior pastor. After seeking counsel about this decision, I’ve concluded that this is the best place for Carolyn and me to receive care and counsel, to examine my life and leadership, and to consider my future during this season of reflection. I want to learn all I can during this season, and I pray that this time will benefit not only me but Sovereign Grace as well.
Mark and I have a rich history of friendship. I met Mark thirteen years ago and since then we have become very close friends. Mark has been not only a unique friend but also a mentor to me. I want to continue to take advantage of our friendship and his mentoring as much as possible during this time, benefiting from Mark’s unique pastoral wisdom and his gift of leadership. I am deeply grateful for his kindness and this opportunity. Actually, other than my wife Carolyn and those with whom I have served closely in Sovereign Grace Ministries, no one has had more influence on my life in the last ten years than Mark.
This leave of absence from my role as president of SGM will allow me the time necessary to process the valuable feedback I have received (and continue to receive), and to devote time to consider how I can best serve Sovereign Grace Ministries in the future. I’m seeking and benefiting from the advice of the SGM board and a number of leaders in the broader church—men I admire and who have become my friends over the years. I am approaching this task without making any assumptions or presuming upon any particular outcome. By God’s grace and the kindness of these men I am not lacking wise counsel as I seek to discern the will of God about how I might most effectively serve when this leave of absence concludes.
So for those who have kindly asked, I hope this information is helpful. I deeply appreciate the encouragement and support of so many at this time. I simply do not know how to adequately express this, but I trust you feel my deep gratefulness for your support. And I would appreciate your prayers, given the importance of the decisions before me and their impact on Sovereign Grace Ministries, the pastors I respect the most and the people of our churches for whom I have the deepest affection.
Finally, many of you know that this spring Dave Harvey, Jeff Purswell, and I were invited to speak at a pastors conference in the Dominican Republic. We are currently in Santo Domingo and the conference (Por Su Causa 2011) begins tomorrow morning. Please pray for us and for this very strategic conference. Earlier, during this same trip Jeff and I, along with Al Pino, visited the pastors that Sovereign Grace Ministries are honored to serve in Cuba. I was deeply humbled by the men and women I met, all of whom display remarkable joy and trust in God. I believe we will be sharing more about this trip on the Plant & Build blog later. In the meantime, please pray for our friends in Cuba and the Dominican Republic and for our friend Al Pino, who represents Sovereign Grace in our work with these remarkable saints. Please pray that Christ would be glorified in their midst and the gospel would go forth in these countries.
With gratefulness,
C.J.
I met Kang Songhwan when he and his wife, Miran, visited our church near Philly. Songhwan already had a seminary degree and almost ten years of pastoral experience. But the shocker was that they were considering moving temporarily from South Korea to the U.S. to attend our Pastors College. I remember being struck with the sincerity and humility of this couple—they were willing to make some serious sacrifices to go where they believed God was leading them. I’ve met few people like the Kangs.
Songhwan and Miran did move to Gaithersburg in 2008, and we were privileged to have them at the Pastors College. Songhwan did a remarkable job of navigating an intensive ten-month study program in his second language. (I mean school was always a challenge for me in my first language!) Songhwan graduated in June of 2009 and moved back to Seoul to plant a church.
Fast-forward to today: There are about 30 adults in Lord’s Grace Church, meeting in an English-language school in central Seoul. Songhwan recently finished teaching a series on foundational doctrines and commitments. On the final Sunday of that series, the church’s first members made a public commitment to the church, and everyone celebrated with a shared meal afterward. It’s no megachurch, but numbers aren’t what Songhwan is aiming for. A recent email from him says that the church “is growing continuously and happily in God’s mercy and grace.”
Now that’s good news.
Would you pray with us for Lord’s Grace Church? Please pray:
- that God would grant the church favor in their community
- that the church would share the gospel effectively and many would be saved
- for financial provision for this brand new church as it gets started in an expensive city
- that God would give grace and wisdom to the Kangs as they lead this church
Thanks for praying for believers in Seoul!
If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.
----------------------
Dave Harvey
leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace
Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more
information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
One of my greatest privileges in ministry is working with churches in the United Kingdom. Seeing more and more churches planted there is an absolute thrill.
That’s one reason I’m stoked about a conference my buddy Pete Greasley (and his mates at Christchurch) are hosting in Wales this coming July. In moments of unbridled condescension predictably inspired by a pub night, Pete will invite an American to share a conference. I guess that’s how I found myself purchasing tickets to be there and help with the teaching responsibilities. I hope he wasn’t joking, 'cause I'm booked and pretty excited. Here's why.
The conference is called [CO]MISSION UK, and we’re holding it because we want to equip church planters as well as other men that feel called to ministry, and stir ambition for how God could be glorified through their lives.
If you’re a church planter in the UK, or if you hope to plant a church there someday, I hope you’ll come. You don’t need to be part of Sovereign Grace Ministries—the conference is for anyone who wants to see gospel-centered (sorry, Brits, I meant “centred”) churches started in the UK.
We haven’t locked in all the details yet, but here’s a look at some of what we hope to talk about:
- Why plant churches?
- How do I know if God is calling me to plant a church?
- Is ambition a good thing?
- How do I build a church-planting team?
- What happens after a new church launches?
The conference will be July 8–10 at Christchurch in Newport, Wales. Registration is only £25 if you register by May 31. Plus, students come for free—a pretty sweet deal. You can find more info at comissionuk.org. I hope you’ll join us.
----------------------
Dave Harvey
leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace
Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more
information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
If you want some serious encouragement, check this out. Remember those small churches in south central Burma I posted about a few weeks ago? We recently received another email from David, the Pastors College student I talked about in that post. He sent some further prayer requests, and included a few photos from these remote churches that are safe to share online.
David writes,
Believers continue to meet faithfully even in the midst of some severe pressure….Our church plant in the Delta continues to witness to the gospel to the…people and many more families send their children to our preschool, even though the majority of these parents initially rejected us. Our churches in [another region] also continue to witness some growth.
Please continue to pray for [our church-planting center]. Many of these works are now taken up by…senior students. We now begin to see the fruit of the training we provided.
Believers meet in a house church
A local pastor prays
Praying for fellow believers
Will you pray with us for these brothers and sisters in Christ? Please pray that the gospel will continue to advance in Burma. Pray for wisdom and boldness for David and the pastors he works with. Pray that many would be saved to the glory of God.
If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.
----------------------
Dave Harvey
leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace
Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more
information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
As this blog post gets published, I’m hopping on a flight (along with about 7,000 others) to the Together for the Gospel conference. Maybe you’ll be there too. But while we’re enjoying three packed days of teaching, nestled in hotel and air-conditioned meeting spaces, let’s not forget to pray for pastors who serve in challenging places outside the U.S. Some of these guys may never attend conferences like this.
For example, we recently heard from some pastors that we work with in south Asia. Would you join us in praying for them?
India
Our friend Wilson leads a network of around 350 churches in western and northern India. The pastors of these churches are boldly preaching the gospel of Christ in many settings, from remote rural villages to the slums of a fast-growing industrial city. Some of them have been imprisoned, or beaten, or seen their church buildings torched. But you know what? They are seeing conversions and many churches are multiplying. One pastor reports that 20 people are meeting weekly; another church has 24 people who usually attend, four of whom are not yet believers. Other pastors are spearheading a children’s education program in a slum area, in partnership with a church there that now has 60 believers.
Wilson also leads a school for pastoral ministry. In December, he hosted pastors Greg Gill (Grace Community Church, Kingsville, MD) and Joel Rishel (Sovereign Grace Church, Joppa, MD) to teach a week-long session on biblical leadership and pastoral ministry. Sixty pastors from eight Indian states attended the course. Now that may not seem like a large crowd compared to T4G, but this “small” class in western India was equally strategic. It provided not only pastoral equipping in gospel truths, but also an opportunity for these pastors to be encouraged through fellowship with each other.
Sri Lanka
For several years we’ve had the privilege of working with a small number of pastors in Sri Lanka, who together lead more than a dozen churches. Instability in Sri Lanka has made ministry difficult, and the churches are facing persecution. And it’s not just hardship from without; one of these pastors is caring for his wife as she is suffering severely from a terminal illness.
But in spite of these challenges the gospel of Christ is advancing, and churches are growing as people are being saved. For example, an inner-city church was recently planted that already has 60 new believers.
It’s hard to believe we get to partner with leaders throughout the world who are making a vital difference through the gospel. If you’re wondering how you can support their cause, let me offer one simple word: Pray
How to pray
When it comes to prayer, specifics help. So here goes.
Please pray:
- that God would protect believers in India and Sri Lanka and grant them boldness to proclaim the gospel of Christ
- that God would open doors for the gospel among Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, and that many would put their faith in Christ
- that God would grant wisdom and strength to pastors in India and Sri Lanka
- that stability, peace, and justice would increase in both of these countries
Thanks for remembering them by praying with us!
If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.
----------------------
Dave Harvey
leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace
Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more
information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
Coming to T4G? Stop by our church-planting booth.
As part of Sovereign Grace’s commitment to planting gospel-centered churches, in the last few years we formed a team called the Church Planting Group. As the name implies, this four-person team exists to serve church plants and church planters affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries, both in the United States and internationally.
This month at
Together for the Gospel, the Church Planting Group will be manning a booth for Sovereign Grace Church Planting in the general-session hall. If you’re coming to the conference and have ever considered planting a church through Sovereign Grace Ministries, we invite you to stop by, say hello, and let us answer any questions you have.
In the meantime, you can learn more by visiting the
Church Planting section of our website, reading
related blog posts, or
emailing us.
See you in Louisville!
You may have seen reports of the murders of three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Juárez, Mexico, earlier this month. Sadly, these are among the latest of thousands of murders in the city of Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico as the country battles drug traffickers. The weekend of the Consulate shootings, 28 other people were murdered in Juárez alone. Stunning doesn’t quite capture it; it’s devastating, a social shock to the people of Juárez.
We recently received some updates and prayer requests from
Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Cd. Juárez, the Sovereign Grace church in that city, and wanted to pass them along to you. Will you join us in praying for believers in Juárez?
First, some more specifics. As Mexico’s war on the drug cartels continues, the city of Juárez is embroiled in violence. On average, at least seven people have been murdered every day since 2009, including more than 500 murders since January. The violence is not limited to those involved in drug trafficking—innocent bystanders, including children, are among those killed. In addition, the city is facing a crime wave in which anyone can be a target of kidnapping, armed robbery, and extortion.
This ongoing social catastrophe has far-reaching effects. About 5,000 businesses have closed, and some estimate that as much as 15–20% of the city’s population has left. Those who remain face the daily threat of ruthless violence.
Carlos Contreras is senior pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Cd. Juárez (Sovereign Grace Church of Juárez). For more than 20 years this church has been a faithful gospel witness in their city. They have trained a number of pastors and leaders and in 2006 planted another
church in Aquascalientes, Mexico. And they’re continuing to preach the gospel faithfully in spite of the trials they’re facing.
After describing the violence in Juárez Carlos writes,
But there is good news also. The church in the city remains strong and has apparently become the only remaining source of hope for many people. We all pray and we pray a lot, and we pray boldly and we pray publicly for God to intervene in a miraculous way to change things and to do justice. But mostly we pray for revival and for the salvation of thousands.
Under the leadership of their pastoral team, Iglesia Gracia Soberana is taking the gospel to the streets. The most recent session of their Alpha class (an introductory class on the gospel) graduated 63 students, more than they’d ever had. The church is airing evangelistic programs on local TV. Earlier this month, 150 church members went to two busy intersections, handed out about 800 evangelistic tracts and about 200 New Testaments, and prayed for about 300 people. On Saturday they hit the streets again, handing out 6,000 invitations to church, 300 copies of the Gospel of John, and 200 New Testaments—and praying for 1,300 people.
Here’s a slideshow of their outreaches:
My friends, this is authentic Christianity.
Carlos’s email continues,
What is most encouraging to me is to see our dear church steadfast in Christ while enduring faithfully in the midst of all this. Christ is certainly our solid rock, there is nothing more to trust in. Scripture has been our guiding light in the midst of great darkness and our fellowship is a constant source of joy and encouragement….My main job is to serve them by almost daily having the privilege of pointing their eyes to Christ and away from the despair surrounding us.
So here’s our appeal: Will you join us in praying for our brothers and sisters in Juárez? Please pray…
• that God would grant wisdom and strength to Carlos Contreras and other pastors in Juárez
• that God would give sustaining grace to Iglesia Gracia Soberana and the other churches in this city
• that the gospel would be clearly preached and many would put their faith in Christ for forgiveness of sins
• that peace and justice would be restored to Juárez
Thank you for joining us in prayer.
For more about the Sovereign Grace churches in Juárez and Aguascalientes (as well as in Bolivia), see this 35-minute film produced in 2007.
If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.
There’s a group of 15 believers in a remote village in south central Burma (or Myanmar) somewhere near the Irrawaddy Delta, who are quickly becoming some of my spiritual heroes. Unlike me, these men and women are consistently facing opposition as they seek to plant a gospel-centered church. Opposition for me is the weird look I occasionally get when mentioning I’m a pastor.
But listen to how my friend David describes this group of people:
Our church plant continues to meet on a regular basis, but with significant pressure from both local and religious leaders. At first, we had informal gatherings, but when [the authorities] see a pattern of our folks worshipping on Sunday morning and that our church planter is going from house to house, they accuse us of “changing their religion” and “creating problems” in their village. But the believers have all agreed and confess boldly that they have been changed by Jesus…
Western Christianity is much different than this; stories like this can sometimes be difficult to connect with. But there’s more. The cloud of oppression for this small group of believers changes their actual meetings. During worship, they sing softly. When they’re taking requests before their Heavenly Father, it’s barely above a whisper. Why? They don’t want to draw unnecessary attention resulting in targeted persecution. They live out a Christianity where that possibility is never far from their minds. The pastor of this small church spends each week encouraging these believers to hold fast in their faith. The current study diet: “to be strong in the Lord.”
That’s serious stuff. When we talk about church-planting difficulties in the States, we rarely see seminars on how to avoid arrest or suffer persecution for God’s glory. And yet, when you interact with David and this church, you find a group of people who are less aware of suffering than they are of the Savior. I want to be like that.
In Sovereign Grace, we’re thinking a lot about people like this group in south central Burma. We’re also thinking a lot about the 41% of the world’s population that still exists unreached by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need your help.
David is a pastor from Burma who graduated from our Pastors College. He’s got serious game when it comes to planting churches and a real heart to see the gospel preached in his home country. In fact, he is responsible for leading and directing a well-known church planting center, as well as a portion of the teaching. The guy never stops! Currently, David is looking to plant another church near the Irrawaddy Delta in a village largely unengaged and unreached by the gospel. As an inroad, he’s starting a preschool there. It’s crazy stuff, but we’re excited to partner with David to make it happen.
But there’s even more. We continue to look at other areas of the world where unreached people groups exist. We’re considering involvement with unreached Muslims in an African nation. We’re supporting translations work and other ministries that work on the front lines. There are also men related to these ventures that we’re considering for the Pastors College.
These are all exciting updates that appear to change on an almost daily basis. And each day, we’re reminded that what we need more than anything are your prayers. As you read this, a few Sovereign Grace pastors are visiting this small church in south central Burma to encourage the believers in their faith. Pray that God would use these men in mighty ways. Pray that more would be converted in this small village. Please pray for David. Pray that God would soften the hearts of those unengaged among the Karen people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for the selection of leaders for these churches. Pray that the gospel would go forth and many would be saved to the glory of God. Pray that we would play our part in Sovereign Grace Ministries and that every dollar spent would be multiplied so that God’s kingdom would expand.
May God bless the advancement of the gospel in Burma, North Africa, India, and among the unreached people groups beyond our borders!
----------------------
Dave Harvey
leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace
Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more
information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
Today’s topic is “why plant churches?” I’m going to answer this question in two posts, or maybe three. Or maybe 40.
In my first post, I mentioned that church planting is part of our DNA. That’s worth explaining because it goes to our history. I’m going to get to the more important reasons from Scripture in my next post, but let me first tell you a brief version of our story.
Way back in the 1970’s, before rock was classic and when disco still had shreds of respectability, there was a teaching ministry in the Washington, DC, area called Take and Give (TAG). For several years, TAG’s weekly meetings attracted up to 2,000 people, most of them young and eager for genuine encounters with Christ. C.J. Mahaney was one of the primary teachers.
I’ve heard C.J. say that season was the closest he’s ever come to experiencing authentic revival. Hundreds upon hundreds of young people were powerfully converted to Christ. But as TAG’s attendance grew, there was a concern among some in leadership about the limitations of regularly gathering people for teaching in a non-church context.
The Lord was blessing the teaching meetings, but a mere teaching meeting seemed insufficient. People needed care, training, and meaningful relationships in a loving but accountable context. They needed pastors who would teach them and care for their souls. This cast them back upon Scripture. Through study, the TAG leadership began to see that their approach to teaching and caring for Christians lacked a biblical context. They began to gain a burden and a vision for the local church.
So imagine this scene. One evening, at the height of TAG popularity, the TAG leaders stun the large crowd by announcing that the Tuesday night meetings are ending. I wasn’t there, but I’m told it was quite the evening. Why would these men possibly tamper with that kind of success?
It’s simple. A conviction had reached critical mass. The TAG leaders were convinced that God’s appointed means of caring for his people was the local church, not simply a teaching meeting. Soon thereafter, Covenant Life Church was born. And soon a passion for church planting developed.
Our church in Philadelphia was a first fruit of that passion. A small group of families and singles relocated to the Philadelphia area in 1984 for the express purpose of starting a church. As we became established, the vision for church planting was internalized through study and a growing awareness of how God had blessed us through the sacrifices of our sending church. Covenant Fellowship has since planted other churches (ten, to date!) and helped train many other leaders for church plants. And, now, some of those churches are themselves beginning to explore and enjoy the adventure of church planting! Similar patterns have emerged elsewhere within the Sovereign Grace family too.
Early in our journey, it became apparent that our churches needed a stronger link than name and common doctrine. A leadership team was formed to help establish strategies for future missions direction. Sovereign Grace Ministries—then called People of Destiny International and later PDI—was formed. The result has been slow, intentional growth from a single church to, as of this writing, more than 85 churches…including eight being started right now. We also work in 22 nations worldwide by helping leaders catch a biblical vision for planting gospel-centered churches. By God’s grace, these churches are joined by a commitment to the gospel and a passion for the local church and missions, which itself spills over from our love for the gospel and the application of God’s Word.
Sovereign Grace owes its existence to the grace of God through church planting. That’s why it’s in our blood. But more importantly, it’s in our Bible.
Join me next time to examine why Scripture compels us to plant churches.
-----------------------------
Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.
There are regularly more stories of God’s grace in Sovereign Grace churches than we have space to tell. It seems each month new ministry opportunities continue to develop around the United States and in various countries around the world. Recently C.J. recorded a video to provide a brief overview of a few of the latest developments and give a shout out to all those who make it possible. You can view the update from C.J in this eight-minute video:
A Debt of Gratitude from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo. HT: Citygate Films.
Note: This film forms one piece of our 2009 Mission Presentation. Two of this year’s films are available online. To view the other film (“Kingdom Life: Bahamas”), see this post from last week.
For more Mission Presentation films from this year (or previous years) click here.