Our Citizenship is in Heaven: Josh Blount's Outline from the Pastors Conference

During our recent pastors conference, Josh Blount served us with a breakout session entitled Our Citizenship is in Heaven: Christ's Church and Cultural Pressures. Josh Blount is a unique gift to our family of churches, and this brilliant session was a perfect example of why I look forward to learning from Josh for decades to come. Josh is a blend of towering intellect and pastoral gentleness, theological skill and shepherding instinct. In this session he winsomely defined and analyzed three significant unbiblical pressures that churches are facing today and provided a theological alternative to help us guard the heavenly and Biblical identity of our congregations.

Given the richness of Josh's teaching and the limited time of the session, his outline (and appendix!) is a useful resource for all of us and Josh kindly agreed to let us post it here. 

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Day of Prayer for Our Nations, Communities and Churches

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Eric Turbedsky:

Hey, welcome to the Mark Prater podcast. My name is Eric Turbedsky. I work for Ben Kreps, I’m his new administrative assistant here today. I'm broadcasting live from California with our favorite Executive Director, Mark double K Prater. This podcast exists to connect our global family of churches to our Executive Director so you can know a little bit more about him, what he does, and really get a picture into the backend of Sovereign Grace Churches and all the things that are going on. So it's good to see you, Mark.

Mark Prater:

Good to see you, Eric. When was the last time we did a podcast together?

Eric Turbedsky:

It was pre-COVID, pre-quarantine. Should we be wearing masks on this?

Mark Prater:

Exactly. So you've emerged out of quarantine.

Eric Turbedsky:

I've emerged out of my cocoon and I am, I am now. Well, California has reopened, so we're open for business. We're doing stuff now. And probably going to get shut down any week now. But if it feels good to be back at least for a week. Thanks for letting me guest host. What is Ben doing?

Mark Prater:

Ben is on vacation. A well-deserved vacation.

Eric Turbedsky:

Are you allowed to do that? You're allowed to do that during the quarantine?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, you’re allowed to.

Eric Turbedsky:

I didn't know that. I thought the pandemic was going to be a vacation.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, exactly. That’s what everybody thought.

Eric Turbedsky:

It was the opposite. Everybody thought that. Turns out it is quite the opposite.

Mark Prater:

It was. Yeah. Our guys are working so hard.

Eric Turbedsky:

They have. They have Hey, okay. Here's the topic for today. Guys, I think other people probably pick it up on this. I've been picking up on this and I've actually joined the Leadership Team. I think it's about this time I joined the Leadership Team that I got kicked off this podcast that all happened together. It's probably all linked together. I am starting to notice a trend here that one of the things that we hear regularly from the Leadership Team of Sovereign Grace Churches is calls to prayer calls to fasting. They always seem to be on Fridays, which is, you know, it's like Friday fun day and then I can't eat. I’ve got to fast for something. There's one that just came out on a day of prayer. Tell me about that. And then tell me why the Leadership Team is doing this?

Mark Prater:

Well, there's a day of prayer, Wednesday, not Friday. That would be good for you, Wednesday, July 1st. It's a prayer for our nations and communities and churches related to the civil unrest that we've been experiencing, not only here in the States, but throughout the world, that really was precipitated by the tragic murder of George Floyd. And we as a family of churches want to take some time and to pray for real important matters. We want to express our compassion really our, as you know, Eric as a Leadership Team, our hearts are broken for the effects of sin—one of those being racism that we see in our culture, our hearts go out to the ethnic minorities in our churches and here in the States, obviously our African American brothers and sisters, in particular, because of the experiences they've had in our nation.

And so we want to begin our prayer, day of prayer, by just praying that God would comfort, knowing that God draws near the brokenhearted. We've taken the approach of the day of prayer because that's something we can all do together as a family of churches. And what we've also realized, as other organizations have made statements about this issue, is that we think it's best that our pastors are speaking into these issues in their local churches, to their local congregations, and in the context of their local communities. We feel like that's a better approach, at least for our family of churches anyway.

Eric Turbedsky:

It might be, you might say, in some ways that might be a hallmark of Sovereign Grace Churches or a distinctive that I've experienced as I've listened to the Leadership Team engagement is a real faith and appreciation, a trust for the local churches to speak for their local churches into their community, rather than looking to the global family of churches as a denomination of speak, which is curious enough. I don't know what your thoughts are on that, Mark, but though most of Sovereign Grace Churches are in the U.S., we're around the world. And sometimes it feels a little bit intimidating, odd, maybe not very helpful for a group of American church leaders to speak to, we'll pick friends, our friends in the Philippines about what's going on in particularly in the United States.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, that's exactly right. And this is, you know, this current civil unrest, peaceful protest, may be a better term, really is impacting the world or there are protests throughout the world. So there's that shared experience. But it's going to be different in both different cultures and in different churches. So how it impacts Joselo Mercado's church that is a Hispanic church or Erik Rangel’s church in Yuma, Arizona, that's highly Hispanic is going to be different than Tim Shorey's church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania which is going to be different than Dave Taylor's church in Sydney that is at least half Asian. So it's trying to find a way that we can communicate our compassion and the fact that we're aware of this issue without trying to speak into those situations in unhelpful ways, which is why we feel like a day of prayer is really just a wonderful way to do that.

Eric Turbedsky:

Totally. On this topic then, thoughts on the Leadership Team of Sovereign Grace, which is just unique. If you don't realize that and you’re watching this podcast, I feel it as a member of the Leadership Team, I don't know about you Mark, as Executive Director, but there aren't many other, we'll say families of churches that have something like ours, that, you know, some sort of modified Presbyterian form of government. But, yet, we have this Leadership Team that's been charged with leading and caring for and protecting our union of churches. And so we have this body of leaders that maybe doesn't have peers in other denominations. What are they supposed to be saying? And what are they not supposed to be saying? Just in general, just thinking beyond what's going on in the States today?

Mark Prater:

Well, you're right. I don't think we have somebody else that we could look to, like another denomination that would have the same structure that we do within our polity. And we're wrestling with that same question. What should we be saying and what shouldn’t we be saying in making statements, obviously we need the input of the Council of Elders and sort of bringing clarity on that.

But, you're exactly right. I think we, we feel like should we be speaking into issues like the one we're referencing here on racism for our entire family of churches that are located, that's a global family of churches throughout the world, and we've been reluctant to do that. Not because we don't care about the issue and we think it's important, but because what is clear in our structure is that our local pastors certainly have clarity and authority to do that.

And can I just say that I'm just rejoicing with what I see in Sovereign Grace as our pastors compassionately and clearly, and I believe wisely are speaking into this issue in a way that serves their local congregation and impacts their community. Our guys are just doing a great job.

Eric Turbedsky:

Yeah. I would say the same. You know, throughout the pandemic, when I got nothing to do, and I'm just surfing the internet and I'm looking around at what my friends are doing and know where they're hiding out from the Coronavirus. But I've just been so pleased to listen to guys speak on Sundays as their services are broadcast, or it's a blog post, or it's a, some something published on social media, the things they're saying, the way they're caring and leading both their church and speaking into their community has been encouraging. It has been a source of joy.

And I have been asked a few times at least, you know, what is Sovereign Grace thinking about these things. I'm like, well, check out the 70 different, near 80 different churches. And what they're saying, just in the US alone there's good work being done in local churches, which is what Sovereign Grace Churches is all about. It’s about the local church.

Mark Prater:

And I think if people did just go through that exercise of checking out what 70 or 80 churches are saying, I think they'd find consistency because they're led by gospel men. And the issues that we're facing all come back to that saving work of Jesus Christ that we all want to obviously preach, but also want to lead with as well.

Eric Turbedsky:

Yeah. Amen. Amen. Thanks. Thanks Mark, for being, I would say, our wartime president and at least for 2020, just leading us through these things, leading the Leadership Team, thinking about what we should be saying and not saying, and how those things conflict or encourage and build up the very DNA of Sovereign Grace Churches. I’m just so grateful for you, grateful for all the men that are leading all around our country, and the world. We should call this one quits but thank you. And I'm looking forward to that day of prayer. Thanks for moving it to Wednesday so I can enjoy my Friday.

Mark Prater:

Just for you.

 Eric Turbedsky:

Just for me. Hey, thanks for watching the podcast. And until we meet again, or Ben replaces me again, God bless.

Mark Prater is the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches and has served as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church since 2002.