Stronger Together: Responding to Jared Mellinger's Message from the Pastors Conference

Our family of Sovereign Grace Churches started with a conviction: churches are stronger together. 

I’ve had the privilege of growing up in our family of churches and from an early age saw this partnership demonstrated. My parents hosted small groups in their homes and never missed a Sunday they couldn’t avoid at church. Why? Because as they said and demonstrated, Christians are stronger together. God’s design is for Christians to express their gospel partnership through local church life. I saw it before I understood it, but as I grew in my faith I saw this not only in my church but in the pages of Scripture.

But I saw something else: that churches need one another. Through the long years of our partnership with other churches, we’ve walked through joys and sorrows together. In a time of great need another local church sent a pastor to serve our church. In joy our church said goodbye to leaders who went to plant or support other churches. I grew up traveling every summer to meet Christians from all over our region who sang out the same gospel truths we did and prayed the same kinds of prayers we did. And when I began to read my Bible, I saw this reflected in the partnerships of New Testament churches.

It’s written across our family of churches and our Bibles: churches are stronger together. 

 That’s why I’m so grateful for Jared’s recent message on partnership. I’m so grateful for what I’ve experienced in our family of churches, but I’m jealous that we not lose it. What we fail to articulate is often what we fail to pass on. As Jared walked us through Scripture’s clear teaching on partnership, I felt two things: this is our history as well as may this also be our future.

It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve been hoping for this message for years -- a single, clear, winsome articulation of why we love partnership in Sovereign Grace and what we mean. It’s a message I can’t wait to get into the ears of the group of men exploring eldership at our church. It’s a message I can’t wait to point new members to when they say the way we talk about partnership seems different. It’s a message I think I’ll borrow from as we articulate our partnership in our new members class. It’s a message I hope to revisit regularly as a pastoral team. 

Brothers, I am jealous that our kids and our members experience what I experienced as a kid growing up in Sovereign Grace: I want them to see us living out church partnership among other churches. That’s something all of us must seek to live out in the specifics of our church context. But I also want them to see us pointing to this kind of partnership in Scripture. That’s something that must come out in our messages, conversations, and membership classes.

So even if you heard the message at the conference can I encourage you to do something? Listen and then take out a blank sheet of paper. Then pray and dream a little bit. What would it look like for your church to live this out? What kind of church will the kids in your kids ministry grow up in? Will they see partnership lived out? Will they hear it taught? 

May the generation after us grow to love and cherish the simple truth our family of churches started with: churches are stronger together.

Ricky Alcantar is the lead pastor of Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, Texas. He also serves on the Sovereign Grace Church Planting Team.