As I consider how the Lord has grown our work over the past few years, I stand amazed. We’re now serving in 46 different countries, on 6 different continents, with a long list of Sovereign Grace pastors involved. It’s an amazing work of His grace in our family of churches, and yet as each nation and work has grown, so have the complexities and workload.

To that end, after some long reflection, discussion, and planning, a ‘Global Development Team’ was created, comprised of five of the finest leaders I know.

Four of them will be serving as ‘SGC Area Leaders’, involved in leading, engaging, and providing oversight and process, for specific areas of the world. Whilst one of them will be serving as our ‘US Global Missions Coordinator’, with the responsibility of being ‘on point’ for coordinating questions from our US Pastors and regions, as well as providing up-to-date opportunities for involvement.

I am so very blessed to be working with each of these men and wanted to introduce them. May His grace abound us all!!

Greg Dirnberger - Emmaus Road Church - SGC Area Leader for Asia-Pacific

Bart Lipscomb - Christchurch - SGC Area Leader for Africa

Ed O’Mara - SGC Torino - SGC Area Leader for Europe

Rich Richardson - Centre Church - SGC Area Leader for Latin America

Leo Parris - Covenant Fellowship Church - US Global Missions Coordinator

This post originally titled Global Operations & Development - Meet The Team first appeared on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog on February 28, 2024.

Psalm 139.7-10 declares, ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there you hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.'

There is nowhere we can go where we are outside of God’s presence, nowhere, and that’s one of the many things that makes prayer such an incredible and daily opportunity. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is always present, always with us, and always eager to hear us.

And so here’s some specific things that you can be praying for, and talking with the King about, in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for the National US Church Planting Group as they meet for a final retreat with the 2022-23 Church Planting Cohort, June 15th-18th. With 3-4 US Church Plants planned for the next 12 months, this is such an important time together.

2. Please pray for Nate Treguboff (Cross of Grace, Minnesota), Josh Montague (Cross of Grace, TLI), Dave Quilla (Covenant Life Fellowship, Oregon) and Joshua Chambers (formerly of TLI) as they travel to Amman, Jordan, June 8-16th, to train ten Pastors from Pakistan. These Pakistani Pastors have a long relationship with our family of Churches, represent some 400 Churches, and are keen to pursue full partnership with Sovereign Grace. This is the final instalment of a five year endeavour and so please pray for safety, for fruitful classes and for wisdom and understanding on wise next steps in this great opportunity.

3. Please pray Justin Crews and Spencer Vaughn (Sovereign Grace Community Church, Roanoke, US) as they head to teach at the Gracelife Pastors & Planters Academy in Liberia, with our friend Dyonah Thomas, June 19th-26th. Please also pray for their strategic trip to Sierra Leone to put boots on the ground as we look to a possible SG Church Plant in 2024. Exciting times!! In addition, please pray for Andy Farmer (Covenant Fellowship, Glenn Mills, USA) as he heads to teach at the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Ethiopia, June 16th-19th. Would this be a rich and blessed time for everyone involved,

4. Please pray for the Pastors who will be coming in from Germany, Prague, Italy, Belarus, Turkey, Sweden, and the UK, for this month’s SGC Europe Pastors Retreat, June 20-23rd. They will be joined by Mark Prater (SG Executive Director) and Dave Taylor (SG Director of Global Missions), as they dream together and plan together for the future of Sovereign Grace Churches in Europe.

5. Please 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 really do have more opportunities than we can fund and so we are so in need of His grace in this.

6. Please continue to pray for the ARK Church in Dnipro, Ukraine. This dear church continues to feed over 400 people a week, care for refugees on a daily basis, and share the good news of Jesus Christ with any and all that will listen. They are doing an amazing work in Ukraine, may we never tire of praying for these dears saints.

… May His grace abound to us all.

Dave Taylor – Director of Global Missions, Sovereign Grace Church (Sydney, Australia)

This post originally appeared on the SGC Missions blog, June 3, 2023

Rather than give you several different updates this month, I wanted to share with you this one 14 minute video to watch, our 2022 Global Update.

What a wonderful year this has been!

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

This post originally appeared on the Sovereign Grace Missions blog on December 28, 2022. Dave Taylor is the Director of Global Missions for Sovereign Grace Churches.

An update from Jeffrey Jo, Lead Pastor of CCSGM in Kawit, Manila, and key leader for SGC in the Philippines.

Few things are more encouraging for a pastor than the moments he feels that he is not alone in the challenges of both marriage and ministry.

I know the ‘feeling’ of not having that. For I was once in that boat until, in God’s providence, God brought me to Sovereign Grace Churches. It is such a blessing when we have fellow strugglers beside us, encouraging and praying for us, but above all, gathering with you in the fellowship of the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

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Dave Taylor – Director of Emerging Nations, Sovereign Grace Church (Sydney, Australia)

For us in Sovereign Grace, we see global missions as “the great commission work of making and maturing disciples around the world.” This is something that Jesus himself calls us to in Matt 28.18-20, when he says,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We’re therefore passionate about this. Knowing that Jesus is always with us, we’re eager to embrace this call and run into this mission, with both purpose and faith. And this new newsletter and blog, taking over from the EN newsletter and blog, is the joyful reporting of the fruit of those endeavours.

Make no mistake, it is all the Lord’s doing. In our global endeavours to establish new congregations (Church Planting), partner in new places (Emerging Nations) and reach new cultures (Missionaries), it is Jesus who is leading and strengthening the charge. Wherever we are, it is always His doing, and so what a joy it is to tell you about what He’s doing!!

Please feel free to help us spread the word about this newsletter and blog. You can access it directly here (www.sgcmissions.org/blog) and can have folk sign up for the monthly newsletter at the bottom of the page here (www.sgcmissions.org).

May the glory always go to Him and may this always be marvellous in our eyes!!

DAVE TAYLOR JUNE 3, 2022

Ukraine is going through ongoing dark and worrying times. With the outbreak of war, fear and uncertainty are filling the whole nation. Every day brings more alarming news, with continued shelling and growing numbers of casualties. Yet in the midst of this evil and carnage, there are pastors and their churches in the Ukraine that are labouring hard to care for people, and to offer hope that can only be found in Jesus.

We are eager to pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, what an important gift that is to them, and we’re also eager to support them financially in anyways that we can. 

To that end, we’ve been working closely with our partner Church in Germany - Arche Church, in Hamburg, throughout this difficult time. A few years ago, Arche Church planted a church in Ukraine with one of the PC graduates, a Ukrainian pastor. His Church is located in a place in Ukraine where people are fleeing from some of the Southern cities, port cities that are being heavily bombed. They’re making their way through his city on the way to the West, trying to find refuge and safety. They’ve set up 90 beds in their church, but typically on a given night, they’ll have over 150 people that arrive with the need for food and a place to sleep. 

To help partner with them in this, through the generous giving of personal donors and churches, we’ve been able to send out over $60,000 in support of this church’s relief efforts, money that we’ve been able to send over to them on a weekly basis. They are so very grateful for this gospel partnership, so much so that our contact on the ground (Pastors name name not included for his protection) wrote this to us just yesterday by way of an update:

           ‘Dear brothers and sisters. I just received the money. We thank the Lord for your commitment to the gospel, for the brotherhood of the cross, for your practical love. You point us to Christ. We spend your donations to receive refugees from the destroyed cities, we offer them hot meals, lodging, showers and administration for further movement to the West.  Also, we make food packages for migrants, for all those who have lost their jobs and livelihoods. We purchased a washer and dryer for the refugees. We refuel the cars of volunteers who transport people from the war zone in their cars. In addition, we help financially single mothers with children. We purchase the necessary medicines for patients with chronic diseases. We have not done this before on such a scale, but now, we are already "professionals" in social assistance to people and their accommodation. Of course, we want to show them Christ in us, and we are therefore looking for every opportunity to speak the gospel to suffering people. May the Lord Jesus be glorified in our ministry together with you.’

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The full post Helping in Ukraine originally appeared on May 1, 2022 on the Emerging Nations Blog; the work of Sovereign Grace Churches partnering in new places around the world.