Our upcoming church plant in Durham, North Carolina, will hold their first Sunday meeting on April 3. Visit the Redeeming Grace website if you're interested in joining the church-planting team.

Dave Taylor (Sydney, Australia) discussed ways his church could help serve the communities affected by the flooding in Australia earlier this month, including coming alongside efforts of an Acts29 church in Brisbane. 

CrossWay Community Church (Charlotte, NC) spotted a great deal: Wayne Grudem's lectures on systematic theology (similar material to the book) are free on iTunes.

Gary and Betsy Ricucci (authors of Love That Lasts) are leading a marriage retreat at Bethlehem Baptist Church next weekend. If you're at a Sovereign Grace Church in the Minneapolis area, you may still be able to register.

An E-team from Covenant Life Church just returned from Uganda. Pastors Robin Boisvert and Isaac Hydoski both shared some reflections on the trip, as well as the pictures below.

(If you're reading this via email or an RSS reader, you may need to visit the website to see the slideshow.)

Thank you to everyone who prayed for Jim Britt's trip to the Dominican Republic earlier this month. Although the churches he visited are not formally associated with Sovereign Grace Ministries, they are dear partners in the gospel and we count it a privilege to come alongside them in their ministry. 

These are some highlights Jim shared with us upon returning from his trip:

• Several meetings with Tomás Martinez and other leaders from Iglesia Cristiana Oasis (ICO), the church that hosted him on this trip, to discuss gospel-centered ministry, outreach to Haiti, leadership training, and other aspects of ministry
• Preaching twice at ICO and once at its sister church in Santiago
• Teaching Sunday School instructors at ICO about infusing every lesson with the gospel
• Leading a marriage seminar at ICO for 100 couples about the gospel and reoccurring marriage issues
• Speaking about grace-motivated service to faculty at King's Christian School, a 400-student day school operated by ICO
• Meeting with Miguel Núñez, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Internacional, to talk about plans for a conference that C.J. Mahaney, Dave Harvey, and Jeff Purswell will speak at this summer

If you give to our Mission Fund, please know that your support plays a significant part in our ability to train and equip pastors internationally. Jim received significant gratitude from the churches he was able to care for during his trip, and that gratitude extends to you as well. 

Photo by ChezSant, licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

We frequently get requests for copies of a 1999 article Kenneth Maresco wrote about evangelism titled "Proclaiming Christ Crucified." This is primarily because the article is used in a theology curriculum that Covenant Life Church makes available online.

We're posting the PDF here to make it easier for everyone to find in the future. For non-personal use, please simply follow the guidelines on our Print Copyrights page.

(If you don't have Adobe Flash or if you're reading this via RSS or email, you'll need to download the PDF in order to view it.)

FYI: you can get updates from this blog emailed to you daily, weekly, or monthly. Signing up takes a few seconds, but pastor Sam Shin wouldn't want that to stop you.

If you were stirred by Jim Donohue's message on evangelism at our Pastors Conference (embedded below), you may find the Proclaim website a useful follow-up tool. Jim and fellow pastor Stefan Bomberger have collected outreach ideas, links to affordable giveaway materials, and a variety of other resources for church-based evangelism.

Do we need church plants? Sovereign Grace pastor Bill Farley is asking his congregation that question on his blog. If you want to learn more, consider joining us at our church-planting conference.

Two regional marriage conferences to consider: Gary and Betsy Ricucci's Equal Yet Different, hosted by Covenant Life Church (Gaithersburg, MD) February 26, and Sex Matters, a CCEF event hosted by Metro Life Church (Orlando, FL) March 18-19.

Watch Dave Harvey explain a part of our Plant conference designed to help attendees meet and learn from one another. (RSS readers, you may need to visit the webpage to view the video.)

David and Marie, both members of Sovereign Grace churches, recently wrote to us asking essentially the same question: does Sovereign Grace Ministries' apostolic team still exist? Below is an expanded version of our responses to them, posted here in case others in our churches have the same question.

The apostolic team, for those of you new to Sovereign Grace Ministries, was for many years what we called the team of pastors who help us facilitate church planting, international ministry, and church care. But over time, we discovered the name confused more people than it helped, so now we’re considering alternatives. We’ve also gained a better understanding of the term "apostolic," which makes us even more careful in how we apply it. So for now, the team is more commonly just called the regional leadership team. (For more on the role of apostolic ministry in the church’s mission, see Dave Harvey’s blog post, "Apostolic Ministry and Church Planting.")

The "regional leadership" moniker comes from the fact that Sovereign Grace churches are currently grouped into eight regions, and each pastor on the team is responsible for serving the churches of one region. It’s a broad role, but primarily involves the following:

• Helping pastors develop and execute church planting plans
• Providing care and counsel for pastors when requested
• Facilitating cooperation among churches for regional events, mission trips, or other activities
• Coordinating the ordination process for new pastors
• Building relationships with other churches who are interested in joining Sovereign Grace Ministries
• Assisting in the assessment, training, and deployment of church planters

Below is a roster of the men currently on the team and a description of the regions they serve. If you’re a member of a Sovereign Grace church, please join us in praying for the man who fulfills this role in your area. They play a vital part in helping Sovereign Grace churches advance the Great Commission both locally and globally. 

• Dave Harvey, Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA)

  Dave is responsible for church care, church planting, and international expansion for Sovereign Grace Ministries, so it is his responsibility to lead and coordinate the efforts of our regional leaders. You can read more about him on his bio page.
  

• Aron Osborne, Metro Life Church (Orlando, FL)

  Aron serves churches in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and the Caribbean. Danny Jones, who founded and led this region for several years, still serves as the senior pastor at Metro Life Church where Aron is based.

• Craig Cabaniss, Grace Church (Frisco, TX)

  Craig serves churches in Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana.
  

• Gene Emerson, KingsWay Community Church (Midlothian, VA)

  Gene serves churches in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
  

• John Loftness, Solid Rock Church (Riverdale, MD)

  John serves churches in Maryland and the Washington, DC, metropolitan area (including Northern Virginia). He is a recent addition to the team; Covenant Life Church pastor Kenneth Maresco used to lead this region, and still serves two churches in Africa because of his unique relationship with them.
  

• Mark Prater, Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA)

  Mark serves churches in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and parts of Canada.
  

• Pete Greasley, Christchurch (Newport, Wales)

  Pete’s region is enormous—with the help of others, he serves churches in Europe, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia.
  

• Rick Gamache, Sovereign Grace Fellowship (Bloomington, MN)

  Rick serves churches in Illinois and Minnesota.
  

• Steve Shank, Sovereign Grace Church (Gilbert, AZ)

  Steve serves churches in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, parts of Canada and Latin America, and because of existing relationships, the Philippines.

Metro Life Church (Orlando, FL) will host a CCEF regional conference March 18-19 titled Sex Matters—Rediscovering the Gift of Sex Within God’s Story of Creation, Fall and Redemption. Registration opens next week.

Our book Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World is now available as an audio book.

College students in the Louisville area: C.J. Mahaney will speak at the upcoming Southern Seminary collegiate conference, Recalibrate, held February 11-12.

What really happens at our songwriters retreats? Mark Altrogge offers his take.          

Jim Britt, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church (Greenville, SC), travels this week on behalf of Sovereign Grace to the Dominican Republic to provide various training opportunities at a church there. In addition to meeting with pastors individually, he plans to...

• lead a marriage seminar for couples,
• hold a meeting with the church's small-group leaders,
• provide training seminars for adult Sunday school teachers and grade school instructors, and
• preach at two Sunday meetings

In this year's Mission Fund materials we alluded to ongoing training opportunities that our Pastors College provides for pastors in Sovereign Grace Ministries. One of the most strategic elements of that ongoing training is the Preaching Practicum, a three-day workshop where a small group of pastors get to preach and evaluate sermons with the help of C.J. Mahaney and Jeff Purswell. This is a relatively new initiative for the Pastors College, and this week we are hosting 17 Sovereign Grace pastors (along with current Pastors College students) for our third one.

If you're a member of a Sovereign Grace church, thank you for your help making training like this possible. We have gotten wonderful feedback so far on the usefulness of past Preaching Practicums, and they really are a direct result of your support of your pastors and giving to our Mission Fund. 

Below are the men in attendance this week, along with Twitter links where available. Please pray for them, as well as C.J. and Jeff as they lead the training.

• Ricky Alcantar 
• Mark Alderton 
• Wayne Brooks 
• Paul Buckley 
• Keith Breault 
• Joe Calabello 
• Phil Courson 
• Shannon Day 
• Billy Ihde 
• Tim Kerr 
• Darren Lander 
• Matt Maka 
• Tim Merwin 
• Al Pino 
• Billy Raies 
• Mike Seaver 
• Eric Simmons