Keeping our Minds on the Mission Beyond

We typically meet as pastors every Wednesday afternoon to pray and discuss issues related to the Sovereign Grace Church.

One of the most exciting parts of our elders meeting yesterday was a long conversation about missions. Although we are still in the early stages of this church plant, we don’t want our specific mission here to blind us to broader opportunities beyond. And we realize that our strategic location here in Louisville will afford us both opportunities and responsibilities with regard to foreign missions.

Our conversation and prayer is only beginning, but we realize we have much to be encouraged about already:

• The Lord has providentially blessed us with a number of relationships that will afford evangelistic and service opportunities in other nations.
• Both in the church and through various relationships, we have access to a range of experience, exposure, and wisdom related to missions
• We trust our proximity to Southern Seminary will provide us a source of both counsel and contacts for foreign missions.
• Our partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries will be a primary means for participating in the mission of the gospel internationally. I (Jeff Purswell) currently serve on Sovereign Grace Ministries' mission committee, which was formed to pray, study, and discuss how we as a family of churches might grow in the reaching of nations with the gospel. The goal is to produce a robust theology of mission for our churches that is both principled and flexible, enabling our family of churches to participate more passionately in the mission of the gospel.

Despite the many responsibilities a church plant requires, our prayer is that our gaze will never be so focused on the immediate that we fail to “lift up our eyes” (John 4:35) to see the fields that are white for harvest.