As you may know, our pastoral team and their wives have just returned from a 10-day whirlwind trip to the U.S.! It was a great time of fellowship, teaching and refreshment as we, once again, got to see what God is doing beyond our little corner of the world, and were reminded of what a gift it is to be a part of the global family of churches that is Sovereign Grace.

We stayed in Louisville for the first few days, which is where Riley and Maddie lived for a year whilst Riley attended the Sovereign Grace Pastors College. We were met with the warmest hospitality from members of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. Riley also spent some time teaching at a Mens Event on the Saturday night and at the Sunday Gathering that weekend. We also got to enjoy a sneaky little tour of the newly built Sovereign Grace Music recording studio! It was a sweet experience of home away from home as we joined SGC Louisville in worship and fellowship over those initial few days.

From Louisville, we made our way over to Orlando, Florida for the annual Sovereign Grace Pastors and Wives Conference. Over the next four days, we had the privilege of joining with 800 other pastors and wives in being refreshed by great worship, teaching and fellowship and having our faith stoked by the Gospel unity that was so strongly evident in our times together.

The theme of this year’s conference was “The Church of Christ and the Triumph of Truth”, and many of the plenary sessions were centred on the charge to pastors and churches to hold fast to the Truth of God’s word, especially in this current climate where many are being pulled along with the cultural tide. It was a weighty and helpful reminder to move forward not just with hearts that are open to this broken world, but also with Bibles open in our pulpits and our homes.

All in all, we had a wonderful time away together and are so grateful to the Lord for all that He is doing around the world in and through our family of churches. The sweetest part of it all, though, was getting to come home on the Sunday morning, joining in on our church’s gathering and knowing that we could get that same refreshment right back here in Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta. There’s no place like it!

You can listen to all the talks and breakout sessions from the 2023 Pastors and Wives Conference here!