Langham Preaching 2010 - 1
20th of March, 2010
I’m flying back from Vanuatu again.
I’ve had a brilliant week as part of the Langham Partnership Preaching Programme (in the South Pacific if that’s not enough alliteration for you). For those not familiar with Langham, go here. For those not familiar with their preaching work in particular, check out here. The basic logic is that God grows His church primarily by His Word, and in the majority world, God’s Word in the Bible comes primarily by preaching, then there is much benefit in raising the level of biblical preaching in churches. Enter the three main levels of ‘Langham Preaching Seminars’ that aim to introduce the fundamentals of observing, understanding, and communicating a Bible passage. The first year is spent on basic skills and narrative passage, the second on Old Testament passages and developing skills, and the final year (i.e. this year in V-land) on New Testament epistles and gospels and the importance of illustration and application.
So despite cyclonic threat, grounded planes, and the ever present tropical rain, we gathered over 75 pastors from about half a dozen denominations for a five day intensive on preaching. Some of the pastors come from very remote parts of the country, including one who had to ford a flooded river to make his inter-island flight, losing half his luggage in the process!
Assistant director of the global Langham Preaching Programme, Paul Windsor (Kiwi), led the majority of the sessions, joined by Andy Shudall (Brit-turned-Kiwi) from the evangelical student movement in New Zealand, and very minor input from myself (to all those who helped me stress over my talk on John 3, we got the thumbs up from Windsor!). The sessions themselves are designed to work in conjunction with the other half of the preaching programme, the establishment/continual encouragement of local ‘preaching clubs’ (begun in first year, but many needing a boost) to sharpen one another’s skills and share experience. These will also be the base for the preparation of local trainers in the smaller fourth level of the training that Andy and Paul will conduct over the next three years.
Praise God for the growth, however gradual, in Vanuatu – as the Bible is being faithfully preached more and more things are already changing amongst the churches, and bigger things are afoot!
Please also pray for the ongoing work of Langham Preaching in over fifty countries around the world, and the fifty more who’ve invited them in – this is an intensely strategic ministry, and one that we would do well to support in any way we can.
Posted: Mar 20, 10:38 PM Category: Bible