Saturday Post -- 13/06/15

A final group picture (with the camp caretaker on the left, of course).

Well, I can’t promise exploding houses, prospective pyjama parties or KD (that’s ‘Kraft Dinner’, for the hitherto unsullied) but if you give me five minutes of your time, I’ll happily tell you all about what went on last weekend, in a place where the reading of blog posts was about as likely as going the whole weekend without a mosquito bite.

Trinidad’s newly-launched Langham Preaching programme is the culmination of nine months of prayer and preparation. For me, the general outline of our sabbatical year in 2014, in terms of my thought pattern, was six months of encouragement as to the things I was learning, followed by another six months of continued encouragement, but also trying to think carefully about how my experiences at Cornhill would translate to a very different cultural context, as our return date loomed ever closer. I felt particularly challenged to address the area of Biblical preaching which, in this part of Bolivia, is severely lacking.

Eduardo (right) in action.

With that in mind, at the recommendation of friends both in Scotland and Canada, in September I got in touch with Langham’s representatives in Bolivia, who proceeded to put me in contact with Eduardo Rojas. We began a tentative discussion as to the feasibility of running a Langham Preaching course in Trinidad, and by the time we had arrived back here in January of this year, it was a case of gauging interest levels, with Eduardo more than happy to come here from his home city of Cochabamba should there be enough appetite.

Within a few weeks, having spoken to a range of groups around town, it was clear we could definitely cobble something together, and so Eduardo kindly came out for an overnight stay in late February, to speak in more depth with the interested parties as a group. From there, a local organising committee was formed, which I headed up, and despite the odd headache in the run-up to the conference (e.g., would we have anything to eat?), a group of 13 men and women from a variety of churches made it to the meeting point on that first afternoon, ready to roll.

Edwin Fernández.

It hadn’t exactly taken much thought as a committee to settle on a venue for the course. Eduardo had stipulated that the course was best delivered in some kind of retreat centre, free of outside distractions. There is only one such venue in this whole region, a municipally-owned centre about a 90-minute drive from Trinidad; indeed, it’s where our church has run its youth camps the last couple of years. Several churches here have their own camp grounds, but without the conveniences that we needed to enjoy a distraction-free time of it (though the two-hour power cut on Thursday evening rendered those advantages pretty much obsolete; mosquito nets were a non-negotiable too).

Best of all, there was next to no phone signal, making it really hard for outsiders to get in touch, though a touch frustrating when, say, trying to get one’s wife to bring out a projector cable.

The plan for the weekend was to help a group of people with a wide variety of preaching and teaching experiences to teach from a book of the Bible expositionally, in such a way that the same principles could be applied to all Scripture; this required us to get to grips with the text as a whole. And that made Philemon – one of only five single-chapter Bible books – a logical place to begin, when: a) many had never had experience of preaching expositionally; and b) we only had three days to prepare.

Getting together to 'Pray the Word'.

Each of the three mornings began with a tremendous exercise called ‘Praying the word’, which preceded the preaching of a section of Philemon, either by Eduardo or his colleague, Edwin Fernández. As a group, we would read the passage aloud three times, before closing our eyes and listening to the chairperson read each verse slowly. And after the reading of each verse, two or three minutes were given to open prayer of the kind that acted as a response to what was read. This served as a tremendous preparation both for the day ahead and for the upcoming sermon.

The rest of the day was largely given over to teaching on the various steps required to prepare an expository sermon – such as discerning the main idea behind a passage, thinking about how a letter written to a Hellenistic slave-owner applies to Trinidad in 2015, and forming a sermon body which reflects the passage structure – which we then put into practice in our groups.

Miguel-Ángel at the pulpit.

On Sunday (the final day), this work culminated in – how ever did you guess? – a sermon from each of the two groups, based on verses 17 to 25 of Philemon, the only stipulation being that the nominated preacher had to have limited experience in the area. It gave me no small thrill, then, to see our old friend Miguel-Ángel step up to the plate – correction, the pulpit. Miguel-Ángel serves on the church leadership alongside Elías and myself (he’s also the president of FT), and a more gentle, more unassuming man you would struggle to meet. Although he regularly chairs services and provides informal teaching at communion services, he has been reluctant to preach in our own church until now due to a lack of training and experience. However, in recent months, he has expressed his desire to address this, and my prayer is that his assured debut on Sunday afternoon will stand him in good stead.

Romina, also from our church, delivered the
other group's sermon.

Those two groups into which we were divided (one of six people, the other of seven) were not solely for the purpose of the training weekend. Because the course, in truth, lasts three years. The idea is that we will have two further conferences – one with a specific Old Testament focus, the other New Testament – in 2016 and 2017, about this time of year. But in the twelve months between conferences, the groups are to meet once a month as escuelitas (literally, little schools). In these escuelitas, one member of each group will give a 20-minute sermon on a specified text in Mark. But the other group members are required to arrive at the session having studied the passage in their own time, so as to be able to deliver constructive criticism of the sermon. As at the conference, the sermon is to be preceded by a session of ‘praying the word’, and some time is also to be given over to reading a book on preaching by, of all people, Eric Alexander.

The two group representatives put the finishing touches to their work.

Besides the necessary learning, there were regular breaks incorporated into the schedule (including the all-important post-lunch siesta stretch), which allowed for great opportunities to get to know the rest of the group. Having at times in the past wondered if the likes of Amanda and me were the only ones even halfway bothered about the quality of preaching in these parts, it was of great encouragement to meet other brothers and sisters with a passion for the word.

Indeed, on Sunday evening, Amanda and I accompanied Eduardo to a local church, where he had received an impromptu invite to give a sermon, and where a few other of the course’s participants were gathered. And as he preached on Acts 6:1-7, on the need to free up certain members in the church to be able to concentrate on word ministry – and the huge blessing that can bring to said church – he was met with a great response. We pray that, in the coming years, the word of God might indeed continue to increase in Trinidad.

Prayer

• For hard work and commitment from the Langham group as a whole, with the ball now squarely in our court.
• Our thoughts are beginning to turn to Scotland, where we will, God-willing, be spending a few weeks in July, due to Craig’s sister’s wedding. Naturally, that means there is a small mountain of tasks to be completed by the end of this month before we set off. Pray for patience.
• Craig’s penance for his upcoming month out of Trinidad is to give six sermons/talks within the next sixteen days: three at the youth group on Saturday evenings, and three at the Sunday morning family service. Prayer appreciated this weekend as he teaches the young people tonight about Gideon, and kicks off a new series in 1 Kings on Sunday.
• For the safe arrival of three volunteers from Seattle – Brittany, Haley and Juliana – who are due to land in Santa Cruz on Thursday, and who will be supporting the work at FT for two months

 Praise

• For the great help and encouragement that the Langham course provided to all involved -- including Eduardo and Edwin, who were very impressed by the group. They told me they often come to the end of these courses with concerns that the group might not run with the proverbial baton; not so with this group.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda