Our subject today, for the first of our three days of training, was the Doctrine of Scripture. This seemed the right place to start for a course on The Foundations of Preaching. We worked our way through the truths we believe about God’s Word and why it is vital to take a strong stand on each of them – inspiration, infallibility, inerrancy, authority, sufficiency, efficacy, clarity – if we are going to be preachers and teachers of God’s Word. Indeed, my conviction is that no man should enter the pulpit who denies any of these. Fortunately, it was clear that in this group I was ‘preaching to the converted’!
It was a small group, with two or three who had registered failing to attend, and the group will change somewhat over these days, with some men only able to be there for one or two of the three days. We had 9 men in the seminar, including a couple joining via zoom and there were some insightful questions asked and points raised. Unsurprisingly, the church in Poland faces exactly the same attacks on the Scriptures as we do in the UK, and the servants of the Word here need to be equipped and encouraged to stand firm.
I always find that some of the most important and enjoyable parts of training days like these, especially in a cross-cultural context, are the conversations held over coffee and lunch, and these engagements also help inform my teaching through the day.
It was hot work, with temperatures here being around 30 and not helped by the fact that the air conditioning in the room was not working. But as someone who was ‘born to be warm’ it almost made me feel as if I was back in Khartoum or Juba, so I wasn’t complaining!
Do pray for Friday’s session which is a little bit more technical in some respects as we lay out the principles of Hermeneutics, or Bible Interpretation. The material we cover in this session will be the first part of a year long course held fortnightly over zoom from the autumn.
Thank you for your prayers and for your investment into the work of the Kingdom here in Poland.