God has blessed us abundantly this last month with the presence of pastor Conrad Mbewe. It was a time of refreshing for all who could be present during the days of the event. In my case, I have been blessed by Conrad’s teaching ministry, but until now I had not had the privilege of knowing him in person. During the two days that he was with us the teaching centered on the process of planting a church, which consists of three stages: evangelism, discipleship, and leadership. He also taught a lot about the devotional life of those who lead the church, their family, and the requirements for those that would desire to serve as elders in the church.
Currently I am beginning an expository series through the Epistle to the Romans. For a long time I have had the desire to preach through this impressive and wonderful letter, but for different reasons I have not been able to do it in our church until now. I had the opportunity to teach a course on Romans in the Baptist Theological Centers (CTB), which allowed me to prepare study material in order to teach the course. The study that I developed for the course has given me greater understanding of this wonderful epistle and it has allowed me to better teach the great truths that we find there. I have found it necessary to teach through Romans in order to make the gospel clear to those who are new to our church and new in the faith, as well as confirm many of the more mature believers in the truths of the gospel. In my own life, I have been greatly challenged, instructed, and confronted in my own life through the study of Romans. It is my prayer that through this systematic study of the epistle we will not only grow in our understanding of what the gospel is, but also that we would be led to understand the practical implications that the gospel has in each of our lives. May the message of the cross mold every area of our lives that we might live “in a manner worthy of the Gospel” (Philippians 1:27).
This month I have also begun having meetings for planning and review with two brothers in the church that serve in key positions among the congregation. The time we have spent together has been a tremendous blessing as we pursue wisdom to make key decisions in service to our good God and to polish and make improvements on what we are already doing. For me it has been a tremendous blessing to get feedback from both of them and to know their thoughts about each Sunday service, especially with regard to my preaching. It has been good to hear their affirmations of the things that I am carrying out well, which encourages me to do them even better. However, it has also been good to hear the things that I have not been doing well, which encourages me to change and improve in those specific areas. It is good to be able to count on people that are sincere and honest with us with regard to our strengths and weaknesses. We need people like that in our lives because, as Proverbs says, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).
Finally, this month we have also begun a time of Bible study on Friday evenings. We want to study the Word of God together as a church and for this time to be a time of interaction in which everyone can participate in the discussion, rather than just the teacher speaking. The goal is for the church to be involved and in that way to grow in their understanding of the Scriptures. We began looking at the process of studying the Scriptures, broken down into four simple steps: (1) preparation, (2) observation, (3) interpretation, and (4) application. I continue praying that we all might learn to study the Scriptures diligently and be “workmen who [do] not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:17).
