Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Belo Horizonte 8-13 June 2005
The few days in Belo Horizonte were all that I had hoped and more. The expository training with the pastors of the church was well-organised by Rodrigo: a small group, showing good commitment to being present at all the sessions. The fact of working in only one book, 1 Peter, helped to give continuity to the five minute expositions, and the generally tight goal of thinking about the exposition of the epistles, with the prospect of other encounters to look at other genres, made for a very focussed two days. We had about 8 class-room hours each day.
We have been surprised by the specific impact of the ministry amongst young people, and this weekend in BH had been arranged in part to coincide with the anniversary of the teenage work. Preaching on Friday night, a meal on the Saturday and teaching in the teenage and youth classes on Sunday morning gave opportunity for good contact with the young people of the church. They are a great bunch, and hungry for the word.
But perhaps the best part for me was to preach to the main congregation on Sunday morning and evening. Once again the fact was demonstrated that it is more important to hear preaching than to hear talks about preaching. To put it another way, there is little point in talking about expository preaching if people don’t know what you are talking about. On Sunday morning I took a passage from 1 Peter, so as to provide continuity for the guys in the training group, and in the evening, Luke 14. A happy day.
The other great aspect was a deepened friendship with Rodrigo and Lívia, my hosts for the week. We had many good and deep talks, and they were impressed by living at close quarters with an Englishman. “You really do drink tea all the time, don’t you?!”
The few days in Belo Horizonte were all that I had hoped and more. The expository training with the pastors of the church was well-organised by Rodrigo: a small group, showing good commitment to being present at all the sessions. The fact of working in only one book, 1 Peter, helped to give continuity to the five minute expositions, and the generally tight goal of thinking about the exposition of the epistles, with the prospect of other encounters to look at other genres, made for a very focussed two days. We had about 8 class-room hours each day.
We have been surprised by the specific impact of the ministry amongst young people, and this weekend in BH had been arranged in part to coincide with the anniversary of the teenage work. Preaching on Friday night, a meal on the Saturday and teaching in the teenage and youth classes on Sunday morning gave opportunity for good contact with the young people of the church. They are a great bunch, and hungry for the word.
But perhaps the best part for me was to preach to the main congregation on Sunday morning and evening. Once again the fact was demonstrated that it is more important to hear preaching than to hear talks about preaching. To put it another way, there is little point in talking about expository preaching if people don’t know what you are talking about. On Sunday morning I took a passage from 1 Peter, so as to provide continuity for the guys in the training group, and in the evening, Luke 14. A happy day.
The other great aspect was a deepened friendship with Rodrigo and Lívia, my hosts for the week. We had many good and deep talks, and they were impressed by living at close quarters with an Englishman. “You really do drink tea all the time, don’t you?!”
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 11:23:00 am 
