Friday, May 12, 2006
Goiânia 29 April - 8 May
Second Symposium for Theological Reflection - Church of Christ, Novo Horizonte, Goiânia
The main purpose of our trip to Goiânia was to minister in this event run by the Bible Institute of the Church of Christ in Novo Horizonte, a suburb of Goiânia. Andrew preached twice on the Sunday at the church, and then gave two three hour sessions (with interval for wonderful soup!) on the Monday and Tuesday nights. The event was fairly well attended, and attention to the word was good. It was encouraging to reach a public rather different from that at the typical Encontro da Fé Reformada at First Presbyterian. There were many church leaders, principally from the Churches of Christ, Renewed Baptists, Assemblies of God and other more Pentecostal groupings. There was one couple from the Igreja Internacional da Graça; a strongly prosperity church, and they took careful notes of everything, as well as buying a CD of Andrew’s preaching in other places.
The theme was the centrality of Christ in all the scriptures. Rather than try to do a technical treatment of the subject in the limited time available, Andrew spoke from Luke 24, showing how Jesus himself saw all the scriptures (the three sections of the OT) as speaking of him. Then we looked at one or two representative passages from each section, with a tone more of “preach” than classroom. The ministry was well received.
The only worrying note was the bookstall – stocked with liberal volumes, with no Biblically oriented material in sight. It was very odd to preach in the tradition of conservative-evangelical biblical-theology and know that what was on the bookstall was basically poisonous. There is sometimes a tendency to flirt with this kind of thing without realising the damage it can do. Please pray about this.
Publicity for the symposium.
Igreja de Cristo, Novo Horizonte, Goiânia.
On the one hand this church is a very typical Brazilian Evangelical church - full of life and energy. But some points are distinctive, reflecting the denominational background. The church has communion every Sunday night, with the people coming forward to participate. It was good.
Douglas, Director of the Training Institute at the Church of Christ, who organised the symposium.
Andrew, in final preparations on the second night.
The crowd present for the two nights on "the Centrality of Christ in all the Scriptures."
Interval - and good conversations.
Bookstall - an odd mix, which even included "The Da Vinci Code".
Douglas selling copies of a CD with MP3 sermons - Exodus and Celebrating The Reformation.
Second Symposium for Theological Reflection - Church of Christ, Novo Horizonte, Goiânia
The main purpose of our trip to Goiânia was to minister in this event run by the Bible Institute of the Church of Christ in Novo Horizonte, a suburb of Goiânia. Andrew preached twice on the Sunday at the church, and then gave two three hour sessions (with interval for wonderful soup!) on the Monday and Tuesday nights. The event was fairly well attended, and attention to the word was good. It was encouraging to reach a public rather different from that at the typical Encontro da Fé Reformada at First Presbyterian. There were many church leaders, principally from the Churches of Christ, Renewed Baptists, Assemblies of God and other more Pentecostal groupings. There was one couple from the Igreja Internacional da Graça; a strongly prosperity church, and they took careful notes of everything, as well as buying a CD of Andrew’s preaching in other places.
The theme was the centrality of Christ in all the scriptures. Rather than try to do a technical treatment of the subject in the limited time available, Andrew spoke from Luke 24, showing how Jesus himself saw all the scriptures (the three sections of the OT) as speaking of him. Then we looked at one or two representative passages from each section, with a tone more of “preach” than classroom. The ministry was well received.
The only worrying note was the bookstall – stocked with liberal volumes, with no Biblically oriented material in sight. It was very odd to preach in the tradition of conservative-evangelical biblical-theology and know that what was on the bookstall was basically poisonous. There is sometimes a tendency to flirt with this kind of thing without realising the damage it can do. Please pray about this.
Publicity for the symposium.
Igreja de Cristo, Novo Horizonte, Goiânia.
On the one hand this church is a very typical Brazilian Evangelical church - full of life and energy. But some points are distinctive, reflecting the denominational background. The church has communion every Sunday night, with the people coming forward to participate. It was good.
Douglas, Director of the Training Institute at the Church of Christ, who organised the symposium.
Andrew, in final preparations on the second night.
The crowd present for the two nights on "the Centrality of Christ in all the Scriptures."
Interval - and good conversations.
Bookstall - an odd mix, which even included "The Da Vinci Code".
Douglas selling copies of a CD with MP3 sermons - Exodus and Celebrating The Reformation.
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 7:30:00 pm 
