In Indonesia – a country less than 10% Christian – Arif* served as an elder in his church. When given the opportunity to preach, he wanted to be faithful, but Arif lacked the ability to really understand the Bible – which left him troubled with guilt. With few resources and no church background, he was left to rely on his own thoughts, whether they connected to the passage of the sermon or not.
Through WordPartners training, he was given tools to confidently and faithfully preach the Word of God.
“Before these workshops,” he said, “I often looked lightly at the preparation of my sermons so that sometimes what I preached did not match the biblical text and only followed my logic.”
“Before these workshops,” he said, “I often looked lightly at the preparation of my sermons so that sometimes what I preached did not match the biblical text and only followed my logic. After I learned to dig and find the Bible text correctly, I realized what I had been doing all this time was wrong.”
Arif learned to dig into the true meaning of God’s Word so that the people of his congregation could understand its message and apply it to their lives. He began to preach through the entirety of James and 1–3 John – not skipping over more complicated passages or preaching only from the most familiar verses.
This not only benefited Arif, but it also transformed the lives of his church members. They no longer struggled to understand topical sermons or were led to misinterpretations because of his prior limited knowledge.
“Praise God,” he said, “after I practiced preaching the text using the principles I learned in the workshop, the congregation felt blessed and could better understand the Bible text that I was preaching on.”
“Praise God,” he said, “after I practiced preaching the text using the principles I learned in the workshop, the congregation felt blessed and could better understand the Bible text that I was preaching on.”
Seeing the way the power of the gospel was moving in his people, Arif became a full-time pastor of his church. He says he longed “to explain the gospel of eternal salvation from God in Jesus Christ which is a certainty for believers.”
He is also training the next group of elders with the principles he’s learned so they can become pastors of their own congregations.
Through the spread of biblical preaching in Indonesia, God is transforming the lives of many as they clearly hear the truth of Scripture!
*Name changed for security reasons.
