The summer I turned eight years old, my life forever changed. That was the summer our family got a speedboat. From then on, every sunny Saturday during the summer months, we spent boating as a family on Lake Michigan, producing my fondest childhood memories. And as a result, I learned how to drive a boat long before learning to drive a car. If you have driven a boat, you know that it is very different from driving a land-bound vehicle. For one thing, the steering wheel is on the right side. More importantly, there are no brakes. And when you literally “put the throttle down,” everyone on the boat had better be holding on for dear life because we are about to take off!
Since I began serving with WordPartners six years ago, September has been the month when we “put the throttle down” on our mission of training pastors around the world to preach God’s Word with God’s heart. Summer is a wonderful time for connecting with partner churches, refining our training process, and being refreshed by time spent with family and friends. But when the leaves begin to turn here in the Midwest, it signals the start of a new season of travel and training.
Having found the main idea of the text, the preacher can drill down to discover God’s heart, that is, how the Holy Spirit intends to transform us through the Word.
WordPartners training is designed to help preachers find the central thrust of a passage without getting distracted or bogged down with secondary (or tertiary) issues and concerns. Having found the main idea of the text, the preacher can drill down to discover God’s heart, that is, how the Holy Spirit intends to transform us through the Word. Time and again we have seen this process empower pastors to preach bold, relevant, Gospel-saturated sermons.
By God’s grace, we are seeing just that in our U.S. training groups. Here are a few comments from recent workshops:
The U.S. pastors who engage in our workshops feel the burden to preach sermons that are God-honoring, biblically faithful, and life applicable week in and week out. They participate in the workshops because they want to learn a simple methodology that will sharpen them as expositors and equip them to train others in their congregations. I am deeply encouraged by the dedicated pastors that participate in these intensive two-day studies. They are eager to grow as expositors of God’s Word and shepherds of God’s people. So with eagerness, we put the throttle down as we head into our fall training season. As we do, would you join us in prayer?
Please pray for these dear servants as we gather for the Fall season of workshops and for me as I co-lead with our U.S. advanced training team:
I won’t be at the Northern Virginia training this round, because I am scheduled to travel with WordPartners’ Central Asia Program Director to help facilitate training groups there (October 14-24). Please pray for me as this will be my first trip to this challenging region of the world.
