“I’ve never done that before. Normally I just pick a verse on Sunday morning and start talking.”
– Middle Eastern Pastor
“If you are going to make an impact in the Middle East, go to [an undisclosed country].” This was the advice heard again and again by WordPartners’ program director for the Middle East and North Africa. This country is strategic because it has the largest Christian population in the region, and “everyone understands their dialect . . . so if we are going to take this into other countries, it’s good to start there.”
And it was in this very country that God, in His kind providence, provided a wonderful partner, an in-country pastor who serves as a denominational leader. Through this relationship, a training group was established, and that group will graduate later this year.
One pastor in the group felt nervous about doing any of the work on his own. But he grew in both skill and confidence through the training process. During one workshop, after doing an amazing job speaking on a passage, the pastor acknowledged, “Yeah, I’ve never done that before. Normally I just pick a verse on Sunday morning and start talking.”
Another pastor shared that WordPartners training has transformed his preaching. He said people in his church tell him, “Pastor, your preaching is so much more powerful now!” He described how, in the past, his weekly preparation for Sunday sermons consisted of searching the internet for interesting stories that he would then retell from the pulpit. But now he uses the Dig & Discover Principles he’s learned in our workshops and preaches what the Bible actually says.
Four of these graduating pastors are planning to further multiply the training by launching a new group soon. Just as Jesus invested deeply in 12 men before seeing multiplication, so our program director is hoping to see God multiply the transformation in this strategic country to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa.
