by Jonathan Lamb, director of Langham Preaching
August 2008

We’ve been busy! Take a look at how the world is changing this year through some of Langham Preaching’s recent training sessions.

Langham Preaching makes waves in the Pacific

Following the launch of Langham Preaching in Vanuatu – the first step in the development of the work in the Pacific – plans are now underway for the launch of similar initiatives in the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea next year.  The Vanuatu programme is having an ongoing impact, as Andrew Williamson reports: ‘Did you know that the two French-speaking pastors present went home and immediately met with twenty of the leaders they are discipling for five nights a week, for two weeks, reviewing the material of the Langham Preaching seminar? And hear at Talua Ministry Training Centre, we are reviewing our whole approach to teaching (and doing) preaching to bring it into line with the Langham teaching. It will take another month or so before we make all the decisions, but I think it will be a sizable overhaul of our approach.  Keep up your good work!’

West Africa prepares to extend the reach of training

In August Langham Preaching facilitator, Gordon Woolard, visited Benin, where a small team has been
established to prepare for the launch of a preaching movement.  Neighbouring Togo would like to send delegates too, and so plans are underway for the start of training next year.  Langham Preaching will also begin in Liberia later this year, and local country coordinator Dyonah Thomas reports that delegates are being selected from all 15 regions of the country, ready for the December launch.  Neighbouring Sierra Leone and Gambia hope to send delegates to Liberia too, as the programme prepares to extend to new territories in the future.

Chiang Mai welcomes the first seminar for biblical preaching

From June 30 to July 4, the first Chiang Mai seminar for biblical preaching takes place, jointly hosted by OMF and Langham Preaching.  Gathering some 25 delegates from Thailand and several neighbouring countries, this will be the first of a series of four seminars to equip pastors for their preaching ministries, and to work towards a stronger base in each country for the nurturing of country training programmes.

Preachers’ clubs keep busy in Kenya

Mercy Ireri is the very energetic coordinator of the preaching clubs in Kenya.  Armed with her mobile phone, she keeps track of the pastors and lay preachers, encouraging them to meet regularly, as well as visiting the clubs in different regions near Nairobi.  She recently reported:

I attended the Kirinyaga Preachers Club this past Saturday.  The group has been meeting consistently each month since September 07.  It is made up of two men and three women, from the Anglican church, the Methodist church and Gospel Outreach church (Pentecostal).  Since the August preaching seminar, one member joined a college in Nyeri, about 35km away from Keroguya which is the meeting venue.  She makes the needed effort (time and bus fare) to attend the club meeting.  The other lady moved to Nakuru, but still comes to the club meeting.

The cohesiveness in the group was pretty obvious.  On that day, they had chosen to present outlines from Daniel 10. At first I was, like, of all books, Daniel! They decided on the book so that with what they were taught at the seminar, they can try to handle those ‘difficult’ books in the Bible.  It was quite amazing to note that they did not dwell on the ‘absurd details’ in the text, but they used the ‘Studying a passage’ sheet to study the passage. After each presentation, they would assess “Faithfulness, Relevance, Clarity”, and give their feedback.  Each outline identified the audience, had a theme statement, had a verse structure and an accompanying sentence.   I was able to wrap up the session with a few points on handling apocalyptic literature.  We sure had a real good day!  I left so, so encouraged.  With calmness returning in the country, many groups are now planning on beginning their meetings. My other highlight each month has been calling the club leaders. I get to laugh as they share their stories, and I get so encouraged when they explain what they are doing, and when I place the phone down, I thank God for what is happening.  Thank you for your enormous support in this work in Kenya.