A new week with new leaders...
Today was the start of teaching day 2.
We have 19 men and women in the group this week. The youngest is 21 and the oldest is 31.
They are all already active in their churches in some way and are being raised up and trained to lead the church one day. They were chosen for this class by their pastors, most of whom we had in class last week. And they will now begin their cycle of teaching, moving from 5 purposes of the church and 3 lessons on the Holy Spirit to lessons on leadership, studies on books of the Bible, etc. And while we saw a strong, deep hunger for Scripture in the pastors last week, we are seeing a new hunger with this group. A hunger to be taught. A hunger to be heard and trained. A hunger to see the the church of tomorrow be as strong as it possibly can be.
We had a great first day introducing Rwanda Challenge, the KinyaRwandan Study Bibles they all received, and the 5 purposes of the church (worship, evangelism, community, discipleship and ministry). Theophile and Frank did the majority of the teaching. But Aime and Jean D'Amour (two of the pastors we were with last week), along with Spencer and I, got to help with discussing what those purposes are and helping them understand those purposes in light of their own culture and Scripture.
Spencer and I taught on ministry and how everyone is called to serve as ministers (whether they are paid or not). We emphasized that we serve others in ministry out of the love God has given us and our response to that love. We reminded them that in ministry, there has to be an attitude of humility mirroring that of Jesus in Philippians 2. And I ended it by teaching them ministry is hard because you are serving and working with imperfect people, while you yourself are imperfect. But I ended with reminding them that while ministry is hard and discouraging and tiring, it is also the sweetest and most rewarding thing a person could do.
Now everyone is settling in for the night and just hanging out. The young leaders have been getting to know each other and sharing in Biblical community (one of the lessons from today).
We are all heading to bed here shortly and looking forward to another day of teaching tomorrow.
Good night from Rwanda!
We have 19 men and women in the group this week. The youngest is 21 and the oldest is 31.
They are all already active in their churches in some way and are being raised up and trained to lead the church one day. They were chosen for this class by their pastors, most of whom we had in class last week. And they will now begin their cycle of teaching, moving from 5 purposes of the church and 3 lessons on the Holy Spirit to lessons on leadership, studies on books of the Bible, etc. And while we saw a strong, deep hunger for Scripture in the pastors last week, we are seeing a new hunger with this group. A hunger to be taught. A hunger to be heard and trained. A hunger to see the the church of tomorrow be as strong as it possibly can be.
We had a great first day introducing Rwanda Challenge, the KinyaRwandan Study Bibles they all received, and the 5 purposes of the church (worship, evangelism, community, discipleship and ministry). Theophile and Frank did the majority of the teaching. But Aime and Jean D'Amour (two of the pastors we were with last week), along with Spencer and I, got to help with discussing what those purposes are and helping them understand those purposes in light of their own culture and Scripture.Spencer and I taught on ministry and how everyone is called to serve as ministers (whether they are paid or not). We emphasized that we serve others in ministry out of the love God has given us and our response to that love. We reminded them that in ministry, there has to be an attitude of humility mirroring that of Jesus in Philippians 2. And I ended it by teaching them ministry is hard because you are serving and working with imperfect people, while you yourself are imperfect. But I ended with reminding them that while ministry is hard and discouraging and tiring, it is also the sweetest and most rewarding thing a person could do.
Now everyone is settling in for the night and just hanging out. The young leaders have been getting to know each other and sharing in Biblical community (one of the lessons from today).
We are all heading to bed here shortly and looking forward to another day of teaching tomorrow.
Good night from Rwanda!
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