Training Pastors Worldwide

I’ve finished my last class – a very smart group of attentive students. We had a lot of fun rehearsing the history of Israel from Joshua to Esther. I wrote my final exam and study sheet for the students today, and had a healthy dose of Mai’s world-famous muffins – my last one was in February of 2021 – not complaining, just saying…. I board an Air France Airbus Monday evening and arrive home Tuesday afternoon. Oh, the joy of a direct flight from Paris to LAX – I get to skip Brussells and Washington D.C.! Here are a few pics of my time here.

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Here’s a photo commentary of my almost two weeks traveling, teaching, and living in Liberia. I taught Course One, “Knowing God, Knowing Scripture and Knowing Ourselves” (the role of a pastor/teacher in teaching and preaching) of nine in our excellent curriculum with 5 others trainers last week. This week and next, I am teaching the history of Israel from Joshua – Esther, to a group of students at GraceLife Bible College. There may be a few pictures of my grandchildren who didn’t travel with me this time, but hopefully in the future.

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I’m anxiously waiting to return to my second home: GraceLife Church, Monrovia, Liberia. Home, in Orange, has been amazing for four months and it’s time to return. Here are the dates: leaving Friday, August 13th, (it’s 3:30am as I write this, waiting for my trusty ride to the airport) and returning September 7th. I will lead a team of mostly TLI staff to train a brand new cohort of students from a variety of theological persuasions. Our first course, of our nine part curriculum, is entitled,

Knowing God, Knowing Scripture and Knowing Ourselves. Here’s the summary from our detailed teacher’s manual and the Table of Contents.

“Course 1 introduces God, Scripture, and the role God has defined for leaders within his church, laying a foundation for Christ’s global church to mature for God’s glory. That foundation is the relational, devotional, expositional study, preaching, and teaching of Scripture. Course 1 has this aim: Know God intimately, speak God’s Word rightly, and train others to do likewise.“

Please pray for these new students. We are setting patterns and expectations that will continue for the next 8 courses over a three year period of time.

After a full week of teaching – 30 hours of classroom time, I will stay in Liberia for an additional 2 1/2 weeks to teach a course on the historical books of the Old Testament, Joshua – Esther.

Some have asked why I have been going exclusively to Liberia. The answer is that much of the world has been closed because of COVID, but Liberia is open.

Time to finish final preparations.

More to come….

Bob

There is no lack of posts, blogs, articles, contributors, on all the hot topics of the day: Critical Race Theory, BLM, LGBT etc., micro aggressions, sexual harassment, and the list goes on. Here’s s short list of some skills that have helped me to sort it out: be quick listen, ask questions, be more concerned with understanding the other person’s point of view that stating your own, speak in person to real people, think carefully, be polite, articulate your view without throwing darts.

Listening:

The Neglected Ministry of Asking Questions

Before you speak, post, or get too emotionally charged about a current event:

https://derekzrishmawy.com/2021/05/18/on-making-it-personal-or-one-and-half-cheers-for-abstraction/

https://www.termsofservice.social/p/matters-too-important-for-social