Wednesday, March 28, 2018

I Love to Preach

By Anthony:

One of the most satisfying activities God has given me to do is preaching. I have the opportunity to preach as much as I want, but we have decided that to keep a good balance in our lives, I will only preach two Sundays a month. On other Sundays we can attend our church here in Soroti - Pamba PAG.

I feel that God is really using me in this area not only to help the Christians who are listening, but to model good preaching to the pastors who we visit.  Usually after I preach, I leave my notes with the pastor of the church.  I don't mind sharing my notes quite often.  Even if someone might choose to preach my same sermon somewhere else, I am glad that people are learning how to dig into God's Word, how to structure a sermon well, and learning how to speak the truth in love.

Visiting other churches is also such an enjoyable time of worship and fellowship, meeting new Christians, encouraging them and their pastors, and having tea or a meal afterwards in many cases.  Some of our best conversations with people happen on these church visits.



One of the most exciting preaching opportunities recently was that I got to preach on the radio!  I had to wake up at 4:00am in order to do so, since the free spot given to PAG churches is at 5:00am, but it was an interesting experience.  People listen from all over the Teso region of Uganda, and it is an amazing amount of people who are already up at that time listening during their devotions time in the morning.  I keep thinking that Ugandans don't need sleep, or so it seems.

I preached on the parable of the persistent widow, and about being persistent in our prayers.  It seemed a fitting encouragement to widows and women on the international Women's Day.  The preaching was translated into Ateso from English as it is every week.  After the preaching, people call in to give feedback and ask for prayer.  I'm grateful for my friend Richard for giving me the opportunity.  Below are some clips Sara recorded from the radio broadcast.  You'll notice I speak oddly, I try to speak more clearly and slowly so that people can understand my accent.





I had another new milestone in preaching this year.  On one of my church visits I realized the sermon I had prepared did not fit the church context well, so I felt God leading me to change my message.  I made up a new sermon on the spot, but I think it was a good message for that particular church.  I realized that at least with some passages in the Bible, I am able to do this without preparation because I know the Bible passage really well, and the local context and needs well.  Of course I definitely don't encourage this practice for pastors generally, but it was nice to know that some messages are already in my heart and I'm ready to speak them.  The more significant point here is that I preached without a shred of notes.  It was good to do this, probably only the second time I have done so.  I'm such a perfectionist with a great amount of OCD that it's hard for me to preach without the careful notes I have prepared.  But I need to learn to trust both the Holy Spirit and myself more, believing that what I need to say is in my head and heart and I don't have to rely so much on notes all the time.


When preaching, I usually have someone from the congregation read the Bible passages in the vernacular language:



A visit to a village church in the Soroti area:




Most recently, we traveled to Kenya, each to facilitate several trainings.  While there we visited our World Renew colleague, Chris Shiundu, who is a pastor in addition to his work with World Renew.  On Palm Sunday, Sara was able to briefly teach and I was able to preach.  Here is a photo of us with his family:







And a video of the choir at the church service:

10 comments:

  1. Great opportunity for you Anthony.
    Do most the church attenders speak English?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once in a while I will get invited to an English speaking service, but that is quite rare. Almost always there is translation, and in some cases, these are churches that do translation every week regardless of who the preacher is. Though English is the official language, once you get outside of the large towns, I'd say only 10% of people know English well. And then maybe another 40-50% who know it somewhat but not well. Then maybe the other 50% don't know it at all. But in large cities, most of the people know English well or at least somewhat

      Delete
  2. Anthony, this is the best blog posting you have ever written. Not only have you shared great information, but the pictures are marvelous and I loved hearing the radio program. This particular blog post really ministered to me and makes me feel like my financial support is a terrific investment to the glory of God.

    Thank you for sharing about preaching without notes. Though I certainly am not a member of the clergy, nor even an elder, I know that God does inspire and use preachers whether they are using notes or speaking off the top of their heads. I understand the need for careful preparation and notes, but I am pretty sure that some of the best preaching that ever took place over the centuries was not read from notes. We know that the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts and moves men to speak God's truth even when they do not realize that's what they are doing. In this season of Holy Week, we think of Caiaphas who spoke prophetically, "Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, rather than the whole nation perish," and did not realize he was speaking God's truth. And we think of Peter's Pentecost sermon. I'm pretty sure Peter had not prepared any notes. Over the 40 years I have been a Christian, I have heard some mighty fine preaching from people who did not have a set of papers in front of them. So I am very encouraged that I am helping to support a preacher who is preparing well for his preaching, but is not afraid to trust God in the pulpit.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Bill! What a very encouraging nice thoughtful comment that really is meaningful and builds me up. I'm so glad to be supported by you. Without support and people's prayers, we would not be able to be here. It's all partnership, doing ministry together!

    We will keep striving to make sure your support is always a good investment! We are not perfect, but we are grateful for the ways that God uses us anyways, and for the opportunities he has given to us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I totally agree with Bill! Thank you for sharing about your experience of changing the sermon at the last minute because you felt it was not the message that the Holy Spirit had for that church. What a tremendous amount of faith, and humility, that takes Anthony. I struggle with being a perfectionist too. Although sometimes this trait in me brings forth good things, it can also be my biggest stumbling block. I have to lay down my pride and allow the Holy Spirit to have His way, even if things don't go perfectly. God is always faithful when His word goes forth!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Renee! Yes perfectionism I think is mostly a blessing, but in some ways it presents challenges too.

      Give our greetings to the missions team

      Delete
  5. By the way, Sara, your skirt is beautiful! Can't wait to get the fabric you sent made into a skirt. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Renee! I got the pattern here: https://sensibility.com/blog/blog/now-available-wrap-skirt-and-a-line-skirt-epattern/ - only $1 and very simple to make!

      Delete
  6. Great post! Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful, Anthony! I'm grateful the Lord is giving you opportunities to exercise your gifts which turns into great joy for you! You're in the sweet spot! :) Happy Easter to both of you! Sure enjoyed the photos.

    ReplyDelete