Preaching Training for TLT Facilitators

By Anthony:

The highlight of April for me was a preaching refresher training in Soroti for TLT facilitators from all corners of Uganda. We had 40 leaders at the training, most of them pastors. They represented five different denominations. The goal of the training was to review together the Biblical Preaching TLT manual, but also to go deeper into preaching techniques. This manual is the hardest and most technical of the TLT manuals. Most TLT participants in Uganda who go through it only once do not put much of it into practice. But I have found that with opportunity to review the manual, pastors really start to understand it and internalize it, and are able to begin using the Bible study method and preaching structure which it teaches. I did all the teaching this time and Stephen planned and organized all the logistics, materials, and communications.

Stephen also made the best use of the time by having all the TLT coordination team leaders from the different regions of Uganda come a day early so that he could encourage them, and help them with their challenges of starting new groups and writing training reports. Here is Stephen in the front talking to the group.

We not only wanted the pastors to really learn the preaching material well so that their own preaching improves, but we also wanted to equip them as TLT facilitators so that they can comfortably lead this TLT manual in their respective locations.

I taught from 8:30 to 5:00 each day for four days. It was a tightly packed schedule but we managed to complete everything. We reviewed the manual, and then I taught extra sessions on topics like making good introductions, conclusions, how to use illustrations, choosing a text, etc. We had practical exercises on many of these sub-topics as well. There were both large group and small group exercises.

One of the things we practiced over and over was working through the ten steps outlined in the TLT manual to really master and understand a biblical text well. These 10 steps are summarized under 3 headings in the manual - Preach the Text, Preach the Gospel, and Preach for Kingdom Change. The pastors admitted that these 10 steps feel like a lot of work because they take 1-5 hours to get through. They confessed that often they are so over-committed that they rush to put a sermon together on Saturday night (or even Sunday morning). But they committed themselves to really following this method so that they don't preach their own ideas, but really understand God's message in particular scripture texts.

Here are the 10 steps in summary form.

STEP 1 - Choose a unit of text from the Bible.

STEP 2 - Find the main idea in the text and write it down.

STEP 3 - Understand the main idea by summarizing the verses.

STEP 4 – Write down what God is doing in the text.

STEP 5 – Read the verses or chapters that come before your text and those that come after.

STEP 6 – Think about how the text is related to God’s work throughout the Bible. (Ask how your text relates to Jesus as well)

STEP 7 – What is the problem in the text?

STEP 8 – Do we have that same problem today?

STEP 9 – How does God’s grace bring Kingdom Change in the text?

What was God calling his people of that time to do in this passage in response to his grace?

STEP 10 - How does God’s grace bring Kingdom Change today?

What is God calling us to do in response to his grace?

Another benefit of this training is that I'm trying to lead less of the regular TLT trainings myself and focus my work more on equipping the facilitators, and moving into other areas of ministry such as leading Helping without Hurting in Africa trainings. This extra refresher training was a good way to equip the facilitators so that Stephen has many different capable people to call on to lead the TLT preaching trainings besides me.

Something new I did this time was to show preaching videos that we then discussed. Although some of the videos did not perfectly fit the Ugandan context in terms of figures of speech used, the feedback was really positive and the videos provided good learning and reflection. I showed videos I found on Youtube, but also videos from Calvin Seminary's Center for Excellence in Preaching, and also some of John Piper's preaching videos.

The pastors had to write some of their sermons in small groups, but then everyone also had to write their own individual assigned sermon. We decided to preach 15 minute sermons instead of 45 minute sermons so more people could get an opportunity to preach and be evaluated by the group. We were able to at least hear the main points and determine whether they fit with the text. I think we managed to hear around 8 different sermons.

Another highlight of this training was that our Resonate colleague, Kaka, from Nairobi, was able to join us for the whole week. It was a delight to have him. Slowly but surely we are strengthening our TLT work as a region, and learning from one another. In the photo below you can see Kaka with Stephen. He came a couple days early and preached in Stephen's church on Sunday as well. 

Thank you to those who have financially supported our TLT work in Uganda! Please continue to pray for these TLT facilitators that they can put in practice what they learn and also teach others!