Dear ITEM Next Gen Friends,
For those of you who got my report early enough yesterday, to read it and pray before bed time, THANKS! All night long, my mind was processing what I wanted to say to the group of pastors, which Apologetics Uganda leader described as Pharisee-types. My mind was so involved that just before I woke up to start the day, I had a dream that circumstances caused me to miss the meeting and I was not able to share what was on my heart and I was angry that I didn’t have a chance. Then I woke up, relieved!
CONFRONTING POTENTIAL PHARISAISM
What I ended up doing was sharing my pastoral-ministry history that includes seeing the one church where I served as senior pastor decline by ¾ in the first 10 years, which caused me to seek a new vocation. And then how I led the remaining members to close the church legally and merge with another church.
Then I shared how I got involved in missionary work, started ITEM in 2003, how it grew, and how I have switched, in these latter years, from training pastors to helping prepare the next generation of leaders for the church in Africa (and the US, for that matter.)
I challenged them with 1 Cor 4:1-5 that ends by saying that God ask for faithfulness not success, judges the motives of men’s hearts and then comes rewards. I challenged them to think about their motives for serving as pastors. I then turned to 1 Pet 5 where Peter is writing to elders (pastors) and says they are to serve voluntarily NOT for dishonest gain. And finally, I turned to 1 Cor 9:13 to the end, where Paul explains that even thought he deserves to be paid for his ministry, he does not charge for it so his motives are not questioned and that he becomes all things to all men that he might save some. For Paul, ministry is all about the gospel, not financial gain. Over and over, I challenged them to check their motives.
CHALLENGED THEM TO PREPARE NEXT GEN
Then I transitioned to the importance of Africa when considering the future of Christianity in the world, and in particular, the next generation of leaders. I explained that they have questions that they are afraid to ask and that we, this generation of leaders, need to encourage them to ask their questions openly so we can discuss the possible answers with them.
THEY GOT THE MESSAGE?
By the comments made by three from the group at the end of the day, the message got across. All three talked about the next generation and one admitted that, as a pastor, he had been ignoring them.
There were about 45 there. Finances required us to keep the number small but hopefully, this is only the beginning and Apologetics Uganda will take if from here.
MY ROLE
I had the chance to speak three times. My three talks were: Intro to Apologetics, Worldview Matters, and Why We Believe Christianity is True. I took EVERY opportunity to apply what I was talking about to the emerging generation. A member of AU gave a talk on: Why We Believe the Bible is Reliable. At the end of the day, we answered questions for about 40 mins.
It was interesting that when I asked if they had heard the term “apologetics,” and later “worldview” very very few hands went up. By the end of the day, they all knew.
KEEPING APOLOGETICS SIMPLE
When answering the questions of skeptics and doubters and antagonists, we cannot run to get our video projector, set up our screen and take the through a powerpoint presentation. We need to be to the point and concise. THAT is what I am focusing on. Even during my presentations I try to point out how to do that.
WEDNESDAY
Tomorrow, Wednesday, in order to save costs, we are having different back to back crowds. We will start with youth workers in the morning, and transition to youth (Gen Zers) in the afternoon. I will be repeating the same talks tomorrow with a slightly different application.
I don’t think we will need to breakthrough any resistance. Pray that students will be willing to open up and share their struggles and voice their questions, and that youth workers/pastors will encourage them to do so, and do their best to answer them.
I’ve added new pictures to the album. Some from today’s sessions and some from the drive home. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ALBUM
Here is a short video reviewing day one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCkM7si-JQY
Pray for typical stuff: Clarity, good illustrations, proper targeting of the message to each group (youth pastors, university students), understanding and motivation of each group to move forward with more apologetics training. Thanks.
By His grace,
Steve