Many pastors have shared with us how much they have appreciated the ministry--as well as the housing and the food. As stated earlier (I think), we have tried to do a combination of practical and theological messages, and while both are needed, it is the practical which many of these seem so starved for. (Though, again, some of the questions submitted showed that we were absolutely correct to address some basic doctrinal truths.)
The pastors here are very gracious to us, and we only can hope and believe that what they say to us is true. After each trip, I implore the leaders to tell us what is helpful and what is not, and I encourage them to be truthful. Still, I know it would be hard for them, so I say, "Tell me what would be better and more helpful for pastors next time we come." Even so, they always have affirmed what we have done. This year as we planned the conference, I did ask for suggestions of what they felt would be helpful, and upon receiving some, I sent a list of suggested or possible sessions back to them. I think this helped us to hit on a variety of subjects and help these pastors with them.
One of the messages they especially asked for was "A Healthy Church." In it, since the church is called in the Bible both the "body of Christ" and the "bride of Christ," I use those images to paint for them a picture of a healthy church that is (hopefully) simple, easy to remember, and helpful. After sharing that with them near the beginning of our time, it showed that it did indeed hit a chord with them. To help them remember, I would stop often as we went through it, and we would go through the parts of the body we used.
I had also preached this in our own church the Sunday before I left, so the list was the same though the sharing of it was somewhat different. We shared that a healthy church needs the following:
- A godly head (and vision)--and that is Jesus, who is the head of the church
- A loving heart--love for God and others as the Great Commandments state
- Serving hands--ministries to assist those within and without
- Proper nutrition--the word of God on a regular basis
- Calloused knees--in other words, a praying church
- Beautiful feet--evangelism and missions ("how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news")
- Healthy children--as the bride of Christ, Jesus and the church will reproduce more churches
- Vital relationships--both within and without (in other words, for "within," the members of the body have to be coordinated, going in the same direction, and for "without," every "body" needs to interact with other bodies, so we speak of the need for churches to work together to accomplish what they cannot do alone)
We built on that and spoke much about the individual parts of this. We also spoke of "healthy Christians" and the certificates ended up saying, "Healthy pastors for healthy churches."
But the marriage and family messages hit home as well. Over one third of the questions submitted were on the subject, including divorce. So instead of answering the questions one by one, yesterday I simply did another hour plus session (remember, that includes translation time!) on such issues, letting them know that God had a word for them whether single, married, divorced but not remarried, and divorced and already remarried. I also had to include some of the other questions asked.
Again, many people spoke to me about how this had helped. One man told me today that he had been so busy with the conference that he was too tired for his kids when he got home; the message, he said, "challenged" him. Today, he brought a son to the conference with him!
Most touching of all regarding this subject, though, was was a twenty year old girl named Sarah who came up to me today right before we left. I had not met her previously. Exactly why she was at the conference I wasn't sure--I'm not sure if her father was a pastor or what--but she came to me and just began to thank me. She said her mother was in process of divorcing her father, and she had felt very badly about it, but she didn't really know what the Bible said about it--nor did her parents! She said every question she had was answered, and she had talked to her father (or else he was there--couldn't quite understand), and they had been given new hope and they believed because they had a clear word from God that He would bring the family back together again. She spoke to me several minutes and was so thankful--the whole trip was worth that episode.
Many are asking about our coming back again. It's a bit early to think of that. But we always try to be open to whatever the Father may have for us.
We are looking forward to being home soon!
