Igor Amestegui, Director of Langham Preaching in Latin America.
Last month, 68 people gathered in Bolivia for a Langham Preaching event to discover the hidden treasures of the parables.
The attendees included key people in the Preaching Clubs from six different cities across Bolivia.
Preaching Clubs (or escuelitas) are small groups of preachers who meet regularly. These meetings take place throughout the year, between Langham Preaching training events.
The theme of this year’s gathering in November was “How to preach from the parables of Jesus”. Jorge Atiencia was the guest speaker and is the pioneer of the Preaching Clubs ministry in Colombia. He is also a Senior Advisor for Langham Preaching in Latin America.
A joy
Igor Amestegui, the Director for Langham Preaching in Latin America gave a report on the event. He said: “It was a joy to see people from different cities, ages and academic levels discover together the hidden treasures of the parables.
“On the last day, each participant had the opportunity to preach and receive evaluation in small groups. They all returned to their cities with the challenge of imitating the greatest preacher of all time, Jesus Christ, who would not teach without using parables.
Jorge Atiencia, Senior Advisor for Langham Preaching in Latin America.
“One of the results of this event is the decision to have a ‘Refresher’ seminar every first weekend of November for those who have completed all the three levels of training.
Great challenge
“Next year the theme will be preaching from the book of Proverbs and we are already full of expectation for it.”
Please pray for these Preaching Clubs in Bolivia, where communicating the message of God is a “great challenge” in this generation.
Igor says: “On the one hand, for a large percentage of our population, the main way for communicating is oral, not written. On the other hand, the younger generation is hostile to abstract and traditional messages, preferring stories.
It is difficult to communicate the Gospel in Bolivia, where Preaching Club training recently took place.
Jesus Himself
“What resource do we have to reach this oral population, as well as this youthful generation? The answer is given to us by Jesus Himself. As a theologian of the people, he communicated big divine truths in little human stories.
“No wonder Matthew says that he did not say anything without using a parable. Jesus was not a theologian of abstract concepts that were hard to understand. On the contrary, he was a theologian of the masses who communicated through stories that kept people thinking.”
This article is adapted from the Langham Preaching Postcard, November 2018. Subscribe to receive it monthly by email.