Biblical Preaching in the Philippine Context

August 16, 2007

by Chris Wright, International Director

The first Langham Preaching seminar in the Philippines was held in Antipolo City, Manila, from 16th to 19th July 2007. During the week, about 50 participants came to the MMLDC Foundation Inc which is a leafy convention centre located at the outskirts of Manila for the event. Chris Wright, our International Director, was the key-note speaker for the morning training sessions and Bible expositions. Besides the involvement of Langham Partnership International, the other organizers were the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, Asian Theological Seminary, Bread from Heaven Community Church, Greenhills Christian Fellowship, and Institute for Studies in Asian Church & Culture. So the programme has been launched with an encouraging degree of recognition and support

The seminar followed the standard Level One basic programme, with a combination of lectures, individual study, group workshops and plenary feedback sessions. The evenings were taken up with model Bible expositions using the same passage which the group has worked on during the day. Participants were invited to comment and review the speakers as to the sermon’s clarity, biblical faithfulness and relevance to the audience.

Besides concentrating on working through the Bible text, some key local Christian leaders tackled other important issues such as: the integrity of the preacher (Nomer Bernardino); communicating the Bible in the Philippine context (Melba Maggay); developing a preaching plan for your church for the years ahead (Luiz Pantoja); and how Biblical preaching can transform churches and the nation (Bishop Efraim Tendero. At the end of the seminar, the participants were encouraged to form preachers’ club for networking, mutual support and sharing of resources.

Victor Sun and Abigail Lim from Langham Foundation East Asia were there as observers and had a first-hand experience of how a preaching seminar should be run. Both of them were tremendously blessed by the event. They hope to bring this vital programme to Hong Kong next year for Chinese pastors.