Some of today’s highlights:
Very fruitful time discussing pastoral ministry – looking to God’s Word and listening to Benard Kariuki and Joel Mutea sharing their wisdom and experience in wisdom. Lots of helpful things came out:
- The Calling and Ministry are for every member of the church (Eph. 4:1, 4, 12)
- Who is equal to pastoral ministry? (2 Cor. 2:16)
- The movement into pastoral ministry comes about through a number of things:
- Passion, desire (1 Tim. 3:1), a “fire in the bones” (Jer. 20:9)
- Character, ability, family life, maturity and repute affirmed by others in the church (1 Tim. 3:2-7)
- Trial and error – test the water, try out different careers – God will get you where he wants you in the end
- The need for great humility both in receiving correction and in correcting others
- ‘Community sermon development’ – instead of the man of God with the definitive word from God, sermon preparation becomes a humble, accountable, communal activity
- Challenges in our context – including the paradox of pastor-worship and at the same time a despising of the path of pastoral ministry
The falseness of Job’s comforters:
- “The believer should not suffer like this, suffering is proof of sin”
- using arguments of ‘spiritual’ experiences and extra-biblical revelation (Job 4:12-16) and the wisdom of the elders (Job 8:8-10)
- a trite superficial use of Scripture – their words are packed with biblical allusions but it is a selective twisting and claiming of Scriptural ‘promises’ ignoring the more difficult portions (e.g. Ps. 88) and the big shape of the Bible story
- gaps in their theology – the deep fallenness of the world, the reality of Satan (God’s bulldog), the eternal view (Ps. 73), the reality of innocent suffering (Abel, Joseph) and the place of innocent/sacrificial suffering in the plan and character of God himself (sacrificial system à Cross)
- they speak of God but not to God
James Wainaina on Luther:
- The big test of doctrine = does it have suffering at the centre? Luther found in the Psalms a theology of the Cross not a theology of worldly glory.
- True grace – salvation is not a transaction but a gift – all top-down – the only and necessary qualification to come to the table of salvation is to be a sinner – we are always only beggars.
- Theology is not just for the head but for experience.
And from the story of Festo Kivengere this great quote:
It was a temptation to develop some special revival message such as ‘brokenness’, something that belongs to our mission – how terrible! – and forget that the answer is found only in, “I, when I am lifted up… will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32)
Resources:
Please pray:
- For a revival in faithful Bible teaching and servant leadership in our land and that God might be pleased to raise up gospel workers for his harvest field even from amongst iServe Africa.
- For Sammy as he continues to take us through Job, for Lydia Maingi encouraging us with the life of Gladys Aylward and for me as I teach the second years on eschatology.
- That as the apprentices study Romans and Ephesians the Spirit would be producing gospel convictions, gospel-shaped character and gospel-shaped living.
fidelnyikuri
iServe Africa Webmaster
Utumishi Blog 
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