Here is my latest newsletter: August, 2013 Off I go… again. Dear Friends, As I pack my bags in preparation for a two-week session of a ministry training institute in Chiapas, Mexico, my mind wanders back a quarter century, remembering a similar sense of anticipation. Leaving home to go to the “ends of the earth” is almost as exciting as it is daunting. Every adventure in God’s calling has a purpose that cannot be achieved without a great deal of work and at least some suffering. It’s all part of the package. This time I won’t be relocating to another country, and two weeks hardly qualifies as a mission compared to eight years of living on the other side of the planet. Nevertheless, this modest journey qualifies as “Great Commission” material. I fully expect that God’s grace and provision will already be there, as usual, preparing the way for his Word to be proclaimed and taught to those who will impart it to their own people. I am especially blessed that this particular mission organization in the remote southern mountains of Mexico has chosen to use the curriculum that Judy and I developed years ago to train indigenous pastors in rural Kenya. We wrote the courses simply because we could not locate affordable inductive studies that encompassed the entire Bible. I was compelled to create a set of Old and New Testament courses that required a close examination of what the Bible says, what it means, and how it applies within a particular culture. Our goal was to equip poorly educated rural pastors to “correctly handle the Word of God.” Within a few years we had developed a simple, but effective methodology for training pastors and church leaders using the Bible as our sole textbook. The curriculum was mostly inductive, drawing from the immediate reading of scriptures. We were not teaching systematic sectarian doctrine, rather we were mostly concerned about enabling pastors to read and interpret the Word of God for themselves. For many missionaries, those who want to carefully guard the “correct” interpretation of the Bible, this sort of approach is risky business. It puts a lot of trust in the ability of simple people to understand what they are reading, plus a lot of confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to supernaturally reveal the true meaning to them. We were and continue to be comfortable with those risks. After all, centuries of Church history have taught us that even well-educated and sophisticated believers often disagree when it comes to the finer points of theology. On the whole, most sectarian doctrine is hardly relevant in the USA anymore, much less in the “non-western” world. However, the Bible is still vitally relevant, and the need to understand and apply it to our everyday lives remains essential to salvation. Theology, like salvation, has to be worked out with fear and trembling in the trenches of life’s experiences, rather than in the safe and often sterile classrooms of colleges and seminaries. African pastors appreciated the simple approach and the fact that the curriculum provided them a practical, inexpensive means to their educational ends. So far, that has also been the case in Latin America. Once again, I earnestly desire your prayers as I begin another journey into a new ministry situation. We have the Lord’s promise that when we agree about something on earth in prayers and believe, it shall be done. May God’s mighty power be released among his people in the mountains of Mexico as they hear and receive his Word. Amen. God bless you. LeRoy All tax deductible contributions can be made out to I.O.M. and mailed to: LeRoy & Judy Curtis International Outreach Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 2140 McComb, MS 39649
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 19:19:52 +0000
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