Partway through the opening session of an Advanced Homiletics (preaching) class for an international group of pastors in Costa Rica, I was giving the students a road map of how we were going to organize our sermons when a young Guatemalan pastor named Luis raised his hand.
“When do we give the exhortation?” he asked.
“Help me understand what you mean by exhortation.”
“The scolding. You know, when we scold the people so they repent.”
Many young Latin American leaders grew up in church cultures where the pastor was considered the unquestioned spiritual authority, where holiness had been codified into clear rules, and, by definition, biblically faithful preaching included condemnation of sin, weakness and failure, for outsiders as well as those in the pew. Pastors must never reveal any personal doubt or temptation, which would erode their untouchable image. The scolding was how people came to Christ.
To his credit, during our class Luis set aside a lifetime of assumptions and followed along as we challenged students to interpret their biblical passage in its context, then think through how the spiritual truths in the text can make a difference in the daily lives of the listeners. What does this biblical principle mean to you personally? What real-life problem does it solve? How can we help people live a life that pleases God without scolding? We helped students take each main point and make sure they explained, illustrated, and applied it to daily life.
By the end of the course Luis and I had talked many times, and he confessed, “I have never shared a personal story in a message, but I am going to try, and I will let you know how it goes.”
A few weeks later I got a short message from Luis that said “I want to tell you that 12 souls came to Christ at an activity where I was invited to preach.” He was making a real effort to use what he had learned.
Three months after the class Luis sent me a voice message with permission to share:
“Hello, dear professor. First of all, I am so thankful, because I never thought I would go to the class and learn so much. I had always been taught, and was used to, preaching that was hard on people so they would come to Christ. But my whole panorama changed. Now I use a lot of illustrations, even personal ones, which help a lot for people to come to Christ.
To cap it off, my wife and I went to visit a family at their home, to talk to them about the love of Christ. All the family was there except the husband. The mother and the daughters all gave their lives to the Lord after I told them a story of what God had done in my life.
It has helped me so much to stop scolding and insulting people, beating them up, but talking with love. It has changed everything.”
September 24, 2018, verbatim transcript of a Whatsapp audio message
When we first came to Costa Rica in the year 2000 our ministry vision was “Raising up the next generation of men and women of God.” But following the Lord periodically requires new and refocused vision, and in 2016 I began to sense the Lord calling me to invest my best energy training young people called to ministry, specifically in Bible interpretation, preaching, and pastoral leadership. We were sick of hearing scripture taken out of context, hearing scolding sermons, and seeing misuse of authority. If we could shape the young leaders, planting enough seed over time, perhaps we could create a new culture in the church.
So for the last few years my teaching has focused on Hermeneutics (Bible interpretation), Homiletics (preaching), ministry ethics, pastoral theology, and youth ministry training. I am the director and professor at our local Bible institute in San José, Costa Rica, as well as teaching in the Latin American Advanced School of Theology (ISUM in Spanish), at the B.Th. and MA levels.
How do we measure success? It is not easy, but every once in a while we get encouraging clues. A few months ago a friend put on a youth conference in San José, and all three guest preachers had been my students. The host called me laughing, saying, “I could tell these guys had all studied homiletics with you. They all used lots of illustrations, told stories, and preached using three solid principles! The Holy Spirit used them powerfully and many young people responded to Christ!”
What happened to pastor Luis? In April of this year I attended a ministry conference in Guatemala, and pastor Luis invited me to preach for him in a town called San Martin, where he has pastored for just over one year. It is a congregation of nearly 500 members, most of Mayan indigenous background.
He picked me up in the morning with two deacons from the church, and proudly said “He is the one who taught me to include stories in my preaching!”
I spent the day with Luis and his sweet wife and kids, sharing in services, eating in several families’ homes, and hearing stories of God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of so many people. God has called Luis to bring the grace of Jesus to his city, province and country. I talked with a bright-eyed group of teens who feel a call to ministry. Farmers, salespeople, small business owners, teachers, and medical personnel in the church told me how they are serving as salt and light in the town of San Martin.
Why do I teach preaching?
Because the Lord called me to do invest my life in young people who He has called, but who need others to teach them how to fulfill their mission.
Because the lovely people of San Martin, as well as every other community in Latin America, deserve to hear the gospel of grace.
Because healthy leaders raise up healthy congregations that plant seeds of the Kingdom of God, which changes the world.
Todo Cristiano debe aprender a alimentarse de la palabra de Dios, leyendo la Biblia y orando todos los días. Sin embargo, a muchos nos cuesta entender lo que leemos en la Biblia y saber qué decir o pensar a la hora de orar. Este pequeño artículo ofrece dos herramientas para ordenar su lectura de la Biblia y tiempo de oración.
Costa Rica's Next Generation 