2 Methods for "Preaching"

2 Methods for "Preaching"

In 1999, I had a very dramatic "call" to preach.   I preached my first sermon at a tiny church in Paldit, Philippines and did a terrible job but Jesus saved two ladies that Sunday morning.   Later on in college I learned about the Unreached Peoples of the 10/40 and felt very "called" to preach to those who had no to little chance of hearing the gospel deeper in Asia.    One day while reading about the underground house church movements in China, I realized that my two "calls" were in conflict.  How could I "preach" in a closed (to missionaries) country?    Dr. George Patterson helped me understand the what the Bible means by preaching is not standing in front of an audience but that the goal of preaching was to simply make disciples.  In my years at Union University I had become quite a good little Preacher Boy.  I even had the perky Southern Baptist hairstyle and projected my voice to the back pew where I used to sit when I was a pagan backslider.

So many people complimented me on my success as a preacher that I was kinda sad that I would have to give up my "gift".   I now understand that there are hundreds of ways to preach but so few Christians understand that the point of preaching is to make disciples.

Yesterday, I had the honor of listening to my new Rakhine friend Kyaw Z. Lynn "preach".   He was one of the best Buddhist Background preachers that I had ever heard.  I could tell that he had some interaction with traditional believers.  So after his sermon we had a training on how to lead a training.

I told him that success as a disciple of Jesus is obedience to His commands as well as helping others to obey Jesus commands.  Many preachers believe that success is simply preaching good sermons that draw large crowds.   This is simply not scriptural.

We train new believers that we are successful when we help new believers to multiply to the second, third and forth generation of new baptizers and story tellers.    85% of the preaching that Jesus did was with Stories (parables).

Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables (stories);  In fact He did not say anything to them without using a parable.  So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:  'I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."

95% of preachers in the West ignore how Jesus preached.   Why did Jesus simply tell Bible stories rather than explain everything with three points and a poem?   I believe it is because stories are the most easily reproducible way for the word of God to rapidly spread among vast regions and peoples.

Telling a story and have the listeners repeat the story back to us with simple questions and holding them accountable to obey the Word of God is winning the world to Christ.  The typical American way to preach is merely ONE WAY to PREACH.    Thank God it is not the ONLY way to preach.    I do want all of our trainees to preach the monologue way but training trainers is much more successful in transforming nations.

We are seeing tens of thousands of new preachers proclaiming the Good News of Christ across Myanmar.   These story tellers are preaching by using our Picture Bible.   Email bbbcpm@gmail.com to receive the full set of 60 Contextualized Pictures.  $10 suggested donation.

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