2.21.09 - Come and See
Dave Hawkins and I have the privilege of sharing the vision of CMA in a seminar format with potential students on the island of St. Maarten, which is part of the Netherlands Antilles. We called the seminar "Come and See," and we geared it to be a tempting introduction to the Inductive Bible Study Method which is expounded in Class #1 - Bible Study Methods and Rules of Interpretation.
We were greatly encouraged to have around 25 church members, leaders, and pastors attend the seminar, and at the end of our session almost half of them signed up for the full course and upcoming class in March.
Our seminar was simply focused around introducing the steps of Observation, Interpretation, and Application within the context and structure of a single passage of scripture. Some of their comments on Bible Study after the seminar were: "There is a lot in the text which is hidden," "It is so much more than just reading," "We must apply God's Word to ourselves first," "There is a lot of life in the Word," "Our relationship with God is established through His Word."
Much of this trip was weighted towards discerning whether or not the Lord was preparing the hearts of the church leaders for our training courses, and we had our expectations exceeded in their response. Many asked for multiple applications to take back to their other church leaders and friends. We even had one pastor stand up at the end of the seminar and entreat the whole audience to enroll and take advantage of the opportunity for Biblical Training.
Dave and I were blessed to open the Word with these leaders and reveal to them the simplicity and depth of Expositional Bible Study. Please continue to pray for CMA's participation and the commitment of these future students in their efforts to sacrifice their time, money, and energy in devotion to Biblical Equipping.
