Class!!!

SPIRITUAL FORMATION
Some of my spiritual formation students have figured out that I blog.

I'll make a deal. Instead of writing a reflection paper after practicing a new-to-you spiritual discipline for three weeks, you can create your own blog and for at least three weeks post a daily reflection about the Moravian Daily Text of at least two paragraphs. One place to set-up your own blog is at blogger.com. Send me email to let me know that you've chosen this option.

PREACHING
One of the downsides to teaching preaching in an unfamiliar culture is that there are so many gaps in my knowledge about local customs and practices that I can be dangerous. One of the upsides to teaching on this cultural mosaic called Guam is that there is access to others with lots and lots of crosscultural experience.

This morning I had Pastors Hiob Ngirachemoi and Daisy Ho in my preaching class for a discussion on preaching in different cultural contexts. They were both outstanding and I felt that it was one of the best class discussions I've seen.

Hiob is the new PIBC dean of men. Most recently he pastored a Palauan church in Saipan -- helping them make the transition to being a multi-cultural congregation which now functions in English.

Daisy, who is as far as I know the only female pastor on Guam, is from Hong Kong. But she went to school in the US (Biola, Fuller) and is the pastor of Guam United Methodist Church -- a very diverse congregation.

I thought that the discussion might be more about being culturally sensitive. But both Daisy and Hiob stressed that the cultural issues are really pretty secondary. If you love the people and your message is the authoritative word of God people will cut a preacher a lot of cultural slack (my paraphrase).