One of the others things I wasn’t expecting when I moved to Bucuresti was how much the gospel would take a hold of me and become a focus of my heart and my ministry.
As I was coming to the end of my time planting the church in Brasov I decided that the best thing I could do is finish by doing an in-depth study of the gospel for our mid-week Bible study. I really enjoyed studying the gospel; I had never focused so intensely on it before. In doing the study I began to appreciate more and more the beauty and power of the gospel and wanting to learn more. So after I got settled in somewhat to Bucuresti I started a study of the gospel at the church on Tuesday evenings. For me these two studies were a time for experimenting and getting a feel for what I should cover in the study, how to teach it and what kind of homework to give. When you lead a study you are the one who learns the most, which is one of the benefits from doing it.
One thing that surprised me in both these studies was how little most those coming to the study knew about the gospel. These were the people who were, for the most part, active in the church and most of them had been Christians for a quite some time. So when I began planning out the curriculum for the School of Ministry I decided to include a class on the gospel for each of the four semesters. The titles I came up with were understanding the gospel, living the gospel, proclaiming the gospel and defending the gospel.
As I searched the internet for materials on the gospel and what people were saying about it I got the idea that it would be awesome to have a site where all the best stuff on the gospel was in one place. That was the beginning of thinking about making a gospel oriented website. Since then I have been making a database of all the best stuff I can find, searching the web almost daily. I also began to put posts on my blog about the! gospel as a way to get started doing something as I find that is the best way to learn and go forward.
The first semester of the school we studied “understanding the gospel” based on an outline I had developed from the first two studies I did and it was pretty intensive. The class was an hour and a half for fifteen weeks. I didn’t just give the students a bunch of information but would give them lists of Bible verses and some examples and have them write out weekly assignments so it would force them to think. In Romania most education is giving information, memorizing it and saying it back. I was not interested in that. So the class really was a challenge for the students.
From the class I put together a detailed outline of the gospel, the Bible verses for each part of the outline and my writings from some of the assignments into a booklet which is over 30 pages long. If you are interested in looking at it you can download it from the links right below. I don’t get much feedback on them but I sure would like some. I know it still needs a lot of work but it was what I could do with the time I had.
The second semester we studied “living the gospel” and I started from scratch with this class as far as developing the materials to be covered. I think the class opened the students eyes to how the gospel applies to living the Christian life but I still have a long ways to go before I will feel content with what I am teaching about living the gospel.
After we closed the school and began discussing doing workshops one of the pastors wanted us to start with the gospel. That perked up my ears and I volunteered to do it. Since it would be an intensive weekend workshop I had to do a lot of thinking and planning for it. I came up with powerpoints to use with the workshop. If you are interested I put them on SlideShare, you can see them here: English
After the holidays I hope to work on my materials more for the workshop. I plan on dividing it into two separate workshops, one for understanding the gospel and another one for living the gospel. Then I pray that God will open a door for me to do this workshop all around Romania and wherever else God would want me to do it.
In the seventh and final part I will share about my health, support, prayer requests, etc.
To God be the glory through Jesus Christ forever,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions
page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
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