Fresno 1st Sends Pastor Greg to Beirut

Dr. Greg Kendall will be joining me (Ken) in Beirut this Thursday.  Greg is the Senior Pastor at Fresno (CA) 1st Church of God, one of our great network of supporting churches.  I got to know Greg and his wife Becky this summer during our home assignment, and in the process, I knew he had some great experience and passions that would benefit the 3W region.  I was really hopeful, and now really grateful, that he would be able to assist us in providing some teaching for the newly created Teen Discipleship program, which was launched last fall.

Nabil Melki

Pastor Joy Mallouh

The Teen Discipleship program is a partnership between Three Worlds with the Church of God in Lebanon, created with national leader Pastor Joy Mallouh.  The program is designed with eight sessions offered quarterly over two years, with the hope that a new class will begin every fall; the summer session can be longer in a camp format, while the other three sessions will be weekend retreat events.  The two year Discipleship program can be followed up with a similar two year Leadership Development plan; the goal is that we will create a leadership development culture in Lebanon through this ongoing process.  Each quarterly session will offer leaders from within and beyond Lebanon speaking into the lives of the participants, and is aided by the commitment and example of young adults who also participate as mentors to the teens.

In November, we were able to begin with a group of 12 older teens representing several of the Lebanon congregations.  During the weekend, we focused on Worship and Prayer.  We began with Nabil Melki speaking about the differences, as well as pros and cons of corporate versus personal worship.  Pastor Joy Mallouh shared a session on a Biblical understanding of worship to end the first night, before we spent the remainder of the evening socializing over games, snacks, and music.

games with the teens

The next morning began with group discussions on the worship presentations.  The groups were led by the young adults, and focused on these questions:
1.  What new understanding did you gain about worship?
2.  How will this lead you to worship differently in the future?
3.  What remaining question(s) do you have regarding worship?

Issa leads large group feedback

We gathered together to share and discuss these as a large group before going on to prayer.  Pastor Nabil Melik of the Sioufi Church of God came to share some Biblical understanding of prayer, and I completed the sessions with a presentation on prayer strategies and patterns, beginning with the Lord's Prayer.  A similar small group discussion time was incorporated to conclude this first weekend.  The participants rated the experience very favorably and that gives us a lot of encouragement heading into this next weekend.

Pastor Nabil Melki

Greg will lead the sessions over this next weekend using materials designed to help the students have an overview of the Scripture.  The sessions will be based on workbooks and an expandable timeline that 1st Church Fresno has generously purchased for the program.  We are excited about this partnership!

On Saturday evening, I will be able to introduce Greg to the Ana Terzo young adult ministry in their weekly Bible study.  On Sunday morning, Greg will preach with Pastor Joy translating at the Mar Mitr Church of God congregation in Beirut.  On Monday, Greg and I will spend time with the Heart for Lebanon staff.  And either Monday or Tuesday, Greg will have a chance to dialogue with the Lebanon Church of God pastors on the challenges of leading congregations out of program driven models into more missional approaches of ministry.

Pray for Greg as he travels, and pray for the opportunities for mutual encouragement and faith development.

It will be a busy, and full week, and I am excited about all of it.  I am especially excited to spend the time with Greg in our region.  We are looking forward to several partnership opportunities that are being planned for 2015, and we are hopeful that we some of this will include partnership within Egypt.  You can follow us on Twitter @ok2serve or on Facebook (Oldham ThreeWorlds) to see pictures and updates about Greg's visit this next week.