Theology School report

Introduction

The month of April saw for New Frontiers in the Pacific Rim the fulfilment of a long planned event as a theology school began for growing and potential leaders. Representing five nations, twelve met in the Grace City church building, in Collaroy, Sydney for four weeks of intensive training, led by Mike Lawson from New Frontiers, USA. Mike, who oversees the Trilogy theology project for New Frontiers in America, came over at short notice and did an incredible job teaching and using various courses from the Trilogy project to help the group to learn more about the more about the bible but also give tools to enable each individual to go on and learn more for themselves.

Who was in the group?

In the group were James and Heather Ryburn from Japan, Nilesh Raveendran also from Japan, Francis Carlos from the Philippines, Savath Pann and Phally Yeun from Cambodia, Nat and Minnie Carey from Wellington, New Zealand, James Baigent also from Wellington, Jonatan Kikkert and Katie Miller from Sydney, Australia and Dan Dark from Perth, Australia.

General course format

The general format of the course changed from week to week but generally followed the routine of a mix of courses (such as looking at the life and ministry of Jesus and the meaning of biblical wisdom), teaching from Mike on topics such the New Testament, the Gospels and early church history, both individual and group exercises to reinforce learning and on Wednesdays a leadership stream with each of the Grace City church elders doing some teaching.

What did the course produce?

Definitely a great faith for the purposes of God in the Pacific Rim and beyond, some great friendships (helped of course by regular table tennis playing that grew to be an integral part of the training), growth in leadership gifting, invaluable tools for getting more out of the Word of God and knowledge that was in the heart as well as the head, spurring on a passion to see God’s Kingdom advance.

Comments

’... this was a once in a life time experience that will go with us for the rest of our lives. It was really good spending a solid 4 weeks with people from all over the Pacific Rim who are on fire for God. We learnt so much from the sessions that Mike taught, he is a great teacher and was always really helpful with any questions we had and we learnt lots of tools that will help us to dig further into the Bible in a way that will help us to communicate it better in our churches and evangelistically.’ Nat and Minnie

‘.... The theology school has been one of the highlights of my FP year so far. Mike is an incredible teacher- what I learnt gave me great tools for studying the Bible in the future and it was amazing to hang out with a group of growing leaders so on fire for God.’ Jonatan