Deepening Faith, Strengthening Leadership

Deepening Faith, Strengthening Leadership: Ministry Team Holds Successful Seminar Workshops on Hermeneutics and Homiletics

The task of deepening one’s understanding of God is crucial in becoming effective leaders of the church. In response to this duty, the Ministry Team of FOCIM gathered last August 6 and 13, 2022 at the Asian Theological Seminary (ATS) to participate, engage, and learn the art of hermeneutics and homiletics through seminar-workshops.

On August 6, the speaker and facilitator invited was Ptr. Raniel T. Gallardo, an alumnus of ATS, and the current director of the ATS Division of Online Learning. Speaking on hermeneutics, a field of study concerned with proper biblical interpretation, Ptr. Raniel focused on certain areas that the Ministry Team would find crucial in their ministry—from speaking in the pulpit, to preparing their sermons for their respective homechurches and lead groups. At the outset, he harped that failing to read and study the Bible correctly allows one to be susceptible to misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and eventually, misapplication.

More specifically, Ptr. Raniel emphasized the importance of literary context, or interpreting the passage via its surrounding words, phrases, verses, and chapters. In uncovering the meaning of a certain passage, it is also vital to gather information on the book’s surrounding themes and corresponding genre, where such verse is found—thus, a certain lens is required when one is asked to read and study a narrative, such as the gospels, as compared to dissecting wisdom literature, such as Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, or prophetic texts, such as Revelation. Intimately related to this topic is historical-cultural context, which requires a reader to go beyond the words of the text and examine the surrounding political, historical, cultural, and social milieu of the time when such books were written. It would not be farfetched to assume that such factors made a certain impact to the several human authors of the Bible. Finally, the Ministry Team also had a chance to explore the importance of word study, or examining the ancient languages that the Bible was written in—Hebrew with regard to the Old Testament, and Aramaic and Greek as to the New Testament. Word studies are vital, as the original language in which the scriptures was originally written often have layers of meaning that could have been missed in the translation into Latin, and later on, English or Filipino.

To further enhance their learnings, a seminar on homiletics, the study and art of preparing sermons, was held for the Ministry Team the following week, on August 13. The speaker and facilitator for the day’s activity was Bro. Daniel Guinigundo, the current Lead Discipleship Ministry head. Bro. Daniel first defined preaching as that “which takes place whenever and wherever God’s people open God’s Word with the idea that they might help others hear what God is saying.” While the notion that preaching can only be done in the pulpit, Bro. Daniel made it clear that preaching can happen anywhere and at anytime. Concededly, preaching has developed a rather negative connotation for being boring, outdated, and pedantic. Worse, because we live in an overcommunicated and overopinionated society, the truth of the sermon is often stifled by social media and pop culture. There are also instances when the church, through the preacher, fail to answer life’s most pressing questions, which cause people to seek answers elsewhere.

Given these issues, Bro. Daniel introduced different styles and techniques that would help the preachers get the pure message of the Word across people of different ages and backgrounds. He also made clear that the aspect of delivery, through proper attire, voice modulation, hand gestures, and the use of supporting materials like powerpoint slides, should never be neglected. These tools should support, and not distract, the hearers of the Word. More importantly, he overemphasized on the need for proper sermon preparation by consulting scripture and select commentaries in crafting a sermon outline.

Ultimately, the Ministry Team members were enlightened and all the more encouraged to delve into the Word with a more discerning eye. As the opening of the new sanctuary draws near, a more effective type of leadership— one that is fully informed by the proper interpretation and delivery of the Word— is all the more necessary.