A Note from Pastor Roger

Dear Church Family,

We had an incredibly fruitful time in South Africa. I want to thank you for your prayers and let you know how it went and share some images (at the bottom). For context, Dr. Louis Blom of Judea Harvest invited us to help him and his team train untrained pastors in Africa. Judea Harvest is a church planting and evangelism movement that God has used to grow His kingdom in Africa, now in forty nations. Louis told me that their biggest need is theological and pastoral training.

In responding to Dr. Blom’s invitation to get involved, I let him know that we would be delighted to serve, but we didn’t fully know how we might do it. As we have begun the discernment process, we are being led to build a team of Houston-based pastors and theologians to record courses in our studios to distribute the teaching at scale. Our plan is to distribute the content on their audio players, their teaching towers, through an app, and through the GLU Network, a video on demand streaming platform where we are already distributing CityRise content. (To see some of our initial content, download GLU: God Loves You on your favorite streaming device and look at the CityRise Global Channel.)

Our hope is that through our time with the team in South Africa and with some of their students, we have earned the right to be heard. We do believe that we will return for more in-person training, and we are excited that the Lord is giving us favor to help the church in Africa grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God’s Word. As you know, one of my greatest passions is loving on and pouring into leaders, and we now believe that we are building a system to do so. Dr. Mark Edworthy has spent much of his career training and growing leaders on the frontiers of faith, and he will serve as the dean of our program.

We asked David Glenn, one of our church members, and co-founder of Kardo International Ministries to join us on this trip. As we began to teach and receive feedback, we sensed that God wanted us to address a stronghold that we see in the church. That stronghold deals with the view of marriage and how leaders must hold the marriage covenant in the highest esteem if they are to be effective in ministry. I spoke on this the first day, and then after a time of prayer that evening, we decided to hit it head-on the second morning. We moved David into the lead position, and he spoke on marital oneness, coaching the pastors on how to establish spirit, soul, and body oneness through his teaching. It was excellent. Mark taught a few of his lessons from his eight-session teaching and preaching course, and I gave four of my six sessions called “Pastor to Pastor: The Cascade of Leadership.” It was a valuable time for us, the recipients, and the Judea Harvest staff—we believe that the Lord synced our hearts in special ways.

Beyond our time teaching and training, we also spent time with some of the key frontline church planters, talking through our needs and hearing their hearts for what they feel the church planters and pastors in their various regions need. This too was quite fruitful. One of the church planters, Pastor Queen, told me that she believed that she was being given keys to finally unlock the necessary training to truly and properly build God’s kingdom. I told my wife that I believe that I needed to travel half-way around the world to hear that one sentence.

Would you pray for God’s work in South Africa? The need is great, the people are wonderful, and the Spirit is at work. Pray also that we discern well the next steps as we invite other pastors and teachers in our city to be a part of the training platform we are building.

Please also pray for our high school ministry team who are in Ireland, wrapping up their mission trip tomorrow. They joined Bobby O’Neal, Stacy Pannell, and our partners in Roscrea to do a sports camp and Vacation Bible School. David and Denise Glenn will also do their “Wisdom for Marriage” training for parents while their children are being ministered to.

The Lord is honoring our willingness to take the gospel to the nations and strengthen leaders in our city and around the world. This week, my wife and I traveled to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Thank you for the way you love and care for us.


Expectant,
Pastor Roger