ABSTRACT EQUIPPING FOR MINISTRY: TRAINING RURAL PASTORS TO PREACH EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP IN LIBERIA By George D. Wilson, Jr. This study was geared towards equipping rural pastors within the United Methodist Church in Liberia to become effective in their ministerial practice, especially in the area of preparing and delivering sermons that are biblically based, properly exegeted, theologically sound, and homiletically excellent. Rural pastors serve in towns and villages where there are very limited socio-economic, educational and other critical life enabling and sustaining services. These rural pastors are in direct contact with competing religious ideas such as Islam and other African Traditional religious practices. Equipping rural pastors through training to effectively prepare and deliver sermons will make them efficient in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and by so doing through their preaching more people will come to faith in Jesus Christ. However, biblical literacy remains critical if rural pastors are to be good at preaching. The United Methodist Church uses what it refers to as the quadrilateral in its theological reflections: scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Scripture is primary for faith and sound theology. In the African church, scripture remains the prime source in seeking to know and understand God. In most of the training modules develop for rural pastors, the memorization scriptural passages is a top priority. In what is known as knocking at the devil’s door, pastors are taught to memorize specific Bible verses and during prayer they would quote these verses and challenge the devil. Biblical literacy remains core to any training initiative geared toward equipping rural pastors to preach evangelism and discipleship in Liberia. The purpose of this study was to measure the changes in knowledge, attitude, and practices among rural pastors in the Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church who participated in a five-day training experience on how to prepare and deliver biblical based, properly exegeted, theologically sound and homiletically excellent sermons. Twenty-five rural pastors selected from the Gbarnga District Conference of the United Methodist Church in Liberia participated in this training. All the participants were rural pastors who do not have the academic qualification to pursue seminary education. But they undergo periodic trainings organized by the Board of Ordained Ministry as part of a continuing education program to sharpen their ministerial capacities. Pastors in this category are eligible to be ordained associate elders when they receive five consecutive trainings. From cradle until death, people are always leaning new ideas and undergoing trainings to improve skills at what they do. During the duration of this study this reality came alive through lessons learned and major findings discovered. It became evident that rural pastors are very eager to be trained periodically so that they are effective in proclaiming God’s word. It was revealed repeatedly during the five-day training and later with the focus group that training is critical if they are to be good at preparing and delivering sermons. Because of the active engagement of participants during the training event, it became evident that training sites could be an appropriate venue to identify persons to be trainers-of-trainers. Because rural pastors rely solely on trainings offered by the Board of Ordained Ministry, which is usually short-term, the establishment of a school devoted to training rural pastors can’t be overemphasized. Such a school would serve as a hub to train rural pastors not only in preaching but also in theology and other areas of pastoral ministry. EQUIPPING FOR MINISTRY: TRAINING RURAL PASTORS TO PREACH EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP IN LIBERIA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by George D. Wilson, Jr.-Student May, 2021 2021 George D. Wilson, Jr. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Wilson i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... .ix-x CHAPTER 1 NATURE OF THE PROJECT .........................................................………1 Overview of the Chapter .........................................................................................1 Personal Introduction …………………………………………………………......2 Statement of the Problem …………………………………………………………3 Purpose of the Project…………………………………………………………......4 Research Questions……………………………………………………………......4 Research Question #1 ..................................................................................4 Research Question #2 ..................................................................................4 Research Question #3 ............................................................................…..5 Rationale for the Project ..........................................................................................5 Definition of Key Terms .........................................................................................7 Key Terms………………………………………………………………………....7 Delimitations ...........................................................................................................8 Review of Relevant Literature .................................................................................8 Research Methodology .........................................................................................10 Type of Research ......................................................................................11 Participants ................................................................................................11 Instrumentation .........................................................................................11 Data Collection .........................................................................................12 Wilson ii Data Analysis ……………………………………………………………12 Generalizability .........................................................................................12 Project Overview ..................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW FOR THE PROJECT .........................................14 Overview of the Chapter ........................................................................................14 Biblical Foundations ..............................................................................................14 The Spoken Word ......................................................................................14 The Word of God...…..…………………………………………………. 15 The Importance of the Spoken Word ……………………………………18 People Perish for Lack of Knowledge………………………..………….19 Teaching: A Biblical Mandate …… …………………..………….......... 20 Impact of the Spoken Word…………….………………………………..............22 Moses Speaks to the People of Israel …………………………………....22 The Impact of Moses’ Message…….........................................................24 Joshua’s Message to God’s People........................................................... 25 The Impact of Joshua’s Message ………………………………………. 25 Nathan Speaks for God…………………………………......................... 26 Jonah Goes on God’s Mission …………………………………………..28 The People Reaction to Jonah’s Message of Repentance ………….........28 Ezra the Priest Reads the Law to the People ……………………….........30 Impact of Ezra Reading of the Law…………………………………….. 33 Jeremiah Speaks for God………………………………………………...34 Faith Comes from Proclamation……………………………………....... 35 Wilson iii Jesus Christ of Nazareth……………………………………………........ 37 The Ministry of Paul……………………………………………………..41 Theological Foundations………………………………………………………………....45 Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 45 The Preacher’s Identity and Responsibilities………………………………………........ 45 The One Who Delivers God’s Word…………………………………….45 The Community Spokesperson…………………………………………..47 The Problem Solver ………………………………………...….............. 48 The Wounded Healer...…………………………………………………. 50 Medium of the Spirit……………………………………………………. 51 The UMC Quadrilateral……………………………………………………………........ 52 Scripture……………………………………………………………….. 53 Tradition……………………………………………………………….. 53 Reason…………………………………………………………………. 55 Experience…………………………………………………………........56 The Priesthood of All Believers……………………………………………………........ 56 The Ministry of Prophetic Preaching…………………………………………………… 59 The Nature of Prophetic Preaching…………………………............................................67 Introduction……………………………………………………………. 67 Preparing to Preach ………………………………………………….... 69 Deciding What to Preach: Text and Theme………………….................72 Lectionary and Non-lectionary Preaching……………………………...73 Preaching in Context .…………………………………………….........75 Wilson iv The Preacher Informed by Experience…………………………………..76 Conversing with the Bible…………………………………….................77 Writing the Sermon ……………………………………...…...………………………….78 Introduction …………………………………………………………….78 Getting the Text in View………………………………………………..79 Getting Introduced to the Text ……………………………………........81 Attending to the Text …………………………………………………...83 Testing what is Heard in the Text ……………………………………...84 Moving Toward the Sermon……………………………………….........86 Delivering the Sermon: Becoming the Object of Focus ………………………………...88 Feedback: What Are They Saying About the Sermon?