Simeon Trust Workshops

Compiled by Kevin E. Jesmer 10-16-17

Each 3-day workshop (for preachers, pastors, and men training to teach from the Bible) is aimed to encourage and equip you in better opening up God’s Word.

http://simeontrust.org/

    Are you a pastor responsible for regularly preaching or teaching? Are you training for such a role? Please consider joining us for one of our Workshops on Biblical Exposition. These Workshops are designed for (male) preaching pastors and those in training. More information about who should attend the Workshops is available here and our schedules for the Workshops for women in ministry and Workshops in international locations might also be worth considering. If you are planning to come to a Workshop, you might also want to look at how to prepare for the Small Groups. This schedule of the 2016/2017 season of Workshops on Biblical Exposition is subject to revision. Please check back for the most up-to-date information.

We intend to return working pastors to their central calling—the faithful, weekly exposition of God’s Word. Our primary means for accomplishing this task is through our Workshops on Biblical Exposition.

The mission of the Workshops is four-fold. First, for expository preaching to take hold of a preacher and subsequently edify and evangelize his congregation, he must be confident in setting to the task. We must convince the pastor that the heart of pastoral ministry is the proclamation of the Word. Second, as he is convinced he must also grow in his confidence to practice expository preaching. We must encourage him in his own life-long ministry and his soul by ministering to him from the Word. Third, as he is encouraged, he must also be given the tools to apply specific principles such that he both understands and is equipped for true expository preaching. We must show him to rightly handle the Word of God. Finally, showing him how to faithfully exegete the text assumes a common understanding of the fullness of the Biblical framework, a comprehensive understanding of the big picture of the Scriptures and the Christological (or Biblical Theological) promise/fulfillment pattern contained within. We must reveal to him the geography of the Text. And that is what the preaching workshops do.

RESIDENTIAL TRAINING

Since before the Charles Simeon Trust was founded, Holy Trinity Church in Chicago and the founders of the CST have been committed to the idea of training the next generation of biblical expositors. Taking the lead of Charles Simeon himself, who equipped young men for ministry in Cambridge in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we are committed to hands-on, immersion training.

Since 1998, we have been developing internship materials and testing them out in our Simeon Model training scheme. More recently, we have made commitments to partnering with similar organizations to take these training concepts outside of North America.

International

Over the years, we have forged an important partnership with Leadership Resources International in order to take our training commitment to those who reside outside of North America. This partnership involves a combination of their TNT training model and our Workshop model to equip pastors in Nairobi, Kenya. We have also started Workshops and Simeon Course groups around India, partnering with the Delhi Bible Institute and Bangalore Presbyterian Church. We have also informally partnered in various ways with a few organizations that are remarkably like-minded and with whom we share the most essential convictions: the Proclamation Trust, Matthias Media, and Equipo Impacto.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THE WORKSHOPS?

Properly speaking, this whole page is meant to address this quite important question. We encourage you to read the entirety of the answers given here as it might prove relevant to you. But first, we want to present a little bit of the background on the reasons we hold these Workshops.

WHY DO YOU HAVE THE WORKSHOPS ON BIBLICAL EXPOSITION?

We are out to recover the centrality of God’s Word, taught in an expository way, to the benefit of the life and health of the church in our generation. In order for this kind of teaching to take place, the Bible must be properly understood and rightly handled in the course of preaching and teaching.

We also have a strategic reason for holding these Workshops. We are making a commitment to the few people responsible for preaching and teaching God’s Word in a local church congregation. As such, the Workshops are meant to be practical. Among other things, we aim to instruct in a way of reading, understanding and teaching the Bible. We do not presume a particular doctrinal position from our participants. Rather, in the words of Spurgeon, we “do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and opening of men’s ears to hear it” (C. H. Spurgeon).

WHO ARE THE WORKSHOPS FOR?

Given the reasons stated above and given our understanding of Scripture, the Workshops on Biblical Exposition are generally for men who are responsible for regularly opening up God’s Word for God’s people. Specifically, they are for those men currently in pastoral ministry and, as such, are responsible for preaching and teaching God’s Word in congregational settings. Though vocational preaching pastors are our priority, the Workshops are open to those in general teaching ministry: including some lay-preachers, teaching Elders, seminary students or professors, teaching missionaries, and those serving in similar roles. Again, our priority is those who regularly preach or teach from God’s Word.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS

The purpose of the workshop is to increase the participant’s confidence and ability in rightly handling God’s Word. We also want each person to leave convinced that God’s Word is powerful and eager to teach it to their people. A successful Workshop on Biblical Exposition has three essential components:

Principles

The leaders will present clear, simple instructions on interpreting and explaining the message of the Bible in an accurate and accessible way.

Practice

The Small Groups consist of 6-10 participants who have each prepared assigned texts and are ready to interact with the other group members and a trained group leader in order to improve their skills in a hands-on way.

Preaching

There will be an exposition from one of the leaders, demonstrating the value of sitting under the Word of God.

November 1-3, 2016

Winnipeg, Manitoba    $139

Transcona Alliance Church

James Seward/Kevin Walker/Derek DeVries