Master's Men in Manila

On July 4-6 a team of men from the Master's seminary joined me (Sean Ransom) in Manila to teach a three day conference on expository preaching. In partnership with Greenhills Christian Fellowship's Petra foundation, the team featured Alex Montoya, (Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministries) Scott Ardavanis, (Senior Pastor of Placerita Baptist Church) and was supported by myself, (A TMS grad and missionary with the Evangelical Free Church in the Philippines), Jonathan Cross (a student at the Master's Seminary), Andrew Choo (A TMS grad and pastor at a Missionary Alliance Church) , and Gideon Dignadice (a youth pastor and student at the Master's Seminary). After making a case for expository preaching and teaching basics on sermon prep to over three hundred church teachers and leaders, professor Montoya taught how to preach with power, passion, and purpose. He found himself on the hot seat during a Q&A session when one of the men in the mixed audience asked what the word says concerning the role of women in the church. After a pause and a smile he gave a balanced answer that seemed to satisfy the crowd.

Pastor Scott modeled expository preaching as he taught from Psalms 119, Eph 4, and 1 Thess.














Jonathan taught on biblical counseling.














Andrew did a seminar on reaching Muslims for Christ; which lead to an invitation for him to teach that seminar again at a local church.














Gideon taught on youth ministry.

I did a seminar called, "Effects of a seekers sensitive philosophy on expository preaching", which seemed to be received well by most of the audience, but a few Rick Warren fans had a hard time with it. I tried to be very gracious as I urged them to preach the whole counsel of God's word instead of focusing their preaching on the felt needs of their congregations.

After living in the Philippines for two years now, most of the preaching that I have observed here focuses on felt needs, stories, and often goes straight to application while ignoring the proper interpretation and explanation of the text. I was blessed as the participants in this conference responded well after being taught, shown, and challenged to do expository preaching. In a country that has over 40,000 to 50,000 untrained pastors, I pray that this conference will be the beginning of a movement of expositors who faithfully declare God's word instead of their own.

We discussed with a local church the possibility of starting up a training center or seminary that focuses on expository preaching. Pray for Jonathan, Andrew, Gideon, and myself as we endeavor to launch something here in South East Asia. Pastor Montoya and Pastor Scott gave us a lot of great ideas as they challenged us with different possible ways this vision could happen.

During their visit here some of the team spent time ministering in a bible college, and ministering to the poor (we gave out about 5 boxes of clothes to men, women, and children. The team also encouraged pastors in a mountain province, met with leadership from the Evangelical Free Church mission to learn more about their ministries and vision for the Philippines, and shared the word with two gangs in Manila city jail.

If any of these ministries moved your heart then pray about joining our team in establishing a training center in the Philippines or sending a short-term team from your church to get exposed to some of the things that God is doing on the mission field. Just email me at sean@ransomreport.com.