LA State Capitol Ministry and New International Accessibility of Action Steps for Expository Preachers in English and Spanish

The Mission Foundation

April 30, 2016

Dear friends and supporters of The Mission Foundation,

It’s been a pretty challenging two weeks: diagnosed with partial seizures (i.e. focused on a certain part of the brain) and having a lesion cut out of my tongue and sent off to see if its cancerous yesterday. I will not receive the results from the lab for about a week. I have appreciated every text, every email, and every prayer. 

But there is plenty of encouraging news.  The ministry at the State Capitol is going extremely well.  Many members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as Governor John Bel Edwards and his immediate team of leaders (all former legislators), are coming to our weekly Louisiana Legislators’ Bible Study / Prayer Breakfast, which is now in its 17^th year!  Soon we will have our annual reunion breakfast as former legislators will come from various parts of our state to be with us again for what has always been our most highly attended meeting.  I should add that this gathering is completely private (no guests at all) and our continual emphasis is on unity – the true oneness of our state leaders who are quite diverse in their backgrounds and in their politics.  My hope and prayer is that every senator and representative (for whom it is logistically possible) will be a part of this fellowship – this community of governmental leaders.  Please pray for the protection of the fellowship that these men and women are experiencing.  Our Lord has watched over us for seventeen years. I trust that, as we pray, He will continue to provide that protection.

GREAT NEWS! I have very encouraging news to share about the international accessibility of my book, Action Steps for Expository Preachers, A Method of Sermon Preparation.  In addition to our present printing facilities in the U.S., The UK, and Australia, I have just signed a Global Connection Agreement (at no additional cost) that will extend our network of printing facilities to include Brazil, Russia, Germany, Canada, South Korea, and Poland.  This will be extremely helpful as it will reduce the cost as well as the time to respond to orders for my book (and any future works) in every part of the world. 

Also, as you may remember, Action Steps is available through Amazon in both English and Spanish.  In East Africa, our Swahili version is being printed in Tanzania, and I just received an email from my dear friend and colleague, Rev. Tony Swanson, long-time missionary to Tanzania who gave oversight to the translation, that he has recently used my book in a seminar there.  He has arranged for printing for past seminars that we have done there, and it is wonderful to know that he and the other leaders there are continuing to use a Tanzanian printing facility to produce and use Action Steps. I was of course very happy to hear of this.

Maybe I should explain the primary use of Action Steps.  It is to provide national pastors, denominational leaders, Bible college instructors, parachurch leaders, as well as expatriate missionaries with a manual for instructing others in expository preaching – showing how to go through the entire process of going from the reading of the Biblical passage to the writing of the sermon.  First, the preacher/teacher seeks to understand the meaning of the Bible passage – writing notes on the context and the content of the passage and then developing the outline and main idea of the passage, which is stated in one sentence.  Then the preacher/teacher writes the sermon outline and sermon theme statement.  Finally, he writes his sermon manuscript, which includes explanations, illustrations, and applications.  This is all covered in the three foundational lectures of Action Steps.  Actions Steps also includes worksheets, outlines of lectures to be given out to the students/delegates, examples of sermon outlines, and an example of the whole process which culminates in an actual sermon manuscript.  Also, there are two additional lectures in the appendix on hermeneutics (principles of interpretation) and application of the Scriptures to our lives.– I think I should clarify that Action Steps (first published in 2011 in English) has been produced with our own personal funds and has been of no financial profit to us.     

You are ones who make our work possible.  It is you who have supported Becky and me in our ministry so that we can write and teach and lead conferences and seminars and disciple others and help and encourage others in their efforts to establish new ministries, such as men’s ministries in Central and North Louisiana and in Ethiopia and The UK.  Thank you so much!  I do most sincerely pray that our repeated expressions of our gratitude will in some measure impart to you our feelings about what you have done and continue to do to do to enable us to carry out the ministry to which we have been called.    

In the love of our Savior,

Rod and Bec

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