Discernment Seminar Report Back

​“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord Who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.” 2 Peter 2:1

​It was just over one month ago that we ran the Biblical Preaching Workshop for pastors and lay-preachers at our Mission in Cape Town. At the end of the workshop I asked the participants what they thought the church in Cape Town needed for a future seminar, the answer was almost unanimous. They wanted a seminar on discernment!

With this high demand and in light of the godless, bizarre and heretical teachings and practices prevalent in all too many congregations, we ran a Discernment Seminar on Saturday, the 26th of August. For seven hours, we ran a programme offering information and resources to help our participants discern truth from falsehood, right from wrong, good from bad and righteousness from evil.

Our mission house usually hosts between 15 and 20 people at our three-week Great Commission Course, and that can be a logistical difficulty with the limited space we have. On Saturday, we had over 40 people at the seminar! Our guests had many lively discussions and questions about contemporary doctrines and practices in our local churches. Lectures covered include: Lies We Must Refuse to Believe, The Urgent Need for Discernment, Three Deadly Doctrines and What the Bible says about Healing.

The participants were eager to learn and asked questions they wanted clarity on such as: What is the role of Satan in the world? Does God always bless and curse obedience and disobedience? Why do Christians suffer? What does the Bible say about generosity? What is the role of women in the Church? Can a false teacher be saved? These questions sparked interest, conversation and friendly debate.

Many people thanked me for preaching the Word. It is a sad story for all too many Christians who claim that they never get fed the Word in their home churches. Some people wrongly think they should give up on local churches altogether because they feel so frustrated and spiritually starved. This is yet another reason why we need to return to Biblical Preaching. We need to protect ourselves and our churches from modern-day false gospels and unbiblical church practices.

When asked for comments and suggestions, the participants wrote: “Excellent”; “Awesome!! Relevant”; “Learning a lot, Thank You”; “Wonderful day! Thank you for not compromising”; “Just great. Thank you!”; “Excellent seminar. Appreciate the boldness packaged in humility/carefulness.”

Please keep those who attended the seminar in your prayers. There is an urgent need to practice discernment, work for Reformation and pray for Revival. We trust that those who attended our seminar will take what they learnt back to their local churches and apply the material with honesty and humility.

The Audios from the Discernment Seminar will be uploaded onto our sermonaudio.com page.

The videos can be found in our video gallery on frontlinemissionsa.org.
We also have many PowerPoint presentations on discernment related issues on our slideshare account. We will soon be offering a Discernment Seminar Audio MP3, Data and DVD boxset through CLB.

“Contend earnestly for the Faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints” Jude 3.
 
John Clifford
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021 689 4480
Email: Jclifford@frontline.org.za