My name is Caliendo Michele Nazario. I am a member of the church in Predazzo, region of Trentino, Italy. I am a first year student at ITA, at the local church in the city of Mantova that hosts their training.
Having a right approach to the Word of God is crucial both for those who preach and for those who listen. This is the main reason why I started the expository preaching certificate at ITA. At this time, I have attended two intense training sessions of four required in the first year, each 3-day long sessions. I have deeply benefited from them.
First of all, the most important benefit has been that I have changed my way of approaching Scripture. Before, I read the Bible beginning from a random point, trying to understand what that text wanted to say. This was often quite difficult and seldom useful; even though I spent much time on the text, I kept asking myself whether I had truly understood it or not.
Today, thanks to the training we have received, I understand the importance of reading a passage in its context. I now read a specific text and, in order to understand it, I read the entire chapter as well. Every passage has a single meaning. Every passage is related to the whole book of which it is part. Every book of the Bible is tied to the others. Before arriving at a particular meaning for a specific text, I try to understand the author’s intent, as revealed in the whole book.
My family, wife and children, have also benefited from my training. I praise the Lord for leading me to ITA and for leading it to us, our church and to other men in our church.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.