Michael Gowens and David Pyles
Conducting a Preacher School in the Philippines
June 2002
We boarded a connecting flight to Cagayan do Oro where we were met
by Elder Manolo Dalman, who drove us the last twenty miles or so to
Tubigan in Misamis Oriental for the Ministers Conference.
This three-day meeting with our brethren from the Philippines began
on Wednesday night, June 26. Approximately 130 ministers, the
majority of whom were already Primitive Baptists, gathered for this
time of fellowship around the word of God. It was a blessing to
finally meet in person so many ministers that I knew only by
written correspondence prior to this time. I feel that the Lord
blessed the meeting with His presence and grace so that it was a
very profitable time together.
Brother Pyles was wonderfully blessed to preach and to explain the great principles and practices of the Church. His messages on the everlasting love of God, the reasons we practice rebaptism of those who come to the church from other orders, and the priority of laboring for unity among the brethren were simply outstanding. His final sermon on Friday evening concerning the Book of Job was especially blessed to my soul.
In fact, God especially crowned this final service with a special portion of His Spirit. Brother Harter concluded the meeting with a very powerful message from Nehemiah entitled Let Us Rise Up and Build. Brethren embraced one another in a spirit of brotherly love and fellowship and tears of joy were shed as the meeting concluded.
I felt good preaching liberty in most of my efforts there. I spent the bulk of my time in the book of Ephesians, speaking on such themes as Grace Promotes Godliness, Trinitarian Salvation, The Covenant of Grace, Pauls Doctrine of the Christian Life, and Practical Sanctification. I also gave one presentation on the popular Charismatic movement offering four arguments to prove that sign gifts and mediate miracles were unique to the apostolic era and not normative for the church in subsequent ages. My final message focused on 2 Corinthians 4 concerning how Paul dealt with discouragement in ministry.
The Filipino ministers exhibited a very teachable spirit and expressed gratitude for our efforts to minister the word to them. I was encouraged by their theological maturity and versatility in the Scriptures. They asked a number of very substantive questions dealing with everything from the proper interpretation of certain verses of Scripture to issues of church practice to the more technical theological disciplines of eschatology and ecclesiology. A dozen or so of the non-Primitive Baptist men present expressed that they were brought to see the truth of Gods sovereignty in salvation for the first time in their lives. We were glad to be able to distribute several hundred pamphlets on various subjects, together with copies of Elder Bradleys periodical entitled The Baptist Witness to the ministers there. They are eager students and seemed very appreciative of any literature to assist them in their studies.
It was certainly an interesting and unique experience to me to hear them sing their Cebuano hymns, pray in their native dialects, and to interact with these men at a personal level of conversation. I was impressed by the sincerity of their devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and their soundness in the faith. Over and again during the course of the meeting, the theme of integrity in ministry surfaced and we were all challenged to be men of irreproachable behavior, indefatigable labor, and uncompromising faith in the service of the Savior. How encouraging to hear Gods servants challenge each other to maintain the high ethical standards the New Testament specifies for gospel ministers! May the Lord continue to work in each mans heart to bring him to ever increasing degrees of holiness in doctrine, thought, word, and deed.
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