Toka Sello is an economist by trade, living and working in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, Africa. He has been a Christian for several years and for the past eight years has been a member of Tsoho Anglican Church – a church greatly impacted by Langham Preaching training.
Preaching that promotes discovery
Toko has been involved in larger churches in the past, but Tsoho Anglican was appealing to him as he was looking for deeper fellowship with his church family.
He shares, “With a smaller church, my hope was that I would develop relationships, that people would invest a lot in knowing each other.”
Toka found this, but also much more. It is the preaching that has had the most profound impact on him. He says, “Preaching from the pulpit is the best thing about this church in terms of my personal experience. The style of preaching is such that you feel like you are part of it. The preacher guides you to discover things from the Word of God.”
Unlike other churches Toka has been a part of, the teaching at Tsoho Anglican doesn’t impose one way but rather encourages participation with understanding and applying the Bible.
This is particularly because of the work of Langham trained, Reverend Joseph Morenammele. Joseph is also involved in Regional Preaching Coordination.
He explains, “For instance, you could have read from any part of the scripture and Rev. Joseph will ask you a question: “So, how can we practically do this in our lives?” And people will raise their hands and talk. And because the number is smaller, people are free to engage. Nobody’s scared to get things wrong.”
This discovery means that Toka always walks away with a sense of how he personally should apply God’s Word to how he lives. This is continually deeply shaping how he walks with Jesus.
Toka shares, “It doesn’t feel like I’ve gone to this place and this eloquent preacher was speaking about some difficult things that have nothing to do with my life. I always see myself in the Word of God, whether it’s something I have to improve on or depend on.”
Before preaching training from Langham
What Toka experiences now wasn’t always the case at Tsoho Anglican! Before Rev. Joseph completed Langham Training and came to the church, it had a different feel and focus.
Toka shares, “There was a lot of emphasis and people got excited by worship and singing strongly. But at the time of the sermon, people would go cold. Or when asked about basic Christian principles, we were not deep in terms of the knowledge of the Word of God. A lot of us did not invest so much in personal devotion. So much so that people would only read or hear the Word of God in church on Sunday.”
After Rev. Joseph came, this began to change. People in the church began to develop a real desire to read the Bible and apply it!
Toka says, “For instance, before his coming, not many of us had morning devotion booklets and not many people would buy Christian literature. But now people buy literature from all sorts of Christian bookshops. People tell you, ‘I’m reading a certain book. I’m reading something that we are not even reading in church.’ So the excitement is there. People are starting to invest in personal development in terms of how they learn the Word outside the church, which is very important.”
Practical and personal
This change has been supported not only by the expository way preaching is now done at Tsoho Anglican but also by Rev. Joseph leading by example with a personal and practical approach.
Toka shares, “Reverend Joseph’s approach to God’s Word is a very personal approach in the sense that he challenges the congregants to be practical in terms of how they live out their lives. He’s able to give examples of his own life to say, ‘Before I met Christ, this was the situation.’”
For Toka and the other parishioners, this means they don’t get stuck thinking their struggle is ‘because they’re not a reverend’, but rather they can relate to Rev. Joseph and learn from him and his personal application of the Bible.
There is a huge emphasis on the practical in their church, and often the preacher even asks the congregation to write things down! Toka explains, “The preacher will challenge you to say, ‘From this message, what are things in my life that I need to work on?’”
In addition to this, Toka also appreciates the consistency and sequence of messages. From Sunday to Sunday they look at sequential passages or connected themes in the Bible, meaning the practical is really reinforced and followed up on. He shares, “Normally, before he gets into the sermon, there’s always, ‘Okay, guys, so we are here today. Let’s remind ourselves about last Sunday. What did we learn? And most importantly, what is it that you learned last Sunday that you practised during the course of the week? Or how did you fail? How did you attempt to do it?’”
The life of Toka and the other members of Tsoho Anglican are continually shaped by this approach to teaching the Bible. Others from the church are also getting involved in learning to teach it better too! Like Toka, who is also involved in Langham preaching training and now teaches as a lay teacher in his church.