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| Who is the workshop for? Properly speaking, this whole page is meant to address this quite important question. We encourage you to read the entirety of the answers given here as it might prove relevant to you. But first, we want to present a little bit of the background on the reasons we hold these workshops. Why do you have the Workshops on Biblical Exposition? Again, we are out to recover the centrality of God’s Word, preached expositionally, to the benefit of the life and health of the church in our generation. In order for this kind of preaching to take place, the Bible must be properly understood and rightly handled in the course of preaching and teaching. The preacher's work must flow from the Bible and his sermons should be expository. We also have a strategic reason for holding these workshops. We are making a commitment to the one person responsible for preaching God's Word in a local church congregation: the pastor. As such, the workshop is also meant to be practical. Among other things, we aim to instruct in a way of reading, understanding and preaching the Bible. We do not presume a particular doctrinal position from our participants. Rather, in the words of Spurgeon, we "do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and opening of men's ears to hear it." (C. H. Spurgeon). Who is the workshop really for? Given the reasons stated above and given our understanding of Scripture, the workshop is for men who are currently in full-time pastoral ministry and, as such, are responsible for preaching and teaching God’s Word in congregational settings. Though full-time preaching pastors are our priority, the workshop is open to those in general teaching ministry: including lay-preachers, Elders, Seminary students or professors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers and those serving in similar roles. If I am a woman and pastor responsible for preaching/teaching God’s word, is this for me? We are fully committed to training women for ministry through workshops and through our year-long training course in Chicago. But we also have theological commitments as to what that means. The Charles Simeon Trust adheres to a position on church leadership that is often called “complementarian.” While we do not support the ordination of women for pulpit ministry or church Eldership, we do believe that women are called to teaching ministry in Biblically appropriate settings and should be trained as such. We believe that women and men are both called to proclaim the gospel message of Christ Jesus. And so, part of our work is to call women to take up their responsibility for reaching other women. Women need to be equipped for this task. While the local church will do much of this work we believe that we can further enable women by including them through a women's workshop. We believe that women who are working in ministry in churches need encouragement in their ministry. We hope that by encouraging women to participate in the preaching workshops, we can also establish a base for fellowship and encouragement. It is important for women in the church to have women that they can look to as mentors and equippers. Knowing this, women who wish to attend a Workshop on Biblical Exposition should plan to attend a brand new conference, Women In Ministry: A Workshop on Biblical Exposition, tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2011 in Chicago. Women who are interested in this conference are encouraged to call or email the Charles Simeon Trust's Director of Workshops, Colleen Gallagher ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). We will also be continuing to prepare for the Women in Ministry workshop through exploratory women's tracks at various workshops. Women who are interested in either of these tracks are encouraged to call or email the Charles Simeon Trust's Director of Workshops, Colleen Gallagher ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). |