Port YWAM Kona To Offer Bible Seminar

YWAM Ships Kona is offering a three-week seminar in January that is modeled after its Bible Core Course, or BCC. During the seminar, students will gain in-depth insight into the books of Acts, Philemon and Gospel of John and learn how to study Scripture on their own. The seminar begins Jan. 18 at Port YWAM Kona.

The seminar — like its 12-week counterpart — is intended to familiarize students with the inductive Bible study method, which helps readers approach the text from the perspective of its original audience. Participants will receive credit toward completion of the Bible Core Course through the seminar.

Debbie Hicks, who will lead the program, said it is intended to make Bible training more accessible to Youth With A Mission staff.

“So often, I’m told that staff can’t get away for three months. However, when I suggested breaking the three months down into four three-week seminars, people were more open. Therefore that is part of the inspiration,” said Hicks, the international director of the University of the Nations Centre for Core Curriculum.

Jonathan Spainhour, who regularly teaches in the BCC at Port YWAM Ships Kona, said a similar event offered at YWAM Townsville, Australia, revitalized his faith.

“What I saw was the Jesus who had been prophesied about. I saw Jesus coming into the context of a bigger story. I saw the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament as the same person in Jesus for the first time,” said Spainhour, who attended that seminar in 2006.

Morgan Keach, who runs the BCC each fall and spring at Port YWAM Ships Kona, said the training has proved effective even for those who don’t consider academics to be one of their strengths.

“We had a girl come in who barely finished high school and she was studying the Bible for herself doing really excellent work — and our work isn’t watered down. You’re basically doing a semester of a master’s-level course in university,” Keach said.

Hicks said part of her motivation for running the seminar is to help people realize that they have the same capability as scholars to understand the Bible.

“My objective is that the students will get excited about the Bible, fall more in love with God, and realize that studying the Bible isn’t difficult and only for people with a theological degree,” she said.

Spainhour, who has been staffing with YWAM for a decade, said the short seminar he attended in Townsville — which focused on the book of Galatians — charted a new course for him in ministry.

“God used that book to set me free from the bonds of unbelief. I try to stand firm in that freedom by continuing to study the Bible,” he said. “I feel like that’s how I got my calling with studying and teaching.”

Click here for more information about the YWAM Ships BCC Seminar and to apply.

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