As I wrote in my report after two sessions in Haugesund, Norway with a group of great leaders from the Pioneerkirken ( Pioneer Church) , we started our two – year project in the autumn of 2014. This project was initiated by me but is now lead by Pioneerkirken (PK), Norway. Gunnar Brestein is the coordinator of the training. All participants are leaders in the PK and in this way they will get a deeper teaching on the Bible, but of course more than that. We have plenty of time reserved for prayer, worship and intercession for each other. After all, we are all leaders and we all are in need of encouragement and care.

We will meet 10 times Friday afternoon -Saturday afternoon. During these sessions we will systematically work through at least 10 books in the Bible. When I posted my report on the PLT homepage, we were about to have the third session in December 2014. Unfortunately I fell ill and we had to cancel the session. That meant that we had three sessions in the spring of 2015 instead, all sessions arranged by pastor Gunnar Breistein fro Pioneerkirken.

The third session took place on the 6th-7th of February. Here we concentrated on Romans. Everybody had been given John Stott´s Commentary on Romans to read and so they were well prepared. Pastor Fredrik Stormark from PK Stavanger opened the session with an summary overview of the letter and how it has been understood through history. Martin Luther, for instance, said that if a Christian doesn´t know the New Testament by heard, word by word, he or she should at least know Romans by heart.
Then Gunnar and I shared the teaching – I had three lectures covering the first 12 chapters of Romans, that is chapters 1-4, 5-8 and 9-11. Then Gunnar took chapters 12-16.

Session four took place on April10-11. Here we focused on Galatians. Once again Fredrik gave us an overview of the Galatians and its importance. I focused on ”the essentials” of Galatians, the things Paul addresses and writes about in the letter, chapters 1-5, ”the freedom in Christ”. Then I talked about the Spirit in Galatians and finally about Abraham as the faith hero, our great example of what biblical ”faith” is.
Then Gunnar closed this session with going through chapter six.

The fifth session took place on June 5-6. Here we talked about 1 Peter and 2 Peter. Once again Fredrik gave us an overview of the letters. I talked about the historical situation in Asia and the regions where home churches had been started. Peter, knowing that he is going to die soon, has important things to tell his beloved churches. He points to the love for Jesus and each other. He underlines that they (the believers) have been exalted, ”you are kings and priest, living stones” through faith in Jesus Christ. The Spirit has made them alive.

At every session the participants sat down in groups to work with certain questions. A lot of time was spent on understanding the meaning of the texts, that is the four letters (Romans, Galatians, 1& 2 Peter). What they meant to the first receivers of the letters and what they mean to us today.