Rivers of Joy Baptist Church Minford, Ohio

 

Wednesday Night June 18 2014

Charles e Whisnant, Education

How can one be qualified to preach the Word of God?  

When I believed God was leading me to teach and preach the Bible, of course I talked to my Dad, who was a preacher.  He gave me a class of teenagers and young adults to teach, and for twenty four months I did. In those twenty four months I was able to teach the way that Dad wanted his Sunday School teachers to teach.  He would give us a book by Harry Ironside to study and teach.  Then I would study Charles Spurgeon’s book on Psalms.  And Dad had a good bible library that I would use a lot in study.  So from the start I have read the bible and read books that were about the Bible.  While in high school I did attend some local college classes. (Which I don’t remember very well, sad to say.  Everette T. Whisnant, and Roanoke Baptist Temple VA>

  

And Dad would take us to Fellowship Meetings in Virginia and North Caroline, so I heard a lot of preaching while still in high school at Jefferson in Roanoke Va.

Then Dad died in February 20 1966 and in September 1966 I went to enroll in Bible Baptist Seminary in Arlington Texas. From 1966 to 1970 (Grad in 1966) 99% of the classes were Bible and Theology and Church ministry.  While in Seminary I attended some good churches with some good preachers: Dr. Wayne Martin, Dr. Raymond Barber, Dr. George L. Norris, those were some of the best topical preachers, and Dr. Norris very much theological in his teaching.

Further  studies after seminary were by reading books. I had a good library of books that I would read and study.

We moved near Ceder Lake IN which was where Hyles-Anderson College was located, and we enrolled in the Pastor’s Refresher course and the Masters of Education and Church Ministry.

When we moved to Altoona, Kansas to pastor the First Baptist Church, I did enroll in the Liberty University Life Longing Learning Video program and worked on a Master of Theology, and Master of Counseling.

Also while at FBC, we enrolled in Bethany College via video and books for Master of Church Ministry.

Also in the time I was in FBC we attended for 12 years the All Day Ministers Seminary conducted by Bill Gothard, and also the Basic Youth Conflict Seminars.  I still think are the best.

Also while at FBC we enrolled in the Biblical Counseling Course in Layaffett IN with NANC.  Which we finished as well.

While at FBC we attended the Shepherd’s Conference in Sun Valley CA, at Grace Community Church, where John MacArthur is pastor/teacher, and we attended twice there 1983 and 1993 and once in 1991 in another church.  Here is where I really began to learn the skills of preaching 101.  Then I started getting sermons from John MacArthur and received them from 1983 to 1995. And listen to each one weekly.

While I worked at Hillcrest  Nursing Home for ten years, I still studied every day for eight to ten hours studying for preaching/teaching.  I had a great library of over 2000 books, and then I bought 400 books that were researched tools for preaching and teaching. I preached/taught while in FBC over 2500 sermons/lessons.

Then moving to Lexington KY which I did very little studying sad to say.  Was in a church which I did very little in the way of teaching.  I had several jobs working while there for five years

  

Moving to Portsmouth Ohio and for the first time had a compute and would you believe we had internet. Well for four years every day I would spend on the internet studying and reading and downloading articles from a website called monergism. For the first time I was introduced many good preachers and theologians that had a Reformed background, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Edwards, etc. And I would study hours on hours, but I was not teaching or preaching. I studied over fifty six doctrines and downloaded 1000’s of pages to study and put in three ring binders.  If I knew all that I have downloaded I would have a good working knowledge of the Bible.

Then the last five and half I have been the pastor of ROJBC where I have taught .  And still I am daily study the Word and doing a lot of research on the web, and listen to preaching. And listen to videos from the Master’s Seminary.

EXPOSITIONAL TEACHER:  Teaching through the New Testament:  verse by verse:

1. Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, Romans  I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, I Timothy, I Thessalonians, Hebrews, Philemon, Revelation.  Old Testament general survey.  Daniel, Isaiah, Genesis in length

AM I QUALIFIED TO KNOW THE WORD OF GOD?   Well, I would say, I have been learning for over 50 years, and think in about another 10 years I might get to be.

A few good study books

  

My bible used and read from 1960  retired 1966

 

 Series on Matthew 250 sermons manuscripts    all hand written 1982-1987

Romans study notes 2009 -2014