An Invitation to Living Waters Leadership Training

Dear fellow pastor/church leader,

We want to invite you to the Living Waters Leadership Training. We pray that God will use this to equip you on how to serve our churches to be safe places where the sexually and relationally broken can find the healing they so desperately need.

We rarely discuss sexual sins in our families and in our churches. Because of shame, we chose the easier but destructive way of silence. But now, even our secular society cannot avoid discussing the alarming trends in our sexual (mal)practices.

The 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS) conducted among 19,178 respondents showed:

• 1 out of 3 Filipino youth had premarital sex, most of them young adults aged 20-24 (54%), up 14% from 20 years ago
• 14% of females aged 15 to 19 (1.4 million) have begun childrearing, 1 in 3 for 19 year-olds
• 15% of males have more than one sexual partner
• 25% have sent or received sex videos through cellphone or the Internet
• 4% have had sex with someone they met online or through text messaging
• 6% have engaged in phone sex
• 7.3% have engaged in casual sex or sexual activities outside a romantic relationship
• 5.3% of males have also experienced having sex with other males
• 3.1% of youth who have ever been married, including those who are living-in, have experienced extramarital sex

According to Internet Pornography Statistics:

• There are now 4.2 million pornographic websites (12% of total websites)
• 42.7% of internet users view pornography
• 1 in 7 youths have received sexual solicitation online
• Average age of first Internet porn exposure is 11 years old

We are prone to think of these statistics as true only of those people outside the church. But we cannot escape the truth that sexual sins are also being committed by God’s people. Pastors and church leaders are not exempted. This is a grave concern and can have tragic consequences. But we can do something about this.

For the sake of the glory of God and for our own good, we cannot and must not be silent about this. We must examine sexual and relational brokenness in light of God’s truth and his design for our sexuality. We must equip our churches on how to bring the healing power of the gospel to meet the deepest and most intimate desires of the human heart. We must prepare the Bride of Christ to meet her Groom. Oh, how we long for his return!

We at Living Waters would like to walk with you on this difficult but liberating journey. Bringing this healing to our churches is not easy; it is messy. But we can assure you that in this messiness, you will see and experience more clearly God’s wonderful, transforming grace.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11 ESV).

We are delighted to invite you to dive deeper into this ocean of God’s grace. You can also invite your spouse and other leaders from your church to come to this week-long training. This will be a refreshing time for you as our team of “wounded healers” minister and pray for you. And, at the end of this retreat, we hope that you will begin to see the church of Jesus “as he has designed”:

The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and sanctification center, where flawed people place their trust in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he has designed. The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God’s wonderful mess – the place where he radically transforms hearts and lives (Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, p. 116).

We dream of this kind of church for you. We trust that you and your church leadership team will prayerfully consider this invitation.

Yours in pursuing the transforming grace of Jesus for the Filipino Church,

Ptr. Derick Parfan (LWLT Coordinator)

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How can I register?

• Download the LWLT Application Form here.
• Submit your completely filled-out Application Form, together with a non-refundable deposit of P1,000, not later than October 11, 2015 (Sunday).
• Registration Fee is only 3,500 pesos. That includes housing, food and materials. All registration fees must be paid in full prior to the training. Any unpaid balances must be settled upon arrival at Mt. Peniel.
• We will confirm your acceptance to the training on or before October 20, 2015 (Tuesday).

What are the topics that will be covered in this training?

Some of the topics are:

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• Part 4: How to Fight Together