As a shepherd-teacher, I have a deep desire for seeing God’s people equipped in the word and in ministry. We are called to be tasty salt and beautiful light into this generation and culture in which we live. And so, it is good to set aside times for deeper and intensive training.

In the coming weeks and months, we are hosting 3 different training opportunities at Cornerstone in Brussels.

1) Inspired

The first is our continuation of the Inspired teaching series. In the first session, we took time to dive into an introductory understanding of the Old Testament as a whole, as well as specifically consider the Pentateuch (or fist 5 books of the OT). You can listen to those 4 teaching sessions at our podcast.

For the second Inspired day, we are having Mike Orsmund join us from the UK. Mike has an MA in Biblical Interpretation and is professor of Old Testament Studies and Hermeneutics at Trinity School of Theology.

During his 4 sessions, we will be covering the major themes of the Historical Books of the OT with particular emphasis on the Former Prophets (Joshua – 2 Kings) and Ezra-Nehemiah. We will compare the biblical record with important archaeological evidence and we will examine various controversial ‘difficulties’ within the text, such as the seeming genocide and ethnic cleaning of the Canaanites at the command of Yahweh. The 4 sessions will be divided in this way:

Lecture 1: Joshua
Lecture 2: Judges
Lecture 3: Kingship (Samuel – Kings)
Lecture 4: Ezra-Nehemiah

So, join us on Saturday, 28 May 2011 at Cornerstone. You can register at our website.

2) Visible Music Instructive

In brief, Visible Music Instructive (or VMI Brussels) exists to train musicians and worship leaders to serve within today’s church and the world. VMI is specifically headed up by a team of gifted musicians and worship leaders from Visible Music College, which is based out of Memphis, TN, in America.

Specifically, it will provide hands-on, practical musical instruction on your instrument or voice, plus music theory, music band-ensemble training, and biblical-spiritual input. Musical emphases include vocal, percussion, bass, guitar and keyboard, plus we offer worship leading and songwriting workshops to help you grow in these important areas as well.

The dates are 27-30 July 2011 at Cornerstone.

3) Fast Forward

Finally, directly following VMI, Cornerstone will be hosting Fast Forward Brussels.

Fast Forward is a time of equipping God’s people in the word of God and in ministry, all that they might serve Him in this generation. Our desire is to provide training opportunities for God’s people but in a compact time. We have the hope that this will serve God’s people in the 21st century.

Our theme for 2011 is ‘Christ, Creativity & Culture’. You can learn more about the training of Fast Forward and the theme by viewing our brief intro video at our About Page.

The dates are 31 July – 2 August at Cornerstone.