August Update from Dr. Lawson


An update letter from Dr. Lawson on recent ministry travels including Asheville, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles. 

August has been an extremely busy yet wonderful month for OnePassion. This has been a time in which our serving the Lord has been greatly blessed by Him.
 
August began with hosting the Institute for Expository Preaching in Asheville, North Carolina. It was strongly attended by many pastors from many different states. With almost 100 pastors and teachers present, this broke our previous attendance record. I thought that the attendees would have been local, but they came all the way from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Missouri.

On the following Sunday, I preached at Barberville Baptist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina. The pastor asked that I preach a message he had heard me preach in New York City last December from Exodus 33:18–34:8, “Show Me Your Glory.”



The next OnePassion event was the Institute for Expository Preaching in Toronto, Canada. Again, the attendance and enthusiasm by all who were present was most encouraging. The people traveled from great distances to be there, including several who drove sixteen hours to attend from Nova Scotia and the eastern parts of Canada. It was an excellent event with a great response from the 100 attendees and generous host church of Grace Chapel. 
 
I then also preached at Grace Chapel, Toronto, Canada that following Sunday. The pastor asked that I preach a message that he heard me preach ten years ago at The Shepherds’ Conference in Los Angeles that he said changed his life and ministry, which was a very humbling request. The sermon was “Bring the Book” from Nehemiah 8:1–12. It was a joy to stand in his pulpit, exactly a decade later, and preach the same sermon to his flock, a church that was started as a result of this message.


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Next, we hosted the Institute for Expository Preaching in Chicago, Illinois. Again, the anticipation and excitement of those who came was very high. It was a great turnout with over 100 men and an enormous encouragement to me personally to see the men eager to improve their preaching.



At the end of August, I also lectured at The Master’s Seminary in August, teaching two classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Those two classes are The Fundamentals of Expository Preaching and The History of Expository Preaching. It was especially rewarding to teach both of these classes with Dr. John MacArthur, the president of the seminary. Each class I teach deepens my well for my teaching at our institute events.


While I was in Los Angeles, I was also able to preach several times. I preached at Dayspring Community Church in the southern part of Los Angeles. It is a relatively new church plant that has been started by one of my students at The Master’s Seminary. It was great to be apart of this church as I preached on Psalm 1 for their Sunday morning service. 


I also preached the Spanish Shepherds’ Conference at Grace Community Church, called Expositores2016. There were some 1,300 Spanish-speaking people in attendance, one fourth of them being from foreign countries. There were also over 20,000 people who listened by live stream from over 40 countries. They requested that I preach “It Will Cost You Everything” from Luke 14:25-35, which I was happy to do.



I then preached at Calvary Bible Church, in Burbank, California on Philippians 3:10–14, entitled “Living for Christ” that next Sunday morning.

Throughout this month, I have also finished two book manuscripts. The first is a commentary on the book of Philippians that is a part of a larger series with other authors contributing on other books of the Bible. My other book is entitled The Cost and is an expanded exposition of a message I preached years ago on Luke 14:25–35 entitled “It Will Cost You Everything.” There is a nine minute summary excerpt on YouTube that has been posted from a conference I preached this at. Both books will be released next spring.
 
As we prepare to start September, we already have 135 men registered in Sacramento, California for our next Institute, as well as many coming to our Rhode Island and Anaheim events as well.
 
Please continue to pray for our endeavors at OnePassion Ministries. Though we are a small ministry, I believe our outreach is large. For every pastor we help equip, he represents an average of 200 to 300 people in his church. May we continue to use our resources and influence to impact this world for Christ.

Blessings in Christ,