BACKGROUND TO THE CORE TEACHING NOTES

 In all my teaching I have had this as my goal, 2 Tim 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”  It is a great joy and blessing to be able to delve into the word of God and to see what He says about the realities of life. A joy to find out why people are as they are and how they may be changed by the grace of God. Then the privilege of being able to share those life and health changing truths with others.

Decades ago I wrote that I was on a learning curve about healing. (See here) I am still on that learning curve! But these Core Teachings contain many of the things I have learned on the way. Each topic represents about an hour’s teaching. So be prepared! But first about about the background in which these teachings developed.
Brisbane Diocese. During my first 10 years in the ordained ministry there had been little opportunity to develop any specific Biblical teaching programs. I had done some teaching in parish and Church Missionary Society youth groups as a layman and later as a Priest had taught New Testament for a year for the Australian College of Theology Th A course at St Francis Theological College in Brisbane. However parish duties and Scripture teaching in several primary and secondary schools took up all my time.

Armidale Diocese. When I became the Dean of St Peter’s Cathedral in Armidale diocese my ministry was focussed on the preaching and administrative program for the 2 main town churches and the 5 country centres in the parish. One special joy was the teaching involved in introducing the “Know Your Bible” course each semester for a large group of women from many denominations.

Sydney Diocese. When I succeeded Canon Jim Glennon as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney my main teaching was at the Postal Congregation Seminars held a couple of times each year at Marsfield. Otherwise normal Cathedral duties, preaching at the Healing services in the Cathedral and counselling occupied my time.

One woman to whom I ministered said that she found the biblical base to the ministry so helpful she wanted more. She asked whether I would be willing to do some teaching if she could invite some of her friends along to hear as well. In fact she managed to encourage a whole group of friends to come every Monday morning for 2 hours of praise and teaching. I taught through some books of the Bible and also tackled some biblical topics as well.

What I discovered was important. In one on one ministry I could only minister to one person at a time. However in teaching 20 or more folk on those mornings, we ministered to one another as we shared insights into God’s word and prayed with and for each other. It gave me a chance to really delve into God’s word every Sunday night to have an hour’s talk ready for the morning. I found it immensely satisfying and fulfilling. Those who came, kindly said they found it helpful as well.

I later combined some of the subjects together to form the seminars for the Inner Healing and Wholeness Weekends. We also began to arrange seminars for the Core Teaching programs which were held at our Healing Ministry Centre at Newtown Sydney from Tuesday morning to Thursday afternoon. (There are now 5 Stages of the Core Teaching with 4 to 6 subjects in each stage.)

Those who have been exposed to the teaching over the years would number in the thousands rather than the hundreds. There have been opportunities to teach some of the topics in many country areas in Australia and for a month in New Zealand in 1993 for the Order of St Luke. An invitation to minister in Florida USA led to our teaching the Core Teaching Seminars at All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Winter Park near Orlando in Central Florida. They in turn have taught Core Teaching modules to dozens of folk from many denominations.
What is the teaching about? I have always felt that God’s word has the answers to our human situations and that as people turn to His word and act on it, they can be changed to become the people of God He wants them to be. He loves us enough to want to communicate with us. He has communicated with us through His written word (the Bible) and through His living Word (the Lord Jesus). But to know accurately about Jesus we need to turn to the written word as our source. These teaching topics are all based on the word of God and I only refer to other sources when I feel it might be helpful to do so.

My great desire is that anyone in the world who has access to a Bible might be helped through reading this Core teaching material. It is simple and hopefully easily understood. An even greater desire is that those who are helped might be willing and motivated to share (and hopefully teach) this Biblical teaching with others to the glory of God and for the benefit of His people.

Blog No.187. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Thursday 2nd June 2016