When asked what the highlight of their Contextual Bible Study (CBS) workshop was, Lien, one of the attendees, says, “The importance of dividing people into smaller groups when facilitating. Another one was the importance of the way you set up the venue for facilitation and how it can allow people to speak openly or freely. I never thought that was important. I used to think that it was just done for the sake of doing it.”
On 15 April a CBS facilitators training workshop was held at URCSA Tinarha Congregation at Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. It was facilitated by Rev. Babalwa Sifuba, and twelve members of the Christian Women’s Ministry (CWM) of the Presbytery of Uitenhage attended.
Although it was a diverse group in terms of age and language, the dynamics were inspiring, and they learned a lot from one another. Rev. Sifuba says, “Because this was a training workshop, it was explained in detail why we light the candle, how to organise a group to do CBS, what to keep in mind when selecting a venue and the preferable setup of the venue.
“We also discussed how to choose a theme. During this session, we indicated that there are current themes that the ministry can choose from. Themes such as unity, gender exclusion and leadership are of great relevance at the moment.
“We then went into detail on how to choose a text and how to formulate questions for a CBS workshop.”
Nandipha, one of the attendees, concluded, “I must say I have learnt a lot. I think being in a smaller group helped me to understand CBS much better and to be able to share how I would facilitate CBS.”
Contact Rev. Stephen Pedro at stephen@kaapkerk.co.za for more information.
