Dear people of God,
We have gathered here at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Diobu, Port Harcourt this week, April 04 – 08, 2016 to witness another milestone and development in the history of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion.
On the 4th of June, 2015 (last year,the Archbishop of the Province of the Niger Delta, Most Rev. Dr. Ignatius C.O. Kattey (JP), briefed me on the great work that God has been performing within the Province over the years. Of special note is the work of training people on Evangelism Leadership and Missions which was started over 20 years ago by a tiny and unknown team called the Great Anglican Revival Team (GART). This team has been in charge of the training activities which have acted as a catalyst in the work of evangelism and missions for which the Province is well known within the entire Church of Nigeria.
At the end of that briefing session, he presented, in writing, a proposal with a brief outline of the objectives for an international training seminar which the Team had planned to organize. Having been convinced that this will be a strong encouragement for our church in this part of the globe, I had no reservations approving the proposal.
Perhaps what captured our interest was the title of the seminar: In Times Like These – The Christian Leader and His Ministry. Its main objective was given as: ‘To Raise Evangelism and Mission-minded Christian Leaders who will Influence their Churches and Society’. You will agree with me that we live in a time when the Christian ministry has been bastardized. Many people (both called and uncalled) have ‘trooped’ into the ordained ministry which was once hallowed and revered by men and women throughout the world. Like the saying goes, ‘Too many cooks spoil the soup’. Today, the respect that goes with the collar we put on has vanished into the thin air.
In the Bible, it was God that instructed Moses, “Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor” (Exod. 28:2 NIV). Undoubtedly the dignity and honour attached to our sacred calling have gone. They are gone because a lot of people who are in the ministry today are there for selfish interests.
We as ministers of God who should be correcting the politicians and lay people are now being corrected by them. We now seem to be competing with them while abandoning our main task which is evangelism and missions. Dear people of God you will agree with me that if there was any time we needed to take a time off our busy schedules to evaluate ourselves in this regard it is now.
A good look at the programme outline for this Conference shows that the package we expect is total and complete, dealing with leadership, evangelism and missions. There couldn’t have been better speakers and seminar discussants than those chosen by the organisers of this Conference. They are among the best that the church can produce. You will therefore do well to invest your time wisely by listening attentively to them.
It is common knowledge that those of us in this part of the globe hardly value what we have. From my discussions with my brother the Archbishop and your Host, Most Rev. (Dr.) Ignatius C.O. Kattey (JP) who himself has been a lecturer of the Evangelism Leadership and Missions International Institute, Port Harcourt right from its inception in 1993, I am convinced that the quality of what you are going to receive compares favourably with any of such in other parts of the world. It is therefore a privilege that you are only going to pay a token as registration fee for programmes that would have cost your churches thousands of US dollars excluding transport, lodging, and incidentals. Your Bishop who was made aware of the Conference during the last Church of Nigeria Standing Committee in February 2016 at Kubwa, Abuja, saw it as an opportunity for your development towards optimum performance in ministry hence he allowed you to come.
It is a welcome development that to reach a wider audience of the church, many participants in this Conference are drawn from the leadership of the local church, the clergy and members of the Parish Church Council (PCC). The participants also include youth leaders who are the real future leaders of theuh church. This strategy is commendable as the youths are the engine house of any organisation. The essence is to enable them go back to their churches at the end of the Conference and use the materials that will be provided to train others. When fully harnessed, the benefits of this Conference will definitely reposition our church for greatness in the society.
We wish to stress and re-stress that it is not enough to attend and participate in this Conference. What will make the Conference worthwhile is the ‘doing’ of all that we shall learn or be challenged to do hereafter. The church has lost the steam’ of evangelism and missions which are very vital ingredients for church growth and expansion. We need to rediscover and embrace it. Any church leader who does not embrace, and be actively involved in the work of evangelism and missions has no business occupying church leadership position. Our preaching in the church does not take the place of evangelism. We must go out to meet sinners where they are. On their own they cannot come to church except for ulterior motives. We all must embrace evangelism and missions. We must present exemplary leadership to God’s people. Our level of knowledge must be above that of the people we are leading otherwise they will look down on us. The blind cannot lead the blind. ‘Therefore, endeavor to use this Conference as a lunch-pad for your leadership development.
The Evangelism Leadership and Missions International Institute (ELMI).
It is interesting to note that the above institute under the auspices of the Great Anglican Revival Team (GART) has labored in ‘obscurity’ for more than 20 years, preaching the gospel, and training our evangelists and missionaries. I have been informed that the Institute is currently engaged with the training of members of each Archdeaconry/Deanery of the Diocese of Niger Delta North on Aggressive Evangelism and Missions. The host Archbishop himself confirms that the Institute (ELMI) has produced a good number of men who later joined the ordained ministry as clergy and have become great ministers in our Church. I understand that even one of our serving bishops today (the Lord Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Etche) can trace his calling to the initial training received from the Institute in the early 90’s, and likewise some of our Venerables and Canons in this Province. This is highly commendable.
We commend our brother bishops of the Province of the Niger Delta, and bishops of dioceses of Enugu North and Ohaji/Egbema for recognizing the activities of ELMI and also their determined efforts towards making the Institute grow to an enviable height. In supporting them, we hereby give full recognition to the Evangelism Leadership and Missions International Institute (ELMI) both as a way of encouraging the Team members, and much more, to widen their scope to serve the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in general. This recognition is in the best interest of the Church of the Province of Nigeria. The institute should therefore throw her doors open to Christians from other denominations and nations who may find their curricula and activities helpful and beneficial in the development of their human resources.
Dear people of God, it is on that note that I declare this maiden edition of the Christian Leadership Conference open, in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Thank you and God bless you.
………………………………….
Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh
Primate, Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion,
Chief Host.
