Tag Archives: Lagos

Evangelism Centres – news from Elijah in Lagos

Posted by Bill on December 12, 2012

evangelism-centresThe desire to see qualitative and quantitative growth in the church in Nigeria is becoming the passion of many church leaders. This is the case with The Ever Prevailing Word Church in Lagos. The lead Pastor, Emmanuel Agamah, has been trusting God for the right strategy to make his leaders and members become involved in the work of the Kingdom. And at last, the answer has come for him!

I was privileged to facilitate a four weeks small groups’ development training with a number of leaders and members of this church. With each week of training, all faces shone with rays of hope and excitement in anticipation of what the Lord would accomplish through the principles learnt. And by the end of the training, with the practical demonstration classes, all the leaders gained great confidence to get down to work. And immediately three small groups were launched right from the classes used for demonstration. “We can’t wait for a better time to launch out!” was their cry. The leaders expressed this without any prompting from the lead pastor.

Throughout the duration of training, I emphasized repeatedly the importance of the main components of small groups: Community, Evangelism, Discipline and Multiplication. And these four components combine to bring about great success in small groups. I pointed out that these components distinguish a cell group as being holistic in purpose, rather than just specialising in Bible study, and prayer groups.

To be sure the principles learnt were well understood by all, I invited the participant to freely ask questions and also share their thoughts, convictions, workability and possible challenges they might come across. It was amazing how convincing their expressions were. The lead pastor said:

Before now I have been asking God to show me what next to do – to make my leaders more involved in ministry beside just pulpit ministration in our Sunday services. “Pastor Sam, your coming these four weeks has been the answer to my prayers. We are going all out to practice these principles and we shall christen our cell groups, Evangelism Centers … where souls will be won and discipled for Christ. And we look forward to having you again in March, 2013, to come and see what the Lord has done, and to share in our joy” (Pastor Emmanuel Agamah).

I praise the Lord for the four weeks well-spent in practical teaching and demonstrations of how small groups ministry can help grow healthy churches that actively take part in the Great Commandment and Great Commission. Small groups are indispensable instruments employed by the Lord to win the world to Him (He spent three and half years with a small group of twelve in order to win the entire human race).

“And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” Rev1:16 (KJV).

Pastor Elijah

Servant-hearted Leadership Modelled in Lagos!

Posted by Bill on February 18, 2012

“Finishing is better than starting …” (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

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Pastor Sam serving his leadership team (standing, wearing white shirt)

The end of year (2011) workers celebration in Lagos was a way of showing gratitude to the Lord for a successful year of laboring in His vineyard. During the celebration, many recounted how the church began with just four leaders, but today, through the activities of their LIFE groups, their leadership had increased to  thirty in number – actively doing God`s work with joy and gladness. At his church, they say, “It has been a discipleship made easy with the introduction of cells ministry into the church.

On behalf of the Lord and the pastoral team of the church, Pastor Sam expressed his appreciation of the lay leadership team. He also seized the opportunity to re-emphasise servant-hearted ministry and demonstrated this by serving all present with food and drink. He added that … “The Master expects more of this ministry in the years ahead.” Pastor Sam challenged everyone to take a cue from Godwin Adam’s testimony (see below) of how he served his way to the top of his place of employment within one month of being hired! Pastor Sam said, “The act of service is not limited to the four walls of the church building. By serving, we might win some into the Kingdom.”

When asked what they thought about the celebration, some in attendance commented:

Charles Emmanuel says: A jaw-breaking part of the party was when Pastor Sam removed his jacket and tie, and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to serve the workers their meals and drink. Not only did he do this to show his appreciation for the workers, I believe this was a great way of setting an example to everyone that being a leader was about being a servant. This party also revealed the fact that every worker in Dominion Impact Church is important and special in the household of God.  And the fact that someone is delegated to a menial role does not make him/her less important, irrespective of their task.

Bose Adedipe says: Greatness! Greatness! Greatness! Greatness is achieved through service. “Pastor Sam. You are a great model of servant-hearted leadership for us.” The end of the year workers party revealed the character and passion of our leadership to us, more than ever before.

Tayo Olatunji says: One thing that touched me most was the act of service as modeled by my daddy, Pastor Sam. This taught me humility, and the fact that service is not unto those who are older or better than us, but to the less privileged and the down trodden. 

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Godwin Adam says: Three weeks ago I was here to share my testimony of a new job at the cargo wing of the airport (Lagos). It happened that one of my senior colleagues asked me to sweep the floor of our Director`s office. I did the sweeping with joy, despite the duty being outside of my job description. I swept the floor, and went further by re-arranging the scattered office and placed things in order. Our Director later came into his office with his close friend (who has a good knowledge of how this office used to be in disarray). This friend congratulated my boss on the new-look office. Our Director asked who had tidied his office. When he learnt it was me, he immediately handed to me the keys to the warehouse and also the company`s accounting records, making me the company`s accountant and warehouse manager! Even when I said that I knew nothing about accounting, he simply said, “You are the right guy for these two positions. I give praise to God.

Friends, there are many in the church that are called ‘leader’- it’s their office. However, many of these ‘so called’ leaders have no idea what leadership means, and how to go about it. Jesus modeled leadership to the Church and the un-churched (Mark 10:43-45). Christian leadership is all about influencing others in the right way. Service is that way!  Thank you, Pastor Sam, for modeling right leadership to us. 

Bill

 

Food Drive, Nigeria … A great success!

Posted by Bill on February 4, 2012

The Lord is busy at work through His faithful people at Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria. CCI is glad to be partnering with Dominion Impact Church (Pastor Elijah and Pastor Kola).

I hope your spirit will be encouraged and strengthened as you read the following report from Pastor Elijah in Lagos.

Dear Friends,

Hunger, nakedness, illness, homelessness, oppression and the likes characterises the environment in which we live and minister every day in Lagos and Ibadan.

God hasn’t given the ultimate solution to our government. But to the church, the Lord has commissioned us to take charge of the situation and occupy/take territories from the enemy, for His kingdom. Most churches around us have neglected this holistic ministry of meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the people. But as God gives His grace to Dominion Impact Church at Lagos and Ibadan, we want to make a difference in the lives of many needy people.

 “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36).

Moved with compassion for our people, Dominion Impact Church, through its Life-groups in Lagos and Ibadan, sought to fulfill the above Scripture by embarking on ambitious ‘reaching out in love’ exercises within the New Oko-Oba and Challenge communities. This outreach was targeted at meeting some basic needs in the homes of the less-privileged. To us, it was a way of demonstrating the love of Christ in a practical way to people who don’t know Him.  Christmas time, we believe, is an ideal time to do to this.

The Food Drive was carried out at Lagos and Ibadan, on the 18th and 22nd of December, 2011.  The careful choice of food items was also necessary because of the Christmas and New Year festive season.  We engaged our Street Kids (one of our Life groups) in our outreach strategy as a means of touching hearts. After the food drive, we saw that many homes had opened up to the gospel. Parents came and showed their appreciation to us, and it was a perfect opportunity to present the Lord to them.

We are grateful to you for your prayer support and for helping us to finance this outreach opportunity. Our food drive was a great success! The pictures were taken at our Ibadan Church food drive.

We love you
Pastor Elijah
Dominion Impact Church

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“Reaching Out” … Our usual practice!

Posted by Bill on November 26, 2011

Reaching “in” and “out” with the love of Christ is the heart-beat of healthy small groups. Loving one another in the church, and loving those with whom we associate outside the church is concrete proof that we are disciples of Jesus Christ (John 13:34, 35). In many churches, there’s too much talk of love, and not enough action. This is not the case, however, regarding a small church in Lagos, Nigeria – Dominion Impact Church. Here in the “City of Excellence” this church is making a difference by ministering in a most excellent way … the way of practical love. Pastor Elijah Samuel, CCI’s associate director for Africa, says …

A social gathering was organised by our small group to celebrate a few family members in our church, those who are less privileged than most. We aimed at making these people see what our church family is like and to help them experience a sense of “belonging” to the rest of the church family.

We did things that families would normally do in common, such as sharing food, having fun, and fellowship. We also gave out gifts to these people. This time was so impacting we have planned to do this again during the Christmas season for our neighbouring community. “Reaching out” with the love of Christ has become our usual practice.

 

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