Convener of Global Mandate Conference and Senior Pastor of Agape Generation International Church, Rev Toyin Kehinde has observed that missions have become increasingly difficult because many churches are interested in spreading their name rather than the gospel.
Rev Kehinde made the observation while preaching at the World Missions Prayer Conference in Ajah, Lagos on Thursday, January 19.
He said the challenge has always been in whose name will the work be done.
“Many churches are interested in who takes the credit. They want to be seen as the ones doing it. That is why it is difficult for churches to collaborate to spread the good news” he said.
Kehinde who is also the Secretary of the southwest zone of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria said worship is the heartbeat of God adding however that it is only missions that can guarantee that.
“God wants the world to worship him. But they can’t worship him if they don’t hear about him. That is why we have to spread the good news. God wants the good news to reach the ends of the earth.
“Right from the beginning God wanted man to spread and fill the earth. But man wanted to build a name for himself. That is what happened at the tower of babel. They wanted to build a name for themselves before God came to scatter them.
“Today many churches are interested in building names for themselves rather than supporting the gospel to spread irrespective of who takes the credit,” he said.
He referred to the call of Abraham noting that it was God that promised Abraham that he would become great and would become the father of many nations.
“it was not Abraham that set out to make a name for himself,” he said.
Earlier in the message, he harped on the need for self-assessment using Joshua as a case study. “God had to do the assessment of Joshua who led the children of Israel to possess the promised land.
“God told Joshua that he was old and stricken in age. But that there were many more territories to be conquered. The first place to start is to do a self-assessment of the work of God in their hands. We need to be honest with ourselves and assess the work.”
According to him, the missionary must do a personal assessment, he must do an assessment of the organisation he works with, and then an assessment of the body of Christ as it relates to the work in his care.
In doing a personal assessment, Rev Kehinde said, the missionary must look at what is not being done well and work at improving on it rather than romancing past successes.
“You must look for what is not according to plan because if it is not taken care of, it can actually mess up other plans. Caleb demanded the hill country that God promised him because he saw that he was yet to get it.
“He said to Joshua, now give me the hill country that the Lord promised me that day. If he did not look carefully, he would not have seen that lapse,” said Rev Kehinde.
The World Missions Prayer Conference holds from Wednesday, January 18 to 21 at the Bethel Church (Wonder City) Ajah, Lagos. The conference is being put together by the duo of Rev Eric Ighalo and Evangelist Edwin Ebeniro to create missions awareness and mobilise prayer support for missions
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