Almost all the missionaries who spoke with Church Times after the Global Mandate Conference, which took place in Lagos from February 20 to 23, gave the same verdict. The bottom line of their experience is that they have been set on fire and were poised to make a change in their various fields.
For the four days of the gathering, seasoned teachers of the word from different denominations had engaged these soldiers of Christ in life-changing messages, giving insight into how to do missions uniquely and encouraging them to keep the fire on their altars burning.
A number of them came from Mali, Uganda, Chad and a host of other countries. However, the bulk of the about 150 participants at the conference came from within Nigeria.
Make Christ the message
The teachings were intense and revealing. Bishop Abraham Olaleye, Overseer of the Pentecostal Congregation, gave the first message. He took time to emphasise the need for the missionaries to always make Christ their focus regardless of the situation they found themselves in.
Olaleye had urged the missionaries to stay away from the doctrines of the devil where mammon is being glorified above Christ. He also took time to explain to them that their use of the Old Testament should be to locate Christ there and nothing more. “If our mission is not to proclaim Jesus, we should pack up and return home. This gospel is about Christ and his finished work,” he stressed.
He also pleaded with the missionaries to refrain from praying against perceived enemies on the mission’s” field. “If you are still praying that witches should die and that herbalists should perish, your work on the mission field will not be fruitful.”
Olaleye said the perceived enemies of the gospel on the missions’ field should be seen as potential Saul of Tarsus who will encounter a new life.
The Church worker
As the conference progressed, many other teachers came up to give insight into hitherto grey areas of missions. Rev Bode Orekoya of Christ Image Ministry simplified in his message what it means to be a worker in God’s vineyard. He noted that many people only think of working for God when they are in the church space. “This is not true. The church is a place where believers are trained for major assignments in the world system. The majority of workers in the church are in the marketplace. The real work is actually in the marketplace.”
Orekoya noted that the marketplace is not for believers to do their own thing but to propagate the word of God and impact lives. “We need to disciple people for marketplace evangelism. If we cultivate the marketplace people, we will have a massive workforce for missions.”
Also at the event was Pastor Niyi Osomo, founder of Missions Enablers, who took participants on how to create missions’ awareness among the Genz. Osomo noted in his delivery that many of those in missions are getting old and may not get replacements if urgent steps are not taken.
Pastor Oluleke Akinola explored the issue of succession and the need for pastors to create a template that makes it easy for transition in church governance. He shared his example of how he retired as the General Overseer of Upper Room Baptist Church even when he had the grace of some more years.
While agreeing that one’s calling is a lifelong assignment, he stated that there is a need to discourage holding to a position for longer than necessary. He attributed the mortality of many Church and corporate organisations to a lack of transparency and the penchant of the founders to stay in position forever.
Pastor Tokunbo Beulah Johnson, founder of Capstone Church, sensitized participants on the seven mountains of influence for believers while emphasising that the Church needs to position itself and be strategic in its influence.
According to him, “The Mountain of the Lord is higher than any other mountain. The world is expected to look up to the church for direction and not the other way around.” He added, “Missionaries should preach the right gospel.”
Power for exploit
In her message at the conference, Pastor Mrs Shade Toyin Kehinde charged the missionaries to desire to operate in the power of God in their evangelism drive. She noted that power demonstration is a necessity in the missions field if they are truly going to make impact. “What you need is the power of God, not money. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost and there are signs and wonders around you, the resources for the work will follow,” she said.
She cited many testimonies of God’s interventions while on missions while also stressing that missionaries can also operate in signs and wonders. “Let us stop telling lies and trying to manipulate people. Let’s stop using enticing words to win people. It is very easy for signs and wonders to follow our ministry operations if we are sincere,” she submitted.
Dr. Tunde Oladoyinbo, who led a delegation from Mali for the first time since the conference began several years ago, took participants through a session on reaching the Sahel region of Africa. He noted that there are about 490 unreached people groups in the Sahel which consist of Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Senegal.
He called on missions lovers to intensify their prayers and support for these countries, which are largely occupied by young people.
Amid the conference were intense prayer sessions led by Rev Emmanuel Ajose and Pastor Lekan Amusan. The medical team of the GMC was also up and doing. The vitals of the missionaries were checked by the medical team, and they were given basic medications to help manage their health.
Convener
Commenting on the four-day event, Pastor Kehinde said participants were mostly missionaries who serve in places where people are not too exposed to the gospel.
He said the idea is to make the missionaries come and rest and also be refired for the work ahead. “We encourage them on the need to keep the fire burning. For the fire not to die, they need to be refired. It is also a time for them to reconnect with other missionaries.”
Reflecting on the theme of the conference, his word to our world, he said the purpose of the conference was to prepare the missionaries on how to do missions in a changing world.
He noted that there is a great imbalance in the way the resources of the Church are deployed, adding that less than 10 percent of Church resources go into reaching the unreached. “This should not be so,” he said.
On the cost implication of running the conference, he said, “It is simply difficult to calculate the cost because we keep spending even after the conference. The beauty about this is that 90 per cent of the missionaries are not connected to our church. Yet, we mobilise resources to support them.
We try to live by faith. We encourage our church members and our friends to support the work. For this conference alone, we had hotel accommodations for all the missionaries around our church area in Maryland. We pay for transportation of the missionaries to and from the conference, feed them for free throughout their stay and many other expenses. What we spend is in millions of naira. Just look at it, we are feeding about 200 people throughout the conference for four days. If a meal is about N4k, you can now calculate what feeding alone will gulp.”
Participants experiences
Participant relived their experience, describing the conference as a refreshing time with God. Pastor Tunde Taiwo, a missionary evangelist based in Abuja and founder of Revelation of Redemption Ministry, said he had never been disappointed since he started attending the GMC several years ago.
He said over the years, God had used him to raise many Fulani converts who are now pastors of different ministries in the north. “We started a church in Asokoro and a fellowship centre in Nasarawa. Some of the Fulanis God used us to bring to Christ went to Chad, and some went to Maiduguri. doing missions.
“Many of them are now doing ministry. One of the reasons I came to this conference was to get information on how to bring them on a platform. 90 per cent of the people I am talking about don’t even speak English. I am hoping that we can have something like GMC in the north. The conference is an eye-opener and a place where you also hear testimonies of what the Lord is doing in other parts of Africa.
Rev Dr Samson Oyekale, who runs a missions agency in the North of Nigeria to the Kambari people, described the GMC as a veritable platform for the missionaries from across Africa. “This conference is a place to be strengthened and encouraged to do the work.”
Oyekale said the Kambari people are mainly in the bush. “Some of them are in Niger, Kebbi and the Northern part of Benin Republic. A lot of them are coming to the saving knowledge of Christ. Many of them now wear clothes. This was not the case when we started reaching out to them several years ago.”
Also sharing her experience, Pastor Gloria Ilolo, who came from Great Mission World Outreach in Tamale, Ghana, said the GMC has helped to make the mission work a delight. “I am very impressed by the content of the GMC. The topics treated are challenging and life-changing”
She said her mission agency is focused on the Fulani people in the North of Ghana. “God has helped us to penetrate them. God has used us to provide education for some of them. Presently, about 35 of them are being discipled. God is touching them. We reach them one by one.”
Founder of Hope For Life Bible Church, Iseyin Oyo State, Opeyemi Adebanjo, said he has been a regular face at the GMC. “I have always been impacted each time I come for the conference. It has also been a platform for me to meet people who have been an encouragement to my ministry.”
Adebanjo, who had served in the Redeemed Christian Church of God for 25 years before he started a fresh work on the field of Iseyin, said he has a passion for young people. “We meet every day with young people for an hour to share the word of God and pray. The impact has been so great. I thank God for this year’s GMC. It has opened my eyes to newer things in ministry.”
Bro Isaac Fatokun, who works with Ethnos Mission, came from Togo for the conference. He has been in Togo since 1994. He works among six tribes in Togo. He said God had led him to the country. “All my life has been missions. I started working with Baptist Mission when I left school, and since then, I have not looked back.”
Fatokun, who hails from Ogbomoso, said working among the six tribes in Togo has not been easy. But God has given him a breakthrough. “They are animist but God has helped us to penetrate them. Today, we are getting results. The GMC has been a learning ground for us. I must commend the organisers for the yearly sacrifice of reaching out to missionaries and supporting them.”
For Filani Olubunmi of Macedonia Missionary Ministry, the conference has been a huge blessing. “I must confess that this conference has helped me to fulfil my call to missions in the francophone countries. The GMC conference is an answer to my prayers. I started attending in 2020. The Lord gave me a specific tribe to reach out to in Benin Republic, and it was from this conference that I made the contact to reach the tribe. That is the beauty of the GMC platform. I am based in Ijero Ekiti State, but we go on short-term missions to countries on the West coast of Africa. In Ekiti, we reach out to schools and young people.”
Assessing the conference, Don Ekanem, who came from the Republic of Benin, says the conference is more of a classroom. “We have been loaded with so much. What is left now is to implement what we have learnt. The key point for me in this conference, among many others, is the need to create awareness for missions among young people. There is a need to begin to create awareness among the next generation. I have been challenged to challenge fellow Christians to embrace missions whether on a part-time or full-time basis”