By Wilson Adekumola
Chairman of Success Chapter, Arinko, Sango/Ijoko Province, of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Ogun State, Prophet Abiodun Owoborode, has said training certificates are just for certification and not a passport to heaven.
Owoborode gave the charge at the graduation ceremony of a total of 40 students who received Certificate of Completion in Workers in Training of the PFN chapter
The ceremony took place along with the chapter’s annual thanksgiving service on Sunday, November 15, 2020.
The training programme which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak to train church leaders in order to enhance church growth was described as first of its kind.
The venue of the event, The Redeem Evangelical Mission’s (TREM) auditorium was filled to the brim as prominent church leaders across the region; families and friend were in attendance to grace the occasion. The ceremony lasted for about three hours.
In his address at the event, the chairman of the chapter, Prophet Owoborode thanked God for His unfailing love describing the year 2020 as a year of trials for the Church of God in general.
He said the vision for the training school was birthed during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the weakness of Christians and also help those who find it difficult to study the scriptures.
While thanking all the lecturers and rector of the school for their resilient, enthusiasm and commitment to the school he observed that no member of the fellowship was lost to the deadly coronavirus pandemic and EndSARS protest.
While explaining the significance of the training to the enthusiastic crowd, Owoborode charged the recipients not to see the certificate as a passport to enter heaven but that they imbibe scriptural instructions to go out and be good ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
He also disclosed that PFN body has really helped them in making provision for logistic, mobilization and publicity and also awarded scholarship to some serious students. He then implored church workers to register their interest and take advantage of this opportunity to equip themselves with knowledge of the gospel.
The PFN chair urged the graduating students to imbibe scriptural instructions and make a step in influencing the society both physically and spiritually.
He informed that the institution was conceived to train more workers to build the vision of various churches. “We need to train, impact and prepare people who are committed to the vision of the church at large. It is a six-month training for now. By His grace, we intend to build several campuses in the next five years to cater to the needs of church leaders all over the world.”
He observed that the school has really impacted lives tremendously in such a way that many of the students have started seeing reality in the training process noting that most of them have discovered their talents. “They have discovered their gifts; they have understood the vision of their churches and how to make it a reality.” He said.
He also noticed that those who were not committed before have now started committing themselves to the vision of their churches especially in the area of evangelism, area of follow up and area of activities and supporting the church financially.
“They have learnt how to build the vision of the church and how to carry out their own dreams. Apart from the vision of the church, they have their own dreams, so they have to combine the two together to help them thrive in their various endeavours.” He declared.
Vision to build more campuses
Owoborode revealed that the unique vision of the PFN chapter in the next five years is to build campuses for the training of church leaders where people from all over the world will have their special training as it will be transformed to a seminary. He then urged the participants to contribute all they can to uphold this vision
“We are unique because we believe in vision, you know the Bible says without vision people perish, as we also believe knowledge is power without knowledge the people also perish. Arinko is a voice to reckon with in Sango and Ogun State at large. We believe in standard. We believe in doing something in a unique way. Like the issue of TEC-P which is our watchword for the state is about Training, Evangelism, Charity and we add P because we believe in prayer.
“Most people don’t understand the vision of the state president, this is what he believes. We captured it and understand where he is going. The reality of the vision of the state is what you are seeing. For now, we are the only one doing it. We have brought it out we will build on it.”
The school board includes, Chairman, Prophet Abiodun Owoborode, Rector, Pastor Isaac Oluwawemimo, and also Reverend Noah Okaula, Pastor Samuel Aiyegbusi, Pastor Earnest Osanyede and Reverend Sinclair Chuks are all in the governing body.
