BY ADEYEMI ROBINSON-ADEFIOYE LAGOS
The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Region 20 House Fellowship Department (Apapa family) held her annual Conference, Theme: “Dwelling in the Glory of the most high God” to rekindle the House fellowship’s leaders spiritual lives and on how House Fellowships could metamorphose into Churches.
The Special Assistant to The General Overseer (SATGO) House Fellowship, PASTOR TUNDE ODUWOLE, represented by PASTOR FEMI BADEKALE in his remarks said all stakeholders in house fellowship should be ready to bring in more souls from despair and shame and also the unsaved into the kingdom of God.
According to him,”Our God is the God of salvation and we are to take the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all nations, (homes/families) as the hosts, leaders, members and coordinators of house fellowship centers”.
He further urged the house fellowship leaders to walk in obedience and mentor more souls in the way of the Lord, encouraging deep and clear discipleship patterns through the house fellowship system as instructed by Christ.
“Engage in rigorous training of Leaders, to ensure House fellowship growth and development at Parish, Area, Zonal and Provincial levels.
“We’re to bring people out of shame through evangelism to the unsaved and visitation of house fellowship members who fail to attend meetings, it is a must for house fellowship leaders to visit those who are absent from meeting the exact day their absence is observed” he said.
PASTOR BADEKALE, said that Pastors in charge of parishes should be encouraged to organise periodic strategic progress meetings with house fellowship leaders during which the latter are encouraged to work for God because there are benefits doing so.
One of the speakers of the Conference, Pastor in Charge of Lagos Province 39 and two terms Commissioner for Economic,Planning and Budget, Lagos State and current Director General of the Budget Office, Pastor BEN AKABUEZE described the 2019 Conference as a way of strengthening the House fellowships system in order to bring Glory to God.
PASTOR AKABUEZE further said he hopes the brethren involved in house fellowships can come together bringing the principles of “iron sharpeneth iron” to bear in order to help other leaders harmonize on what they do in their various Province, Zones, Areas and Parishes.
AKABUEZE who emphasized more on Dwelling in the Glory of God, said when God Glory’ comes down, it takes charge of everything including the government.
“What people think about the Christendom today is about money, as Christian’s we sow money and that is scriptural because this work of the gospel requires money.
“Today’s issue is all about making the house fellowship system better and to bring the glory of God.
“This is to strengthen the house fellowship, and the Organizers of this Conference coming together to make this be, since iron sharpeneth iron, people would have learnt one thing from each other, which they will definitely take back home to improve what they do.
“More importantly as they gather and pray and commit it into the hands of God in prayer, God will answer and by this time next year, the conference would be greater than this.
” As I said before the glory of God speaks of His beauty, Excellence, His Holiness, the Glory is very difficult to define, you can see it the way scripture described it, that HIS glory fill the house but in summary it just speaks about the nature of God, the embodiment of His holiness and when it descends it will cover the earth including the government”. AKABUEZE said.
Meanwhile, the Regional Coordinator house fellowship,(Apapa family) PASTOR EMMANUEL IJOMAH hinted that the House fellowship system is a program in the church that is fashioned for local churches to help their members grow spiritually through studying the word of God and praying fervently.
PASTOR IJOMAH further said the conference is organized to gather all house fellowship coordinators, the leaders, the hosts and hostesses adding that this is to let them know that they have a big job ahead and also to equip them to go out into the various communities of the country and begin to mop-up souls for God.
He said the truth is that we are in difficult times, people are hungry, a lot of kidnappings, ritual killings, etc, which tend to make people run to God for help and in running to God for help House fellowship is the first point of their call and as they come to the house fellowships there would be increase, growth, enlargement and they would find peace in God.
IJOMAH who is an engineer by profession informed that if the house fellowship system is well coordinated and encouraged by the Pastors it would lead to a Population explosion in the Church as It were in the early Church.
“This is conference to gather all house fellowship leaders and fellowship hosts and hostesses just to also let them have the understanding that they have a lot of assignments on their hands and to also equip them to be able to go into various states of the country and the world entirely and begin to mop pup souls for the living God.
“The truth is that; the time is difficult, people are hungry, kidnappings, ritual killings etc, the tendency is for people to run to God for help and when they run to God, house fellowship is their first call of duty and as they come to the fellowship, there would be increase, growth, enlargement, multiplication of house fellowship centers and they will find peace in God.
“Changes are abound to come, because as people gather to pray, as they open their hearts and unburden to their leaders, they would be listened to.
“That is why the leaders are like pastor who are to carry people’s burdens” IJOMAH explained.
The 2019 REGION 20, APAPA FAMILY HOSE FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE which took place at Lagos Province 39 headquarters, KINGS COURTS PARISH would never be forgotten with different speakers include, PASTOR OGHOGHO AYANRU, Lagos Province 4 Head, PASTOR KOLA ODESAMI , PASTOR LANRE AMOSAN and PASTOR EMMANUEL IJOMAH all in attendance.
There were also opportunities for medical check-up for Parishioners during the conference.