INTRODUCTION
There is a
saying in Yoruba that “Owo ni keke ihinrere” Meaning Finance is required to
carry out Mission and Evangelism work effectively. Jesus Christ gave us an
Assignment known as Great commission.
Jesus Christ
before he left his disciples to return to his father said:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am
with you always to the end of the age Matthew 28:19-20.
To carry out
this great commission require the involvement of MEN, MATERIALS and FINANCE and
of all these three things, money or finance is the most important, as you will
see as we go along.
The Nigerian
Baptist Convention, having realized the importance of Finance to Missions and
Evangelism, has provided in her yearly budget, a reasonable percentage of her income
to the Global Mission and Baptist Theological Institutions. The two departments
principally responsible to Mission and Evangelism.
Finance produce
the Men: It is the Baptist Theological Institutions that produce the pastors
that are sent to disciple the nation and baptize them.
From the Annual
Accounts and Financial Report of 31st December 201:
The subvention
released to Theological Institutions was N211,868.398 out of
The Men that
will take the good news to all nations must be trained before they could be
sent out in the following Baptist Theological Institutions.
1.
Baptist
Theological Seminary Ogbomoso
2.
Baptist
Seminary Kaduna
3.
Baptist
College of Theology Oyo
4.
Baptist
College of Theology Eku
5.
Baptist
College of Theology Benin City
6.
Baptist
College of Theology Igede Ekiti
7.
Baptist
College of Theology Isolo Lagos
8.
Baptist
College Obinze
9.
Baptist
Pastors’ School Jos
10.
Baptist
Pastors’ School Gombe.
The Convention
spends so much money to run the Institutions
to provide the best of Pastors who will work on Mission and Evangelism.
GLOBAL MISSION BOARD
The Global
Mission Board is principally responsible for Mission and Evangelism.
It is run as a
board but under the Nigerian Baptist Convention and established to carry
mission work around the world.
The Board
requires alot of money for the purchase of vehicles, Public Address systems and
put up Church buildings to accommodate the new converts, where the need arises among
other things.
Where there is
no worship place the mission board should provide. This is why the Convention gives
yearly subvention of 20% of 20%. (income)
Finance is very
important to do mission work.
IMPORTANCE OF FINANCE IN CHURCH PLANTING
Every church
should include in her yearly budget a reasonable amount of money for Mission and
Evangelism. Any church who wants to plant a church should consider the
following
(a)
A
mother church should provide a suitable place of worship, which must be within
the catchment area of the worshippers.
Consider
these two options.
1st
location is 2 kilometres outside the town, four plots with an offer of N200,000
and 2nd location in the town with access Road, 3 plots with an offer
of N450,000.00. To me I will prefer the 2nd option because
the church in the buildup area will grow faster than the one outside the town.
(b)
Must
call a pastor to the church, the work of Pastor is very important to the growth
of the church
(c)
Must
be responsible 100% 1st year, for the Pastors welfare, including all
emolument
(d)
Must
train the new church to keep good account and possibly to open Bank Account.
(e)
Mother
church must never collect or use the daughter Church money
Below is an example of how a mother church should share
responsibility with the new church.
|
Yearly
|
Mother
Church
|
New
Church
|
|
1st Year
|
100%
|
0%
|
|
2nd Year
|
80%
|
20%
|
|
3rd Year
|
60%
|
40%
|
|
4th Year
|
40%
|
60%
|
|
5th Year
|
20%
|
80%
|
By the end of
the 5th year the new church should have been ready to take full
responsibility of the church.
MATERIALS ENHANCING WORK OF MISSION AND EVANGELISM
The Global
mission to work effectively and to be able to reach, the people required a lot
of materials among such are:
(a)
Vehicle:
if possible Helicopter
(b)
Musical
Instruments: The Youth of today love music and they want to associate with where
there is good music
(c)
Public
Address System: Good Public Address System is required to reach the people,
even in their homes.
(d)
Worship
Centers: The Global Mission must be
ready at all time to provide suitable worship centres to attract the people.
Global Mission
Board have ministries in the under listed countries Nigeria, Mali, Mozambique,
Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote D’ivoire, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone and many other
countries.
The Global
Mission also plans to reach the unreached people such as Fulani, Kanuris Hausas
and others.
REPORT FROM BENIN REPUBLIC
Below is an
extract from 99th Annual Convention Book of Report Page 233 in respect of Benin
Republic.
Rev. and Mrs.
Saturday Ajayi Obateru are God’s steward here through Global Missions Board,
Nigeria Baptist Convention.
We are involved
in Church Planting, Discipleship, Training of new leaders and massive evangelism
in this land.
The annual
Conference was held in November 2011. In attendance were the local churches and
some of the stakeholders from Nigeria. The stakeholders facilitating the work
here are Ibara Baptist Church, Abeokuta, Lighthouse Baptist Church, Ibadan,
United English Church, Dopemu Lagos, Ire-Akari Baptist Church, Lagos, Oore-Ofe Baptist Church, Kaduna, Goodnews
Baptist Church, Lagos, New Heritage Baptist Church Shomolu, Lagos, Emmanuel
Baptist Church, Abeokuta, Miracle Baptist Church, Lagos, Faith Baptist Church Onikolobo, Abeokuta,
First Baptist Church, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, and other mission lovers.
1.
Number
of people who accepted Jesus Christ:
a.
Jabi - 150
b.
Agounna -
over 400
c.
Tchethi - 250
d.
Other
outreach programme - over 300
Total 1,100 Plus
2.
Number
of people baptized 102 people
3.
Number
of people discipled
-
Fellow
the Master - 57
-
Serve
the Master - 9
Total 66
CHALLENGES
-
The need to move up North to Evangelize
Muslims
-
Global Missions Board has signed a MOU
with the local Baptist Union to effect this.
-
The Local Baptist Union will provide the
land and the Pastor while Global Missions Board will help in supporting the
Pastor and the building of the church.
-
Our Missionary planted a church on
Sunday 15th February 2012 (Emmanuel Baptist Church Agouna to set this ‘Go North for Muslim
Evangelism’ plan in motion. Please join God by partnering with us to actualize
this God-sized assignment.
CHALLENGES
OF OGUN BAPTIST CONFERENCE
The Ogun Baptist Conference also has a
challenge to evangelize Mowe and Ibafo axis of the state. To plant churches
there and mother them. Churches and Associations, Missionary organizations like
the MMU and WMU should take up this challenge.
We observed that funds available to the Conference
are inadequate to meet the demand. Because most churches are not faithful in
the payment of dues Recommendations.
(i)
Pastors
and leaders of local churches should educate members on stewardship
(ii)
The
Baptist Theological Institutions to include and emphasize on cooperative
programme.
(iii)
The
conference should attract good will from sons and daughters living in Lagos
Ibadan etc to come home and help to build Ogun Baptist Conference financially.
CONCLUSION
The importance of finance in Mission and
Evangelism Efforts cannot be over emphasized. With enough finance available to
Global Mission Board, more job could be achieved and finance as you see is needed
to train pastors who will go to preach the good news and to baptize them.
To run our Theological Institutions
required a lot of money. The institution train pastors up to PHD level and also
offer special courses for the need of the mission.
The importance of finance is also
required in the underlisted areas.
1.
To
plant churches
2.
To
provide worship centre, to take care of new converts
3.
To
train our youths that will take over from us tomorrow – BSF, Royal Ambassadors,
Lydia, attend to Youth Programmes
4.
To
run Baptist Medical Centres. The location of Baptist Medical Hospital at
Ogbomoso had made it possible to have many Baptist Churches and Members at
Ogbomoso
5.
To
pay Convention workers
6.
To
pay the retired Baptist Pastors
7.
To
run Convention Programmes, Training, Night of wonders, Annual Convention programme
etc.
May God Almighty continue to provide for
us all.
REFERENCES
1. Nigerian
Baptist Convention 99th Annual book of report
2. Annual
Account & Financial report Dec 2011
3. The
Role of finance in church Planting – Pastor F A. Akano
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