Revival Must Not End in the Church Auditorium; A Call to Posses the Nations – VC to Ministerial Students
The Vice Chancellor of Pentecost University, Apostle Professor Kwabena Agyapong Kodua has challenged ministerial students of the School of Theology Mission and Leadership of Pentecost University and Christians in general to transform the communities in which they find themselves. He said, it is not enough to have revivals in churches, which do not have commensurate impact on the communities that they occur. “Our revivals must not end in the church auditorium; the evidence of the it must end in the community” he said.
He added that, the evidence of the revival is not how powerful we feel that the Holy Spirit has come upon us whiles we are in the Church auditorium, but in what we do with the power in our communities. “It is about the community, not you, so let the community be your heart and interest and let that be a place where you will equip people to go and cause the transformation”
The VC was speaking on the third day of three special Wednesdays’ meetings with the STML students. The special meetings were meant to delve deeper into the Vision 2023 of The Church of Pentecost, to equip the ministerial students and help them to catch the concept and goal of the vision. The program which was held on Wednesday, March 23, at STML lecture hall also hosted some ministers’ wives of The Church of Pentecost.
Speaking on the goal of the Vision, Apostle Agyapong-Kodua expressed worry about the world population of Christians and Ghana in particular that have allowed social vices such as corruption, murder, greed, immorality and many others to fill our communities. As he expressed his disappointment, he said “the impact of our numbers is not being felt, it is not enough to be satisfied with our numbers”, he challenged.
As a way of encouraging the ministerial students and some of the minsters’ wives present that all hopes are not lost, Apostle Agyapong-Kodua said God in His own wisdom has brought The Church of Pentecost from a humble beginning and made it a bigger church to go to the world and transform all its spheres. “This is the goal of the Church; a church where members go to possess their nations by transforming every worldview, thought and behavior with values, principles and lifestyles of the kingdom of God and thereby turning many to Christ”, he stressed.
Quoting Acts 17:6, he challenged all Christians to turn the world upside down in a positive way. “It is not enough to have The Church of Pentecost assemble in a community yet armed robbers live there too. It is not enough to have churches all over our communities, or have MPs, educationist, lawyers and all these, yet we do not see the effect in our national decisions.” He hinted. “Let us preach messages and sermons that will bring about Godly transformation”, he advised.
Adding to that, the clergyman said, the church is not the end point, but rather an equipping centre where we gather people, train them and release them to the society to cause positive changes.
Wrapping up his message, Prof. Agyapong-Kodua encouraged the ministerial students who will be posted to far places to know that they are called and sent by God, so they should not be bothered about where they are sent, but have the mind that wherever they are sent to, they will transform the communities there. Again, he encouraged them to go to any place they will be posted in their ministry with the possessing the nations agenda in mind. He added that irrespective of the number of years spent in a particular station, a minister must be able to equip his members to possess and transform their communities, believing that, by so doing we shall win souls and prepare them for Christ.
Report by: Alex Nana Owusu Nkrumah.
