By Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
Leadership of various church denominations in Nigeria have been charged to ensure adequate training of pastors to curb erroneous spread of God’s kingdom and the protection of theological goals.
The Zonal Pastor of Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Nigeria, (CEFN), Lokoja, Rev. (Dr) Malachi Ogakwu gave the charge at the graduation ceremony of CEFN Theological Seminary at the permanent site of the institution, Anyigba in Dekina Local government area, Kogi state over the weekend.
He described Theological education as the potential seedbed for the renewal of Church ministries, nurturing of capable and mature pastors for the commitment to Christian unity and the ever changing world.
“With this focus, the founding fathers of our denomination saw the need to establish bible school in the native language in the middle of 19th centuries, later, from vernacular into English in 70s in the name of Faith Bible College, and to CEFN Theological College (CTC) in 1989 and finally to CEFN Theological Seminary (CTS) respectively.”
He pointed out that the Danger of False Teaching Motivates Emergence of Churches with leaders who are unable to correct false doctrine adding “false teaching is rampant in today’s world due to the amount of information available to the global church via the internet and other social media.”
“Only through sound, well-rounded theological education will enhance the future of church leaders who gain the knowledge necessary to wisely discern truth from error which every pastor must give an account to the Lord who set him apart to shepherd his flock” he added.
Ogakwu said “In the light of such an awesome reality, any Seminary that leaves half baked Pastors behind to lead a church is guilty of the ministry malpractice. A theological institution simply cannot, in good conscience leave untrained pastors who are poorly equipped to man churches.”
He stressed the need for Pastors to labour in crafting the training modules that can be reproduced and address the issues that are most important from the Scripture and in the local culture.
Theological education, according to him “is, therefore, not optional, but necessary for a healthy church growth and its protection from theological error.”
He stressed the need to identify the place of seminary formation in the life of the local Churches that will highlight its significance and importance to the future of evangelization of humanity.
He urged pastors to look on the seminary as the very heart of the Local Church and should give all the necessary support that could enhance its growth.
The Zonal Pastor therefore stressed that the primary goal of seminary formation is to produce men who will be intellectually, socially and spiritually equipped to be effective instruments of evangelization in every parts of the world.
Earlier, the Provost of the Theological Seminary, Rev. Gabriel Akeji pointed out that the graduation ceremony was anchored on the CEFN policy on Theological education with the aim of equipping pastors with sound Theological
knowledge for preaching and
teaching of the word of God.
Akeji noted that the Seminary is also to prepare people who are called for ministry as vanguards of undiluted word of God in the face of glaring heretical teaching of the time.
He disclosed that the Theological Seminary graduated 31 candidates with 21 with degree and 10 for the award of Diploma, among whom is Peninah Atule Tom Yakubu, the first female Theological graduate from the Zonal headquarters church, Lokoja.
