Few years ago I was troubled with a particular thought about our dear Church, Celestial Church Of Christ (CCC). But after sometime I decided to shrug the thoughts off because I knew it would be a hard nut to crack considering the common established system of evangelism in the Church which involves having an Evangelism Department and their primary works are just to organise revival programmes in the Church Auditorium or open air cusades.
According to Wikipedia online, “Evangelism, or witnessing, is the act of sharing the Christian gospel, the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is typically done with the intention of converting others to Christianity. Evangelism can take several forms, such as personal conversations, preaching, media, and is especially associated with missionary work.”
It is quite unfortunate that most parishes do not really engage in true evangelism in converting new souls to Christ. We depend solely on people to come in themselves especially through the prophetic grace God has given to the Church. Many of the new converts came in through visions given to them by prophets, their love for the Church hymns and order of services, anniversaries, events, friends and family etc. But there is a big question! Are the new converts directed and being monitored to denounce their old ways and be born again (accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and saviour)? For most parishes worldwide, we all know the answer is NO. The trend nowadays is that some of these converts do not observe the new-convert counselling and sanctification (Jesu Lon pe o tantan…). They just sew a white garment, put on and join services and eventually becomes part of us. Most Shepherds do not care to checkmate and monitor these new converts. We derive joy in having more people in white garments to fill the Church but we abandon the primary goal which is to convert people genuinely to Christ.
Many revival and crusades are organised just to sell materials for prayer, call top Gospel Artists to trend or compete, to fulfill their annual obligations and use the prgrams as an avenue to generate monies to their pocket. Most of these programs do not prioritize winning souls for Christ. How can you organise a crusade, program or pen air revival and you limit the time for soul winning but gave Artists more time to perform? Why organise this program if your priority is not to win souls for Christ? Why would you organise a program and all they do is being in spirit, soaked in inspiring music and ministrations and dancing but at the end of the day, the people do not get influenced to change their bad ways and being true born again? It is better you call it a worship program or concert. Don’t call it a Revival or crusade if the main purpose of the program is not to win new souls to Christ.
In essence to the vision and mission of Celestial Church Of Christ, many Parishes, Shepherds and Evangelists have failed in this regard.
Continue reading in the Part 2 (concluding part) to know if the answer concluded on is a Yes or No.
PART 2: IS CELESTIAL CHURCH DOING WELL IN EVANGELISM? THE ANSWERS WILL SHOCK YOU!
Written By Seun Elijah
