By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
The Abuja Baptist Conference has begun the training of no fewer than 60 Church leaders from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to enhance quality leadership and effective administration.
The FCT President of the Baptist Conference, Dr Dogara Gwana, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja at the sideline, described the training as a necessity.
The Pastor’s Leadership Summit with the theme: “The Pastor and Personal Growth”, was organised by the conference and facilitated by Maxwell Leadership and Inspired 2 Lead.
According to Gwana, the training is for pastors and leaders of the church.
“We discovered that pastors are leaders and they need to continue to improve themselves. They need to learn, unlearn and relearn.
“It is by that the they will become very effective in problem solving, impacting their people and responding to contemporary challenges.
“Unless pastors are equip with the necessary skills and the challenges for personal growth and improvement, they become an axe that is dull and not sharpen.
“We hope that after this training, there is going to be improvement in the way they relate with their congregation and contribute to the society,” he said.
Dr Emmanuel Adewara, the Secretary, Baptist Fellowship of the FCT Baptist Conference said the training was long overdue.
Adewara, also the Senior Pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Kubwa, said the training was to spur up the intentionality in the heart of every pastor to be committed to personal growth.
“Pastors are always concern about growing people, but we find it difficult to remember to grow ourselves. If we don’t grow ourselves, we will find it difficult to grow other people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Music and Worship at the New Estate Baptist Church, Gudu, Rev. Gracious Okoronkwo, said the training for Church leaders was a welcome development.
“When leadership is taken care of, all the other plans and programmes of the organisation is going to work out well.
“Poor leadership has led to lot of challenges in the country. When we invest in leadership, we are building up the nation, our families, homes and society,” Okoronkwo said.
Also, Mr Odeyemi Olayiwola, the Facilitator and the Chief Executive Officer, ‘Inspired 2 Lead’, a leadership training organisation said the essence was to help spiritual leadership see the importance of growing their personal leadership.
“This is because, you can’t give what you don’t have. Self leadership is crucial. This is done so that they can offer quality and better leadership to their congregation, family, community and the nation at large.
“The truth is that if you can’t train them, then you don’t blame them; that is why we are having a training like this to ensure that people are equipped to be able to offer the leadership that is required,” he said.
NAN reports that topics treated during the training includes, the Law of Intentionality, Law of Awareness, Law of the Mirror, How to find Passion and Purpose as well as Internal Growth. (NAN)