Pastor Festus A. Oyebade
By Boluwatife Oparinde
With a burning heart and desire to see to the raising and building of a formidable and effective workforce in the house of God, it behoves on local churches the need to train her workforce to remain effective, efficient and stand strong in Christ.
This is the pull behind the recent ministrations of Pastor Festus A. Oyebade, the Minister-in-charge of Christ Apostolic Church Oke Itura, Soyoye, Sabo District, Abeokuta, across some Christ Apostolic Churches and other denominations since last year for church workers.
Emphasizing the need for building an active and disciplined church workers towards easing the workload/burdens of the Church Pastor and serving the Lord wholeheartedly, Pastor Oyebade gave the call that church workers must be ready to surrender everything, even their certificates to work for God, the Master.
"A Church worker is a servant with a Master. Everyone has a Master. A Church worker has no power over him/herself. A person who is at the disposal of another person, somebody in the confinement of another person higher than him/her, who does not have power over him/herself, who does not have his/her own private agenda but submits totally to the dictates of His master," he said.
While ministering on the topic "The Role of Church Workers" under the theme "Workers' Impact in the Development of the Church" at the Workers' Seminar of Christ Apostolic Church Mount of Mercy, Alagbomeji, Abeokuta, held on Saturday, 28th May, 2022, the cleric stated that the church can only be effective to the degree of the fire of the church workers.
The clergyman who described church workers as burden bearers, who are called "to assist or give a helping hand in lifting a heavy load; see his/her work as a necessity/compulsory task; who seeks not to please himself but the one who calls him to serve; and who surrenders all to follow his Master."
He also highlighted that effective church workers are the key to a growing church, can help or hinder church growth; stating that, it is the fire of the workers that will fire the church and what drives the church workers will drive the church.
Pastor Oyebade explained that, "prayer, discovery of strengths and abilities, training of workers, giving room for development and recognition and appreciation of workers" are some ingredients to building an effective workers in the church.
