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| The Special Assistant to CAC President, Pastor T.D. Asokeji |
By Boluwatife Oparinde
Special Assistant to the President of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria and Overseas, and Chaplain of CAC All Saints Chapel, Ibadan, Pastor Tunde D. Asokeji has described CAC youths as the Biblical Joseph who interprete the dreams of the Church.
He said, "like Joseph, you are in the best position to interprete our dreams. May you not fail in this regard, in Jesus' name."
Pastor Asokeji also assured the youths of Christ Apostolic Church of solid support from the Church Authority at the just concluded 2024 Academic Stars Summit held at Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), Ikeji Arakeji, Osun State.
Charging the youths from 1 Timothy 4:12, he said "Like Daniel in Babylon, you have been planted where you are (Campus) by divine orchestration to be salt and light. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example."
In his address at the Summit, he noted that the Authority of the Church "understands the value and great impact that the Church can make through the youths. Hence, we are committed to do our best to encourage and empower you."
According to him, the recent appointment made into the various Professional work groups/committee in the Church were drawn from the database of students and artisans across the regions of the Church.
He explained that, "Christ Apostolic Church is blessed with very high-quality of human resources in various fields of human endeavour."
"From our interactions so far, especially in the course of our visits to the regions - e.g. OREKOYA, Medaiyese and ODUSONA, we have had very productive engagements with Professionals, Artisans and Students. Consequently, we began to create a database for those who responded to our call for their biodata," he said.
Noting how the church leadership has done so much to recognize and give the Youth a voice, the All Saints Ibadan Chaplain said the church is committed to keep supporting the youths in the best ways.
Speaking on the summit, the cleric described it as a forum "which presents participants opportunities for learning, networking, and professional development" adding that, "it should be a forum to get proper feedbacks from our children on the various Campuses of our institutions of learning."
He challenged the youths to "make use of this summit to examine critical issues as it concerns our Church and come up with constructive suggestions that will help us to jointly move the Church forward, to the place where the Lord purposed us to be."
"We would like to see you come up with a communique from this summit which would be promptly, thoroughly and objectively discussed by the Director of Youth Affairs and his team of leaders who would eventually come up with actionable outcomes including, a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), credible milestones, realistic timeline, who does what and relevant budgetary proposals."
He also charged the "Alumni of the various Campus Fellowship to rise up to the occasion and partner with us to make the Campus Fellowships viable and impactful where they are."