The church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion is holding their
2016 annual leaders conference at St Paul’s Cathedral Church, Diobu,
Port-Harcourt. I was opportune to be in one of the seminar session where
Venerable John C. Adubasim talked about THE USE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY FOR EFFECTIVE MINISTRY. I know he did justice to that within the
time frame allotted and I found it interesting.
At this time it may not be surprising that some people do
not appreciate the use of ICT in effective ministry yet they indirectly take
part and benefit from ICT. Someone during the session asked why some people would
prefer the use of such gadgets as the IPAD, telephones to read the bible
instead of using the hard copy that has been in evoke? May be this persons finds the use ICT in that regards uninteresting. But thanks to God for the clarifications
by the man of God who explained that there is no harm about that instead those
gadgets bring comfort and to give a sense of belonging to someone, he encouraged any one bound to use them to make room
for alternatives.
There was a particular church which ones condemned the use
of Television but recently, the general overseer of the church averred that he
would reverse all the wrong teachings he has taught his congregation before he
dies. It is not surprising that some denominations still hold such views tenaciously, that the
use of TV and the internet is demonic since it exposes people to different evil
practices. All the same, I pray that God will reveal the truth to them and make
them to appreciate the place of ICT in effective ministry.
According to Venerable John Adubasim, the effective use of
information and communication technology in effective ministry touches such areas
as;
Enhancing the worship experience
Branding the local church, giving the local church a name,
making the content of the local church the best of its kind and projecting it
to the world village, the massage is the same; find the best available means
within the locale to project the gospel. In this content, what works in Lagos
may not work in your community, but it is the same gospel that is being passed
to the people in Lagos and the people in your community. So effective use of
ICT in the context of branding the local church entails finding out how best to
communicate to the people of your community, the gospel of Christ. You must not
use the Lagos method of communication in your area not minding how beautiful it
may look
Communicating with the congregation; for effective use of
ICT in the ministry, the leader must fine means of regular communication with
his congregation. It is confirmed that a good number of the people in the
congregation visits the church only once a week-on Sundays. Some may not come,
as a leader you cannot allow these once to wallow. You have to find a way of
reaching them. Do not be surprise that most of them may be interested in the
gospel but for work schedules. Take for example a leader who has a member that
is an offshore worker. He work is programmed in such a way that he is four
weeks in and a week out of filed. As a leader you can still reach such a member
in social media still to pass the message to him. Besides, there are people
that may not be attentive while the message is on, for such people ICT has made
it possible to pass the gospel beyond the fore walls of the worship center. For
effectiveness in ministry, the leader can also use ICT to communicate with his
members at regular r intervals.
Other points he raised are, extending the size of the
congregation, proliferating the message and becoming a world church.
The place of ICT in today’s evangelism cannot be overlooked,
and anyone who sees ICT from the negative perspective has not prepared to
effectively minister to his congregation. Thank you Venerable John, more power
to your elbows
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