Up-to-date News from various assemblies, districts and regions in GOFAMINT
ENOUGH OF THE YOUTH EXODUS
“Is your church Sunday School Out?”
“I saw the advert of your HOSAM on TV!”
“I listened to the message of your G.O. yesterday!”.
“So you are still not through with your so-called victory month prayer!”
“Anyway, I am now free from such bondages!”
These are the many remarks made by some of our youths that have exited the church.
The National Leader GOFAMINT Men's Fellowship, Elder Abel Afolabi has enumerated a number of reasons for youth exits in the Church and he suggested solutions to salvage the situation. He made these known while delivering a lecture at the General Men's Fellowship meeting organized during the 45th annual convention of the mission.
Elder Afolabi gave a catalogue of these reasons under the topic “Exodus of our children from our church: Suggestions for Solution”.
Pastor Abel Afolabi said the exodus of our children from the church nowadays is alarming and thus has placed danger on the future of the church. He lamented that the bonafide and legitimate members and children of a home are marching out from their father's house and heritage; children who were born and bred in GOFAMINT, fed daily with God's undiluted word, right from infancy to their youthful and adult stage, are now turning their backs on their fathers' heritage abandoning what they have once cherished, looking elsewhere to serve God.
“Unsavoury remarks and destructive criticism of church leaders, uncomplimentary and damaging information about the church and some of its ministers; the deplorable state of the majority of our church, the establishment of the church in strategic places in the country in order to attend GOFAMINT churches during their youth service, these and many more have given room for other denominations to lure them into their fold." He, then used the medium to advise the church to get a landed property with good structure by the road side and not in remote areas.
He said that our children are leaving because some of them could not get husband or wife after a long wait and while some children felt that our system has used and dumped their parents in their time of need, some left because of what they termed favouritism, partiality and ethnic consideration on crucial matters. He looked into our loss by their departure. He said that their departure will lead to the loss of well trained personnel to take over from this present generation, the loss of continuity of GOFAMINT membership in that lineage, financial loss – as all the obligations like tithes, offerings, donations and pledges now go to their new churches.
The MEFEL leader later talked on possible solutions to this exodus saying that we should speak well of our leaders in our homes, that our criticism should not be destructive and official matters regarding the church should be made strictly official. We should raise the standard of our church buildings to encourage young people to stay by getting good location with good access roads when considering buying land for new assemblies. The youth should be given necessary encouragement to work in the church while the Mission should take inventory of members who occupy important positions at their work place with the aim of encouraging them to accommodate our graduates when employment opportunities arise. And lastly, services in our churches should not be unnecessarily prolonged.
In his conclusion, Elder Afolabi said that we should let our children realize that “there is no place like home” and that they have fathers who have listening ears. “We all should join hands together to make this church a place of pride for us all”, he advised.
