By bridget ikyado
Rev Isreal Akanji,President of Nigerian Baptist Convention,has urged the Church and Nigerians to show love to one another for the unity and development of the Church as well as the country.
Akanji gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN ) during the Church’s 2023 General Worker’s Conference in Garki,Abuja
The two-day event has the theme:”Entering into newness through love and unity”.
Akanji said that the aim of the conference was to enlighten and strengthen worker’s’ faith on true love as a tool for growth and development.
” The General Worker’s Conference is an annual event at the beginning of every year. We go round the various zones of the country and have sessions with our leaders and members, on the focus of each year.
” The word of God is so massive, and we take it, precept by precept, bit by bit.
” This year, our attention is on love and unity, love is the reason why God sent His only begotten son to the world,” he said.
Akanji said that Jesus himself said ‘by this shall all men know that you’re my disciple, if you love one and another’.
” We are seeing that love is lacking in the world, there is so much cruelty and brutality.
“And in order to restore love,we have to begin with our own people.
“We need love in the homes, within the church, and love among fellow believers as Christians, and then to even those who are not believers, because the love is to be taken round to everybody and everywhere”, he added.
Akanji also added that the main goal of the conference was for God to be glorified, “in our lives,in our churches and in our nation.
The clergy said: ” We want our own people to continue to contribute in love, for the building of the society to make it a better place for all of us to live in.
” Charity they say begins at home, by the time people have this intra knowledge of love they will be able to express an inter knowledge- that is between the Christians and people of other faith.”
In his message,,the FCT Baptist Conference President and Chief Host, Rev Dogara Gwana said,” If the people had love, grounded in their heart, it would strengthen the unity and faith of purpose.”
He said that this would be reflected beyond the four walls of the Church.
“There will be peace,love and unity in our neighbourhood, our places of work, and in the country as a whole, if we relate with ourselves with love, especially people who are not of the same faith”, he said.(NAN)( www.nannews.ng)