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| Pastor I.D.O. Akinpelu |
The Missions Pastor, Christ Apostolic Church, Akinyele Region, Pastor I. D. O. Akinpelu, has called out the roles of leaders and followers on the missions field, emphasizing on the importance of loyalty for missionaries.
He pronounced care for the people as the first leadership role on missions field, declaring that, "people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. People are interested in the person who is interested in them."
Pastor Akinpelu, who presented this on the 19th of September 2021 at the 2nd mission conference of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria and Overseas, held at All Saints Chapel, CAC Secretariat, Ibadan, Oyo State, explored some facts that will enable leaders and followers to imbibe the culture of loyalty.
According to him, "loyalty is what you give regardless of what you get; loyalty is the strongest glue which makes relationship last for a lifetime; true loyalty is hard to find; true loyalty remains even in the face of adversity; loyalty begins with you; loyalty is only possible when you make it triangular."
Having identified the eight "S" of loyalty as, sincerity, stickability, supportiveness, stability, strength, spreading, success, and sustainability; the cleric expounded how each key word is essential to the existence and practise of loyalty by ministers.
The missions Pastor, highlighting other leadership roles on missions field to include, believing in people, valuing people, encouraging people, trusting people, having empathy on people, listening to people, being honest with people, and discovering the leadership ability in people; also listed the roles expected of followers.
He said, "be loyal to Christ; always see Christ in your leader; follow with action; create the culture of unbroken relationship; avoid being hypocritical; follow your leader with God as a reason; don't desert your leaders in times of pressure; always preserve your personal integrity; and have personal values."
Pastor Akinpelu furthered that, "Having a follower mindset is the ultimate requirement for creating a culture of loyalty. This mindset gets rid of selfishness, self-aggrandizement, pride, disloyalty, disgruntled, double-face, double-mouth and what have you."
"Stay committed to the classroom of discipleship. A disciple is a follower. So, let the leaders and followers on mission fields remained a follower of Christ till the end, and loyalty culture will prevail in Christ Apostolic Church Missions Department. This will dignifiy us and terrify Satan," he concluded.