By Rachel Oke
The Coordinator, Christ Apostolic Church Youth Fellowship (CACYOF), Holy Fire Centre, under Akinyele Region, Pastor Raphael Adegoke, has said that leaders are called by God, not just to occupy position, but to serve.
He said this while addressing leaders during the second lecture session at the Akinyele’s first executive leadership retreat tagged “Count the Cost” held at Christ Family Zonal headquarters, Ketu, Lagos, on Saturday, July 9th, 2022.
Speaking on the topic “Youth Academy: Raising Godly Youths for Global Impact” a lecture which he said was prepared by Pastor S. O. Gbuyiro, the Director of Youth Affairs, Pastor Raphael said that leaders are meant to see their positions as a call to service rather than focusing on the position.
In His words, he said, “God’s does not call people into position rather, He calls them into service, so our positions as leaders is for service and the higher we go, the more we must do.”
He also stressed the need for youths to know that the first purpose of being called by Christ is to be with Him.
According to Him, most youths focus more on manifesting rather than being with Christ who would take them through the process of growth and Himself, send them out for manifestation.
He stated that most people want to manifest yet they have refused to be with Christ and as such not grown to maturity.
In his words he said, "God does not commit assignments to babes. Babies do not manifest; it takes sons to manifest.Our role is to teach them, show them the way to Christ so that they can impact their world for Christ.” He added.
Citing from the anchor scripture for the lecture, Romans 8:19, Pastor Raphael had stated earlier in the lecture that where children of God fail to manifest, the children of the devil takes over.
“It is certain that there must be expectation and there must be emergence. When the children of God fail to manifest, naturally, the children of the devil manifest because there must be somebody to manifest per time," he explained.
Citing Jesus pattern of leadership as the best example to learn from, Pastor Raphael identified discipleship as an important process of raising Godly youths stating that Jesus taught and equipped His disciples for service before sending them out.
He added that many of those who did exploits in the bible were products of discipleship.
Some of the points which Pastor Raphael also highlighted as the pathway of God to raising youth with global impact include Christ’s image, sound mind and excellent spirit like (Daniel), understanding of times and seasons amongst others.