Contributing Writer George Stewart
Over 50 young pastors and church workers have ended a two day young ministers’ conference in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, organized by a Liberian pastor based in the United States.
Reverend Joseph Cephas Davis hosted his first young minister’s conference on February 7 and 8, 2020 in his birth city of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
The young ministers came from different denominations and local churches in Grand Bassa County.
A write-up circulated among conferees stated the purpose of the conference in two-fold; the first is to train young ministers into social justice and multimedia evangelism, the second is to initiate spiritual revival among pastors.
On the latter purpose of the conference, the US based pastor, Rev. Davis said the congregation depends on pastors to care for their welfare, but the parishioners may think their pastor is a superheroes, free of all human challenges.
“So, I have a vision to care for pastors, starting with the young people who have left the world’s pleasure to lead God’s people.” Davis said.
Rev. Davis stated that the young minister’s conference has been launched as an annual event of his charity group called God’s Hand & Feet International. He’s contemplating on working with theological schools in Grand Bassa, to begin within, to take on an out-of classroom learning experience in the communities where the gospel is most needed.
“I find it good to take pastors in training to the prison, to the poorest of the poor and hard-to- reach terrains of the Gospel. They may just begin to see the practical needs of the gospel to the oppressed and depressed of the society”, David said.
Rev. Davis, a United Methodist prelate ordained by here in Liberia, served as lead facilitator on topics such as “The Minister, as a prophet of Justice and Reconciliation”, “Black interpretation of the Bible”, and “Christianity Reflection in Africa and Liberia”. He’s a liberation theologian with a Master of Divinity from Perkins School of Theology and a candidate of Master Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law. Rev. Davis is the pastor of Easton Place United Methodist Church in Iowa, USA.
Another topic that participants of the conference said they gained from is Multimedia Evangelism which highlighted the use of new media in addition to traditional media as effective tools for evangelism. Christian media specialist, George Stewart who also hails from Grand Bassa County facilitated the topic.
He encouraged church folks to take advantage of social media, particularly Facebook to reach out to young people who are already fanatics of Facebook. He said successful televangelists of the world have begun using social media platform including Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin as well to spread the Gospel of Christ.
At the closing ceremony on Friday, February 8, 2020 some young pastors expressed deep appreciation for the conference as an eye-opener to their ministries. Some revealed that they have not attended seminary or Bible school since the call of God felled on them, but the conference sparked their interest and quest for theological studies.
They promised to attend next year conference once given the opportunity.