-Wrap-up speech-TAFJ Ministers 1st Convention

 

Wrap-Up Session-TAFJ Ministers 1^st Convention

21 March 2009

This 1^st conference has been a milestone in the history of our church when we have to come together to discuss how we can be more effective ambassadors for Christ. (2 Cor. 5:20) If I were to come up with a theme for this conference, it would be: Building the Church in Unity and Love. As the Apostle Paul has written to the Philippians, “whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” Albert Barnes, a commentator of the Bible had this to say about the Philippians, “Though there might be different degrees of attainment among Christians, and different views on many subjects, yet there were points in which all could agree; there were attainments which they all had made, and in reference to them they should walk in harmony and love.” The best way true Christians can be harmonious is to labor together in the common cause of bringing lost souls to salvation in Christ Jesus that the Father may be glorified in the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When I proceeded last night to make a wrap-up of what were taken up in the past two days of presentations and discussions, I was very well off to pouring into more than two pages of summarization of the proceedings. But I realized that I was not going anywhere. When we go to the details of our discussions, it is so easy to get lost in the woods. We tend to see the trees rather than the forest. I was trying to summarize the events as if this was the last conference that we have to make (unless the Lord Jesus will come to rapture us out of this world before we can schedule another conference).

But then I realized that this is just the start of a continuing conference. What may not have been elucidated here may become clearer as the Lord Jesus reveals more knowledge and wisdom to us in the next days or in the next conference. The details of presentations/discussion need not be mentioned again. There are handouts if anyone would like to go over them again.

But I think, there are some general consideration of significance brought out to light in this conference that need to be mentioned to guide us and keep us in check towards the overarching reason for this gathering and for succeeding gatherings, i.e., to bring more lost souls to salvation in Christ Jesus. Matters of significance that I gleaned from the discussions are:

       1. The need to have a regular schedule of conferences as a further and continuing training and study on the Bible that Bishops and Ministers may have a more complete understanding of our Statements of Faith and an orderly practice of our Church Code.

       2. The need to set-up an accredited Seminary or Bible School to train workers and as a venue where Biblical doctrines and church’s practical work can be discussed in more detail than what we did here. This may not be easy to set up and may take some time, but we need to start somewhere.

       3. The church is not perfect because we make up the church. While we are not perfect now until the appearing of our Lord Jesus when we shall see Him as He is and when we shall be like Him (1 Jn. 3:2), yet our imperfections are no reason for us not to strive to please God the Father by conforming ourselves to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord from glory to glory, from excellence to excellence by God the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18) That is the reason why we have the Holy Bible which teachings have been outlined in the Statements of Faith, the Church Code and All the Truth. Again, our imperfections should not cause us to make exceptions from these faith and conduct of a child of God. God’s word, Biblical teachings and practices should not be subordinated to fleeting and temporary reasons of man, like, “we may not be understood by visitors” or “nobody yet has memorized the covenant recitations (Exo. 20:1-17; Ps. 62; Phil. 3:1-16) from the Bible” or any other, because those reasons shall pass away but the word of God revealed through the Lord Jesus shall remain forever.

<!  4. We need to be more mission-minded. Our founding Archbishop, Rev. Edilberto C. Medina, has laid a legacy of a good foundation of Biblical truth in each one of us. It is now high-time for us to bring out and teach and preach the truth of our Lord Jesus to a lost world. Unless the church goes to the mission field, it will die a natural death. I do not believe this is the destiny of the church, for Jesus said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The field is out there. There is a cost of going to the field. It is not insurmountable though, when all of us bear the burden. There is a great need to support field work and workers, building of church edifices, care for the needy and the sick, food for the hungry.

<!    5. And now, may I make a point that the only reason, we are striving in all of these is that we may build up the body of Christ, the Church. We may become top theologians, we may have a truly Christocentric, Christoregulated and Christonormative teaching of the Bible, but when we do not have the mind of humility of Christ, we cannot submit ourselves to one another, there would be an absence of order; there would be no love and concern among us. Then we would have failed miserably in proclaiming the gospel of Christ for it would appear that we should preach and teach unto ourselves before we can preach and teach to others. Until we can project the gracious image of Christ, we will not be able to cover additional grounds.

        6. Lastly, may I say, we cannot overcome the world to claim it for the Lord Jesus except we operate by faith for faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 Jn. 5:4-5), we cannot be more than conquerors for the kingdom of God without the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:35-39), we cannot use the world for the glory of God until we take it out from the abuse of the wicked world (1 Cor. 7:29-31).

We may have planted, we may have watered the mission field, but unless our Lord Jesus gives the increase to all our sowing and caring in the field, our efforts will be put to nought because we are not sufficient by ourselves. Without the underlying prayer of committing all of these to the Lord Jesus Christ by prayer and supplication, we cannot do anything. (Jn. 15:5) But we can do all things through Christ Who strengthen us. (Phil. 4:13)

The Lord Jesus Christ bless us all.

 

 

By Bro. Mario I. Quitoriano

 

 

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