CMN NIGERIA - HOW IT ALL BEGAN

MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR CONFERENCE 2001

The first-ever Men’s Conference in the country held in three Nigerian cities between Wednesday, June 27 and Friday, July 6, 2001. It took off in Abuja Federal Capital Territory June 27- 29. Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital hosted the conference June 29 -July 2 while the southern oil city of Port Harcourt took its turn July 3 – 6. In each city the facilities of CCIC/VOFM were utilised.

Built around the Christian Men’s Network concept that manhood and Christ -likeness are synonymous, the conference had the theme, Raising Mighty Men of Valour … a revelation of maximised manhood the Conference was attended by men drawn from a wide spectrum of society from within and outside CCIC/VOFM across the denominations.

Ministers and Facilitators also came from a variety of backgrounds. Apart from the Host Senior Pastor, Rev Dr Tunde Joda, there was Rev Larry Titus from Foursquare, Youngstown, Ohio, United States of America who had been in ministry for 35 year. Dr Edwin Louis Cole’s video ministrations also featured prominently.

Minister Emmanuel Asiedu Appiah, Executive Director, Leaders International, a body, which has identified Africa’s 21^st Century Challenge as that of Developing Godly Leaders conducted series of Word-based workshops on leadership and management. He is a Ghanaian internationally acclaimed Business Consultant and CMN representative in his home country.

Kunle Falola, a Minister of Songs also ministered in anointed and prophetic songs.

The Conference was preceded by four weeks of intense publicity using the various media of mass communication – radio, television and print. Rev Tunde Joda addressed a media conference and appeared on one of the most popular breakfast magazine programmes on Nigerian Television. Banners were produced and placed at strategic positions in the three cities. Rallies were also held in Lagos. The men’s fellowship of each of the centres of CCIC made joyful noises and distributed flyers to publicise the conference in their respective localities. This climaxed with an all-centre rally in which the centres were grouped into three each group took off from a selected point in a colourful motorised parade around a section of the city before all groups converged at the international headquarters of the church, venue of the conference.

There were Morning and Evening Sessions. Generally, the morning sessions which opened at 9:00am with intercessory prayers and praise and worship featured mainly workshops. There were three workshops of about one hour each.

The evening sessions were a mix of workshops, and praise and worship and teaching services. The weekend of June 29 – July 1 in Lagos was however more intensive. Average attendance for the morning weekday sessions was 600 while for the weekend it averaged about 800. Evening sessions drew an average of 1,500.

COMMUNIQUÉ OF MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR CONFERENCE 2001

After ten (10) days of listening to the anointed men of God, drinking from the deep well of divine wisdom that it has pleased God, the Almighty to make available to Nigerian men at this time in the life of our nation and, meditating on it all, we feel led to make the following declarations:

• That the State of the Nigerian nation today is a reflection of the state of the Nigerian man;

• That given that the generality of Nigerians are not satisfied with the state of the nation, the Nigerian man is, like Gideon in the Bible currently wallowing in the threshing room of low-performance and irrelevance, with many unable to provide for their families and contribute to the uplifting of their community and the nation.

• That in spite of this unsatisfactory situation, men from the rest of Africa, at several fora continue to express their expectation of Nigerian men to provide the leadership that God has ordained for Nigeria;

• That from the foregoing there is an urgent need to address issues of manhood as related to the Nigerian man vis-à-vis the God-ordained foundational role in the family, the community, the nation, the continent of Africa and even the world;

• That in addressing these critical issues, the Scripture provides a COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE not only for spiritual development but also for the attainment of self- and group-fulfilling leadership to the family, the community and the nation in all facets of life including public and corporate governance;

· That a critical starting point is the need for Nigerian men to PUSH THE FRONTIERS of their God-given CREATIVITY and RESOURCEFULNESS and RAISE THE STANDARDS of PERFORMANCE and BEHAVIOUR in their private and public lives;

• That these imply that Nigerian men must say a firm NO to laziness, mediocrity, expediency, ethical compromise and inferiority complex in all that they do and ENTHRONE a culture of hard work, excellence, Godly living and FAITH in the goodness of GOD;

• That towards providing a powerful forum for ensuring that iron can continue to sharpen iron in the raising of men of valour, of integrity and of purpose to take Nigeria and Africa to the heights ordained for her by the Creator, CHAMPIONS FOR CHRIST is being expanded to draw membership from outside of CCIC/VOFM – from other churches, social groups and elsewhere.

• Finally our CLARION is this - NIGERIAN MEN, ARISE!

SIGNED:
Rev Dr Tunde Joda
President, Champions for Christ
Tuesday, July 10, 2001.