By Aaron Sseruyigo
KAMPALA – Born-again Christians have been urged to extend love toward Muslims and boldly preach the gospel of Christ from the Scriptures and let the Spirit transform lives and communities.
This was during ‘Power Sex and Money’ at Watoto Church – Down town on Friday where Pastor Gary Skinner and Pr. Elias Dantas of the Global Kingdom Partnerships Network (GKPN), an initiative established with the goal of putting together key Christian leaders from around the world, addressed believers.
Pr. Elias Dantas explained that GKPN is a group of esteemed Christian leaders united by their desire to have meaningful relationships, support one another in leadership, encourage the global church by reporting what God is doing in the world today, and work together for a lasting legacy.
Islam’s greatest enemy is Islam, Pr Garry said.
He continued, “I think Islam is self destructing and a lot of the problems going on in the Islamic world are not just because of the fundamental Islamic people killing Christians – that is happening, but they are killing each other.
“I was very thrilled by what is happening at the Global Kingdom Partnerships Network when I heard what the Churches in Europe are doing. We have been sending missionaries to the middle east very unsuccessfully for the last 30-40 years , maybe more, witnessing few Muslim people coming to christ, but that is not true any more.”
At one of their annual meeting held in Miami, FL ,Pr. Elias Dantas told Watoto Church the Holy Spirit led them to join hands to work towards providing help for the suffering and persecuted church and for the refugees in general.
Because of the visibility in the media and the horrible atrocities they are practicing, Dantas explained that the network chose to work with the refugees in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
“In Iraq alone, 30% of the population gave up Islam. How can I love the religion that killed my parents, some of the converts would say. One of the pastors in our network, had the privilege of baptising one of the former vice president’s of Iraq. The Holy spirit is not a spirit of cowardice, He is a spirit of courage. We don’t have to be afraid. Let us win others to christ, let’s begin here in our city,” Pr. Elias Dantas, whose remarks frequently sparked applause, said.
He also noted that the war in Syria has torn the country apart providing extremists the opportunity to target Christians.
“Churches have been destroyed and Christians forced to flee their homes. For those that choose to remain there is a tangible, painful cost,” he said. “We need to do something to help them. Many of them are converting to Christ and we can bless the Christians in this country. We can bring their dignity back and a place to live together.”
Pastor Elias warned that if Christians don’t do what is expected of them, they might soon become a monument, than a movement.
“We have to fight against institutionalization. We are God’s missionary people,” he said. “Jesus is interested in people. He died for people, not organisations. Christianity is an initiative that God established that is meant to last one generation only, unless we reach out to the next one. When I see young people embrace Christianity, for me it is hope.”
Pastor Garry in his remarks urged that God doesn’t want the Church to simply be a nice comfortable place, where believers simply have great music, great preaching, great seats and a comfortable program.
“He wants us to come to a place where we say; God what do you want me to do? And then he says something like; Go into the community and find the poorest of the poor and change them by loving them and serving them,” Garry said.
The duo explained that Christians have to go out as “the message and the messenger” on the communities they live. They noted that one of the things that have to change in Africa is “instead of being on the receiving end, we need to be on the giving end.”
“Africa is often thought of as a big black hole that sucks in a lot of money and spits back problems. We don’t have a good reputation when it comes to money and we are a continent that lives on aid – and it hasn’t solved our poverty problem. We are still as poor as any other poorest continents on earth,” Pastor Garry said.
“We have Africa as one of the most Christian continents in the world, yet we have HIV as it was, governments that are corrupt, we have chaos, disorder and disease. I don’t think God wants Africa to be this way. We are having a cultural shift and change. This shift is not the westernisation of Africa but true Christianisation when we begin to live out the culture of Christ in the community. The culture of Christ is the direct opposite of what most of our culture is about,” he added.
