Title: Nigerian Brethren refreshed by Jesus Jubilee program Subject: Church of the Brethren Newsline Date: March 30, 2006 From: Church of the Brethren News Services Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103 E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com)
NIGERIAN BRETHREN REFRESHED, RENEWED BY JESUS JUBILEE PROGRAM
March 30, 2006 (Elgin, IL) -- Ekklesiyar Yanâuwa a Nigeria (EYN--th e Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) has developed a congregational renewal program with the help of Robert Krouse, Nigeria mission coordinator for the Church of the Brethren in the US.
The program called Jesus Jubilee is a three-day event hosted by congregations on Friday through Sunday with the aim of stimulating the churc hâs growth and maturity of Christian discipleship. The program emphasizes identifying obstacles to spiritual growth, identifying stages of development a disciple must go through on the way to maturity in Christ, and developing a dynamic personal and corporate prayer life in the faith community.
Nearly 10,000 people have participate in Jesus Jubilee, and many congregations have requested a visit from the congregational renewal team. A similar program is being developed for EYNâs pastors and evangelists. An ou tgrowth of the effort has been the development of the EYN Office of Pastoral Developme nt with Anthony Ndamsai serving as coordinator.
Krouse said that 66 pastors attended a first pastoral development seminar i n Abuja, Nigeria's capital. Word spread and 258 pastors attended the second seminar held a month later. Since then, five seminars have been held in five different regions of EYN, giving every pastor an opportunity to attend. A se cond series of seminars is planned to run each month for five months, beginning in April and concluding in August.
Following is Krouseâs report of the beginnings of Jesus Jubilee:
âThis project began as a field work assignment for Theological Colle ge of Northern Nigeria (TCNN) students. The students are required to do field work between the semester that ends in May and the next semester that begins in August. I had been meeting with EYN TCNN students every Tuesday for a time o f prayer. Some EYN students who are concerned about EYN's drift away from Bret hren teachings and practice were part of the impetus that lead to this weekly prayer meeting.
âAfter several months of praying together, it seemed that God was ca lling us to go out to local congregations with a message of renewal. The idea of Jubilee came from Leviticus 25 where God calls the people of Israel to have a kind of spiritual house cleaning and renew their commitment to God and recom mit themselves to the original covenant every 50 years. It seems that God understands our human tendency to forget who we are and how we are called to live.
âWe decided that we could take the message of Jubilee to 10 congrega tions during the semester break, and we chose meeting places that were central in their districts and large enough so that members from other churches in the district could be invited to attend. A total of about 11,000 people attended the 10 weekends.
âFilibus Gwama, EYN president, attended the Jesus Jubilee weekend th at took place at Hildi No. 1 church. ...He ended up coming to all of the services. H e said to me, `Everyone in EYN needs to receive this message. Our pastors and people have become weary from the hard lives they live, and God will use thi s ministry to refresh them.ââ
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its fa ith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates it s 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
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For more information contact:
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford Director of News Services Church of the Brethren General Board 1451 Dundee Ave. Elgin, IL 60120 847-742-5100 ext. 260 _cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ (mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org)
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