BUILDING HIS TEMPLE – Thoughts on a Coming Bible Conference
By: Deji Yesufu
A careful reading of the New Testament will reveal two important things to God in his relationship with the saints: the need for God’s people to be doers of the word and not just hearers alone, and the need to remind the saints of things they know already. When we hear biblical truths and we do not do them, we are hypocritical, and we are better off not wasting energy with the practice of religion. Such persons could consider returning to the world because their end would be no different from that which will befall the unbelieving. But just as important as obeying biblical commands, is the need to equally be reminded to do them. Peter in his second epistle wrote: “…knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. Moreover, I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance…” (2Peter 1:14-15). Peter recognizes our human frailties and our tendency to forget. So, he tells his readers that before he dies, he plans to bring a few things to their remembrance. This is what Crown Reformed Assembly will be doing through their coming 1:21 Annual Conference with the theme: “Building His Temple”.
Crown Reformed Assembly, organizers of this conference, made it clear to textandpublishing what 1:21 Conferences is all about: “The 1:21 conferences is an outreach of the Crown Reformed Assembly and serves as an umbrella for our bible conferences and seminars.” They continue: “The 1:21 conferences consist of two tracks; the 1:21 youth conference and the 1:21 Bible Summit. The bible summit is focused on the broader body of Christ, while the youth conference is primarily targeted at the youth, the single and the unmarried. As a growing church in the metropolitan city of Lagos, a city teeming with youthfulness, we noticed an eerie absence of Christ-centered and theocentric gospel witness from the Church especially as it pertains to the increasing confusion and anxiety among teenagers and youth on the issues bringing glory to GOD in dating, singleness and marriage. We firmly believe that the situation calls for Gospel cogency and clarity and we have set our anchor of hope for our city and our country in the Crucified and Risen Christ. The name ‘1:21’ is culled from Philippians 1:21; ‘For me to live is Christ and to die is gain’. We are convinced that this truth must be weaved through every sphere of life.”
Crown Reformed Assembly is carrying out this conference with Mission West Africa. Here is a synopsis of this organization: “Mission West Africa is a Christian organization dedicated to advancing the Gospel across Nigeria and the wider West African region. We are a coalition of Nigerian brothers based in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), who share a common desire to be used as tools in God’s hands for the church reformation in West Africa. By the mercies of God, having been exposed to the expositional teaching of the Bible and becoming active members of healthy Evangelical churches in the U.A.E, our desire is borne out of a deep concern for the discouraging state of the Church in West Africa. Our mission is rooted in the conviction that strong, Gospel-centred churches are essential to transforming believers, gradually conforming them to the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:2). Hence, we are committed to partnering with, planting, and supporting healthy churches as they strive to faithfully proclaim the Word of God and disciple believers in their respective churches. By equipping them with the resources and training necessary to grow in their understanding and application of Scripture, we aim to strengthen their ability to teach and live out the Gospel with clarity and conviction (2 Timothy 2:15). Through initiatives such as mission-centric financial support, internships, and conferences, Mission West Africa seeks to empower churches to flourish in their calling, fostering a vibrant, Christ-centred community across West Africa. In partnership with healthy churches in the region, Mission West Africa is committed to the ongoing work of the Great Commission (Mathew 18-20), trusting that as we labour together, the Gospel will continue to bear fruit and multiply to the ends of the earth.”
This year’s conference is themed “Building His Temple”. The primary target audience for the conference is ministers of the gospel – although anyone with a heart for Christ and the gospel is open to come. The conference will be aiming to help gospel preachers plant churches and this is where the issue almost always arises. Those of us who have been in this business of church planting recognize that it is usually easier to join an established denomination or church system and serve a pastor under them. Now, this is not to belittle those who do this: God has called every one of us to different things in life. The real challenge, however, is with planting churches from the start. Besides the perennial matter of paucity of funds, there is also the problem of the deep distrust in the community of church planters. There appears to be a strong contradiction in Nigeria: on one hand, there are just too many churches in our cities, towns, and villages. On the other hand, there are still not enough churches because most of the existing churches do not preach the gospel. So, when the church planter arrives in a community, he is looked upon as “of the many others”, and this could stand as a major setback for his work. This conference will be attending to such practical challenges and will offer insight on how to solve them.
Perhaps the most important contribution that this conference will bring to gospel preaching in Nigeria will be a reminder of what the gospel is. The Nigerian Christian community needs to be shown that a lot of the things that carry on the tag of preaching in many churches are not preaching at all but noise-making. Apart from the patently false prosperity gospel that pervades our churches, there is the fact that many pastors do not the know basic truths of the Christian life; many of them do not have a lively relationship with the Saviour; they do not know what it means for their sins to be forgiven; heaven is not a motivating factor in their preaching; and greed has become the spirit that motivates everything they do in ministry. This conference will help purge many of such persons of these unbiblical practices. This year’s 1:21 Conference will be held on Friday and Saturday 24th and 25th of April, 2025. You can register for the conference via the link here. Again, the target audience is ministers of the gospel, but church people who have a heart for gospel preaching are also invited to be around.
All kinds of philosophies and ideologies rule our world. Yet the biblical worldview that our fathers have passed unto us over 2000 years has not eroded. What is very clear to me is this: any enduring and workable idea that will flourish in our world today must be founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should recognize, however, that the Christian worldview will not flourish until men are captivated by these truths; until they abandon every other pursuit in life to propagate these truths; and until we find people who will come along with these men to support the propagating of these truths. It is the whole process of forming a community of people around the church planter that births a local church in a place. May God grant that the tribe of genuine gospel preaching increase in our world today because we are very much in need of them.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO.
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