By Ebunoluwa Sessou

A need for more missionaries in the mission field has become a necessity as more souls are losing grip of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was the highlight of the just concluded 2025 Global Mandate Conference organised by the Agape Generation International Church founded by the Senior Pastor, Reverend Toyin Kehinde.

The conference was witnessed by more than 250 people including pastors from different African countries in the rural areas, city pastors, healthcare givers, among others.

With the theme, “His Word in Our World”, the coordinator said, the essence of the conference boils down from the passion and vision as a church to get the gospel to the end of the earth. Jesus Christ said, “Go ye into the World and Preach the Gospel to all creatures.

Speaking, some of the pastors who spoke with the Vanguard called on churches especially in Nigeria to prioritize missionaries work in rural areas.

Evangelist Koffi Leon from Bamako in Mali, said, “We need more missionaries in the field, especially from Nigeria. We are asking that people will be led by the Spirit of God to have passion for the dying souls in Mali.

“Lots of churches including Winners Chapel, Assemblies of God have been wonderful but we are few missionaries from every church on the field. We want churches to send missionaries to help us. Mali people need Jesus Christ in their lives”, he said.

“Grace has always been speaking for the Christians in Mali. The people of Mali want to see the Christ that you profess in your life. If you say you believe in God through Jesus Christ, they want to see the life of Christ in you so that they can come to Christ through you.

“We have many churches in Mali and we are using what God gives us as talents to win the souls of people to Christ.

“From Mali, we take the work of the mission to Mauritania, this is a region where Christians are killed at will but we are praying for Mauritania people to come to God.

Pastor Gaius Reuben, of the Faithful Ambassadors Redeemers Ministry, Tesawa Church, Niger Republic, said, “Speaking on the challenges, he said, “It is difficult for people within the community to call us pastors or a Christians. There are people in the mission field who have spent more than 10 years and nobody calls them pastors.

“My advice is that missionaries should ensure they do their best to see how they can explore the opportunities for the next program to be equipped for the mission field. My prayer is that the organizers of the programme would keep running it for generations to come.

“One of the major things I have learnt in the conference is the collaboration between two and three people in the ministry can bring about success in the work of the mission.

“I cannot do the mission only; I need someone to collaborate with me. I have been attending the conference for a while and I believe that this year’s conference has also built me up and I believe that it will translate to an efficient and effective mission field.

“I have also learnt that I need the support of people in my community as well as they need me”, he said.

Rev Kyeyune Ronald of the Christ City Church, Kampala, Uganda, ““With the conference, there is an awakening consciousness to know that the young generations are digitized and the church needs to explore all necessary machinery to imbibe the teachings of the Bible in them.

“We need to incorporate the GenZ into the preaching and allow for proper teaching in the word of God that would transform their lives.

“We were told that we need to incorporate teaching as entrenched in the Word of God. Within the church setting, we have the saints, sinners and those who need edification. So, as a preacher, I need to consider those areas.

“Another aspect is the issue of succession plan which the speakers have made us understand that most churches die as soon as their founders die which was not the way of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Therefore, there is need for mentorship, discipleship and coaching on the side of the pastors”, he said.

Evangelist Ramatul Suleiman of the Assemblies of God Church, Tamale, Ghana, said, “I have a Saviour who believes in love for humanity and on those strengths I have been able to relate in a hostile environment. Being a Christian is a sacrifice and I look up to Jesus Christ who has been my source of courage. I present myself to demonstrate the love of God to them.

“I have gotten lots of experiences from the conference and I believe that it will help me on the mission field”, she said.

Pastor Omotoye Alade of the Christ Image Assembly in Abuja said, “Missionaries are needed in order to carry out the work of God”.

In his reaction, the coordinator of the Global Mandate Conference, Pas Toyin Kehinde said, “Missionaries from Northern Nigeria, West Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Europe, as well as pastors attended the conference.

According to him, the programme was an annual gathering of missionaries to network and collaborate together.

“Missionaries come together under one umbrella to give a report of the activities that have been happening for the past one year. Reports on the challenges, prayer points to be raised, and needs.

“This was an avenue to recharge one another and remind ourselves of this task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

“To restrategise because the days are changing. We need to know what to do and how we could further collaborate. It was also a time for the missionaries to rest.

“We also carried out medical checks on them because they work in places where a lot of times, medical facilities are not available.

“The most important task of the church today is to make sure that the gospel gets to places, people and spaces where it has not reached. The unsaved are different from the unreached.

“A lot of work by the church today is focused on the unsaved. We have them in our city centres, as colleagues, but lots of the church’s manpower resources and finances are targeted at getting the gospel to the unsaved.

“However, less than five percent of the church resources both in manpower, materials, finance, resources are targeted at these unreached people because most of the time, they are not in city centres, in fact, in distant countries because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. They do not even have the gospel available to them. When you go there as a church or mission organization, you will have to do lots of work by spending lots of money to start a church. It might take two or three years to get a congregation.

“Majority of the church do not focus on those places. We focus more on our city centres. As much as nothing is wrong with ideas, how about those who are in far away places and they have not heard the gospel.

“In our nation, Africa, Middle East, we have groups of people who are not yet exposed to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we feel the burden that God has given unto us to do our best to take the gospel there and work with likeminded people and collaborate to take the gospel to those people”, he said.