Christian Teaching Centre Family Church

Category: Dr. John Akpami

Christian Teaching Centre Family ChurchDr. John Akpami
04 Jan 2024

SIT DOWN AND PLAN

Those who make their brains perspire (sweat) do better in life than those whose hands perspire.
It has been established that one reason why gifted, anointed and multi-talented people fail is that they fail to plan. Some pray hard, read the Bible religiously, are capable of doing a lot of things, but they have no plans for their lives. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Disaster in life and ministry is the inevitable portion of those who do not plan to succeed.
WHAT IS PLANNING?
• It is thinking ahead as to what you want to accomplish and the line of action to take to accomplish it.
• It is ‘thinking before doing’. That is, using your brains before using your hands.
• It is coming up with strategies to reach your desired goal.
• It is devising a course of action on how to move from the way things are to the way things ought to be.

Planning is the mental activity that precedes a physical activity. In planning, you make your brain sweat before your body sweats. If the things you do; your marriage, a project, your business, your studies, etc. fail to turn out well, one worthwhile area to check is your plans.

WHERE DOES PLANNING START FROM?
Planning starts on your knees. Planning is not unspiritual. It does not box out the Holy Spirit. Since God has a plan for you and your entire affairs, you can access that through prayers; meditative prayers. Ask the questions:
Where am I now?
Where do I intend to be?
What steps do I take to get there?
When do I get there?
What will it cost?
When will I do what?
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, Lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Luke 14:27-30

WHY PLAN?
An elderly man was asked the secret of success. He replied by saying that he did not know the secret of success, but he knew the secret of failure. According to him, “The secret of failure is attempting to do everything”. Planning helps you to set goals.

To avoid attempting to do everything; SET SPECIFIC GOALS. People with goals succeed partly because they know what they want; they also know where they are going. God responds to you when you know what you want. When you set goals, you determine what would be accomplished. You establish a target towards which you will be directing your efforts. “He who tries something and fails is infinitely better than he who tries nothing and succeeds.”

PRAYER/FAITH CONFESSION
Heavenly Father, as I make plans about 2024, help and guide me to do so in line with Your eternal will for my life. In 2024, my time will not be wasted chasing shadows, my efforts will not be wasted pursuing the things heaven has not earmarked for me. I shall be purposeful. I shall accomplish great feats. 2024 is the year I have been waiting for, in the name of Jesus.
25 Oct 2023

PRAY FOR DESTINY HELPERS

Text: 1 Chronicles 12:22 Amplified.

At that time, day by day, men kept coming to David to help him, until there was a great army, like the army of God.

WHO IS A DESTINY HELPER?

1. Someone that God sends into your life to help you fulfill your agenda

2. It is like a bridge, a divine connection between where you are and where you ought to be.

3. It is like a spiritual ladder or elevator that will help you get to where you want to be.

4. It can be a shoulder we can stand on to help us see further.
Learn to respect people, not minding their religion, tribe, or creed.

5. Destiny helpers are likened to mentors or coaches that God uses to bring the best out of you. They drill you to get the best out of you.

5. They could be pastors or prophets who could speak to bring direction to your life.

PRAYER POINT:
I declare, O Lord, that I will never be stranded on this journey of destiny. I will meet the right people, be at the right place, at the Right time. I will always be located by them in Jesus name. Amen.

25 Apr 2023

Basic tools for success in Ministry – Dr. John Akpami

TEXT: 2TIMOTHY4:2 (NKJV)
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long
suffering and teaching.

3 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS EVERY PASTOR SHOULD ANSWER?
1. How do you preach in the postmodern world.
2. How do you teach in the postmodern world so that your pulpit can be effective.
3. How do you conduct yourself in the Church
WHO IS A POSTMODERN MAN?
1. He believes in himself.
2. He believes that he has all the answers to this world.
3. He doesn’t believe there is a God and he is God.
HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE ON YOUR PULPIT?
1. You must be purposeful in your preaching.
Your preaching is for lives to be changed, families to be changed and for people to experience
genuine transformation. Your goal is to change lives. Your goal is not to impress the people on
how much you know, but to change lives. To be effective in the now is for the transformation of
lives. Liberty of the people lies in simple things.
 Some teach the bible to the Bible.
 Some teach the person the Bible.
 Some dazzle the people and leaves them confused.
People you preach and teach to, the preaching and teaching should bring changes to their lives.

2. Be Practical
The people you preach to, should know the practical step to take after they leave the service, so
that they can be effective as they practice the message. Jesus told stories and got them captivated.
Let your message provide solutions to the questions of the people as in Acts 27. How do you
preach to a people in a time like that when the people didn’t see light for days.
When you teach and preach,
 Provide solutions to the people.
 Be practical It’s good to preach revelations but their should be relieve.
 As a pastor, we should not commit intellectual suicide
 As a Preacher and Teacher, be purposeful and be practical .

a. What is that thing you want your people to know behind the pulpit. Even if you preach on
power point, there should be one thing registered in their human spirit that they will not forget.

b. Produce and know the style you are comfortable with and develop it. Don’t be another man or copy another.
Most importantly, preach like someone that is in touch with the pains and needs of the people.
You should love the people you preach to than the preaching.
3. Be Humorous
People who come to Church that listen to you preach should benefit personally. It should benefit
them were it hurts. When you teach, engage the people you are ministering to. The way to be
personal is to make eye contact, which is none verbal communication.
 Use voice affection- Voice affection is the use of high pitch exaggerated intonation and a soft
voice. You increase your voice or talk in whispers. On the day of the Pentecost Peter raise
his voice to catch the attention of the people. Don’t speak too fast and don’t speak too low, be
moderate.
 Where necessary, repeat important statements. Jesus will say ” Again I say unto you or verily
I say unto you. What will help you in ministry is “Play let’s, Visual Aids, use Illustrations”
 Ministers are intellectual thieves. To steal ideas, observe the resource person.
a. How do they hold the microphone
b. How do they start their messages.
c. Use illustration.

People can recall
*20% of what they read
* 30 % of what they hear.
*40% of what they see.
*60% of what they do.
*90% of what they see, hear and do.

4. Be Powerful
Remember you are God’s oracle on earth. Speak as a man of authority. Spend a lot of time in
studying and in prayer. A man of power spends so much hour in prayer before he preaches.
Before you can represent God,
*Preach with a burden.
*Preach with passion because much is at stake, hell, and Heaven, prosperity and poverty.
Internalize your message before you preach it. If the message doesn’t touch you , it can not touch
anybody.
Preach the message to yourself before you preach it. Get familiar with the message. Each time
your head goes to your notes it disconnects with the people.

11 QUALITIES OF WHAT MINISTERS WHO HAVE EFFECTIVE PULPIT
1. Humour is used effectively.
2. They live where you live and they know your challenges.
3. They have solid biblical content not on experience.
4. They understand the value of real story.
5. Passion. They preach with passion.
6. Relax intently.
7. They use memorable phrase.
8. They preach one message at a time.
9. They preach on the volume of their voice.
10. They keep the message simple.
11. They make good eye contact.

CONCLUSION
There are more messages that first timers listen to before they hear the message or the minister
comes to the pulpit. The first timers gets affected by the environment the message preached by
usher’s. Make first timers feel important, shabby environment will discourage serious people
from coming. In Europe and U.S.A, they first look at website before they come for your church
meeting. People who believe in mediocrity have no place in the future “If na church, e no matter”