Good News Baptist Church (GNBC), Surulere, Lagos, recently rolled out the drums to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The weeklong celebration, which rounded off on February 4, with a Thanksgiving service held at the church auditorium featured anniversary prayer meeting, donations, unveiling of community projects, alongside youth programmes and other events for the different groups in the church.
Taking the homily from Numbers 10:1-10 titled, “The Silver Trumpet And Kingdom Advancement,” the guest speaker, Rev Sunday O. Oke, enjoined the congregation to be on fire for God, adding that when members compare what they have so far achieved within the 40 years of the church’s existence, they may want to clap for themselves, but that should not be the case, rather they should engage SWOT analysis to know their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities of the times they are in, and their threats, to work more for God.
He said: “Forty years is a sacred number and should not be taken for granted. It is a number of new beginning, transition to newness and deliverance. All of these should revitalise the church on all sides. The church should continually stand in God’s presence, be ready to be summoned to worship, for instruction and to advance to the Promised Land as soldiers.”
Rev Oke noted that the church is the heart of the nation, especially as Christians gather in it to receive grace, adding that if we all truly encounter God as we gather, we shall receive grace to save the world.
“ We need to teach the world how to play politics in truth. We need to save the world from is present state,” he said.
Within the service, Dr. Christopher Onosode, the first son of Dcn Gamaliel Onosode, read the testimony of his late father titled, “The Beginnings of Good News Baptist Church,” published in 2006, which chronicled the church’s history from when the first act of corporate worship took place on Wednesday, February 1, 1984 with only three residents of the Onosode household that gathered for a prayer meeting to 1994 the church was renamed Good News Baptist Church.
In his testimony titled, “Learning By Doing: A Foundation Member’s Chronicle In GNBC,” Deacon O.K. Belo disclosed that the 40 years he has spent in the church, so far, represents the longest period he has spent with any human organisation except his genetic family.
Belo commended the leadership of the church for celebrating the vision that God gave to Deacon Gamaliel and Mrs. Susan Onosode 40 years ago, saying the vision has, today, continued to grow and develop in the hands and lives of a new generation, and also extending outside Lagos with it various outreaches in the mission field.
The church has since 1995 being actively involved in mission field both locally and internationally, and has also remained dedicated to the fostering spiritual growth, community service projects and the welfare of it host communities.
The high point of the event was the renaming of the multipurpose hall of the newly constructed educational and administration building in honour of the late Dn. Gamaliel Onosode.
