Archbishop David Mike Jacobs on Nigerian and African chaplaincy

Nigerian and African Chaplaincy*

I have a global apostolic ministry calling which gives me the opportunity to have access to train Christian leaders from all denominations in Nigeria and Africa.

As an Inter-denominational and International ministry, I train, equip, develop, nurture and mentor Christian leaders all over the continent of Africa; ordaining those who qualified and have sure calling into the five-fold ministries:

a. Apostolic ministry
b. Prophetic ministry
c. Evangelistic ministry
d. Pastoral ministry
e. Teaching ministry

This thereby strengthens the churches and equips their leaders for ministry.

As a man who has a global Apostolic Ministry calling, I operate a mission outfit whereby Christian missionaries are trained, identified and sent on missions.

Our organization has a mission's training department called Open Academy of Missions where mission courses are offered from undergraduate to Doctoral level courses.

We also undertake short term mission programmes for busy executives, Christian leaders who cannot leave their duty post, ministries and churches for much longer. We also put together mission conferences once a year.

The Global Chaplaincy Corps is the Chaplaincy arm of our ministry where chaplaincy practice goes beyond the church setting and as a pluralistic nature is non-denominational in scope and is offered to people who have the specialized calling into pastoral care, pastoral giving and chaplaincy practice. We offer, at the Global College of Chaplains, the following courses:

A. General Chaplaincy courses
1. General Basic Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
2. Advance Diploma General Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
3. Supervisory Chaplaincy course (9 months duration)

B. Specialize Chaplaincy courses
1. Specialize Basic Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
2. Specialize Advance Diploma Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
3. Specialize Supervisory Chaplaincy course (9 months duration)

C. Lay Chaplaincy Courses
1. Basic Lay Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
2. Advance Diploma Lay Chaplaincy course (6 months duration)
3. Supervisory Lay Chaplaincy course (6 and 9 months duration)

Our organization is called International Association of Pastoral Care-givers and Chaplains (IAPC3) and produces professional journals on a quarterly basis for practicing chaplains. We solicit and obtain articles from practicing professional chaplains from all works of life. This publication can be obtained from us on demand at P. O. Box 3702 Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa or E-mail: evangelicalpentecostalism@yahoo.com.

NB: We have decided to train professional chaplains as well as lay chaplains who will be able to assist the professionals with ministry to the general public and humanity where the professionals will not be readily available or in enough numbers to go about their duties. Courses of training for these grades of chaplains can be obtained upon request.

We also undertake to prepare chaplains in specialized areas such as:

a. Traumatic events
b. Post-traumatic events
c. Violence
d. Crises
e. Health care delivery
f. Prisons
g. Maritime sector
h. Community
i. Marriage and family
j. Law enforcement and their communities etc.

In our leadership development programme, we train people in an outfit called Global Leadership Institute in partnership with: Leadership Training Ministry, Canada. Strategic Global Assistance Inc., USA, and other organizations that are called into the same ministry with us to develop National and International Christian leaders in organizational leadership development and management skills. We offer courses from the basic level to Doctoral level.

We also have a theological outfit called The Open Christian Theological Seminary, where theological trainings and courses are offered to those Christian leaders in Africa who have ventured into ministry without adequate training and preparations.

Our slogan is to reach them where they are, as they are, and prepare and equip them adequately for better effectiveness and performance.

We also provide the needed theological experience and exposure for the chaplains we train to make it easy for them obtain International recognition and certification.

We believe in networking with professional colleagues, other professionals and ministries who are favourably disposed to us and our ministry calling as cross-trained chaplains.

We believe and share the views of the United Nations resolutions of seeking global assistance for the development of our national leaders and even continental leaders.

We are therefore open to all and sundry who are favourably disposed to have an input into what we are doing in this part of the world.

May you remain eternally blessed as you consider assisting, collaborating and co-operating with us in this assignment knowing fully well that we are from the 3rd world nations.

* This article first appeared in Vol. 4, No. 10. Since we have been featuring chaplaincy from different parts of the world, we wanted to revisit this article in light of what has been submitted from other countries and what will be forthcoming in the next several issues.

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