THE WIN U.A.E. TODAY
(The Direction We Have to Take as a National Body – by Pastor Angel Cano, Sub-Regional Director, Middle East)
The Filipino saying “ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan” (those who do not look back from where they started, will not reach their destination), is a truth that is essential to the journey of WIN U.A.E.
18 years since the church started (in 1997 we changed the name of our church to become Word International [WIN] Ministries), the church has grown from a single congregation into 17 churches we are today. Many members through the years have left for other countries and only a handful of the pioneers remain. It is prudent to remind us from time to time how the Lord took us to the journey as a body. Many of our people today would like to understand this journey to guide them in their direction towards the future.
What began as a Bible study group in 1990 developed into a church and in two years it received it first pastor in the person of Pastor Rene. Through the ministry of Pastor Rene and Sis. Rose Nepomuceno, the church began to have a vision of planting churches and this prodded the workers to go and develop church planting work in other places in the country. Later on, the workers of the Dubai church were deployed and commissioned to pastor these churches. All of the pastors of the local churches in U.A.E. today were either homegrown or have developed in the community relationship, either they were sent and commissioned from the Dubai church, or commissioned from within their local churches. Our pastors are duty-bound to carry on the vision of WIN U.A.E. steering their local churches to be bonded to the rest of the community according to the structure aligned by the WIN Leadership, from the International Board level, to the Region, Sub-Region, National and Local level.
As the local pastors were commissioned to shepherd the local churches, they not only acknowledge their God-given calling and accountability, but also the trust of the leaders who appointed them. Yet the challenge of herding our churches in the U.A.E. today into a single direction remains a colossal task to be carried by the National Leadership.
PRIORITY OF THE INTEREST OF THE NATIONAL BODY
If we are to remain united and moving as a single body the way it was intended from the beginning and the way the pastors were commissioned, our local pastors must prioritize the national interest and put it above their local concerns. The National Leaders can only be as effective in upholding the work when the local leaders have the fundamental resolve to take their place in the building of the national movement as they submit to the guidance of those who commissioned them. The national priority must be taught to our people, especially since majority of them were not there to capture how it all began.
To drive the national interest, the local pastors must take into account the two most important undertaking at the moment:
A. The Development of its own People
The local pastors must shepherd its own people by discipling them. The pastors of Word International Ministries share the common task of discipleship. All of our people are to be nurtured by the feeding of God’s Word and the experience of life building process through the small groups.
In the U.A.E. all the churches are meant to develop its own people through their involvement in the life of the church. As the beginners are being drawn through involvement in the ministries and through the small groups, they are growing spiritually and are developed into becoming workers. We do not raise workers from out of nothing but through the hard process of life experience in the community and in the mentoring and modeling of church leaders. As the workers are raised into the leadership, we develop them to become the pastors of the future.
These are supported with the tools available to us for the trainings and education program necessary for effective discipleship. We have 3-level-program in Education: 1st Level-new believers/small group program. 2nd Level-basic leadership/small group leadership program. 3rd Level-advance leadership program.
From among these leaders in the church we also develop our church councils. The local pastors must endeavor to have a council that is strong and wise in making decisions in behalf of the church. This is especially crucial as they are handling the finances of the church, in this way, we steer our pastors away from the questionable handling of finances that tarnished many of today churches and denominations.
Our people were honed to leadership through the small groups and the long history of our small-group-based discipleship produced pastors and missionaries that are now spread in many parts of the world. The local churches need to continue this process of discipleship at every level.
B. The Meeting together of our People
No one can fail to appreciate how our people talk about their fellowship whenever there are national activities, be it the Men’s National Assembly, a Y.A. National Gathering, Youth National Worship Service, Couples National Fellowship, etc. The beauty of how our people are blessed and the meeting of local members from different churches in the U.A.E. have helped unite our people through the years. The effort of our local pastors are by large, the greatest contributor to the success of this gatherings. The pastors who are most actively involved in campaigning, attending, enthusiastically participating in these events, are blessed with the members who have become vibrant contributors to the organizing of these gatherings as well as effective in serving God in their local churches.
Our local pastors’ support for the national ministries is called now more than ever before. And while the ministries coordinate with their pastors, the ministry head and leaders must have the freedom to coordinate directly their activities with the national ministries. The effectiveness and dynamism of our movement through the development of the national ministries can not be ignored and will only be enriched by the pastors fully supporting this. The national ministry activities must be clearly communicated to our congregations so that they are drawn into the nationwide fellowship of our body continuously.
In addition to these, our local pastors must invite our leaders and pastors from our other local churches to preach in their churches. Rather than have preachers from other groups preaching in our churches, we need to prioritize our own leaders as this supports our vision of bringing our people closer to each other.
THE NATIONAL BOARD
WIN UAE recently handled the election of the new National Board. Those who were selected by the credentialed ministers were interestingly pastors of local churches, namely: Pastor Nick Esguerra (WIN Sharjah); Pastor Moises Antolin (WIN Jebel Ali); Pastor Arnel Ines (WIN Ajman); Pastor Bing Jimenez (WIN Dubai at Trinity); Pastor Figy John (WIN Abu Dhabi), have committed themselves to serve God at the disposal of the National Body. Although each one of them is handling a local church, they understand fully that the needs on the national level are on top of their priorities.
At the moment we do not have a National Director, therefore the National Board will handle the National Leadership. Pastor Angel, being the Sub-Regional Director will take some of the responsibilities of the National Director.
The National Board agreed to have a rotating chairmanship to preside their meetings. The first to chair for five months is Pastor Nick followed by the second highest vote-getter, and so on.
First in the list of priorities of the National Board is to build their relationship with each other. The strong relationship among them is required to carry on an effective national leadership. Everything else will fail if they do not give their attention to this concern.
Secondly, the members of the National Board have been called by God to be national leaders, they must put the national interest above their local interest and they must be in the forefront to rally our churches for the cause of WIN UAE as they work closely with Pastor Angel being the Sub-Regional Director who is going to lead them with the forward vision for the sake of the National Body.
The National Board will be the example for the rest of the pastors in bringing together our people to be united in moving in the same direction. They will ensure that our people meet each other through the National Ministry activities. And we pray that our National Board will be a strong and wise team of leaders to carry on the plans that God had planted in the hearts of our leaders in this region and beyond.
Faithful is the God by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. 1:9
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