Baptist Church: Convention President hails Garki leadership over withdrawal of court case

The President of the Baptist Convention, Pastor Israel Akanji has hailed the withdrawal of a court case challenging the leadership succession process of the First Baptist Church Garki.

Recall that last year, there was mild drama at the First Baptist Church Garki, Abuja when some concerned elders of the church raised concerns about the process adopted to select a Senior Pastor that would succeed Pastor Akanji who was elected as President of the Baptist Convention.

The elders who later approached the court to seek redress, said the process initiated to select the successor of Akanji was alien to the church, hence the smelt imposition of a Senior Pastor on them.

Recently, Nigerian Tribune learnt that the case has been withdrawn from court and the parties have agreed to resolve the issues internally.

Speaking with Pastor Akanji recently in Abuja, on his thoughts about the development, he said for the Church, it is a welcome development.

He said the church which is like a family is bound to have disagreements like the regular families usually have and it is important that the issues are resolved internally instead of approaching the court.

He said the church has its own biblical procedure of settling internal crisis instead of taking the matter outside the church to settle.

“For us in the church, it is a most welcome idea that the case is eventually withdrawn from the court.

“The church has its own ways of handling difficult issues, it is not in the practice of the church to go to the court to handle matters, we have continued to emphasize that to ourselves in the church that this is a family matter, the church is a family and just like it can happen in any family so it can happen in the church, there may be some disagreements here and there but those kind of disagreements should be handled within the church.

“But however, the case went in to the court, and after sometime again we continued to encourage one another that we should not go to the court to handle our problems, that will mean that we are not even following the processes that the Bible has put down for us and eventually everybody agreed that the case should be brought out of the court and there should be internal settlement and that is what has happened.

“I feel great, I feel happy that we are following biblical injunction, I feel happy that so many people in Nigeria who were unhappy about that development can now say God we thank you.

“There could be disagreements among people, in every place where there are people, there are usually disagreements and we should always allow God to use all of us to settle such disagreements without going as far as taking ourselves to the court.

“So, the case is out of court, we give God the glory, we thank all the people, we have learnt so much from everything which will make us strong and we are grateful to God”, noted.