Call to help laymen’s work

THE Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG (ELCPNG) must help the church’s laymen who are serving in rural areas, a church official says.
Nick Nipogo, the organising committee chairman of the recently concluded Babuso parish Bible study programme, said this after noticing that pastors and organisers at the events had no funding and logistic support from the church’s headquarters and its leaders.
He said the congregation had all along supported the pastors and laymen in rural areas and it was time the church and elites stepped in to assist and show their commitment and love in spreading the Gospel of the Lord to everyone.
Nipogo praised a number of ELCPNG pastors who had gone to Kote district of the church and conducted counseling and Bible studies that resulted in more than 1000 people giving their lives to the Lord.
The pastors also conducted 35 confirmations and 25 baptisms.
“They (pastors) have done this work without any support from the church or Lutheran elites and politicians,” Nipogo said.
“The church and leaders must fund their (pastors’) trips, give them some small funding to help them with other necessities.”
Nipogo said the hinterland of Finschhafen was a unstable area that has experienced a lot of problems recently and the church needed to fund more church gatherings and visits by laymen into the area to teach people about the word of God.
He said the Lutheran Church has in the past played an important role in spreading the word of God in Morobe and around the country and it must continue to do so.
“Let’s not let this programme die but let’s continue to support more outreache programmes in prayer, funding and logistics so that the Gospel can renew hopes in our people who are lost in the dark,” Nipogo said.