I got involved with the Global Leadership Summit about 10 years ago and since then I have been hooked on the summit. As Pastor and a lawyer that has been to many conferences, I can boldly say that there is no conference like the “GLS”. My total orientation and outlook on leadership have been totally changed and today I am a better leader, Pastor, husband, father, author and employer.
The Global Leadership Summit plays an integral part of my life, I see the summit not as an event but truly as a resource to be leveraged all year round. As a GLS host site pastor, my team and I have continually used several strategies to get people in our community and different sectors to be part of the summit.
By doing this, we have become known in the community and this has also led us to be involved with several Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) initiatives. The industries and the community will not get involved with any initiative that we have not signed off on. We have become a leading church in our community and in the state as a whole.
Having my church as a host site for the summit was not enough for me, I have become an ambassador of the summit. Over the years, with help from the GLS West and Central Africa regional office, I have been able to open over 12 sites of the GLS in our Foursquare Gospel Churches in several states in Nigeria and the Mcpherson University which is owned by the Foursquare Gospel Church of Nigeria.
In 2017, due to deplorable state of our roads and our understanding that “the local church is the hope of the world when it is working right” our church embarked on a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative- a road rehabilitation project for our community and this brought a lot of commendations and support from the government, churches, organisations and individuals.
As a church, we are always giving back to the community as we know that we are the hope of the world.
Recently, I was featured in one of the foremost national newspapers- The Guardian 26th January 2020 edition to commend the CSR initiative of the road construction, when interviewed he said“I believe that every church has a responsibility to give back to the community. The church exists to impact the community; the church does not exist for itself. People coming to the church, as well as our neighbours, use the roads, so the church is not an island in itself, but ministers to the community spiritually. The church must also minister to the community financially, and the people in this community are the larger members of the church. So, if the church brings money to spend on the road, it is part of the money that indirectly comes from the community where we all live.”
I attributeall this progress and transformation of being impactful not just in the church but also to those in our community to my learnings from the Global Leadership Summit.
I am grateful for the privilege to be a part of this movement of leadership transformation in our region.
I will keep doing all I can to make the Global Leadership Summit known.
SANGO OTTA, NIGERIA
AYOMIDE ABRAHAM
