Topic: Spiritual Maturity as Measurement of Church Growth

WOWSE, “With or Without Someone Else, we have to work, and work for the glory of God.” This is just one of the challenges conveyed by Rev. Paul Caampued, the Secretary General of Reformed Presbyterian and the Director of Pastoral Training Course (PTC) to the 70 participants of CGM/ACTION’s One-day Conference held at SICAP (Samar Integrated Community Advancement Project) Center, Calbayog City on May 20, 2009.

The Seventy (70) participants are composed of 34 Pastors and 36 Full-time Christian workers who came from different towns of Northern Samar (Catarman, Victoria, San Isidro, Sta Margarita, Catubig) and Calbayog City, Western Samar. Early bird, Ptra. Estella Castillo, whose ministry is in the mountains of Catubig, came the day before the Conference because she has to take a 3 hours walk on a flooded rice field just to reach the town proper of Catubig, Northern Samar.

The conference started at exactly 9:00 am through a mixed Tagalog and Visayan songs led by the SICAP alumni. Rev. Daniel Kim, the Director of SICAP Center, shared on his devotional message the Five (5) points on “How to Survive the Ministry”, giving emphasis on staying well-feed and well-watered with the Word of God.

The participants were divided into groups, chairs and tables were arranged like a classroom. Plenary speaker, Rev. Paul Caampued took the center stage at exactly 10:00 am and laid down the biblical and theological foundations of a believer’s spiritual maturity through his topic, “Spiritual Maturity as Measurement of Church Growth”.

During the sessions on Five (5) Spiritual Maturity Indicators (Sin, Sanctification, Surrender, Spirit-fullness, and Service), he brought the grouped participants into workshops, group discussions, and brainstorming. He let them raise questions during the sessions; there is a real-time interaction between the speaker and the participants.

The speaker ended the sessions with an encouraging message on Phil. 3:12-14. Overall the participants rated the conference very good. Some participants requested for another conference like this. Before going home, each of the participants gladly received a set of books from CGM and ACTION.