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God's Work And A Multiplying Church In The Bahamas
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Splitsville—When war erupts in the church:
By KARAN MINNIS, Guardian Lifestyles Reporter -
Nassau, Bahamas:



As the saying goes: All is fair in love and war, but what about when that war strikes inside the church?

Over the years there have been countless stories of in-fighting among church leaders and the rifts that take place, which eventually leads to a split, not only in the church's hierarchy, but also amongst its members, resulting in a number of new churches being formed.

But do these breakaways end up being successful?

According to Bishop Delton D. Fernander, at New Destiny Baptist Church, Blue Hill Road, for him it has.

"I am a man of God, and over the years I have come to understand that God does things to show you better sometimes," he says. "Sometimes He does things to show you that its time to move on or to say, hey you're not seeing where I'm trying to take you. But today I am sure that it was God's will for me to create, and be the Bishop of New Destiny Baptist Church. Even more importantly, I'm sure that I am following His calling."

Prior to the formation of New Destiny, Fernander served as special assistant to the bishop of St. John's Native Baptist Cathedral, Michael C. Symonette, for five years before he was fired in 2002. It was something he did not see coming, and was difficult for him to deal with.

"I grew up in St. John's, and so when I was forced to step away from there it was very hard for me to do. My whole desire was to work in the church that I had grown up in. My whole desire was to help them ... just to bring and do what I had been trained to do, so it was tremendously hard for me to walk away from that," said Fernander.

"My grandmother was buried at the door, my grandfather was a former pastor there, and my mom (Delores) is still an active member there. But it had gotten so bad that the Lord said to me that I needed to start a new thing. So I walked out on faith on Mother's Day 2002," he stated.

During the first service of New Destiny held in the Governor's Ballroom of the British Colonial Hilton, 150 persons showed up. Fernander was shocked.

"I expected 50 people and I planned for only 50 people.

I booked a room for those 50 people, but that by evening the hotel called to say that because of the calls they received I needed a larger room. So I told them to book the larger room, but not to open the dividers unless we had a crowd, and that's what we got a crowd," said Fernander.

After four weeks, the church relocated to the Lion's Club on J.F. K. Drive and then to the Superwash building on Wulff Road, before New Destiny settled in its present location on Blue Hill Road in the old Sunshine Twin theatre.

"When I was fired, I really didn't understand it, but now I do," he says. "I was trying to take a church that was set in its ways into a direction it didn't want to be in. I'm not saying that the direction it was headed in was bad, but I wanted to do things differently [but] they didn't want that."

Fernander said he was hurt for a long time after the split, to the point he felt that people were just mean. He then went into teaching school, which he said allowed him to develop into a more open pastor

"I now listen to my people and let them help me make decisions. I didn't do that before. I just used to push. So now that I have developed that understanding I understand why things happened the way it did. Now I know my church is truly blessed and now we have about 1,000 members. So I guess it is a success story," he said.

Bishop Lester Cox, senior pastor of Word of Truth Ministries International, says his split from the church into which he was born and raised, Faith Temple Ministries International, also turned into a success story.

"I had to leave the church that I was raised in due to a difference of opinions. In March 2007, along with my wife Vanessa, I left my pastoral post at the Pentecostal denomination to start my own non-denominational church. And although it was not something I planned to do it just happened that way."

Cox declined to go into details surrounding his split, but he said that God was simply showing him that it was time to move on.

"I have fond memories of my time at Faith Temple but sometimes God has different plans for us. Today, our church is established upon five foundational pillars upon which we have declared and decreed to be so. They are, God and His word, God and His truth, God and His unity, God and His love, and God and His Faith," said Cox. "We have based our church on an independent apostolic ministry and we are not under a denomination — we are independent, We answer to God. We do have a council of bishops that I deal with, but other than that we are an independent apostolic ministry, and since our first service which saw approximately 120 persons in attendance, we have been growing ever since."

Cox says he has no regrets, because he's doing God's work

"I strongly believe that it was His will for Word of Truth to be born and for me to be where I am today, so, I have no regrets."

On the other hand, Jesus Centered Ministries senior pastor Sheldon Newton, says not all church splits happen because of "bad-blood" between ministers.

"All pastors have to create an environment where believers can be taught the word of God," said the religious leader at the church on Carmichael Road.

"In my life time, I saw that a lot of Christians are not being victorious because they have not been taught from the basics straight into the mature Christian life and I wanted to be able to help bring people from babies straight into maturity in Christ."

Newton was an elder for five years at New Life Christian Center, Prince Charles Drive, before he started his own church. He left with the blessings of his pastors, Pastors Douglas and Betty Cleare.

"There was no fight, nothing of the sort. They just sent me out to do my own thing. They told me that it was time for me to build my own church and they felt that I could do more on my own. The church gave me their blessing and they sort of pushed me out the door. I wasn't even sure about it, but I did it anyway," said Newton.

Newton's church, which has been operating for a year, is independent, and not affiliated with New Life Christian Center.

He is currently looking for a new location, as he says the membership which started out at 12, and has grown to 80, has outgrown its present location.

"The people just keep on coming, and we just keep being blessed."

July 3, 2008 | 3:28 PM Comments  1 comments

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Comments

adham5555 adham tobail
July 3, 2008 | 6:46 PM
adham
The subject of very beautiful
But we must understand the religion and life better
State and religion are linked with each other but there are those who exploit religion for their own interests
Adham
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