HISTORY

In 1978, during a prayer time in Argentina the seed for what has become Church of the Nations (COTN) was planted. The seed was one of ministry hubs that would win, train and send people. These hubs would be a place where the hurting would be healed, the captives freed and lives be restored to live in the destiny God had purposed for them.

During 1979, it was realized that the vision received was really the planting and establishing of local churches. In September 1979, a church called Abundant Life Ministries was established in England and the foundation of what was to become COTN was laid.

Church planting began and God joined hearts in covenant relationships around the world.

COTN MISSION DECLARATION

Building a family of churches, Reaching the Nations

COTN VISION

To plant, build and strengthen local churches with the goal of advancing God’s Kingdom.

COTN STRATEGY

To accomplish the above by:

•    Bringing people into wholeness, equipped and released to fulfill their destiny.
•    Raising up leaders.
•    Training.    
•    Trans-local ministry.
•    Church planting teams.
•    Conference and Leadership gatherings.
•    Missions and Evangelistic outreach.
•    Mercy Ministries.
•    Establishment of Apostolic Clusters.

COTN CORE VALUES

•    Christ-centred lives clearly expressing the Lordship of Jesus.
•    Spirit filled church where the ministry of the Holy Spirit is given priority.
•    To live Bible based Christianity.
•    The priesthood of all believers and every believer is a minister.
•    The unique value and destiny of each believer.
•    Kingdom vision, values and lifestyle.
•    A sense of belonging and family.
•    Living a supernatural lifestyle, naturally
•    Relationships based on covenant love.
•    Expressing the Father heart of God.
•    A world vision and a burden for the lost.
•    Excellence in ministry.
•    Openness, honesty and integrity in relationships.
•    The principle of being under authority, releases authority.
•    Righteousness and justice, the foundations of the Kingdom.
•    Team Ministry.
•    Influence and impact on the moral fabric of society.
•    Hebrew rather than Greek mentality.
•    Principle of reasoning from the whole to the part.
•    God confirms His word with signs and wonders.
•    Sacrificial Servanthood.
•    Unity in the Body of Christ.
•    Passion for God, His church and His kingdom.

COTN APOSTOLIC COUNSEL

COTN is governed and lead internationally by the Apostolic Counsel.  (include pictures)

•    Tony & Marilyn Fitzgerald. Founders of CotN.
•    Louis & Edna Els. Victory Christian Church, Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.
•    Dave & Carol Cape. Evangelism and Missions Outreach.
•    John & Jane Scholtz. Harvest Christian Church, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
•    Ken & Ann Turner. El Shaddai Christian Church, Durbanville, Cape Town, South Africa.
•    Keith & Shelley Du Plessis. Harvest Christian Church, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

COTN STATEMENT OF FAITH

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

We believe there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect. He is the Creator, Preserver and Governor of all things and who is the only proper object of worship.

We believe there are three Persons in the Godhead: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are undivided in essence and coequal in power and glory.

We believe that Jesus Christ was God made manifest in the flesh; truly and properly God and truly and properly man, and that He, by His suffering and death, made atonement for sin and that by His resurrection, there is eternal life for all who believe.

We believe that since the fall of our first parents, man is entirely unable in his own strength to find salvation and reconciliation with God. Man is wholly dependent upon God’s grace and mercy.

We believe that salvation, by God’s grace, depends upon repentance, faith in God, cleansing by the shed blood of Jesus and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

We believe it is a privilege of all believers, in response to the command of God’s Word, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live holy and victorious lives, and that the Holy Spirit operates through gifts, ministries, and manifestations to glorify Jesus through His body to the world.

We believe that Jesus Christ at the same time as His ascension into heaven where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, gifted the Church with living ministry expressions of Himself through apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for the building up of the Body of Christ and the equipping of the believers to the works of service.

We believe that neither ritual, tradition, ceremony nor rite can replace conversion, relationship with God, or true worship, and that nothing less than the Lordship of Christ upon a life is the mark of a Christian.

We believe in the continuance of the Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements of bread and the fruit of the vine, as instituted by Jesus with his disciples, so that we may truly discern the Body of Christ in it’s totality, unity and authority, and that this celebration stands as a prophesy of His coming, and as such is commanded to all His followers until that Day.

We believe it is the commission of the Church to go into the whole world to preach the gospel and extend the Kingdom of God, knowing that “this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to the whole world for a witness to all nations, and then the end shall come”.

We believe in the judgment of God, in the eternal punishment of the wicked and in the everlasting happiness of the righteous.

We believe that baptism in water is a personal and dynamic meeting with God and a sign of the believer’s death, burial and resurrection in Christ Jesus.

We believe in the physical, triumphant return of Jesus Christ to an overcoming and glorious church.