Busayo Akanro - Light does not shine in light

I love and respect a few pastors around the world. I love a lot less of them in Nigeria because I feel their presence is not an indication of the presence of the kingdom of God contrary to what Jesus wanted to happen. Loads of them seem to practice what I call witchcraft. Get a crowd of people to submit and be loyal to you boy proving that the miracle working power of divinity rests with you (whether by righteous or wicked means). Needless to say that many forget that the purpose of the anointing is not for profit but to solve problems. Jesus Christ, while on earth solved every problem that was brought to His attention and left his followers empowered.

Some of these pastors just brainwash their congregation, motivate to give themselves and their belongings and earnings to the church under the guise of sacrificial giving and in no wise seek to improve the standard of living of their followers. Loads of church goers know next to nothing about personal and self development, excellence orientation or even financial intelligence. I’ve noticed that the only product that Nigerians have been able to export successfully year in, year out is religion. Every denomination that was founded in Nigeria or most denominations have one branch or the other in the UK, USA, Carribean or Europe. Interestingly, the largest congregations in Europe and in the UK are led by Nigerian pastors. I can not help but believe that we need to borrow a leaf from the model of church replication and multiplication and apply the lessons learned to our businesses, industries and corporate entities. Maybe Nigeria will then begin to look like the Nigeria that we all dream about.

Anyway, I was talking about some of the pastors I loved. Noteworthy among them is the man I’m writing about today. I’ve written about him a while ago. His interview at the “Take the lead” excellence in leadership conference recently concluded at the Daystar Christian Centre,  Oregun, Ikeja is quite insightful especially because he’s been in the centre of transformation of a country from regression and poverty towards wealth and empowerment. Please read on and form your own sentiments.

Written by BILESANMI OLALEKAN
Sunday, November 23, 2008

Pastor Sunday Adelaja, left, prays with parishioners before delivering his sermon at a service in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007.

Sunday Ologi was the name while hawking pap on the  streets of Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. He didn’t have his first shoe until he  was 12. He had no father from birth. But today, Sunday Adelaja is the founding pastor of God Embassy based in Ukraine, presumed to be the biggest  and largest church in Europe.

THIS is a ladies’ man, anytime! He’s got the  hallmarks of success: The looks, the dress sense, very confident and, above all, spiritual. He is the type that any woman would be willing to take home to see mama. With his blue blazers, blue shirt, orange striped tie, light brown trousers and brown  shoes to match, you will most likely take him for a model or, better still, a bank executive. Perhaps, that is why it may be pretty difficult to believe he is a pastor not to talk of being the presiding head of the presumed largest church in Europe-Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of all Nations also known as God Embassy Church, Kiev, Ukraine.
Adelaja was in the country, penultimate week, to participate in the Daystar Christian Centre annual leadership seminar. He, along with  several invited guests, including Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, delivered speeches, in the course of the three-day programme. Shortly after his ministration, Adelaja retired to Daystar junior church, also within the premises, to talk to the media on  his personal life, his church, his latest project in the country and the Nigerian nation. Adelaja is the only African preacher to have addressed the United Nations and the United States Senate.

The beginning, however, was rough for him. He was labelled a bastard. Indeed, he was, at least going by the  Yoruba culture. The ‘Adelaja’ he bears is actually his mother’s maiden name. He never saw or met his father. He never had fatherly care.  Adelaja may have been born out of wedlock but his birth, in his estimation, was for a purpose: “To deliver the world”. According to him, he was told, in two versions really, that  his father, shortly after he married his mother, became brutish.

The royal parents of the mother felt their daughter did not deserve what she was getting from her husband, so she was taken away  from him. The other version was that, “my father was poor and my mother’s parents thought the best way to protect their daughter was to take her back home. Six months after the separation, they discovered she was pregnant. That was how I came into this world. I never suffered from the rejection of not  having a father because I have a heavenly father. Besides, God did  that for a purpose. God probably knew that the only blood vessel and cell  that will produce this particular material is the blood cell of that  man and the woman.

“They used to call me bastard in the village and my grandmother would be fighting them here and there. I was a bastard in the eyes of the people but God saw me differently. He saw me as a deliverer in European countries. God knew this material (referring to himself)  was not going to be produced by anybody other than this man and woman. God  allowed certain things to happen because of the infinite knowledge of the future. “God is saying even though this man didn’t do anything tangible in his life, he did the most tangible in his life, by sleeping with the woman which produced me.

It is the same thing with Barack Obama (United States of America president-elect). His father never did anything tangible through out his life, he grew up in  the village, met a white lady, impregnated her, went back to Africa,  and I think that was the only tangible thing he did in his life by giving birth to Obama. And I think there are several of such in the country  that are being pressurised to abort and there is the need to do away with  such stigma.

They were calling me omoale (Yoruba word for bastard)”. Adelaja is not diplomatic  particularly on issues relating to what he considers the truth. He says it the way he feels it. This explains why he is pained that his colleagues have turned their  congregations into money making projects for selfish gains. He expressed his feeling this way: “Everybody says Nigeria’s problem is about leadership but I disagree  with that assertion because a nation get a leader it deserves. The leaders  came in from this country, they were born, grew up within this same  environment.

They were not imported from Guinea-Bissau or Ukraine, they were brought up here. It is really not about leadership but our value system. Three things determine the value of a nation. The  family, the educational system and the Church, because, nobody has the opportunity of speaking to over 40 million Nigerians every  week like pastors. “When people go to Church, they are not going there  for argument, whatever the pastor says, you  are obliged to just accept it even if he is saying rubbish. Even the  president of the country does not have the kind of power we have. So, we have a very huge responsibility upon us.

And most of us, instead of releasing values and information that will facilitate progress, we are talking  of breakthrough today, breakthrough tomorrow. What we are cultivating  from the pulpit is the culture of instant gratification. We are telling people, raise up your hands if you want to be millionaire by the end of the year, na thief?

And everybody will raise up his hands. You must teach them the process of production, perseverance, endurance, how to work with their hands. “Miracles could happen but nations don’t get developed that way. And the money that is coming to the man before the end of the year, if he gets it, is it not robbery? Because you have  transferred the money from the one who worked to the one that didn’t work. That  is corruption from the pulpit. That kind of  preaching generates mentality of instant gratification.

“Every message now in Nigerian churches must end with offering. You give offering for breakthrough, healing, second born, thanksgiving, celebration, so that by the  time the people are being impoverished, the pastors are going about in Jeeps  and jets. They are the oppressors of this world. You have 24-hour breakthrough programme. These are dubious methods of extracting the little the people have left. It is day light robbery and you are using the name of  God to do it.

They will say 30-day miracle, you no go sleep?” I must speak the truth to help set my country free. I know it is not right and I know it will be sinful for me to know it is not right and I don’t speak about it. Prayers don’t develop a nation. It is the work of your hand that develops a nation. Look at China, Japan, they don’t believe in God, but they are more prosperous than Nigeria. Why? They believe and strongly so in hard work. They are workaholic.

The Japanese who don’t believe in God will go to hell but, while here on earth, they will be prosperous whereas Nigerians who are religious will make heaven but while here on earth, will continue to experience what we are  going through. God does not and will not go back on his words. He said, `I will diligently reward the works of your hands’. Prayer does not and  cannot develop a nation. We must learn the virtues of hard work. The value  of hard work, we don’t have. That is why we don’t want to know how the man makes his money, whether he is a ritualist, 419ner, fraudster, we don’t want to know  provided we can take from him. Where is our values?”

Over 70 churches have been planted by Adelaja in various parts of the  globe. Would he consider having a branch of his ministry in  his mother land? He said he would rather do something to improve the  lives of Nigerians than plant a church in the country, thereby generating unnecessary competition.”Is it another church Nigeria needs? Just for me to add my own name?

It is all about egocentrism. You must bring the success of overseas back home. I am not coming  to Nigeria to build church and I will not have church here. I don’t  want to send fears to other pastors. I also want to give my colleagues chance and that is why we are working together. They are my  friends. When I start doing my own thing, I become a competitor. We have too  many churches already. Infact, the challenge now is even how to do Church properly”, he replied.

One of the ways of improving the lives of the people is the  inauguration of a micro-finance bank which he said Lagos State governor has  graciously accepted to launch on Saturday.”It is a joint effort between I and some of my partners. I had to dispose some of my  investments both in America and Ukraine, the same thing with my partners, in order  to bring this project alive. It is going to be collateral and security  free. It is mainly to help reduce and alleviate poverty for 40 million Africans for the next 20 years. We want to go to 4000 villages in Nigeria and 40,000 villages all over Africa. Poverty is one of the most endemic problems in the continent”, Adelaja explained.

Unlike his colleagues, the pastor is not running any radio or television programmes. Is it that he does not want to expand the work of God  further or he does not believe in the medium? He pointed out that it is not his style to follow what is in vogue.”I am a strategist”, he shot back. Besides, he stressed that some of the television programmes are artificial.”Most of them do it not because they are really effective but because of ego. They are there because they want to say, through such programmes, that ‘I am a national celebrity, I have arrived’. It is not very strange that I am not on television or anywhere.

When you see me on television or in the newspapers, it will be through press conferences like this but I don’t have a programme that is television or radio based. “People in Nigeria don’t know me. I am a strategist. I do things that will give me maximum delivery. I know a lot of my friends, not just in Nigeria but all over the world, who are on television and radio.

I know  people, not only in Nigeria  but abroad, who spend 12, 10, 20 million  dollars on television programmes every year. Do you know who pays for it. It  is actually you that pay for it. I cannot  imagine that happening to me. “The poor people who are not as poor as  that of Nigeria here, that they will be bringing their sweat and labour, and me pastor, because I want to expand my reach and be more popular, I  will be putting pressure on them by organising church programmes. No I  don’t do that. I am different. People who do the unusual are usually different. I don’t do what people do. I do something differently”.

One of the reasons God Embassy became a phenomenon in Europe, Adelaja stated, was the church’s pragmatic move and actions on issues affecting the environment. The church, it was learnt, spearheaded the popular orange  revolution that brought the new leadership in Ukraine in 2004.

Between  one to two thousand people are fed daily in the church’s Stephania Soup  Kitchen, making it two million in the past six years. Over 3000 people  are set free from drug and alcohol addiction. There are homes for  street and abandoned children where over 2000 have been reconnected to their  families”, he added.