Category: Worship

Archbishop of Lagos Methodist Church Nigeria, The Most Rev. Isaac Olawuyi, has called on Christians to imbibe the life of holiness, sacrificial giving and love for the poor exemplified by John and Charles Wesley, the founder of Methodist Church.

Olawuyi stated this at a symposium themed ‘John Wesley’s Conversion: Its significance today’, organised by the Council of Knights, Methodist Church Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, where the virtues of John and Charles Wesley on sacrificial and their commitment were extolled.

John Wesley was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist, who led a revival within the Church of England known as Methodism. His tools for founding of Methodist Church were open air preaching, fervent evangelism, ministering the gospel in songs, advent of love offering and revival of fasting, which were not there before. They pioneered these frontiers that added colour to the Christianity.

He said: “As we celebrate the lives and times of John Wesley, we are calling for a reawakening of the life of holiness and sacrificial giving among Christians that exemplify the life of John Wesley and his brother Charles.”

He lamented the spate of messages in many denominations that emphasise the acquisition of material wealth with fewer teachings on holiness which prepares men for heaven.

Continental Overseer, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Continent Three, Pastor Johnson Odesola has called on the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for an average Nigerian to  live in any part of the country without any form of molestation or intimidation.

He also called for religious tolerance that would abhor violence and killing of human beings created in the image of God in the face of any small disagreement.

Odesola gave the call yesterday on the heels of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s instruction to churches that peaceful demonstration should be carried out within the confine of their churches to register the church’s disapproval of killings in the country and particularly, Christians, in the event of small provocation.

Odesola said: “This peaceful protest is actually very necessary because Nigeria is a secular country and not a country with just one religion which calls for tolerance and protection of every citizen on the part of the government.

“We must be friends whether Christians, Muslims or people from any other religions with one another and more importantly as citizens in a secular country such as ours and it is high time we realized that Nigeria is for everyone and not for a certain set of people”.

Also speaking, the Assistant Pastor in charge of the Province and Administration, Pastor Adebayo Adeyemo, said the protest became necessary because there was an increase in evil in the country where wickedness has multiplied. He added that the common news in Nigeria these days are blood-letting, kidnapping, and other vices and since God hates shedding of blood, any country where blood is shed will be cursed with an adverse effect on the economy and the governance.

The New Primate of The African Church, Archbishop Julius Olayinka Osayande Abbe, has said that the African Church is making a frantic effort at including its youths in the scheme of things and positioning them for greater impact within the church.

Abbe said this in an interview with The Nation at his inauguration as the 12th Primate of The African Church held over the week at The African Church Arch Cathedral Bethel, Broad Street, Lagos.

Tagged: ‘Redeeming the Time, Ephesians 5:16,’ brought together church leaders, clerics, gospel music artistes, and technocrats.

According to him, the youth remain the future of the church, thus empowering them and positioning them to lead effectively in the church is not negotiable. “I want to thank God for the lives of our youths as they are in different categories and they are doing tremendously well.”

The prelate said: “We have a lot of programmes that bring our youth together-crusades, retreats, and empowerment seminars that open their eyes to the modern day reality, and the scriptures are not left behind. Everything that we are doing now is backed by the scriptures.”

He added that the era of elders ignoring the youths in the scheme of things is over in the church. Today, youths are leading some of our dioceses and provinces, and they are doing well in the development and growth of the church.

He posited further that the African Church remains pure, undiluted, and committed to the task of evangelizing the world for Christ.

He said the Africa Church has no other agenda than that of Jesus Christ. “Jesus came to save the world and give salvation to mankind, and that is the topmost aspect of our agenda as a church. We are committed toward evangelizing the world for Christ.”

Bible Society of Nigeria has unveiled its new vision and mission statement which is to grow a community of Nigerian Christians empowered by the Holy Bible to make a positive global impact.

The General Secretary/Chief Executive, Bible Society of Nigeria, Pastor Samuel Sanusi said this at a press conference held over the week at the Bible Guest House.

He said that the new vision and mission statement was set to guide it in the quest to grow a community of Christians in Nigeria empowered by the Bible.

He said the new vision would be driven by BSN’s new mission statement which is “making the Holy Bible available to Nigerians in their preferred language and format, helping them engage with the Word of God through life-transforming programmes which are aimed at Nigerians living prosperous, better lives.”

Sanusi stressed that the vision was coming at a time when Nigeria seems to be in dire straits, where all manner of crime and criminality have pervaded the nooks and crannies of the country where terrorism, banditry, corruption, kidnapping mindless killings have become commonplace.

“The Bible Society of Nigeria, aimed at transforming the life of an average Nigerian so that the country would return to a peaceful habitation for every citizen to live together without acrimony”, he said.

Sanusi who condemned the murder of the representative of Aguata II Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, Okechukwu Okoye, who was abducted by unknown men and killed last week, also distanced himself from any form of jungle justice like the case of the student, Deborah who was murdered by religious fanatics.

He added that Deborah was neither tried nor condemned by any law court, asserting that Nigeria has come of age where the rule of law should prevail in every circumstance. He also called for religious tolerance in a secular country like Nigeria.

Anchor International Care and Humanitarian Initiative has trained almost 300 church leaders drawn from different denominations and organisations.

It was at the Next-Generation Leaders Summit (NGLS) organised by Anchor International Outreach Ministry.

The church leaders got a copy of the Africa Study Bible, book and workbook valued at N35,000.

This gesture, according to the President/National Coordinator of Anchor International Outreach Ministry, Dr Bolarinwa Omotosho, was to equip them for ministerial effectiveness.

The beneficiaries, he said,, include priests of the Nigeria Army Chaplaincy Protestant Services Lagos, priests of the mainline churches, Organisation of African Instituted Churches(OAIC), Pentecostal churches, seminarians, school leaders and youth workers, among others.

Omotosho explained that the free Bible distribution was made possible with the co-funding by Anchor International Outreach Ministry and Oasis International Limited through a project called God’s Word for Africa (GWFA).

The Regional Director, West Africa, also coordinator of God’s Word for Africa (GWFA) Sola, Onifade, expressed gratitude for the good coordination and success of the summit without his presence.

Lt Col Very Rev J. Njoku of the Nigeria Army Chapliancy Service Protestant, said: “The training programme organised by Anchor International Outreach Ministry is indeed a step in the right direction. It dealt squarely with the urgent need to raise the next generation of leaders today, and the call for all who hold the position of trust in raising those leaders to rise to the occasion.

“We sincerely appreciate Oasis International and other kingdom partners who made this programme and the study Africa Bible and other materials available for the participants.”

Rev Moses Ayando of Evangelical Church Winning All(ECWA) said: “When you are looking for a soul-lifting and life transforming message release at the right time, then being part of the leadership summit of yesterday, organized by Anchor International Outreach Ministry, is just it.” What a wonderful time in God’s presence. To cap it up, the presentation of the Africa Study Bible, which was presented to 250 people, was the height of it all. In fact, the excitement and joyful mood of receiving the Bible was inexplicable.”

President Hephizibah Ministry, Rev Tosin Olapo, said: “The training at the New Generation Leaders Summit was refreshing and educating. The topics and focus of the training were well aligned to current perspectives and challenges in ministry, with concrete steps to handle them for a more effective performance of participants in ministry.

“The faculty was carefully selected to give adequate experiential knowledge to help the ministers. The free Africa Study Bible given to participants was the icing on the cake of the well packaged program. On behalf of all participants, I wish to register our appreciation to Oasis International for this valuable resource given to us. We look forward to other future programs by Anchor International Outreach Ministry.”

Omotosho commended all the speakers and said indeed the participants had drawn biblical leadership and administrative experience from them.

Among all are Rev. Dr. Michael Abodunrin, chancellor of Bowen University and past convention chairman of the Nigeria Baptist Convention; Pastor F.O Olotu, National Leader and Area Superintendent at The Apostolic Church, Nigeria and Dr. Mrs. Priscillia Omotosho, trustee of Anchor International Outreach Ministry

The Senior Pastor of The Censers Church Inc. Worldwide Pastor Ugochukwu Anike has stated that Christians must be more involved in politics as 2023 draws closer.

He said the involvement of Christians in politics will promote good governance anchored on accountability and quality performance.

According to him: “Christians need to be involved in politics because we believe in a God who cares passionately about His world and His creation and consequently, how it is run.

‘’The Bible is hugely political because it is about how God wants people to behave and act toward Him and toward each other. This involves economics and law because these are tools that essential in building justice.’’

Urging more Christians to actively get involved in politics he said: “Let us all rise as believers and get involved directly or indirectly in politics. Directly when we run for political offices and indirectly when we encourage godly people to join politics and also, when we go out and fulfil our civic responsibility which is to vote. The future is in our hands if we all rise and do the needful.”

To drive home his point, Anike, who is also an author quoted Proverbs 29: 2 which says: ‘when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice.’

He added God wants the righteous to be in authorities because when the righteous are in authority, they will make policies that will bring transformational changes and thereby bring joy to society.

“If you remember the case of Mordecai. There was a decree that God’s people should be annihilated. However, Mordecai and the entire Jewish race prayed that God should intervene and God sent Esther to the throne.

“As we pray in Church, we must also encourage Christians to participate in politics because if we are not involved, we must also not complain about bad leadership. This is because you can only change a system from within the system, not from outside the system,” he said.

He also called on Christians not to forget that the reason God brings men into great positions is to impact lives positively and not for personal interest and self aggrandisement.

Lamenting the state of the nation he said: “There is so much decay in Nigeria and African society today because very few politicians have the interest of the masses at heart while many are selfish and corrupt.

“In Matthew 5:13-16, the Bible calls us the salt and the light of the world. As you know, salt’s value is seen only when it is added. This means that the usefulness of every grain of salt is in its adding value.

” Also, a lamp is useless if it does not give light. Salt is a preservative which means as believers, we have been raised by God to preserve the societal value and norms of our day.

“Light brings illumination thereby expelling darkness. So, as believers, we must make a difference when we get elected, appointed or promoted into high office.”

Prelate of Methodist Church Nigeria, Samuel Uche, will be retiring in November after serving for nine years. He spoke to Adeola Ogunlade at his Apostolic Tour of Diocese of Lagos on the contributions of the Methodist Church to the body of Christ, what kept him in office, insecurity, and other sundry issues in Nigeria.

What are some of the contributions of the Methodist Church to the growth of the church in Nigeria?

Our church started with 120 people but today has risen to 2.1million members and we are still growing.

We brought to Nigeria- education, social welfare, medical services, infrastructural services, and evangelism. We promoted ecumenism. What we called the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was an offshoot of the Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN). CCN is an association birthed by Methodist, Anglican, and Presbyterian. Later on, when CCN visited the former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the Dodan Barracks in 1977, he encouraged us to have a group that will stand together as one voice for the church. Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, the Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos in the Roman Catholic Church was there and they agreed to establish CAN. In every aspect of Christian Church growth in Nigeria, Methodist played a key role. We are always there as the father of others and we have remained so to date.

This year is remarkable as we are celebrating 180 years of Methodist in Nigeria and 60 years of autonomy in Nigeria and it coincided with the year the Prelate on the seat, the first lbo man to be Prelate of Methodist after 171 years of its existence in Nigeria will be exiting. I will exiting by November. We are celebrating growth and expansion. We are celebrating the exit of our prelate and the appointment of a new prelate come August this year.

We are interested in what happens in Nigeria. The Methodist Church has always preached unity, love, togetherness, equity, and righteousness, and we don’t want Nigeria to disintegrate. We want a Nigeria where there is fairness, love, transparency, probity, kindness, and a detribalize Nigeria where everyone is proud to belong. That is why we are calling on politicians to play free and fair politics and not a do-or-die affair. We want them to allow the best candidate to emerge. The undoing of this nation is to allow a criminal, somebody without good antecedent to assume office as President, Governor, and member of the House of Representatives, among others. We want the best but it is sad that today we have commercial politics. We are excluding good people and we are bringing hooligans, thieves, and wolves to devour Nigeria and that will not augur well for us.

You are the first lbo prelate that the Methodist produced since 171 years of its existence in Nigeria, how did you emerge?

I must commend its eminence, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, the former Prelate of Methodist Church of Nigeria, who was firm. He looked soft but was stern. He insisted that everybody must be given a level playing ground. 20 bishops were shortlisted. The criteria for selection were that the Bishop must be a graduate and must be 60 years at the time of election. He must be spiritually and morally sound. So, all these came to the fore. After the first screening, out of 20, four were remaining. From the four, one must have a two-thirds majority to become prelate. After the election, two were eliminated and two were shortlisted. As usual, the two must have a two- thirds majority, which is our constitution. There was a final election with a simple majority. That was how I emerged.

37 lawyers were in court to stand in for the suspects in the case of the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu in Sokoto State, is the church helpless?

It is incomprehensible that someone will kill because of religion. I remember when I was the Chairman of CAN in Kano in the 1990s and Pastor Gideon Akaluka was killed by a Muslim mob. I held a Press conference and made it clear then that if this happened again, there would be a problem. It was a world press conference, where BBC, CNN, France 24, and all the media houses in Nigeria were represented and I said that enough was enough. The governor of the state at that time set up a True and Reconciliation Commission where we agreed that there would be no such thing again. In fact, one Emir that was dethroned and ran away was said to be the leader of the gang that killed Akaluka. He ran away to the Niger Republic. When we said enough was enough, we were ready for anything- to live or die and I was ready to lead the battle. But they did not come again until I became Bishop and l left Kano in 1998. We were prepared for the battle but they did not come for the battle.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called for nationwide and international peaceful protests over the gruesome killing of Deborah Yakubu, what is your take on it?

Prayer is the key and we cannot go against CAN. Although we gave birth to CAN, we are members of CAN, and what they say, we will do. I do not think prayer is enough. The people I blamed more are the so-called Christians who are in the National Assembly. They are only there to line their pockets with money, they are not representing Christ. There must be a law promulgated that no Nigerian should be killed on the basis of religion and that they should bring out a punishment and sanctions when such acts are committed.  When such a bill is passed and the President signed it into law, everyone will sit up.

There are claims in some quarters that due to insecurity in the country, the 2023 general election should be postponed?

If they postpone the election, there will be nothing like INEC or the Presidency. You cannot go against our constitution and remain in power for one day. No, it cannot happen. People say what happened in Afghanistan; will happen here, it will never work. Nigeria is not Afghanistan, it will never happen. Nigeria is more than what people think. When Nigerians rise as one and say enough is enough, you will run. There should not be any postponement of the election. The election must go on.

What is the secret of your success?

The secret of my success as Prelate is prayer and my people are very good. What Methodists hate is inconsistency, corruption, embezzlement, and immorality, if you do any of these; you are on your own. If they see integrity in you, they will follow you and support us.

Advice to Nigerians?

It is sad that we are bringing in wolves to devour Nigerians and that will not augur well for us. Since they insisted on doing that, we don’t want consensus candidates, everyone must go into the field and there should be a primary and whoever becomes the highest scorer, should be chosen as party flag bearer.

I want to advise Nigerians, right from the primaries, if they give you money, take it and eat it because it is stolen money, and vote for your conscience. Don’t mortgage your future and that of your children. When politicians bring out millions of naira and give it to me, I will take it and share it to the poor and tell the poor not to vote for them. They will vote for credible people who will come to administer justice and ensure that we have employment, and skill acquisition. Nigeria has a consumption economy based on oil. But I know that there are countries like Japan, and Bangladesh that don’t have oil but are making it based on production rather than consumption.

We should emphasize production rather than consumption. It is a crude, uncivilized lifestyle. No one should kill on the basis of religion and tribal differences. We should promote love and harmony among ourselves. What matters most for me is that we are Nigerians. Where I lived at Yaba, most of the people there are Muslims and the same when I was in Kano, l lived among Muslims. I give them money to buy ram during the Ramadan festival and during their period of fast, I give them money too. We celebrate together at Chrisman. When we fight over religious differences, it means we are not civilized. If we are civilized, there will not be fighting over religion or tribe.

Now, they are trying to victimise some people and tag them as non-Nigerians. And were told to leave Nigeria. It can only be said from an uncooked or uncivilized mind. Why make their statement because of politics. We are Nigerians and we will remain here. I will not denigrate any tribe but there are people who are indigenous Nigeria-Yoruba, Ibos and we know those who are visitors and visitors cannot come here and say we should go, otherwise we will finish ourselves.

 

The Parish Priest, of the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Gbaja, Surulere, Lagos, the Most Reverend Bernard Ayodele Okodua, has urged Christians to work according to their call by God.

He spoke during the celebration of the church’s Vocation Day.

He admonished both the priests and the members called by God to serve in spirit and in truth, saying marriage is a call.

Okodua urged parents to bring up their children in the fear of God.  “You fail if you do not train your children in God’s way,” he added.

Also, the Catholic Men Organisation (CMO) of the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Gbaja, Surulere, Lagos elected 11 officers that will pilot the affairs of the organisation.

The new officers are Dr. Celestine Chukwunenye (Chairman); Mr. Franklin Umukoro (Vice-Chairman); Prince Peter Ibukun Olagunju (Secretary); Mr. Folarin John Dalmeida (Assistant General); Mr.Michael Oladimeji (Treasurer), Mr. Vincent Osiegbu (Financial Secretary); Mr. Charles Onwubiko (Public Relations Officer); Mr. Felix Anekwe (Welfare 1); Mr. Sixtus Nnachi (Welfare Officer 2); Mr. Ogbonna Chizoba (Provost); Mr. Dominus Ojero (Ex-Officio 2); and Mr. Paul Omolodun (Ex-Officio 2).

In his acceptance, Chukwunenye said: “The main thrust was how to increase the membership strength and spirituality. We also intend to enhance members economically, socially, and politically. We pledged to work harmoniously with the church authorities, and assist the church in every way we can.”

Earlier, the outgoing Chairman, Ojero listed his achievements during his five-year tenure. They included: increased membership to 730, distribution of COVID-19 palliatives, the celebration of the church’s golden jubilee and the Patron’s Day, financial assistance to the pastoral team and the sick, and holding of seminars.

The church thanked him and his team for doing a good job.