Serving Overseer of First Love Assembly, Pastor Simeon Afolabi, spoke with reporters on challenges in the body of Christ on his 60th birthday. Sunday Oguntola was there. Excerpts:
How did First Love Assembly come to being?
First Love Assembly started in November 1998. It didn’t start as the First Love Assembly. It started as Revival People’s Church. It changed in 2007 when we moved to a new location. We changed physical location and then the name. The reason for change of name was spiritual and a product of exigency.
When we were bearing Revival People’s Church, some people didn’t have the right sequence in the name. Some people will call it Revival Peoples Church; some will say People’s Revival Church. That time too we have many churches with revival connotations. So you couldn’t tell what is what. So, I was busy looking for revivals and a name so easy to call and identify with. As they say the last straw that broke the camel’s back was in 2006.
I went to Calabar. I was invited by the wife of the then governor, Onari Duke. There was a group of women who attended a meeting of a female group and they have their programme. I was the guest speaker. When they invited me to Calabar, all the who is who was there, so a woman was anchoring, she was introducing the guest speaker and said Pastor Simeon Afolabi, the pastor of Revival People’s Party and that day I said we have to change it.
I guess because she was in the environment of politicians and the only thing that can come up was political party’s name. So we had to change the name. The idea that was behind the change was revival. The talks about bringing back things to an earlier state. If a chair’s leg is broken, you need to repair it, when you do, it means you have brought it back to its original state. That is the idea of revival. I am a revival person; I don’t want to miss the touch with revival. So I needed a name that is close to that and yet easy to come by. The name I could think of was First Love. That is the kind of love that the first-century church had that nothing mattered to them than the Lord. That was first love, the kind of love the disciples had.
You left school in 1987 and joined the work of the ministry in 1988. That was so close, how were you so sure that you heard God?
I finished my Cambridge A’level in 1981 at the school of Basic Studies, Ilorin. I did that between 1979 and 1981. I didn’t get into the university until 1982. Between 1979 and 82, I did auxiliary teaching. There used to be auxiliary teachers in those days, people who did not go to teacher training were recruited because there was a short fall of teachers. I picked up a job as an auxiliary teacher in a village called Elerinjare in Kwara State.
The principal of the school that time was one Mr. Adeoye. I used to gather the students at the Fellowship of Christian Students, the little I knew then I taught them. One day the principal of the school attended the fellowship. I don’t know what I was preaching then, after the fellowship he called me and said ‘Simeon, if you continue this way you would make a good preacher one day.’ I can’t tell what he saw, that was someone who was perhaps perceiving the grace. So when you begin to see endorsement without asking for it, it tells you something.
Talking about First Love, can you cast your mind back to the 70s and now there seems to be how some people cry foul about what is going on in the church today. What is your rhythm of the transition between that time and now?
I think it’s not so much about transition like you rightly said but the problem with us is that instead of having transition, we should have been having consolidation. In the 70s and early 80s, the basic understanding of Christianity was to give your life to Christ, get ready for heaven, forget about the earth.
So Christianity of those days always focused on heaven and with nothing to do with the earth or have no regard for anything earthly. That is the reason in those days when someone says he is born again, his mother will mourn as if he had died because they believed they have lost this one. They would think this one can never be relevant, he can never do well, that was the picture in the early 70s up to 80s.
Faith teachings began to come into the country by the 80s. Rev. Emiko Amotsuka and others like Rev. Ayodele used to attend Kenneth Hagin’s camp meetings in Tulsa, US. They would come back with materials on faith teachings. Then the faith teaching started; you can move mountains and all that. Later prosperity message came to climb on the back of faith teachings. They would preach God is not poor etc. so instead of transiting, we should have consolidated.
When faith teachings came, prosperity message came; we dropped the holiness teaching that was the bedrock of the 70s and 80s. Instead of leaving that, we should have consolidated; adding the faith teachings and prosperity teachings to holiness teaching. We would have had a more solid church today but what we have today is a generation who wants to ride the prosperity, ride on the faith teaching, ride on the success teaching without still considering the fact that God is a holy God.
That is why I said we moved from that phase, in those days we had no money, we had no buildings, we had no cars, but we had sincerity of worship, we had genuine of worship. No equipment, most meetings were under the trees, in primary schools, in secondary schools, we slept on benches, on sand but salvation was real.
Today we have the number but we don’t have the impact, so when people talk about revival in the church today, I’m not trying to be derogatory, it is all about number, we don’t have the impact, we only have the numbers.
You think we have lost something?
Yes, I believe we lost something.
What is your own experience in the transition phase?
By and large, I still judge myself as a conservative Christian because I have a lot of our people coming up now. I have fought and fought with our people in Port Harcourt. When I see lights rolling during worship, I would ask them what is the effect of this light? What is this light doing?
What about keyboard sounding while you are making a point as you are preaching?
They won’t even try that with me. No, they won’t try that. When it’s time for worship, let’s worship. When it’s time for teaching, let’s teach. I’m trying to take advantage of what modern life and technology have made available and how we can lay a solid foundation.
What about your colleagues in the ministry, do you have problem with them with your mindset about the practices and the trends?
People just need to know what you stand for. We were in the pastors’ meeting in January and my pastors were fighting with me what I shouldn’t do. I still drive myself most time. I drive myself till tomorrow. Some things don’t just sit well with me. I warned our pastors. I used the word ‘designer pastors’, forget about celebrities, designer pastor who has no problem. That is not life; that is not ministry. I tell people when I’m tired, I tell them when I’m sick, when I’m hungry, I tell them I’m hungry.
It seems you are pained that we have left this first love, what do you think is the solution?
We need to get back to the basics, the foundation. Let’s see how we have moved in the Pentecostal setting. The bulk of what we call Pentecostal churches today walked out of what we called orthodox churches. We left Baptist, Anglican etc. We said they were worldly, occultists, of course the Celestial and the Cherubim, we condemned them because they used candles, water, they use oil, they bath by the river. Tell me what Pentecostals are not doing now, even worse.
We should go back to the basics. In the 70s, and 80s, the basic way believers were raised was through bible studies. Deeper life Bible study in those days, one point can have ten scriptures and you must read all the ten. That was what produced sound, solid believers. Now they say ‘if your amen is louder than your neighbour’s own you collect your neighbour’s blessing.’ Where did we get that?
The pollution is amazing. Success is deceitful. If someone has the crowd and the number, we take whatever he says as the authority and he may be far from the truth. They’ll ask ‘why is God blessing him?’
“They’ll say if it’s good, then it’s God but Moses brought water from the rock and he was disobedient. There is what God will do independent of the minister; it is not as if He is putting approval on him.
