Having started as a drummer, Emmanuel Iren later found love in music as he had written twelve songs which also featured popular gospel musician, Eben. The master’s degree holder was soon called to the pulpit and has since became the head pastor of Celebration Church International with branches in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Abuja and Canada. He speaks with Adeniyi Adewoyin in this interview. Excerpts…
SO many people know you as a pastor, what are the things that people don’t know about you, and if you were not a Pastor, what would you be doing?
That’s a simple question, because I love what I’ve been called to do. But in some other ways, that’s a tough question because they are a couple of other things that I have a fervent passion for. Academically, I have a master’s degree in Business Administration, from the University of Lagos. I’ve always had a knack for business being done properly, and organisations running smoothly, so perhaps I might have explored a career in that. I also studied Building Technology for my first degree, and I’m quite passionate about interior decoration. Also, I’m a songwriter. By God’s grace, I’ve written about twelve songs performed by Outburst Music Group, including ‘Light up the way’ featuring Eben. In fact, before I became a pastor, I started out as a drummer. I’ve always been musically inclined. But I think in a way, all my different experiences and gifts find expression in ministry.
What’s your relationship with gospel musicians, most especially the ones you write songs for?
I founded Outburst Music Group and all the songs I have written have been performed by Outburst. We featured Eben as a guest artiste on our newest project. I love music and inevitably musicians. I follow closely the work of not just singers but a couple of instrumentalists as well. I used to be a drummer. So I’m still very fascinated with good music. I have a good relationship with a good number of musicians.
Definitely. I’ve had the honour of hosting gospel musicians like Eben, Dunsin, Jadhiel , Judikay, and so on. In fact, there’s a faith based not non-religious platform I host with my wife called YOUNG AND FREE. We had Johnny Drille grace that event. The list goes on.
Celebration Church has grown exponentially since it was founded eight years ago. What’s the secret to what many would term the success of Celebration Church? And what drives the continuous expansion?
The secret is simply the grace that accompanies the call. The Bible says that if anyone prophesies, let him prophesy according to the measure of the grace of God. Every spiritual activity should be carried out by grace and not just by effort or mere physical or even mental exertion. The truth is some other people who are called to just pastor one branch and as long as they do that wholeheartedly and do it according to what the Lord has asked him to do then they are a success in that call. So I don’t really consider us a success, because we are doing what is great in the sight of men. You know, but, rather because we’re doing what God has asked us to do.
When people ask why open even more branches, my response is simply because that’s because that’s the vision that God gave us; A specific vision.
And by the way, we realized what we emphasize is slightly different. The real questions isn’t how many churches there are in the world. The questions we like to ask people are, well, since you’ve been going to church, do you understand the Bible? Are you growing in the knowledge of God? Not just in religion, not just in what people say. Or what is popular, but what the Word of God says. It isn’t enough for a church to five metres wide, if it’s an inch deep. Also, I must say that while we are grateful for the numbers, the testimony of changed lives is the greatest testimony of Celebration Church.
How long have you been pastoring? How did you receive the call? What has brought you from there to here? If you can just share a bit of your history with us as a church?
It all started from me just being an undergraduate student on fire for the Lord. I just wanted to serve the Lord the best way I knew how to and be as responsible as I could, contributing to the advancement of the kingdom. But what was supposed to be a private personal fire began to grow. People literally began to come to say that they had been blessed, and they wanted to grow. That was a pointer to the fact that God had more in store, which later became confirmed and we began to have small Bible meetings that grew from three people to ten to twenty to hundred to five hundred and more, while I was still an undergraduate.
After school God told us that it wasn’t just a youth ministry, but that he had given us a work that must continue, which is what we have done. So about a year after graduation almost immediately after my youth service we set out to start, what is now known as Celebration Church had our first Sunday service on November 11th, 2020.
For someone who feels like there’s a call upon their life to become a founder or pioneer, it might be ministry, business, social change or something else? What would be your word of encouragement be to them?
My answer would be a balance of a spiritual and a natural approach. What people need to realize is that no matter how convinced you are that you’re supposed to do something, there is a requisite amount of confidence and bravery that it would take.
Whether it’s a spiritual vision, or otherwise, there must be bravery to step out and do.
In the Bible, when God called people, you would often see a disparity between how God saw them and what he had destined them to be and how they saw themselves. Jeremiah saw himself as a child, Moses saw himself as a stammerer. But God called them prophets. Many times, we don’t see ourselves the way we ought to see ourselves or we don’t see ourselves through the lens of God. We’ve bought all the socio-cultural narratives that that have given us a thousand and one reasons why we cannot do what we are born to do. But sooner rather than later, you must stand up, square your shoulders, and get the job done. Just like Mary, we must have the audacity to embrace the vision and say: “this is who I’m going to be and this is what I’m going to do my life.”
You’re thirty years old, but you recently celebrated your 6th year wedding anniversary, and you’ve got two daughters. What would you say is the secret to a successful marriage? Does getting married early have anything to do with it?
I really think that for two people to work together, they must realize that one of the greatest causes of conflict is when people are set in their ways regarding how things must be done. You know, so there must be an agreement if two people work together, just like the Bible says. As great as your parents’ marriage is or was, whatever be the case, your marriage will be slightly different. And even though the values are fundamentally the same, but practically every marriage is different. So the people involved must learn to be flexible, must learn to be understanding, must learn to be forgiving, and just come together and find what works for the good of the home. So I think that once that is achieved, and conflict resolution is something that has been mastered, a huge chunk of whatever might be the trouble will be out of the way. Of course, I can’t really answer all the keys to a successful home in a few paragraphs, but I think that’s a major one I can share.
But when it comes to marriage, everyone’s timetable is different. I feel like some people may not be ready to get married at the age of 30. Some may not be ready to get married at the age of 35. Some may be ready to get married at the age of 23. Some might be ready to get married at the age of 20. It’s not really about the age; it’s about the maturity, the exposure. Do you know what it entails and are you ready to play your part?
Marriage is an institution between two consenting and responsible adults. There should be some level of financial independence. There should be a social-cultural independence also, you should be able to stand on your own in a community and be ready to carve a niche for yourself and more. You should have the mental, emotional and financial maturity, to raise a family. At the time I got married, I was through with school. I already had a job. I had a friend that I was convinced I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
People say that the church is not doing enough to help the poor but is instead opening branches all around. How do we balance that? What would your response be to something like that?
First and foremost, I want to say respectfully many churches have shown, even more what the government can do better. I attended Covenant University, and when you look at a system like Canaanland, that has had constant electricity for 18 years, that has good roads, good water, and everything; It now lets you know that the government that we’re paying taxes to, can do even better if they are more prudent with finances. I’m not saying that the church is doing too much. There’s always room for improvement but chances are the church is doing way more than people know. For instance, I think our church was able to help at least six people with their schooling and school fees this year alone. That’s a church that is just eight years old. Growing up, even before I became a pastor, I was in a local church that was quite generous to the poor among us, but didn’t make a lot of noise about it. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen churches speak up against injustice, and support peaceful protesters in dire need.
Jesus says the left hand shouldn’t know what the right hand is doing. The debates can be made if those things should be made more public than they have been. But I can attest to the fact that many people are doing way more than people realize.
As important as acts of charity are, the world needs to understand that we still have a message, that the church is fundamentally in the business of souls, of discipleship. Jesus said, to go into all the world and teach all nations and that remains our priority.
In doing so, we carry a bag with us, we help the poor and all of that. I’m not saying helping the poor is not important. It is very important but it is still not our core message, because poor, rich, no matter your economic status, the gospel is that you will need to believe in Jesus to have eternal life and that is still our fundamental message at the end of the day.
What’s next for celebration church?
Whatever God says is next. For now, we’re consolidating. God has helped us to reach so many disciples and we want to do that more faithfully. We don’t do anything except God tells us to do so it’s very hard to say what’s next but we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing, telling the world about Jesus, helping thinkers believe and like a popular apologists to say, helping thinkers believe and helping believers think. Bringing the balance between reasoning and faith. Helping people realize that faith is reasonable and when we say that we believe in God, it is not a figment of our imagination. It is a fact of life and we can show it and the evidence is there for people who are objective, who would follow the science that God himself has given. So, we would just keep doing what we’ve been called to do faithfully.
