Category: Worship

Prophet Obafemi Akinade, 27, is the son of the late founder of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Lion of Judah, Prophet Elijah Akinade. In this interview with Kunle Akinrinade, he opens up on his emergence as the shepherd of the church and the last days of his father. Excerpts:      

How true is the allegation that your emergence as the general overseer was not in order?

I never announced myself as prophet and leader of the church, my father did. In fact, it was the late Prophet Timothy Obadare that predicted my birth and that I would be a prophet of God. As a little boy at our parish in Ibadan, I was endowed with the gift of prophesy and a lot of members of the church were coming to me for spiritual counselling.

It got to a point that I was no longer serious with my studies. On a particular day, my father was returning from the mountain where he had gone to pray when he saw a multitude of people waiting to see me and he became angry.

And he said to me: “I command my anointing to suppress the gift of prophesy in you (me) so that you can face your studies, excel and become a graduate in life.” From that moment, I stopped seeing visions and focused on my studies. I went on to study Psychology and Counselling at the Covenant University, Ogun State. I finished in 2009 and did my youth service at Chevron, Lekki.

At the completion of my service year, I was retained by the management of Chevron. However, in September 2010, my father asked me to resign from paid job and serve as his personal assistant. After hesitating for sometimes, I finally resigned from Chevron in December 2010 and he told me that God has told him that I should work as a full-time cleric in the ministry.

Did he openly proclaim you as his successor before he died?

He did and that was when I clocked 25 in March 2011.The proclamation took place on Sunday March 13, 2011 during service. He explained to the congregation how God had instructed him to anoint and allow me preach for three Sundays once I clocked 25.

I was shocked beyond words and gave a good account of myself on the pulpit while delivering the sermon of the day. Shortly after the sermon, he asked me to stand before the congregation and anointed me as a prophet. He asked me to open my mouth and he spit into it before rubbing his head on mine.

He went on to declare that from that day, my gift of prophecy had been restored. And from that day, I started seeing visions again. In the middle of the service, a prophetic message came from a member of the church that God has instructed that I should preach for the next seven days.

Is it true that your father died from a mysterious illness?

That is not true. On the contrary, he was ministering during a service, when he suddenly collapsed and was taken to Garki General Hospital, Abuja where he eventually died. I was with him at the hospital till he breathed his last.

He was a workaholic and I remember that there was a time he ministered for 24 hours without a break. After the service, he travelled to South Africa where he had a ministration that lasted for several hours. All the tests carried out on him including his death certificate show that he died from accumulated stress and that his heart was over-stressed.

All the negative stories about the circumstances surrounding his death published by a section of the media were fabricated by misguided people to smear my father’s image and that of his ministry.

How were his last moments?

He told me so many things on his sick bed. I remember that at a point he started praying for me, saying: “Stay by God’s words and the God whom I serve would strengthen and guide you.’’ However, his last days on the sick bed were traumatic because he was placed on oxygen for about one month and was gasping for breath.

When he was about to die, he said in Yoruba,” Ija dopin, ogun tan (the battle is over, the final hour has come) Halleluyah, Halleluyah. He said the angels of God were around and that his time was up, and he passed on. He, however, warned me not to discontinue his outreach programmes and crusades.                                                                                 What kind of person was your father?

He was forthright, moderate and disciplined. My father never deceived or exploited anyone that approached him for spiritual solution. Despite administering a flourishing church with many branches, he lived within his means and that is one thing he thought his children.

When I gained admission into the university, he had no money to pay for my tuition and had to borrow money from a member of the church instead of dipping his hands into the coffers of the church. As a matter of fact, he did not build a house of his own but instead channelled his resources into building the church with branches in many parts of Nigeria and overseas.

There was a particular day he got angry with someone who advised him to build a house of his own. He said the person in question was being used by devil to mislead him. He claimed that a genuine man of God must first strive to build his church before personal house. He did not have a personal house and as I speak we live in a rented apartment.

How have the family and church been faring since his death?

Well, God has been our strength since he passed on despite the challenge of meeting up with the standard established by my father. The church has continued to grow beyond our imagination as more people have joined the church as members. New branches have been opened in Ghana and in a couple of weeks from now, another branch will be opened in the United States of America (USA) and the Republic of Benin.

We are holding one of his popular crusades ‘Destiny Recovery’ at the MITV Ground, Ikeja, Lagos in a few days.   One of those giving us financial support for the programme is a particular member of the church whom God had used my father to help.

On a personal note, I have finished my Masters degree and I am currently running a doctorate degree in Criminology at the Covenant University. My siblings too are doing well and the divine grace has been our pillar so far. As a family, there is no rancour or cold war among us and we have conducted ourselves in line with the principles which our father established in his lifetime.

What regrets do you have, not seeing your father again?

It is so painful that he was not alive to witness my wedding and the birth of my child. But that has been the trend in our family because my grandfather too did not witness my father’s wedding or the birth of his children. However, that has ended with my father because I’ll live long to see my children’s wedding and their children.

 

The President of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide, Pastor Olukunle Akinosun, spoke with Gbenga Aderanti on the crisis in the church, the deal with the late Prophet Timothy Obadare and sundry issues. Excerpts:

When will you lift the embargo on creation of districts and zones?

We have also placed an embargo on ordination of ministers since my assumption of office. This we did because all these things have been bastardised. We sent memo to all the CAC branches. We said we wanted total restructuring of everything. It will soon be lifted when all the policy inputs from our districts and zones have been codified.

Indeed, we are already codifying the contributions made by our branches. We placed embargo on establishment of districts and zones because we wanted to check some abuses we noticed. We have since achieved stability in this regard.

Was there crisis before you assumed office?

The crisis or challenges facing the church is almost 23 years now. It started in 1991 when strange things, foreign things that the church was not known with, continued to creep into the church. Evangelism was being merchandised, before you knew it, people started planting independent churches within the church.

The people responsible for these acts were warned repeatedly but when the people refused to yield to the warning, the authority had to take some steps to discipline them, particularly the leader that started that thing.

He and his sympathisers were suspended and instead of apologising and repenting, they took the authority to court and to challenge the suspension. The judgment said that the authority of the church had the right to suspend them. Then they went to appeal court, the case is yet to be determined.

How have you been able to quell some of the crisis to achieve relative peace?

You see, right after my assumption in office, I took it upon myself to visit the leader of the faction to make him see the need to end this impasse and he promised me, but after that, instead of abiding with what we have said that we were coming together to end the thing, some of them that do not want the crisis to end started throwing stones, calling us names. Some of them said I was seeking for cheap popularity, that was why I was visiting them to end the crisis.The problem made the authorities, general executive council, go to court to know the authentic church, and by the judgment of 1st March 2011 that said our side is the authentic church and since 1998 Supreme (a faction of CAC) had ceased to exist. They are existing illegally and they said that we should do all we could do to show that we are the authentic church recognised by the government.

But because we are brothers, despite the problems, they are still CAC members. That is why we have been so lenient. We have been appealing to them because we do not want to enforce the ruling because if we had wanted to enforce it, we would have closed their assemblies.

After that judgment, they gave themselves titles instead of repenting. But we are still appealing to them to come back.

That means some of them are still stubborn?

Yes, some of them even say they are the authentic, even without having a licence, without having trustees.

Could it be that some people are using CAC church to promote their agenda?

That is what is happening. We are being patient to see that the crisis is over before enforcing the judgment because we are still going to address all these things. You cannot just go and build something and put CAC there.

CAC is a registered name, but people don’t care and they are abusing it and it is because of this problem. If you challenge any of them now, he or she will say he does not belong to your side.

But Obadare tried to reconcile all the parties before he passed on

When he was agile, he came to our meeting when we were holding a peace meeting that time. He said God directed him to hands-off the division. He said God directed him that his followers should join the mainstream. We told him that in all the court litigations, his name used to appear as first plaintiff and we told him that his lawyer should write to all the courts that his name should be withdrawn, but before he died he couldn’t do it.

You see, we learnt that some people dissuaded him from withdrawing it. But before he died, he sent his first son to us. He came here, several times we held meetings with him and we told him to go and appeal to his people.

At an event, the factional leader said he had accepted that CAC should be one, but a week later one of the factional leaders said their president never said that. How will you react to this?

That is what we are saying. There, the centre doesn’t hold. Their leader was president by name because they all gave themselves titles.

Since Obadare decided to end the crisis before he died, are you thinking about bringing WOSEM back to the fold?

That was the task given to Pastor Paul, Obadare’s first son. I told him that the ‘the problem in the CAC is the problem with WOSEM and now that Baba sent you to us that there’s no more acrimony, go and bring your people.’

I asked him to go and tell them what Baba directed him to do. ‘Go and convince them’ and he told us that he was going to do his best. But he came back that they refused to listen to him.

When the final burial of Prophet Obadare took place, many people were surprised that you and other CAC principal officers were not there. What was responsible for this?

The burial has come and gone. We give glory to God. Why not allow the matter to die like that. As for non-attendance at Prophet Obadare’s funeral, it was due to a very tight schedule I had at the time.

I had scheduled some activities for that period before the burial committee decided to fix the burial date for that same period. You could say why not send people? I want to assure you that our people were at the burial.

But contrary to what many people think, we invited him (Paul Obadare) here that we wanted to know about the programme. He said his father was beyond CAC. He said they were going to make an international programme and they made it. He said Obadare was not for CAC alone and because of that the programme was going to be international in nature.

Do you see an end to this crisis?

Even you may see the hand of God that the crisis is ending by the end of the year. Other factions are thirsty for reunification and by the grace of God, by the end of the year, we are going to be one again.

How do you hope to stop the court cases involving CAC?

There are not many court cases. All the cases in court now are at the instance of our brothers on the other side. There is an appeal by our brothers on the other side against the civil case in which the registered trustees of the church and the general executive council were adjudged to be the authentic authority of the Church.

There is also a criminal case being pursued by them at the Federal High Court, Ibadan against our leaders. On our part, we have withdrawn all cases instituted against them. They are the ones still prosecuting the criminal case against our leaders. We cannot force them to withdraw the cases if they think that’s what would settle the matter.

Christians are expected to be gentle and straightforward. Why is politics in the Church?

I don’t think it is politics; I think it is selfishness, inordinate ambition, looking for fame and big name instead of working for the development and growth of the church. It is about individuals seeking popularity.

Looking at the pictures of the past leaders of the CAC hung on the wall, they are all Yoruba. Does it mean that the Church is just for the Yoruba people alone?

It is a global church. The pictures you are seeing are for past presidents. They are all Yoruba because the revival started here. It is normal, but the secretary slot is allocated to the eastern area.

The general overseer of Christ Royal Family International Church and one of the leading gospel preachers, in Lagos Bishop Tom Samson, will inaugurate his NBillion naira monumental project christened Royal City and celebrate his 47th birthday on Saturday, 14th December, 2013. The city is built on 100 hectares of land in Iyesi, Otta in Ogun State. It accommodates a camp ground for prayers and revival, training centres, Royal dynasty Nursery and Primary, Royal City College, Royal Diadem Schools, Royal City College of Education, water purification and packaging company, a printing press and take-off ground for the already licensed Monarch University.

For Tom Samson, it’s an excitement to feel accomplished at 47. A Christian author and founder of Christ Royal Ministry with headquarters in Egbeda, South West Lagos, he presides over thousands of souls with branches scattered all over the world. There is also a 100,000- seater Royal City Stadium with a giant podium.

To make the occasion special , a week-long celebration has been scheduled to run between December 8 and 15. On December 8, activities will take place at the Lagos Airport Hotel, then on Monday and Tuesday, December 9 and 10 respectively; the train moves to Royal Towers, beside Ikeja Local Government. By Wednesday December 11, all roads lead to Royal City for camping. All Christ Royal Church ministers at home and abroad will be camping at the 100-hectare Royal City. Then on Saturday December 14th, the preacher we’ll be playing host to governors, captains of industries, politicians, over 100 Bishops, 120 Apostles, people from within and outside the country to open the Royal City, while Sunday 15th will be the family thanksgiving service.