The Senior Pastor of Harvesters International Christian Centre (HICC), Pastor Bolaji Idowu, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on the unique features of the church and related issues. Excerpts:
In just a little after ten years, Harvesters International Christian Centre has become one of the fastest growing. What has brought the church this far?
The truth is there are many churches but what makes us stands out is that we have a deep concern and love for people. We’d go to any length to be a blessing to them and that brings out creative ways in which we provide superior value for the total man.
So, the strength is that when we come in touch in people, we love to serve. Our volunteers want to do something for someone else. We love to be of service and a blessing to others. Just loving people and asking them to come the way they are.
We don’t judge people; we don’t fight people here. We just tell them to come and their lives will not be the same again.
How were you able to instill that spirit of love and service in the workforce?
Well, it is a culture here and when something is a culture you don’t teach it. You just be the culture. People will see it and they will follow suit. People are just becoming the culture they see.
So, you hold how many services?
We hold four services on the mainland and two services on the Island.
And these are essentially young families?
Yes, we are a mixture of young families, newly married, young people and family people.
These are those many church leaders consider to be problematic. How do you galvanise them towards a church like this?
Everybody wants to become to a place where there is love. And that is what we essentially do. We make everyone feel at home; we don’t judge.
We preach practical, simple messages that are yet impactful. We have one of the best children’s churches in the world because the teachers are trained and dedicated.
We have strong family values, which we try to pass across in the social media. I have huge followers on twitter where I teach some of these values. That is because we believe the family should be the starting point for reformation in the society. Once you fix a family, you have fixed a society.
With over 5,000 in the headquarters church, you must be thinking of moving again, right?
Yes, we are. We were concerned about if people will come when we started off but today, our major challenge is space. The more we create some space, the sooner people fill them. So, for the headquarters church, we are looking for a bigger space where we can put up our facilities.
We are starting a centre in Ikeja and we might just start churches in other states too. We get comments like, ‘when are you starting a church in Abuja? When are you coming to London?’ We are working on all that and will see what we can do.
Expansion is good but could also be hurtful. Some churches have grown to the point that they are now hurting. What are you doing to ensure the expansion does not turn around to hurt the church?
What you just have to do is to keep the vision and inculcate it in people. Our expansion is not out of pressure; it is just out of huge demands. Our church in the Island is just a little after a year but we are already counting 1,000 people. We can’t keep people from coming but we have a responsibility to stay through to the vision.
But I don’t want our church to be known for the numbers only; I want us to be judged for the marriage that was almost going through a divorce but got saved; the man that was saved from pornography and the lady saved from prostitution. We want to save lives, not just counting numbers. It is the transformation caused by the word of God that we want to be known for.
Any plan to build capacity of the workforce to cope with the expansion?
Yes, we have started that. We are involved in some in-house training. By next year, we will start the Harvesters College to train the manpower that we need. We also want to strengthen the church’s community by imparting them.
You recently had a comedy show in the church. To some, a church should not be involved in such frivolities. Do you agree with them?
We are involved in the business of soul-winning and so whatever will bring people to God is not out of place. You must know that half of the people that came out were turned back. There was an overflowing everywhere. So, we accomplished the mission to bring people to the church.
Then on why we did comedy, I’d say God’s people need a place to unwind with their families. They want to laugh and smile but not in a place where they will be drunk. If the church offers pure, godly comedy, it will help God’s children to feel at home.
One of the amazing testimonies I heard after the show was about a couple that had been fighting for five months. They came to church and sat beside each other. They had not spoken for those months. But when the show started, they started laughing together and ended up reconciling. They leaned over themselves and started talking again.
So, you are planning to have more of such shows?
Yes, we are planning.
I mean why shouldn’t we have it again if another family will be reconciled?
It is part of the love we are talking about. If it will bless people, we will do it. At the end of the show, we had over 200 people committing their lives to God. That was the highpoint for me and we are glad we did.
