 |
| Pastor L.O. Akinloye |
Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide is well known for church planting and one of the vessels God has been using for such assignment is the incumbent DCC Superintendent of CAC Ikorodu DCC, Pastor Lawrence Oladele Akinloye.
In this exclusive interview with 'Gbenga Bankole, Pastor Akinloye speaks on his journey into the ministry, 2019 general elections and advises ministers of God. Excerpts !
Kindly tell us about your journey so far in the ministry
I thank God for the grace I have this time. I was working with professional lawyers as their Secretary when the Lord called me into the ministry. I also worked with some rich men as typist. Later on I applied to join the Nigerian Police Force. Out of 21 of us that went for their interview, it was only two of us that were picked and I was the first person. I have bought all the materials that I would use at Eleyele in Ibadan before I went to Late Prophet Timothy Obadare and a particular late Minister of God in Ilare for prayers. They told me that God said I was running away from Him and if I wanted to test Him, I should proceed in my plan to be a Policeman that I couldn’t go and come back safely.
I was very afraid and that was how I started my ministerial career. I went to Prophet Babajide but before going there I had started doing the work of ministry. When I got to Prophet Babajide he prayed for me and said God told him he should pray for me and I should go back to the field and continue my ministerial assignment. He said God ordered him to give me the authority for the work.
Later on I went to a particular Pastor Taiwo in Ife to train under him before I proceeded to meet the Late President of the church, Pastor E.T. Latunde. I went through three months training under Pastor Latunde. During the three months I was transferred to a particular assembly at Ajibandele in Oko-Ife and that was my first station. I was an Evangelist then. I spent 19 years as an Evangelist before I became a Pastor. From Ajibanadele I was transferred to Ipetumodu. I worked at three stations in Ipetumodu. From Ipetumodu I was transferred to Olugbode in 1976. From Olugbode I was transferred to Kano State in 1977 and from there to Chad. I was among the first set of people to take Christ Apostolic Church to Chad. I was transferred to Lagos from Chad and I worked in several stations planting churches. I planted four churches in Ikire, I planted 20 churches when I was at Ikoyi Mountain and two churches at Gbongan among others.
I was ordained a Pastor in the year 1993. I was transferred to Oshogbo, from Oshogbo to Akure. I spent ten and half years at CAC Oke-Igan in Akure before I was transferred to Ikorodu in the year 2018.
Going by your wealth of experience, who is a Minister of God?
A minister of God is someone who adheres to what God says and doesn’t copy anybody, but only does what God asks him to do. A minister of God is someone who stands on the calling of God upon his or her life and doesn’t compare him or herself with anybody. Our fathers who started this church never compared themselves with others. During the days of our fathers, those that God gave the gift of “Halleluyah” never departed from the call. Those that God gave the gift or ministry of songs never left it. Those that God gave the gift of prayer never departed or left the gift. But these days some ministers have abandoned their calling copying others and they have been overambitious as a result of that. Their ambition is greater and different from what God wants for them.
Is the ministry still the same thing these days compared to when you started some years ago?
It is not the same thing at all. It can nowhere be compared with each other. The difference is too far. The purpose of ministry is to preach the gospel and win souls for Christ. The ministry is not for money or wealth making. If money and wealth come there is no problem, but these days ministry has been turned to money making .
What is your advice for ministers?
My advice for ministers is that we should stand on our calling. Everything we are running after are still coming to us. By the special grace of God, if I retire today, I am so grateful to God for what he has given me already. I am not running after anything.
What is also your advice to upcoming ministers?
They should be under the tutelage of senior ministers of God for the purpose of learning. They should not go to seminary alone.
CAC Worldwide late last year celebrated 100 years and people are watching out for what next after the centenary anniversary. What do you think is the next thing the authority of the church should focus on after the centenary?
What is next in this church is much. We have left the footsteps of our forefathers. We need to let our youths know these footsteps, pray for them and nourish them with the word of God. It is the word that we need which can restructure this church. A lot of things have scattered. Even as we are expecting and hoping on God for miracles like in the days of our fathers, some people are still doing fake miracles in the church. At times miracles usually happen without asking for it. You don’t pray for it. Apostle Babalola didn’t pray that God should help him to wake the dead, but God used him mightily to raise so many dead people. The founding fathers of this church didn’t go to mountain because they wanted to raise the dead, but some people usually go to mountains because of that these days. Some people will be praying that the lame should walk, but lame they never walk. Miracles are not planned. It is God’s doing. Jesus Christ never planned to perform miracles anywhere during His earthly ministry. All the miracles He performed were God’s doing. It was all to the glory of God. We need to go back to the Bible for end time revival to start.
What is your advice to all Nigerians as we are looking forward to this year’s general elections?
The number one thing we need in this country is prayer. Also, all Nigerians need to know what they are doing. What is really painful to me is that a lot of people who are suffering didn’t come out to contest. If you get to some countries you will know that we don’t have good leaders in this country. All our leaders are just deceiving us. The money they ought to use to cater for the country is being taken abroad. I just came back from abroad. I saw how our politicians used our money to buy big houses and companies there.
I read in a particular newspaper where someone said as we are going to vote, if Buhari wins we will continue in our suffering and if Atiku wins, the country will be in darkness. There is no stable power supply in the country. They won’t allow stable power supply because they are the one importing generators into the country.
I implore all Nigerians that we should pray and be careful in choosing who to vote for. They should not vote for those who looted the treasury of the country. They should vote for a youthful youth. But I know they will never allow youths to get there.
What the Lord told me is that He owns Nigeria and He will pass through this country. God says He will kill anyone who will not allow this country to progress.
This coming election will be tough. The person we never imagine will win.
Can anyone oblige me with Pastor Akinloye's contact please.
ReplyDelete