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| Pastor Bunmi Babatunde |
Pastor Bunmi Babatunde is a well known minister of God in Christ Apostolic Church, particularly in the Youth Fellowship of the church. He is currently Akinyele Regional Youth Coordinator and Senior Pastor of CAC Chapel of Testimony. CAC Chapel of Testimony is set to hold her annual five days city-wide crusade next week. Pastor Babatunde in an interview with CAC NEWS Editor, 'Gbenga Bankole speaks on the forthcoming programme and other interesting issues. EXCERPT !
What informed or inspired Almighty God Annual programme?
The programme is a campaign for the Kingdom and a campaign for Christ. The Lord told me specifically that He sent me to this environment to break the yoke of darkness occasioned by occultic presence. There are so many shrines and occultic Islamic clerics in this environment and we never knew until we got here, but the Lord has proved Himself gradually and consistently. He has proved Himself like the God of the Bible in this environment. The louder the campaign for God’s Kingdom, the better for the sanitization of this environment and deliverance of those who are in captivity for the Kingdom of God.
What edition is this?
This is the third edition. However, the title Almighty God had been an air revival program I started around the 2002. It was suspended while we moved to this present place and had a lot of running battles Occultism, idolatry and gangsterism which the Lord has subdued under us.
What have been the feedbacks from previous editions?
The feedback has been that the environment is more sanitised spiritually speaking and it has created a very good image positively for the church. It has given us visibility in the environment. The impact of the visibility has opened doors for us. The environment was formally not attractive, but the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has made it very attractive. There was a time that Okada riders and tricycle riders don’t come to this place because of the occultic gangsterism in this environment. We thank God that the gospel of Christ has neutralized them to a very large extent. Numerically we thank God. It has affected the church positively.
Give us some details of this year’s edition of the programme
The theme of the programme is “Almighty God.” Last year it was “God of Our Fathers.” God of our fathers is the Almighty God. The programme holds from Monday 2nd to Friday 6th December, 2019 by 5pm on daily basis and it holds at Customs Compound, Ilogbo Bus-stop, off Apapa Road, Ebute-Metta West, Lagos. By God’s we invited so many guest ministers and guest artistes. For the first time we are inviting the Zonal Superintendent of Transfiguration Zone, Pastor Emmanuel O. Odejobi. We are also inviting the DCC Superintendent of Ikorodu DCC, Pastor Lawrence O. Akinloye, Pastor David Ajayi and DCC Superintendent of Vineyard of Mercy DCC, Pastor Anu Ojo who was with us last year. The gospel artistes we are inviting are Evang. Tope Alabi, Yinka Alaseyori, Voice of Elijah, Bukola Bekes, Elijah Akintunde (Olorun ko so bee), Bunmi Akinnanu Adeoye (Omije oju mi) and Pastor Ben Okon.
Why the theme “The Almighty God”?
The theme is about the God who reigneth forever. In this environment there are some small gods. It is just a wall that divides us from the shrine in this environment. They call what they worship god. But we have the Almighty God who is far above all other gods. We have the Almighty God and every other god is man-made.
What do you think is responsible for single assemblies hosting such a programme like Almighty God Revival successfully and combined programmes of DCCs and Regional events almost flop?
I think it has to do with so many factors. The vision of those who champion the programme or the vision of those who are driving the programme cannot go beyond its extent. Renowned world Evangelist, Reinhard Bonke sees his programme as a citywide and he spent his money, energy and resources on it. He uses human capital as well. Another factor is logistics. Often time when we talk about logistic, most people don’t understand what it means. Logistics means supplying intelligent value for the programme. Like What, When, Where, Who and How. Those things must be checked at every point of the approximate. For instance, if you are expecting two thousand people in a programme you must put adequate measure in place to ensure that two thousand people come. You must work on the publicity for the programme. You must make sure at least about 5000 people hear about it and for 5000 thousand people to hear about it the publicity has to be robust. You must use radio, television and Social Media which is now very effective. In CAC we see publicity as a waste of time. We don’t spend too much on it. In organizing a programme at regional or national level, we must consider the pedigree of people we are putting in our committees. The supply of intelligent value is very important for a success of any programme. It is not matter of assumption. The action plan must be very pragmatic and you must have someone who is capable of adequately supervising the programme. Our present General Evangelist, Prophet Hezekiah O. Oladeji is an example of a man of quality logistics. You can see it from the way he organizes his programmes that he has a big sense of logistics.
These days programmes or crusades are being held on weekly basis in Nigeria with little or no presence of the Holy Spirit like the days of fathers of faith in Nigeria. What do you think is lacking?
The first thing one should look at is the driving force behind the programme. Someone told me that when he could not raise money to pay for 2019 Pastors conference, he had to quickly organize a programme in order to raise funds.
Number two, some people want to prove that they are busy by organizing programmes. They don’t know that someone could be busy without any good result. What is the need of the church you are planning the programme for? Is it really God that is directing you to hold the programme? Are you inspired by Holy Spirit, money or the programme is just a copycat?
I was in a programme recently when a preacher said it is not the duty of the church to fight corruption in our society. That what the church needs to do is to draw people closer to God. What is your opinion regarding this sir?
Our Lord Jesus Christ said in the book of Luke, chapter 4 verse 18 that “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” The person who made the statement might be talking from several angles. There are several ministers of God today in Nigeria who claimed to be fighting corruption but who are already ensnared in politics. You see them talking from both sides of their mouth. They are representing God and their political interest. They are so entangled. There is no sense in sending messages to government that we pray for them. We are supposed to pray for government as church of God, but our prayers should be relevant. We should pray to God that He should change the heart of the government that is leading with corruption or change the leaders rather than praying for prosperity. A church should be praying for peace, but we know that there can never be peace without justice. Justice is the conveyor of peace. Justice cannot come unless right things are being done. I know how long God has committed me to pray for Nigeria so that those who are destroying it are removed from circulation. It depends on which way you want to get involved. Whenever general elections approach, some Prophets put on their garment and begin to release prophecies of who will win the election and who will not and at the end of the day you will discover that most of it are environment prophecies. If the corruption is destroying the activity of man and will of God, I think the church has a right to defend it, but not being ensnared like a lot of people who are using their pulpit for that. There is a minister that God showed me about twenty years ago who was preaching in a political pulpit and a hand from Heaven took him away. And the man is now deeply involved in politics. Corruption is not about those who steal money alone. Anyone who presents truth like a lie is corrupt. The gospel of Christ must not be mixed up with anything. If the gospel is not said the way it should be said, it is corruption.
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