Christ Apostolic Church Gospel City is Set for its 5th annual Convention. While preparations were in progress PTL News was at the vast city, and our discovery was amazing. Yes, this is an offshoot of the traditional CAC we used to know but many things in the Church are done with remarkable difference and distinction. We sat down and have a revealing chat with the Setman who is also full of wisdom, Prophet David Oluwatoyin Paul, Superintendent, CAC Gospel City District headquarters, Akinleye Village, Iju Ota, Ogun State Nigeria. He bares it all, with what to expect at the Convention which he said is more than dining and wining.
Antecedents:
Congratulations on what we can see on the ground here. With the look of things this is a very massive and ambitious projects. Share with us how you came about this sir.
By the grace of God I have been privileged to have served in CAC Itire, Lagos, in the capacity as a pastor in the English Assembly, which is an amazing Church. No man passes through Itire and doesn’t pick something. It’s a place that is so loaded with grace and the knowledge, and I served there in a few years and after that I had to leave Itire but it took a while after a divine leading. There was a prophecy and God spoke that He was sending me on a special assignment to a certain place, and He gave the name and it took a while before I could find the location. I got to Akinleye here. It’s going to be five years that I would be here from 2017. We are preparing for the fifth year convention which is themed the Spirit of Grace.
So much has happened. A lot of water has passed under the bridge like it is popularly said. We give God praises because He is so faithful. If Jesus is truly the foundation the house will stand. That is my submission in the midst of the thick and thin, amazing children of God played great roles and the glory is yet to come.
We have seen all these within five years. It’s truly amazing. Tell us about your vision.
By the grace of God I am the kind of minister that believes that our generation owes much more than preaching, every church is called to impact her generation and environment. We are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. It is expected. I have a mission of making a minister out of every member. Hence our training arm of the church is taken seriously. Our School of the Spirit is not the regular Sunday School we see around in most churches, especially in CAC which is also amazing, but we have something of a little push beyond that. We take the class every Sunday which is compulsory for all Pastors, Evangelists Elders, Lady Evangelists, Deacons and Deaconesses, everybody, all the Heads of departments, everybody comes to attend. It helps us to grow.
It sharpens our vision. I tell them what the Lord tells us in mind to do. We have had amazing topics like the Backdoor of the Church, the Dynamism of the Church, and we have taught about the Bonding of the Church, and at the moment we are teaching a new series we call A Balanced Growth. In this series we are concentrating on the fact that it is not enough for the church to gather crowd, that it is not the crowd that makes the church.
We can have the number we count the life of God in them. Like I often say in Yoruba that A le po ni iye, ki a ma po ni Iye, meaning we can be many in number but few in life. If we are many in number but not in the spirit, we are not better than disco halls, parties. It is not the number but in quality of the people that are there. Else we have a new topic we are teaching we call Balanced Growth. We have a triangle to the balanced growth, the most pointed arrow is the spiritual growth. We have the administrative growth, then we have the numerical growth. The numerical growth comes last. God prepares the river before the fish, the tree before the bird, the grass before the herds, the Lord has taught us from the creation that the best way to solve problem is to solve them before they show up at all.
Tell us sir, what is presently on the ground
We pay a lot of concentration to spiritual growth first, then administrative growth and then the numerical growth. It’s helping the church. We are building a hospital currently, and we have a good number of people that gives birth and so far God has been helping us. We have a property for the school, that is Gospel City Academy which is billed to taking off very soon. We have a Camp Ground of a few hectares of land which is not far off from where the headquarters of the church is located. All of these are to the glory of God for no man has the gift but by His grace. It is all Jesus. Here we believe that the true owner of the Church is Jesus. So all of these documents none of them is written or signed as a personal property of the setman. All these are mostly discussed with the leaders of the church. They know that it is a church with a vision.
We have branches in Abeokuta, in Ifo, Akinleye here, Oko Omi, the Oko Omi Assembly is located at the revival ground, which is by the Powerline Bus Stop through the road there. That is the English Assembly of the Church. We have many non-Yoruba speaking people. A lot of people have perceived CAC as a traditional Yoruba speaking Church. We thank God for what he is doing so far. He has been helping us to change the mindset of the people.
From the look of things this location seems separated from the cities, those well populated areas where there are people who could easily be attracted to come and join you to worship here, thinking of where you were coming from, one would expect that you also pitch your tent in the cities. Yet you are here making great impacts. What really led you to this place?
I am this person that believes that if the goal is from God the end results will be great. Jesus said, ‘Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea’. He was in the boat. The journey wasn’t easy, yet Jesus was there. Jesus said specifically at the beginning that I am sending you to Akinleye, specifically. The day I found out the name was the day I got here, in the company of a few friends. One of my friends who later visited turned back half way. There was no good road when we got here. They said, ‘people in the cities struggle to run a church, then you want to start in the bush’, telling that it was not possible to make impact here, but I was persuaded, by the spoken word of the Lord that this will be a fertile land for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I came on a divine instruction, not knowing anybody, not knowing what the future holds but God said it, I believe it and here I am. Glory be to his name.
So, civilisation or populated area? I believe in specific assignment. A place can be populated but if my divine assignment is not there whatever time spent there is a waste. That’s my own premium. God has sent men to specific places, he sent me here, and I am here. I thank God for men in the cities, and the impact they are making there and to those of us in a perceived rural areas, we thank God for what He is doing here too.
How about people coming to this place? Are there any inconveniences, and how do you manage them when they come?
Especially when it rains, the road can be terrible. The flood with the traffic on the high way leading to Idi Iroko Ota, axis, but we trust God to touch Ogun State Government to be able to do the needful. It is our responsibility to pray for leaders in power for no one comes to power unless the Lord approves of it. I pray that the Ogun State government sees reasons and the need to hear the cries of the many people that are the road users here. For members of the church, it’s been challenging but they are determined to come. For wherever the shepherd is going the sheep will find its way there. They keep coming and I am very grateful to God for that. More people are moving to the vicinity too and they are joining the church.
We thank God for that sir. Now let’s move to the mood of the celebration. Celebrating five years of the church, celebrating grace, what is in the package sir?
When a man runs with a man we call it race, but when a man runs with God it is grace because it’s God Himself that is in charge. By strength shall no man prevail. The spirit of grace, last year the theme was Multiple Grace and we have amazing testimonies. We had speakers from different denominations and backgrounds they came and did justice to the theme, and for 2022, by the grace of God we even have greater expectation than what we had in 2021. By the grace of God we have almost 10 speakers, we have Rev. Adejare, coming, we have Rev. Kodjo coming, Brother Timothy Ministering, Lady Evangelist Okumekun coming to minister, Prophet Solomon, Pastor Jegede, and the likes of others, Deborah Titi Adenodi and a chain of others are coming around and we thank God for a refreshing time.
We try to communicate to this generation that you cannot do a spiritual work with a hand of flesh. It is not going to work. It takes grace. The Lord promised to release the Spirit of Grace on the house of David and when the spirit is released righteousness will speak first. Any area where the child of God struggles today is because the spirit of God to function is not available. Once the spirit off God is available, then for concentration on the Spirit of Grace, it is not enough to operate one dimension of grace.
Last year we talked about the spirit of Multiple Grace. One can have one, two, three kind of grace then, the church is blessed by it. How about the spirit that works out this grace? When the spirit of grace is there every kind of grace is available. So somebody cannot say he doesn’t have the grace to live a holy life, no, that is not a balanced Christian life, the Spirit of Grace will release the grace for everything. When the Spirit of Grace is there, we lack no grace in any area of our life, and that is what we are trusting God for in the ministry.
Ministry comes with different challenges at different phases, for every new level there is always a ladder to go through to every new level. We are projecting into the future and we are trusting God to ride on the wing of grace to fulfil what he has called us to do.
Still on the celebration, can we narrow it to the specific events and what to expect?
Actually, the word celebration…. Yes, but much more than when the word celebration is mentioned, people think of the idea of a platform to come and dance, dine and wine, but for us it is a platform for us to be impacted. We want to say revival, yes but from where we are coming from, once you say revival, it is believed to be a platform where somebody comes to the church, a speaker comes, and share the word of God briefly and get the people clapping and praying, start jumping and falling. But we are looking into something bigger than that. We are looking into something different from that kind of experience, under the heavy anointing of the Holy Spirit receiving powerful teachings.
Each day we have two sessions, Monday we have a session in the morning and a session in the evening, Tuesday we have all of different topics, and sessions, and Friday we have the Ministers’ Get Together, and works are apportioned to different ministers. It is a loaded week it is not just coming together for prayer purposes alone. We want to see grace in a different and new dimension, we want to share and we want to pray earnestly for manifestation of this grace, so grace does not end in words but in reality to life.
For Monday morning we are opening with Rev. Kodjo Peters, and he is taking the Spirit of Grace and in the evening he is taking Manifesting Grace. You cannot carry grace and you won’t know, if the grace is there, the grace is there. Then on Tuesday we will be having Pastor Adejare who will be ministering on Connecting Grace. If you can see somebody operating in the dimension of grace, desire it, and pray that Lord this person is operating in this dimension of grace and I desire it, and trust God for that kind of grace. Grace can be imparted.
Then grace is personified. There are certain people whose life carry grace and how did he get to that realm? Grace is an experience that is opened to growth. You can be at a particular level of grace two years ago and in the next five years somebody sees you and discovered that you have left that level of grace. Grace is expected to grow. So grace is personified. Some people have got to that certain part of their life that you see them and see grace. They carry grace.
Then we will be having Pastor Bolaji Jegede on Wednesday morning, ministering on Impacting the Spirit of Grace. This is opening the church to the fact that you can carry grace and you may not know it. A lot of people are living an average life, half of the kind of a life they are expected to live, and half of the impact they should make, and then time is ticking, the rapture is coming Jesus is coming and up till now there are ministers of God who are yet to achieve half of what they are supposed to achieve.
Somebody told the story of Apostle Ayo Babalola. He said God was partial for giving Apostle Babalola so much of gifts. Then God told the man in response that what He gave him was more than what He gave Apostle Babalola. He said it was not possible that God gave him more than what He gave Babalola, and while Apostle Babalola was making so much impact all over the world, he had remained like nobody. Then, God showed him a revelation of a man who carried a gallon of oil without the lid, that is the cover, another man had a gallon filled with water and a lid, and then storm blew against it and the two gallons fell to the ground, the one gallon with a lid, the water was retained but the one without a lid, the water poured out. He asked God the meaning and God told him he was the one without a lid.
So every time you carry grace you and you don’t have the discipline, you don’t have the lid. So the grace becomes wasted. You lack focus, you lack direction. Whatever God is doing in Gospel City today we return the glory to Jesus who is the true owner of the church. There are men with greater grace, who are stocked in an assembly for several years, narrowed down to sharing offerings, counting offerings, counting attendance for forty years, or thirty years, so much grace is inside but wasted.
This teaching by Pastor B. J. Jegede will take us through that. Paul said to Timothy there is a great grace from your grandmother transferred to you, and you need to fan it into a flame. We have a responsibility to work on it to make it come out, not just revival, not just about jumping up, not just let us raise money. We want to hear things that will move people forward. We want to hear things that will touch people’s lives.
On Thursday we want to have Brother Timothy Ogundipe, this is another amazing person. Last year he talked and we loved what God did that day. That day we are taking grace for sustainability. There is a grace that sustains, not focusing on a season of trials or adversity alone. The bible says if you run away in the days of adversity your faith is little. There is a grace that will make you start.
This church has gone through a lot. A lot of people seeing me in Akinleye, not like a pastor who just started today, tongues keep on wagging asking, who is this pastor who just came and things began to happen. It took grace to stand in the midst of the many storms. Anybody connected to CAC Gospel City both in Nigeria and abroad reading this publication will understand what I mean by many storms. A lot has happened in this land of Akinleye, but our Redeemer Liveth. So there is the Grace of Sustainability.
God is not comfortable when champion quits without fulfilling purpose
This grace is also available not only to sustain you in adversity but also in success. It is one thing to ignite a fire, it is another thing to keep the fire burning. It is not enough. God is not comfortable when champion quits without fulfilling purpose. A lot of heroes are quitting, dropping the baton, dropping the sword, some of them should graduate to become a coach and this generation should ask from them. There are questions they carry in our hearts that we wish we had men that can answer. The fathers we run to today also need fathers, every mentor needs a mentor, every pastor needs a pastor, and we need men to last, not see people come to fame and in five years they are no more there. They get to television ministry, in two years you don’t see them again. Sustainability. There is a grace that can sustain us and we are trusting God for that. This teaching will be leading us to achieve that.
Then we have Rev. Solomon Amu who will be taking us in the evening. He will be taking us on Unusual Grace. There are some certain kinds of grace taking us there. We have Evangelist Olumekun coming in on Friday morning on the Tragedy of Abused Grace. There are lots of people who carry grace truly but the grace has been abused. Grace is abused when you use it for what you are not supposed to use it for, when grace is used for wrong purposes. A lot of people are truly graced. They carry grace they got something from God but what they carry is not benefitting the kingdom. There are men who carry grace for wealth, there are churches that are going through a lot, missionaries, there are missionary jungles. Today one of our mission fields is a village called Olorule kan. I found out about the place and we took the gospel there. We have just come back from the field. When we got here you will be shocked with what we saw. There are jungles where we need to take the gospel to. Right now we need about five hundred Bibles to take the gospel to bless people not necessarily in order to open a church there. There are many churches that are there. We have just completed a three-day programme there. We had our One Hand With God. We had a three day revival in three communities the same day. Our Pastors and Evangelists were all there, preaching Jesus, and in all of these meetings no offering was collected. No offerings.
For Olorule kan we had to take foodstuffs there because we saw the state of the people. Are those the kind of people you want to preach to and start raising money? Those who think revival meetings are for that have abused grace. There are many things people do today that they abuse grace, and that is going to address that. We will make people know that there is a great tragedy when people abuse grace. After that we have Evangelist Babalola that will be coming to teach Managing Grace vis a vis Family, Relationship. If you carry something manage it. You buy car one day you maintain it for a longer time. Managing grace is a big work sir.
On Friday at 12noon, we will be at the Prayer Camp, where all Ministers, Elders, Deacons and Deaconesses will gather for a Refuel the Fire Session for Grace. We believe after all of these the Lord will move us to a higher level for greater accomplishments in Jesus name. There are many great men of God who will be ministering.
Saturday now becomes like the thanksgiving for all we have been experiencing. If you want to see celebration maybe we can see something like that on Saturday.
Motivation
Let us look at where you are coming from, Christ Apostolic Church, it’s like you are doing things differently, little wonder that you are having different results in great way. Tell us what brings the difference out of you and what is like your inspiration and motivating factor.
The reality is that every greatness has a root. Christ Apostolic Church is my root and I learnt so much there, by the privilege of operating as an evangelist for a while, freelance made me meet with people, relating with them and then getting to see the way things are done.
The standard for every child of God is the bible, the word of God. There could be denominational and doctrinal differences, but it is all a pointer to Jesus. Whatever is not a pointer to Jesus is not the gospel. In my relating with people by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we came up with a lot of things that are sort of different from what is regular in an attempt to make us stand out. This church is referred to as a dynamic Church.
One can see the dynamism
To God be the glory sir. The name Christ Apostolic Church is big. Where God is taking the mission is great, and our generation has so much to give. I just pray that other friends and colleagues at different locations will find a platform to help them express fully the grace of God on their insight. So many people carry so much of grace but lack expression. I always have it in mind that Church can do this Church can do that but do things differently. In this church for example we take offering once, no multiple offerings here. Others in a single service take 2,3,4,5 offerings. Here we try to avoid a lot of little little things that can be embarrassing. God is really faithful.
You are doing things differently, yes. Who are your mentors and what are you doing to spread this your message of doing things with great impact?
Responding to your question on mentors, I have met a lot of people who have impacted my life. Some, I have met physically, some by reading their books, because you can be mentored by extension. There are daddies in the faith that God has really used for me to impact me from the days of Ilorin CAC Oke Iye up to Itire, before Itire to Oke Irapada, Shasha to Oke Idande, Pastor Brown, to Itire, to my very dear father in the Lord, Pastor M.A. Adeoye. Baba Adeoye is a man that whoever met him is blessed. Our very dear father of blessed memory whose name I must mention is Baba Pastor S.T. Idowu. He saw so much in me that I didn’t know was there. He would call me to programmes, call me to minister and be telling me I would be amazed with what God would do through me and things like that. He was so passionate with me. He’s gone to be with the Lord Jesus, and what he said is coming to pass now. Halleluyah!
Then at the English Assembly in Itire I met amazing people who have been of tremendous impacts to me too. They have been very helpful to my life. All the entire leadership of CAC English Speaking Assembly, talk of Baba Oguntade, Pastor Sokunbi, and the likes of others. All of these are great men who were helpful. I will not forget one Elder Tayo Odole, he was a man full of wisdom. Many times we talked, and the things he would say to me are deep and revealing. I met a lot of people in my journey to where I am who have been very helpful. It’s been one level for a new lesson.
After I left Itire by the grace of God I met people too. So to all those people I met before getting here I say thank you to them all. Not by the order of hierarchy or importance. Right from Ilorin in the days of My father Kayode Inaolaji, Halleluyah Elugbusi, Baba Lawal of Blessed Memory, CAC Oke Isegun Taiwo Road, Ilorin, long before I even got to Lagos. These people have been very helpful very impactful, and I thank them all.
How are you going to use what you know to impact others?
Yes in an attempt to achieve that we have created several platforms. We have a platform for Ministers in Training, where I share my vision with ministers coming behind me. Apostle Paul said, ‘What you have heard me teach others,’ the faithful ones, it has to go from generation to generation. Teaching is one key tool by which we can impact the next generation so that when the time for the next generation to manifest comes, we have a standard to maintain, and we take that very seriously. My time with Ministers in Training, the School of the Spirit, every resource person in the School of the Spirit would be asked to prepare his or her message, send it to my email so that I will have a good time to study them thoroughly before we teach the Church.
You cannot be doing all these without its challenges, what are what we can call your teething challenges?
There is a strategy by which the devil fights missionaries. Anytime we show up in a place where the devil doesn’t want the gospel to prevail the first thing the devil does is to ignore you, to make you feel unaccepted. When they see that we are making impacts the next move they make is to attack. The fight is they ignore you the next is to attack you. Talking about attacks there are several instruments like scandal, instrument of all sorts, the devil has taken those things to work against the church. Anybody connected to the Gospel City has the details of so much the church has gone through. But at the end of the day, Jesus is always having the victory, and glorious victory at it. Immediately after that the next level which the Church must be careful of is when they become your friends. When they first ignore you, they attack you and when they know they cannot overcome you they become your friends. The mystery of spiritual warfare is that when they become your friend is more dangerous that when they are fighting you.
If Delilah had appeared to Samson as an enemy she wouldn’t have prevailed. The man who slew the lion would have killed the girl but she appeared like a friend. So I charge all Church leaders to be careful, there are sometimes the enemy will ignore you, turn to fight you, suddenly they become your friends and that is when they come with a mission, Kristian Ma ti wa sinmi, Gbo B’awon Angeli ti wi, Laarin Ota lo wa, Maa sora. Christian, seek not yet repose, Cast thy dreams of easy away, Thou art in the midst of foes, Watch and Pray. So be watchful every time.
After this five years, what do we expect?
We are trusting God by the grace of God to commence the Church Hospital, the Gospel City Academy, should be kicking off, and the Gospel City Housing Estate Abeokuta should be off the ground. It’s in view by the grace of God, all these are coming with a lot of funds. We allow God to take the lead, no pressure. He will fulfil His word.
Your advice for ministers, young or old who will like to have something from your encounter and experiences.
I will say the best way to prosper is your place of divine assignment. There are ministers that are failing in the ministry, not because something is wrong with the environment it is because they are not sent there. I want to encourage brethren to find out the location for their divine assignments. That place can be a starting point and from there, you can spread and cover the entire space of the earth. No great thing start great, anything that will be truly great must start small. That is number one.
Number two is that I have observed when a man of God is challenged, a lot of people take pleasure in it rejoicing, we are better together in the body of Christ, all these divisions among believers and among pastors is giving the devil a kind of triumph. When you see a fellow man of God in a trial, give him a support because when the true stories will be told your name will be mentioned. When a man is going through a trial and you pull out, when eventually the victory comes, you will not be among those who he will say thank you to. Every man is a work in progress, whatever happens to a man there is a next chapter. So people should always look beyond the storm to know that there is a glory ahead. So many people are going through things, young ministers, are going through a lot and instead of some leaders to give support, they are putting a salt on the injury, making the persecutions even to become tougher and almost unbearable. Some are falling from the faith because of that. I want to plead, the unity of the body of Christ will do a great work. That’s my counsel.
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