Professor Dapo Asaaju, the Lord Bishop of Ilesa Anglican Diocese has charged seminarians and teachers of theology to join hands to raise Christians that are ready to die for Christ.
Bishop Asaju made this charge on Saturday 29th November 2025, at the combined graduation ceremony of the 34th and 35th Convocation of the Seminary.
Bishop Asaju, who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary and the guest speaker of the day spoke on Contending For the Faith: The Challenges of Christian Education, charged Christians to take very seriously their service to the Lord, and the graduands not to stop learning.
“Theologians are the best that can happen to any society as everything the world used came from Theology. What they have given you here are raw materials, what you make out of it depends on you.”
The cleric who was clearly dissatisfied with the state of the Church noted, “Agents of the devil have entered the church. Agents of devils have been ordained. They have risen through the ranks to have become leaders and General Overseers, from my inner perspective, they want to destroy the church.
“What is happening in the Anglican Church today is shamefully. But we are fighting them. The nonsense they are doing is disgracing the name of the Lord. Whoever you are, the Bible is your constitution. You cannot be wiser than the Holy Bible. It is the background to your theology. A thousand theologians cannot reverse a verse of the bible”, quoting Joshua 1:8.
He therefore called on the Church to, beware of “revisionist theology, beware of those who want to rewrite the bible. Don’t let your brain get into your heart. We work by faith and not by sight. Human experimentation is a proof. We deal with a God who has appointred you to be His agents in the world. You have been trained here to be enlisted in the army of the Lord. It is not about boasting about the degree that you have acquired.
“Your primary purpose is to go back to the basics and do things the way Jesus Christ and the apostles did things. Your knowledge is for you to make impact upon the society, There were Apostles when Jesus went to look for Paul on his way to Damascus? “The knowledge, the theology and the erudition of Paul, made the difference.”
He continued, “After your certificate here, continue your learning under the university of the Holy Spirit. He will guide you and interprete the words to your heart. He will guide you and tell you where He wants you to work. We had a warning from a good man of God – Jude. You should earnestly contend for the faith. The devil has come to take over the Church, your set will recover the Church. You will not teach theological nonsense.”
Bishop Asaju also charged the graduands to remain focused, and have their working manuals as manifestos.
He said, “Work with realistic manual to correct the ills of the Church. Jesus had His manifestos and Paul had his manifestos”, quoting relevant verses of the bible to support his claims.
“Combine the manifesto of Jesus with that of Apostle Paul, with that you would have a good manifesto to work with. Every leader has a manifesto. Your theological education must be guided by the manifesto. Don’t behave like the political parties in Nigeria with no manifesto. Paul had a manifesto and Jesus had his manifesto,” he admonished.
Bishop Asaju went further to lament the state the Church and that of the society in the face of theology saying “It is a shame when our leaders are building empires, and are gathering crowd, still buying aeroplane, when our brothers are being killed in the north. The evidence is everywhere, but we are behaving as if it doesn’t matter. We shouted, they imposed on us a Muslim-Muslim ticket, we are troubled by the scourge of Boko Haram while many of them are involved in the leadership of the country. They are looking at them and nobody is saying anything. When there is serious injustice in the society God Himself will come in, scatter everything and rearrange things. But the leaders who are supposed to talk are not talking. Thank God it takes the righteous man like Donald Trump who stand up to say there is genocide of Christians in Nigeria before the Nigerian government think of what to do. It is a shame.”
Bishop Asaju who identified various challenges confronting Christianily in Nigeria charged the graduands to go all out and use their theology to correct the ills of the society.
“Many so called ministers don’t have a definite call of God. Another problem is culture coming to the church. Where culture and the gospel clash, culture must bow to the gospel. There are false powers and strange altars in the church. It is a shame for a Church pastor to be accused of rituals, burying human beings in the Church for crowd, using juju to get powers.”
Concluding, he reminded the granduands and the larger Christian community to be mindful of the potency of the family church noting that “Many of us are products of family altar.
“After your graduation go, heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepper, freely you have been given, freely give.”
Progress
At the combined convocation was the founder of the Seminary Prof. Gary Maxy and his wife, Emman Lou Maxey and members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Governing Council led by the Chairman, Gen. Kayode One (Rtd), and the Executive Board led by the Provost Dr. Olufemi Emmanuel.
As part of the celebration, the Provost listed some of the giant strides described as “unprecedented progress” obtained by the seminary in the recent past, which according to him included upsurge in student enrolment, facility development and renovation, seminary’s hospital now opening for 24 hours, and the improved teaching and learning environment, of the seminary. He also noted inrease in local fundraising.
Other programmes of the seminary mentioned which could advance resourceful impartation of learning included the efforts made to establish the second campus of the seminary in Imala, Ogun State, where WATS will function as an autonomous and independent faculty of theology of a university.
The provost also mentioned efforts made to increase public enlightenment as WATS has opened a platform where members of the public would be receiving adequate understanding of the seminary.
The students were given various certificates and degrees in Theology. Some Bachelor of Arts in Religion, Post graduate Diploma in Theology, Award of Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees, and doctoral awards in Ministry.
At the end of the ceremony three distinguished and eminent personalities were honoured with Award of Doctor of Ministry and these were Bishop Dr. John Pena Auta of the Global Methodist Church of Nigeria, Bishop Kimba Kiyakutala Evariste, also of the Global Methodist Church, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Barrister Charles Musa (SAN).
Also in attendance as guests were Pastor Bisi Ayanfeolu from Mountain Top University, accompanied by Pastor Ayo, Coordinator, Post Graduate Studies, Former Registrar of LAWNA Seminary, Pastor N.O. Adetola, the Representative of PFN Agbado Oke Odo, Rev. Tunji Dada, and the Chairman of Ayobo Ipaja LCDA Hon. Dr. Lukeman Abiodun Agbaje.
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