Pastor Ayo Ayodele of the Christ Chapel International Church, Lagos spoke with AKIN SOKOYA on the progress of the ministry, his life experience and Christianity in general. Enjoy…
Please, introduce yourself.
I’m Ayo Ayodele, I am the Pastor of Christ Chapel International Church, CCIC Ojokoro Centre, Lagos. I also work as a lecturer at the Department of English, LASU.
How did your evangelism journey start?
It happened when God chose our previous pastor, Rev. Gbolahan Dada to bring me up into the worker’s ministry in 1991. I started as a church worker in a department. I grew into the point of becoming a counselor and thereafter I started assisting on the pulpit as a minister. That was the beginning of my pastoral work. I was asked to start the center in Ota, Ogun State with another pastor who incidentally left about a month and I found myself as the only one there who had to lead that new center. Of course, some other brethren were asked to join me. By the grace of God we raised it to a point where it’s still standing as a center today before I was asked to return to Ojokoro Centre. The pastor there left to start his own ministry in 2001.
Could you share one of the challenges you faced before you accepted to work for God?
God called people in different ways in the ministry, in my own case, it was due to the prayers my parents had because my dad wanted one of his children to be a pastor. I didn’t have a plan or intention of becoming a pastor when I joined CCIC but all I was doing since I got there exposed me to the work of God and I grew in love for God. Through prayers and dedication, I became a consistent, diligent and committed church worker. I was a member of the team that started the new branch. The moment I found myself as the head of that team in the new branch, I assumed it was a full pastoral duty. I have my secular job, I am lecturing at Department of English, Lagos State University. I wasn’t into the full-time ministry but I was doing what a full-time pastor would do. I was officially recognized and ordained as a pastor by our senior pastor. After the ordination, then it was confirmed that I’m a pastor at Christ Chapel and when the position became vacant, I was asked to return here to continue the work. God activated my faith to serve Him, and that was it. At a point in time, the message got to me that if you are a teacher, stay on your teaching. If you are a pastor, stay on your pastoring, if you are an evangelist, do it well. I teach the words of God. I realized I derive more joy in teaching the Bible than in teaching at the university.
How long have you been pastoring in the church?
I started pastoring at Ota Centre in 1993 and since then, there has been no broken service. I got to Ojokoro center in 2001 and I have been here for 22 years.
Have you ever thought of quitting the ministry?
Yes, when there were personal challenges, I felt like leaving the church. I also encountered church challenges. I lost my job and few months later my wife also lost her job. I wrote about the predicament in the newspaper titled “God Has Not Forsaken Us Despite that we lost our job.” We lost our job but we didn’t lose our faith. Such challenges sometimes should actually make us stronger and we have been so committed to what we have been doing because we know when such challenges come, God is up to something and Satan would want to strive. If you are sensitive enough, you will know God wants to do something. My second experience was when I lost my wife recently and I asked, ‘has God forgotten me”?, did He not realize I have also been serving Him. Has something gone wrong.? Yes, I am a pastor but how do I balance my emotion with my role as spiritual manager who has to encourage people that every human being has his trying period and this should not make you abandon your God. God gave me the grace to be able to rise up to the occasion. The death of my wife was a tragedy but God gave us spiritual insight to know that it wasn’t really a loss, it was a gain for her. Those were the personal challenges. Talking about the church, there will always be contentions and issues with church members and some leaders. We were able to resolve them.
You must have attended other church denominations while growing up and before you settled for CCIC, what makes this church unique?
Since I joined this church, the attraction has been simplicity with which the word of God is preached, the senior pastor is down to earth, he is very simple in all his ways and he preaches faith like I have never heard it anywhere. Some people will tell you that unless you fast for 40 days, your prayers would not be answered. It’s not so because God is not wicked.
Tell us about the church activities.
At Christ Chapel Churches, we hold regular services but we have special activities that we normally observe during Christmas period, we also observe our international conferences at our headquarters., Occasionally, we also have other services and programmes designed to uplift the spirits of the people, contributing to their spiritual development and programmes that could enhance their capability to earn and fend for themselves on earth. We teach people how to sustain themselves in this hard time and we also empower them with equipment, knowledge and finances. Whatever trades they have identified and decided to learn, the church will assist them financially. We bought sewing and grinding machines for people in the past. We also empower schools around us with some of the equipment they need to teach their students. During our Christmas carol last week Sunday, we exchanged gifts to demonstrate the love that Jesus came to share. We also donated food stuffs and other items to the community.
How would you describe the founder of this church?
Rev. Dr. Tunde Joda and his wife, Rev. Mrs. Ebun Joda are both co-founders, we call them our senior pastors, their leadership has been very unique. They act as father and mother to us, they have the love of God and fear of God in them, their main focus of teaching is faith, they are incomparable to other pastors. They are so humble, simple and don’t make noise about themselves.
