Babajide Olowodola: How Foursquare built 1000 churches in 4 yrs, why I resigned to start Omega Glocal

At 70 Pastor Babajide Olowodola still carries on with the gait of a 50-year-old. He thinks and talks  missions. His entire life right from when he came to know the Lord over 50 years ago has been around winning souls and planting churches.

So, it was not a surprise when he took an early retirement a few years ago from Foursquare Gospel Church to pursue his dream of winning souls to God’s kingdom outside the boundary of a denomination.

 

Foursquare platform

But the story of his ministry life which is well documented in a trilogy titled, A Legacy of Grace; can’t be complete without his exploits in the Foursquare Gospel Church Nigeria. It was the church that gave him the platform to operate maximally.

But then, it was not just about using the platform of the church, it was about running with the vision of God when he was there.

While in the Asokoro Foursquare Church where he was pastor for about 18 years, he was also supporting missionaries in other ministries and churches.

That did not go down well with some people in the church’s hierarchy. But for Olowodola who is now leading the Omega Glocal Ministries, God’s kingdom is bigger than any denomination.

Passion for souls

He told Church Times in Lagos during a recent programme he had at the Citadel Community Global Church that his passion for souls started almost immediately after his conversion.

“I was on a fast lane to hell. I was drinking, and smoking until I met Jesus and he took over. Since then, my life has been every day like Christmas. He has given me the privilege to serve. I served from my secondary school days to higher school and the university.”

During his days in school, his passion for evangelism was unparalleled.

He said, “While I was at the university, I loved rural missions. Bro Gbile and I were schoolmates. We both combed the villages doing missions. Even while in secondary school after my conversion we combed the whole of Igala land with the gospel. So, I have always been interested in missions.

“When I was at Foursquare Church in Festac, Lagos, I got more involved in missions. I was appointed as director of mission for the local church. One of my daughters found out that the riverine area of Badagry was the least evangelised area of Lagos. So, we went to survey the area to confirm what she said. We found out that there were no evangelical churches there.”

That information inspired his determination to take the gospel to the unreached areas of Lagos.  He mobilised funds and human resources to begin massive work in those areas.

Barley Harvest project: 1000 Churches

Not long after, he was transferred to Abuja by the Ministry of Defence where he was working. The transfer was however an opportunity to make a greater impact in God’s kingdom.

While in Abuja God gave him a church planting revelation known as the Barley Harvest. The vision according to him came a few weeks before the late Rev Wilson Badejo was named the General Overseer of the Church in Nigeria. He eventually shared the vision with Rev Badejo. A proposal was put together to build 1000 churches in three years.

The whole of Foursquare Church in Nigeria soon caught the vision. It turned out to be the star project that gave the church a lot of visibility and also helped enhance the status of Rev. Badejo in the church community. The target of starting 1000 new churches eventually became a reality after about four years.

Olowodola said what came to his mind after the vision became a reality is: “no mountain too difficult to climb, no river too wide to cross”

Foursquare Asokoro

Incidentally, the Foursquare Church in Asokoro, Abuja was one of the 1000 churches. He was the pioneer pastor of the church. But he took an early retirement from the Foursquare Church to start a global mission work known as Omega Glocal.

Olowodola said, “The Foursquare Church in Asokoro, Abuja which is close to the Villa is standing on its property today worth about N5billion. We had to walk away from all of that because a dancer must know when to quit the stage. We left when the ovation was loudest and we began a global work as a support programme for missionaries. We provide infrastructural facilities for mission fields, talking of water, light, roads, bridges, cottage hospitals for churches around the world.”

He said the idea of supporting missionaries irrespective of denomination started while he was in Foursquare. “While in the Foursquare Asokoro, we had over 350 missionaries from 46 countries across the world eating from our table every month. We were giving them about 200 dollars monthly.”

Omega Glocal

Outside Foursquare, Olowodola has continued the support missions with the Omega Glocal Ministry. “Part of our mission in Omega Glocal is to affect missionaries positively and support what they do.”

He noted that many missionaries are leaving the mission field because of poor support programme. “We set out to support them. We also do a lot of training for church workers and pastors.” Olowodola said.

Recalling how he came to know the Lord over 50 years ago, he said, “The night I made a commitment to Jesus. I could not sleep. I was just about 19 years old.  I was rolling with joy in bed and was so excited about my encounter. In six months, I had read through the Bible. I was very hungry for God.”

On Nigerian preachers outside the country, he said, “What many Nigerian pastors do outside the country is membership transfer. To qualify as a cross-cultural mission success, you must have indigenes of that vicinity who can take on the gospel without external assistance. But that is not what we find in many of our churches abroad. I discovered that many of them still have Africans as members and mostly Nigerians.”

Support for missionaries

While explaining that his ministry is not into church planting for now, he said, “What we do is mainly to support missionaries that are already on the ground. We help missionaries to do their work better. They come to us with references. And it has to be a credible work before we step in.”

He said many missionaries are always looking disillusioned. “The general outlook you get of many missionaries is this tired syndrome. You find that because of the difficulty of the times, they can’t eat, and they can’t feed well.

“They can’t make ends meet. So, frustrated, many just washed their nets and quit the mission field. But we felt that was not good enough. That is where we came in to help in their feeding. We believe if the issue of feeding is taken off them, they will concentrate on doing the work better. Right now, we have about 70 missionaries eating from our table every month. We give them stipends every month. We look up to the Lord for supply.”

Denominational barrier

Olowodola expressed the wish that the denominational barrier in many churches be broken. “Churches are very strong on denominations. The foursquare leadership fought me on that. While I was there, I believed our support did not have to be just for our denomination. We were supporting missionaries from all over the place irrespective of denomination so long as the person was doing credible work. They fought me and said we were using their money to support other churches.

“I am hoping many more churches can emulate what we did while I was in Foursquare. I believe we can give support and close our eyes to greed, doctrine, colour, gender, tribe, and tribal marks and just go there and do the work of the master. I wish more churches could do that.”