U.S.-based Rev. Adeniyi Adams was in Lagos, Nigeria recently as a guest minister at the 40th anniversary of the Pentecostal Congregation, founded by Bishop Abraham Olaleye. He runs a ministry called Sound of the Word Ministries.
In this interview with Church Times, Rev. Adams shares his journey from being a professional secular musician in Lagos to becoming a gospel minister. He speaks about his relationship with gospel legend Ebenezer Obey, doctrinal challenges in the church, ministry experiences, and the importance of sound teaching in the present-day church.
Kindly let us have a brief overview of your background.
I got saved in June 1989 when I had the grace to listen to Bishop Abraham Olaleye here in Lagos at the De Cross Gospel Mission. I later joined the Pentecostal Congregation. Back then, we used to meet under a canopy in front of Bishop Abraham’s house.
After about two years in the Pentecostal Congregation, I was asked to head the music department of De Cross Gospel Church, and Bishop Olaleye graciously released me. I was initially meant to spend one year with De Cross, but one year turned into five years—from 1992 to 1997.
While at De Cross, I had a great relationship with Dr. Ebenezer Obey. We were able to record and produce many albums for the De Cross Choir. Dr. Obey’s story is interesting because God had called him to ministry long before he finally decided to obey the call. Initially, he was just committed to his music. He would build churches and support ministry work until April 1992, when he was ordained by Archbishop Benson Idahosa.
That was when De Cross Gospel Mission officially became a church. Prior to that, it was a fellowship centre where different ministers and believers from various denominations gathered every Tuesday night for fellowship.
So, you became very close to Evangelist Obey?
Yes. My relationship with Dr. Ebenezer Obey was that of a father and son. He still calls me “Son” to this day. When it was time for me to relocate to the U.S., I told him, and he graciously supported me.
You had a background in secular music. Tell us about that.?
I was a secular musician; I played jazz in several nightclubs. You can probably still find pictures of me alongside Fela Kuti online. I was almost recruited to play for Fela back then, but my mother declined because she felt I was too young to join Fela’s band. Femi Kuti also tried to recruit me, but I said no. However, I did play with a couple of other musicians, like Boye Gbenro and Segun Awe.
How easy was it for you to receive the Lord, given your deep involvement with the world?
I think the grace of God was essentially at work in my life. Before I finally gave my life to Christ, the gospel message never made sense to me until I had the privilege of listening to Bishop Olaleye. That was when the light of the gospel dawned on me. It was his preaching that God used to open my eyes.
That was where my relationship with Bishop Olaleye began. I became quite close to him and his entire family; we did a lot of things together. I produced music albums for Sister Gbemi (Bishop Olaleye’s wife), and we toured campuses and many churches, ministering in songs and preaching the gospel. It was a glorious time in my ministry experience.
Did you study music formally, or did you just grow into it?
It is a gift the Lord gave me. Over the years, God has enabled me to develop it through private study and training.
How then did you transit into a full-time ministry?
When I was the head of the music department at De Cross Gospel Church, we usually had a short exhortation before our rehearsals. All through this time, I maintained constant touch with Bishop Olaleye. I used to flood him with questions. I would go to his house and stay all night—he even had a room for me—and I would ask critical questions about the Bible, which he gladly answered. I didn’t realize I was indirectly being trained and mentored by him. This went on for three years.
During this process, it began to click that God was calling me into ministry. I remember one of the sessions we had before our usual practice: Evangelist Obey walked in while I was giving a short exhortation to the team. Afterward, he said to me that the hand of the Lord was upon me. He monitored my progress from then on, until he felt led to ordain me into ministry as an evangelist in April 1996.
Ironically, when I felt a strong leading to travel to the U.S., it was Evangelist Obey who facilitated my trip, despite the fact that I was very useful to him at De Cross Gospel Church. He connected me to the place where I first worked and lived when I arrived in the U.S., and he has supported me ever since. While in the U.S., I attended Bible school and also had the opportunity to hone my music skills.
So, you were essentially using music to preach the gospel?
That is exactly what the Lord called me to do. When I got to the U.S., as I mentioned earlier, my first opportunity was in a recording studio. But when the time was right, I established my own studio. Beyond music, I have been deeply involved in the ministry of the Word, preaching in many churches upon invitation across various countries.
What is your assessment of the church today, and if you were to address the Body of Christ, what would your message be?
I would preach a message of hope to the Body of Christ. When we talk about hope, it implies that something is wrong. The church today is in a state of near-apostasy. The problem of the church from the very beginning has always been heretical teachings.
It is possible to have the right doctrine and the wrong practice, but you cannot have the wrong doctrine and the right practice.
From the early days of the Church, we see that the apostles constantly had to deal with the issue of heresy. The Church has always been assaulted by persecution from without and by errors from within. But the good news is that Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against His church.
It seems every pastor claims to be preaching the true gospel. How do we spot a heretical teacher?
Jesus said, “By their fruits, you shall know them.” That is the fundamental parameter. The fruit we are talking about is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. There is no way you can have the Spirit of Holy Spirit without that fruit reflecting in your life. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. It is that simple.
Therefore, I tell people that the only way to identify a false preacher is to watch their fruit. If the fruit they bear is not in tandem with the character of Christ, then they do not truly know God.
From what we see today, many preachers might fall short using this metric. Is there any hope for a church free of impostors?
I have hope because our Savior said He would build His church, and He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. I believe the Church of God will stand at the end of the day. That is why, from time to time, Jesus visits the church with warnings. He sent warnings to the seven churches in Asia, as we read in the Book of Revelation. All through church history, God has always raised people. There is always a remnant that will not allow the fire of God’s Word to be extinguished.
What do you think pastors can do to ensure they stay on track? Because many seem to think they are doing well when, in reality, they are off-course.
The first thing to do is to personalize your experience with God. The Bible instructs us to examine ourselves to see whether we are still in the faith. One of the clearest signs that you possess the Spirit of Christ is that you do not get offended when corrected. Instead, you accept correction when it is clear you are in the wrong. Each person must examine themselves. Our calling is general, our mission is global, but our service is individual. We must never reach a point where our conscience is no longer sensitive to the Holy Spirit. That is the danger zone.
The fruit of the Spirit comprises those nine elements. They are not nine separate fruits; they are nine components of a single fruit of the Holy Spirit. In most cases, people will see the changes in you and testify to what God is doing in your life. You will experience that transformation internally, but it will also be visible externally. It is experiential.
I recall a situation where someone who knew me from years past shared a testimony about me. The statement they made caused the whole room to go quiet because they marveled at the sheer scale of transformation that had occurred in my life. That prompted me to withdraw into my closet just to give praise to God. The fruit of the Spirit is abstract, yet simultaneously tangible and visible. You cannot fake it. If you are genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit, you cannot stay in iniquity or error for long. The Lord will bring you out.
There are many churches practicing all kinds of strange doctrines. What would you consider the acceptable doctrine of the Bible?
We have to first trace the source of error. Doctrinal error generally stems from two sources: ignorance and willful deviation. The one born out of ignorance is easier to handle; if such a person hears the truth and possesses the Spirit of Christ, they will change. When we read the Bible with an open heart, we receive instant correction. The Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
However, there are people who simply do not love the truth or who crave the praise of men. The Jewish leaders, for instance, believed in Jesus, but because they feared the Pharisees, they refused to acknowledge Him publicly because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Such people prefer to preach what itching ears want to hear to satisfy their own greed, rather than preaching the true gospel. A heart that genuinely loves the truth will always be open to correction.
God is not the author of confusion, yet today we see truth and error sharing the same bed, leaving people confused. How do we navigate this cul-de-sac?
The devil’s strategy has always been to flip the coin and confuse people. But I go back to Jesus’ promise about building His church. I have always found that God is a God of remnants. When there were only two people on Earth, they voted against God. Yet, in the days of Noah, the Bible records that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord in a deeply corrupt world. This tells me that there will always be a dedicated remnant that will serve God and do the right thing.
The Bible states that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Could this be why it is so difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff—because someone can preach heresy yet still manifest spiritual power?
I believe the Holy Spirit can use a preacher who is not genuine to preach the gospel and still save souls. Paul addressed this when he wrote, “I discipline my body… lest after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” The gifts of God are indeed without repentance. But notice that Jesus did not say, “By their gifts you shall know them.”
Fruit takes time to grow. You cannot evaluate a preacher’s fruit from a distance; you have to know God and get close to that person to truly discern where the person stands. You cannot fake the fruit, but you can operate by a deceptive spirit. If you are in a toxic spiritual environment and you are sincere in your heart, you won’t stay there for long—and if you do, it means God has a specific rescue mission for you there.
What has been your experience preaching in different countries across the world?
What I have discovered is that God is no respecter of persons, just as Apostle Peter noted in the Scriptures. God has His people everywhere. The accents, languages, modes of worship, and songs may differ, but it never ceases to amaze me that there is ultimately only one Church. That is why the letters to the seven churches in Revelation target the same Church, just in different locations.
When it comes to location, the only thing that matters is where God has placed you. In some places, the voice of truth is drowned out by the noise of hell; in others, the voice of truth rings louder. But you will always find the truth everywhere you go.
Some people argue that the gospel must be culture-specific, meaning certain things can be preached in one culture but not in another. How do you view this?
If we subtract from the whole counsel of God, what we are preaching ceases to be the gospel. We cannot afford to have a cultural version of the gospel. The gospel is a universal message of redemption. If we stick strictly to the gospel, we will never miss the mark. We need to know what the gospel is, and equally, what it is not.
The gospel remains the same irrespective of culture and tradition. A preacher is not permitted to preach himself, his culture, or personal experiences derived from visions and revelations. He is strictly commissioned to preach the good news of the redemptive work of Jesus. If we preach Christ, we won’t have a problem with heresy.
Why do you think many churches run by Black ministers in the Western world tend to attract almost exclusively Black congregations?
There are several factors. It could stem from communication barriers or the “cultural gospel” that many African pastors tend to export. When I first moved to the U.S., I had difficulty understanding people in certain regions because of their accents, and they had difficulty understanding mine. That language barrier is a real challenge. Consequently, white people naturally gravitate toward their own, and Black people do the same.
However, it becomes a problem when preachers deliberately substitute the true gospel with cultural traditions that have nothing to do with Christ. A preacher should adapt to his environment to pass the message across effectively, rather than distorting the message to fit his own culture or the culture of the host country. Those are two completely different things. Apostle Paul spoke about becoming all things to all men, so that by all means he might save some. He was not talking about changing the gospel from person to person. He was talking about employing a familiar platform to spread the gospel. The gospel is universal but the vehicle of conveyance could be culture specific