Pioneer Pastor of the Nigeria branch of Kingsway International Christian Centre, Pastor Wale Adefuye has expressed great concerns about the Church in Nigeria.
He also recounted his time with Deeper Life Bible Church where he gave his life to Christ and his experience of Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo, who founded the KICC church where he served.
Adefuye is a first-class engineering graduate who later became a chartered accountant. He had wanted to be a professor. He however became a Christian in 1986 at the age of 22 while trying to find answers to certain questions.
He said it was the drive to know more about life that made him join the Deeper Life Bible Church where he heard the word of God and gave his life to Christ.
Adefuye who is presently a minister at the Ipswich International Church (Elim) in the United Kingdom shared his experience in a recent YouTube interview with Bola Adewara, publisher of e-line online when he came to Nigeria.
Driven by fear
In the interview which stretched for about one and a half hours, Adefuye noted many church people in Nigeria are driven by fear and find it difficult to confront some of the practices of church leaders which have no basis in scripture. While insisting that people needed to know God for themselves, he decried the way pastors in Nigeria take advantage of church people.
Adefuye was in Deeper Life Bible Church from 1986 when he became born again till 1995 when he left the place. He worshiped in the church both in Nigeria and later in the UK.
He said, “I have no regret about my background in Deeper Life. When I got saved in Deeper Life my appetite changed. I fell in love with scripture. My grounding in Deeper life helped me to have a healthy respect for God’s word. I was blown away by the way scripture was taught in Deeper Life. I won’t trade my background in deeper life for anything else.”
While confessing his love for Deeper Life church, he said, “As I grew in faith I wanted to explore further growth. There were things I did not agree with in Deeper Life. In 1995 I had grown in a way to be able to share what I believe. I had to pull away. I was already married. I met my wife in Deeper Life. But I had to leave because I needed a new atmosphere to explore further growth.”
Journey to KICC
It was the search for more knowledge of God’s word that led him to KICC in the UK. He said, “When I knew my time was up in Deeper Life, I needed to know where to go. In London, in those days there were few independent churches. We got to KICC. But I did not know much about the founder. It was later I got to know Pastor Ashimolowo was from Foursquare Church. My wife and I agreed to move to KICC after some research. It was the happening church then.”
It was while in KICC that Pastor Ashimolowo asked him to consider coming to Nigeria to start KICC. He had earlier started the North West London branch of KICC before he was asked to come to Lagos.
Adefuye’s time in KICC was however another learning curve. It exposed him to some practices in the Pentecostal church he was not comfortable with.
He said, “My relationship with Pastor Ashimolowo was an employer-employee relationship. It was not father-son. He had that power distance. You had to book an appointment before seeing him.”
24-hour miracle
The KICC environment also did not provide Adefuye with the latitude to discuss scripture the way he would have loved to. He said a few of the teachings of Pastor Ashimolowo were also strange to him.
One of the areas he differed from Pastor Ashimolowo was his teachings on 24-hour miracle saying such teaching has no basis in the Bible.
“I would ask him (Ashimolowo) where he got the 24-hour message from, he would talk about Joseph and a few other individuals in scripture.”
Adefuye also took exception to the 1000 seed message of Mike Murdock which he introduced into the Winning Ways programme of KICC. While dissociating himself from the seed and the 24-hour miracle messages he said he could not speak contrary to “what my Oga was preaching”. then.
New Testament on giving
He added however that the New Testament is clear about giving. “There is no compulsion. God does not expect us to deploy high-pressure giving techniques. I have been reading the scripture for 40 years or more, there is no basis for it. “I can speak for myself. Ephesians 3 tells us how God has blessed us with all blessings. All you need to experience God’s blessing is to surrender to Jesus. You don’t need to give money to be blessed.”
According to him, many of the promises that people make under pressure are never fulfilled. “I had an experience during the Winning Ways programme in KICC. We spent millions on program and the offering was not commensurate.
“ We could have asked for support instead of manipulating people. The scam is when we make our need for support spiritual and manipulate people so they can give. The number of cheques that bounced from the offerings was astonishing during the Winning Ways programme.”
Seed vow
Adefuye said he had to personally release people from the vows they had made because they made it in error. “Mudock who preached the 1000 seed message preached 1000 dollar seed in the US. When he got to the UK, he preached on 1000 pounds when he got to Nigeria, rather than preach N1000 seed, he preached on 1000 dollars seed. That was when knew it was a scam.”
While pastoring KICC in Lagos, Adefuye said he created an environment that engendered vibrant Bible study sessions and allowed members to ask questions and discuss the Bible.
Ministers should not be deified
The church operated as one big family where there was no gap between the pew and the pulpit. This was so because he did not buy the teaching that encourages pastors to make themselves scarce so they could be valued. “I did not buy that teaching. Ministers should not be put on a pedestal. It is not healthy for them.
“They have issues like any other person but they have not created space for people to come and help. There should be no one that should be deified. The Bible should be open to all. Life is defined by the nature and character of God.”
Touch not my anointed
Adefuye noted further that many Christians are cowed by the scripture: Touch not my anointed. That is why they find it difficult to express their concerns about how some pastors carry themselves.
‘I am a child of God and then grow to become a son of God. People don’t know their place in Christ. Many don’t see themselves as children of God. It was the whole nation of Israel that was referred to as the anointed of the Lord in Psalm 105 v15-17 which talks about touch, not mine anointed. Every child of God is the anointed of the Lord if we look at it in that context”
Adefuye had to eventually leave the KICC church because of some of these differences. He was in Nigeria for a while before he later traveled back to the UK where he resides with his family. He also ministers at the Ipswich International Church (Elim ) along with other concerns.
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