The Apostolic Church Nigeria on Sunday August 3 inducted Pastor Lawrence Oladele to serve as the 4th president of the church since it became independent of The Apostolic Church of Britain in 1981.
His induction took place alongside the 49th convention the LAWNA Territory of the Church in the presence of hundreds of pastors and church members from across the country.
In his inaugural speech, Pastor Oladele an urban and regional planning professional, also a theologian expressed great thanks to his predecessor, Pastor Sampson Igwe.
He acknowledged the great work he did during his tenure while also promising to continue from where he stopped.
He also appreciated the LAWNA territory of the church for the financial and logistics backing it has given to the parent church over the years.
Pre-ordained by God
Oladele said the new national Leadership of the church has been pre-ordained by God to serve.
“God has called us to work together as a team and we have accepted the responsibilities attached. We are to serve as a team to pursue the agenda of our Lord Jesus Christ”
He promised to start where the seven-point agenda of the outgoing administration stopped and to complement it. His words, “We are poised to serve with integrity, diligence and accountability, to move the Nation forward.”
Need for restructuring
The new leader of TACN noted that the church has “many challenges such as pocket of divisions in many Territories in the Nation, paucity of financial resources to run the National Secretariat, constitutional negligence among others.”
These problems according to him are indications that the church needs “restructuring and overhauling” of some of its “administrative machineries, Constitution and component members’ cordiality and relationship for better empowerment of the National body, bearing in mind each Component Member’s Constitutional rights and peculiarities.”
He promised that his administration will first “carry out the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat (SWOT) Analysis of the entire system for inclusive and objective leadership, Corporate governance and result oriented leadership.”
Holy Spirit leading
The new leadership according to him will solely depend on the holy spirit while not neglecting the ancient landmark of its forbears.
He warned against resulting to litigations in resolving some of the crisis bedevilling the church noting that “Peace and unity are synonymous with God and the Church, without which no Church or any human organisation can experience growth or achieve the goal of the organisation.”
He emphasised the need for the spirit of oneness, love, peace and tolerance among members.
“Let the interest of the Church of God be paramount over and above our interests. God is calling for genuine unity at this end time for the Church to be able to fulfil her divine mandate of soul winning and put Satan, our common enemy, to shame.” he said.
Nigeria”s challenges
Oladele assured that the challenges of Nigeria are surmountable by the power of God. “If we humble ourselves, confess and forsake our sins, get converted from our evil ways, seek God and pray, the Lord will answer and make the Nation great and relevant among the comity of Nations again.
‘We need to just unite as a nation, love ourselves, have the interest of Nigeria at heart and resolve to live together in peace and harmony, shunning nepotism, tribalism, political subjugation, social hegemony and have the fear of God; and surely, we shall smile again”
He called on Nigerian leaders to work more assiduously to alleviate the suffering of the poor masses. “Allow fairness, justice and equity, tackle the issue of insurgency from the root, for the country to bounce back and recover its lost glory.” He charged.
The TACN president assured further that the Church is committed to praying for the nation, showing a good example in society and advising the Leaders of the Nation from time to time.”