I don’t encourage people to make New Year resolutions -Rev. Olowojoba

Your ministry has been on for ten years now. How has it been all these years and what have been the challenges?It’s been an interesting journey but the summary of it all is that God has been very faithful. The ministry came into existence on the 12th of January, 2000. And we began with just […]

Your ministry has been on for ten years now. How has it been all these years and what have been the challenges?
It’s been an interesting journey but the summary of it all is that God has been very faithful. The ministry came into existence on the 12th of January, 2000. And we began with just about sixteen adults and three children at the banquet hall of Hotel Broadway, Abuja but today, we have over 5, 000 worshippers. It’s been quite interesting and also challenging.
Of course, for a church that is growing so rapidly, we expected such challenges and knowing that trying to get lives transformed is not as easy as it sounds. Apart from the routine challenges, I would say that by far, the most difficult challenges that we faced was finding a suitable accommodation for the church and the Lord had been very helpful. We have had to change location three times. We initially started at Hotel Broadway like I said and very rapidly, we grew and we had to move to Apo. But the agreement we had with the landlord didn’t work because he sold the place to a new buyer who gave us just one month to move. But challenging as that was, God proved Himself faithful. We have now moved to our own property. We occupy a big building on 11 hectares of land along airport road. It was just simply the doing of the Lord and we give Him praise for it.

Are there any plans or programmes lined up to commemorate the 10 years anniversary?
Yes, we have what I call the holy convocation coming up and the annual gathering of shining stars (AGSS). It is not just a mere programme like you have church programmes, where we come and talk. It is a season of intense celebrations as well as empowerment. It is going to be a period of spiritual empowerment. A period of emotional, psychological and mental rejuvenation. To challenge people and bring out the best inside of them because inside every man, greatness is locked up. You have to know what gifts and talents God has given you. You develop them and use them not just for your own benefits but for the larger society. After all, God designed us to make serious impact on our communities and if Christians can really rise up to make the best of what God has made them to be, the impact would be so great that the nation would change for the better. So this is going to be seven days in the presence of the Lord beginning from the 11th to the 17th of January. Various anointed men of God would be on ground to take various topics to empower people to succeed in not only 2010, but beyond.

What are the plans for the future in terms of church growth? Are there plans to have more branches in other states?
Definitely, we have very huge plans. Plans for the next five to 20 years. We intend to be in every state capital in the next two years. Thereafter, we will have branches in Europe and America as far as God gives us opportunities. To this end, the school of ministry has begun to empower people in this regard. The vision God gave to me is a global vision to change and impact lives. Presently, we are on satellite television and we are ministering to millions of people across the globe. We also have a plan to set up a leadership university here in Abuja. You see, the problem with this nation has always been the problem of leadership. How many of our leaders today are actually trained in leadership unlike what you have in developed countries where people who want o be leaders are focused and properly groomed and trained.

A new year has just started, what is your New Year message to Christians and Nigerians in general?
I want to say to all Christians and all Nigerians a happy new year. I wish all Christians and indeed, all Nigerians a fruitful year. I wish the country, rapid restoration. I pray that the president would recover very quickly and return to his responsibilities. The church is praying for his quick return. My advice to Nigerians is that they should re-dedicate their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and make up their minds to obey the commandments of God—to love God  with all their hearts and to love their neighbours as themselves. Because, once we are able to do that, we will not take advantage of people and people will not take advantage of us. As long as we follow the tenets of Christianity, life is going to be peaceful.
I would also advise them to live in peace with their neighbours regardless of their ethnic and religious persuasions. It is only in the atmosphere of peace that nation building can take place. Right now, Nigeria needs every help we can afford to move the nation forward. In a few months from now, Nigeria will be fifty years old and it is time we al abhor corruption and every form of dishonesty. I am not just talking about the leadership alone, because, leadership comes from the general public but everybody has to play their own role. Let’s take the task of nation building very seriously.

A lot of Nigerians make New Year resolutions at the beginning of the year but most do not carry them out. So what is the best way to achieve resolutions made at the beginning of the year?
That’s a very important question. A resolution is like a car without an engine, it does not take anybody anywhere. A resolution does not have a force so I usually don’t make resolutions and I don’t encourage others to make it. Instead, they should set clear cut definite goals. Goals that are specific of things they want to achieve, goals that are measurable and realistic and they should put some time into achieving them.
Let’s say for example, you want to be closer to God then you define the areas you want to be closer to God. Is it in prayer or in Bible study? Then you allocate specific time of the day to spend time with God in prayer and in studying the Bible. Once you set up that plan, then you commit yourself in to it and you will be able to achieve it.
The same for your desire to change a job or achieve your educational status, you must ask yourself; what do I need to achieve this? Then you make up a plan. And then no matter how good your goal is, until you take a step, you are going nowhere. So resolutions really don’t work but goal setting has always been very effective.