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Over the years, Pastor Simeon Afolabi, the serving Overseer of First Love Assembly, Lagos has carried out massive campaigns among pastors and heads of ministries across Nigeria with his Ministers’ Conference through his partnering organization, the Revival Promotion Partners. Afolabi who recently unveiled three books which are manuals for ministers of the gospel who must get it right, in this interview, told DAYO EMMANUEL why ministers of the gospel must stay within the limit of the word of God in order to have what he terms best practices in ministry. He also advises Nigerian leaders. Excerpts:
You are preparing for another edition of the quarterly Ministers’ Conference holding on 18th March. What is the main focus of this conference?
The main focus of the program is to mobilise people towards fulfilling their callings. The theme is “Go forward.” It is actually a phrase lifted from a passage during the exodus when the children of Israel were facing the Red Sea. The sea was in front of them and the forces of Pharaoh behind them. While they were shouting and panicking the Lord told Moses to ask the people why they were shouting. He asked Moses to tell them to go forward. So our drive for this conference is to tell people that regardless of the obstacle in front of them God has equipped us to move forward.
Through outlast year you had series of ministers conference, can you tell us some of the success the programs achieved?
If we judge by the responses particularly the number of ministers and ministries the participants represented, if we judge by that we can say it is very encouraging output indeed and it’s a good success to a very large extent. My last check even before the one we did last year in November, looking at the records we had ministers from over 170 ministries, pastors from different denominations and for me that is a huge success. Whatever can bring pastors, Pastors are not easy to reach as it were because you are dealing with what they are dealing with; the Bible, the word of God, that’s what they tell their congregation every week so if you call for a ministers’ conference and you see ministers from over 170 ministries, I think it’s a testimony to the fact that there is something peculiar, there is a blessing.
Do you intend in the near future to take this conference round the country?
Yes we just wait as God leads that’s a possibility actually. We have what we call Ministers Meeting in Port Harcourt, our Headquarters church once in every two months and that has been running in Port Harcourt; the one we run every even month, February April, June, August, October, December we have representatives, pastors coming from Cross River State, Akwa Ibom State, Imo State, Anambra State, Enugu State, it has been so wonderful, it’s been wonderful so if there is a possibility of taking it round. Actually one of the dreams I have which I have not been able to fully execute is to start what I call Best Practices in Ministry Conference. I think this may metamorphose into what we call Best Practice in Ministry Conference. The idea is this, virtually every filed you turn into there is what they call internationally best practice, there are best practices in medicine, engineering law, why don’t you have best practices in ministry? That pastor does this way, that pastor does that way, everyone does as it pleases I think a time has come for us to have a standardized way of doing things what is the best way of doing ministry and for pastors I feel this is what this conference will metamorphose to.
With all these it seems you are actually sent to the body of Christ with the way you are reaching out to ministers outside your denomination?
I believe my assignment is to the body of Christ. I have always recalled this when we were launching out the Lord said to me ‘I have released you to the body of Christ’ and it is clear to me my assignment is not just within a particular local assembly the one God has helped me to start, my assignment is to reach out to the body of Christ to be able to streamline things when necessary, standardize operation, to be a blessing to the body regardless of denomination or the name of the ministry.
And how do you see other denominations and ministries taking this task of yours?
Like we said earlier if you see the response both in Port Harcourt or here we have been well received even though we have not launched out and say this is how we want to do it. We want to have best practices in ministry conferences, but judging by what we have seen here in Lagos and there in Port Harcourt I think we have been well received and may be with more enlightenment campaign many more people would subscribe to it.
You have done ministry almost all your life what can you call the challenges that you have encountered?
As a person the challenges sometimes may be I won’t say are personal in a sense the challenges that have bothered me have to do with the lack of standard in the operation of the ministry. The disjointed nature with which people do ministry the lack of education, the lack of training among people who operate ministry this has always been a challenge to me in ministry. You would probably have heard me say before that in every field, you see the number of years that go into it whether law medicine, engineering or even teaching these have to with terrestrial things earthly thing, things that will pass away. But when we are called to handle eternal destiny of people we just open shop any time and people come and endanger the souls of people and that is the biggest challenge you can talk about in ministry. Because someone just leaves secondary school or HSC or even first degree and he feels God has called him and he just starts ministry and there is no one to regulate what he does. It’s the greatest challenge may be it’s not a personal challenge but a challenge in ministry which I feel has to be addressed.
And is there a body that wants to address this?
As at today I don’t think there is a body that wants to address this. I don’t know of anybody that is equipped to address this and maybe we need to trust God for a body to address this. May be the one that would have a teeth to bite because PFN, CAN do not have the power to regulate the church yet. Those who practice medicine are cautious to observe the ethical codes because if they don’t they might lose their license, those who practice law know that Nigerian Bar Association can discipline them, those who practice engineering know that the association of engineering can discipline them, who are those to discipline erring pastors?
But they often claim they are God’s servants and who are you to judge another man’s servant? I have heard this severally…
We don’t have that body to discipline erring pastors yet. It’s a big issue, until we are able to do that we can’t bring real standard to the church we cannot have the revival we really want to the body.
But the government recently tried to enforce the regulation and it met with a brick wall. Were you aware?
You see the backlash it got? You see how many people who rose up against the government?
Then that is to tell us it’s going to be really difficult, don’t you think?
It would be difficult because of the way we are. Not just only the church but the nation generally. We have grown up to detest the law. I was at DHL office three days ago, as soon as we entered the place at the entrance, there is the kiosk, you pick a number and you wait until the number is called. Everywhere was calm and organized after a while I talked to the pastor who went with me that every company that has international outlook or headquarters do their things differently here. I said what is difficult in getting to a bank in Nigeria press the button, get a teller and wait for your number? But as a people we don’t just believe in order, we don’t believe in the law we want to do certain things in certain ways even though when we go to such environments we follow the order. I said no one can play a big man here, I picked my number I think 297, there were about 20 people in front of me. I sat down, it doesn’t matter whether you carry a big anointing, and you wait for your turn. You go to a public place you see everybody clouding the counter at the same time and in the process you confuse the person attending to you and you make the job longer than necessary. I think it is a general problem, I think the church ought to be the body to show the light and tell the people how to do it but unfortunately we are not there yet. That is why you have a backlash when a law was passed and was to be implemented and it generated such a heat. The law is not repealed yet and there may still be a government one day who would wake up and say this is how it should be done. If a law is asking us to be accountable I don’t think there is anything wrong about that. Everyone who loves the Lord should love accountability because that is what we are going to be doing before the Lord, that is the last duty of every man and it is better we get used to accountability now. What I do not subscribe to in the law though I have not taken time to study it, it is the succession matter, that is a spiritual matter because God determines who take over in the ministry but in terms of showing your books to the world, showing what you made and what is spent on what, everyone should jump at that but the succession should be left for the governing council of the church to decide. That is what I see, there should be a reexamination but as for the accountability, everyone should be accountable.
Coming to the state of the nation now, the nation has been going here and there, there are lots of clouds, animosity, as a leader in the church, how do you advise the government?
I was asked similar question last year and I said the government should tread the part of sincerity. The President is not around is another thing which buttress the issue of integrity and sincerity. When he was leaving the country he did the proper thing by writing the National Assembly as the law stipulates and that the Vice President should be the Acting President and that was done in order but the impression given was he was going on vacation and to return in February. A few days before his return he said no, he needs to wait for result of certain medical test then did he go for medical check or did he go on vacation? A nation of 175/180 million people, the people should not be taken for a ride. If you are the President of a nation and occupying a sensitive position you are not just a man of yourself you are a man of the people and the people deserve to know what is happening. I think it was the era of George Bush junior I think it was the dog that died, or they put it to sleep. The dog was old, I can’t remember the details of that story again, they had to announce in public, it was a news item, a dog in the white house died and they had to announce it, as simple as that. Let there be sincerity, you can’t run a nation without integrity, you can’t run a nation secretly. Recently we just saw Arabic inscription on the Army logo, how did they smuggle it there? You just wake up you see something, you can’t govern a nation that way you can’t. When you do such things you begin to make people support the theory they had, you give them room either to start theorizing or to support the theory they already had and the longer you do that the more erosion you have in the confidence of people. There must be openness and sincerity that is how you govern a nation. I realize that human nature the way God made man I try to correct the impression they have to dominate, even in the Christendom people use the word dominate. God did not make one man to dominate the other, our dominion is over the creation, there is governance, God instituted government, but governance is done through mutual submission, so there is no way you can dominate another human being. When you do you have sowed a seed of rebellion because one day they would rebel one way or the other. That is not how human beings are made, human beings are not made to be dominated, when you try to dominate the other man you have sown a seed of rebellion. People will revolt so government should not deceive the people. They should not smuggle things around, you can’t govern people that way. With one video appearance, one message to the nation you can put things to rest. The President is old there is nothing that is happening to him that is strange, what makes things strange is the secrecy. Let those in government position be sincere.
Let’s talk about your books. Why bringing out three books at once?
Well, it’s more of a coincidence. These materials are already running late, they ought to be out last year so I couldn’t meet up so I said since it couldn’t come out last year.
Let me just do something close to my birthday so my birthday is 22nd of February so I said it could be a way to put things together.
How many books have you so far?
Except I take a count with these three I think between ten and twelve I can’t remember except for the devotionals we do that are regular.
How do you intend to spread these books?
These ones in particular it would be my joy to have them in the hands of every pastor. You have asked what the challenges are, some of these books addressed the challenges we have in ministry and among ministers. It would be my joy to have these books in the hands of every pastor in this country. I would want them to go very far because they represent many years of my years in ministry. They represent my persuaded opinions, what a minister should be and I am looking forward to some of these materials adopted in Bible schools as study materials. So much has gone into them, I have put in so much of time, energy, money and I will just be happy ministers have them and Bible schools have them as materials.
