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How we started
"My name is Pastor John Ogundare," he says softly, both hands gripping your right hand in a warm handshake. The man of God tells you that his ministry has been on for ten solid years, even though he himself got born again 34 years ago at the Be Prepared Church in Ibadan . Before his ministry kicked off, however, he had been an elder of the Christ Apostolic Church . In his church then, Pastor Ogundare was the church secretary as well as the financial secretary in his district, from where he started exhibiting the tell tale signs of a prophet.

"Even while as an elder in CAC, God had been using one to pray for one or two people, and there would be signs and healings", he notes. He would later enrol at the Life Theological Seminary in Ikorodu, Lagos State , where he earned both a diploma and a degree in Theology.

Challenges of the ministry
Before deciding to take up a permanent appointment in God’s vineyard, Pastor Ogundare had worked in a number of companies, including the UAC, General Oil and Ashaka Cement Company, where he rose through the ranks to become a senior manager. In fact, when he just started the ministry, he combined his pastoral duties with his secular job. How easy was it?

"It was the grace of God," he tells you in his soft voice. "And I also thank God for my wife who God has been using to bless and guide me. My wife is someone who loves God very much. And I bless God because of his grace upon my life. I remember that in those days, when we had programmes, I would dash down from the office to the church.

After the programme, I would rush back to Victoria Island . But I made sure I attended to whatever I had on my table. The whole thing eventually led to my resignation."

Five years ago, he called it quits with his day job as a senior manager with Ashaka Cement to face his ministry full time. The cleric says some of his colleagues were complaining and writing petitions against him that he spent quality time counselling and praying for people on phone during work hours. He admits that he actually prayed for people on phone, but denies that such exercise ever affected his official duties in any way. In any case, the company decided to set up a panel to probe the allegations. He was soon after transferred to Gombe by the management, where he spent one full month.

Says the man of God: "I thank God for my wife and a few elders that we had in the church. They encouraged me to go to Gombe first, even if I would resign later. So, I went there, and after one month, I said I wanted to resign. But my boss, a white man who was also a strong Christian, sympathized with me. He asked me not to resign just like that. He said the company would give me a three-month paid vacation to sort myself out and think about what I really wanted to do. So, I came back to Lagos , travelling on the road for three days.

I arrived in Lagos on a Sunday, and I came straight to the church. I was very dirty, and when my church members saw me, they were crying, wondering what could have happened to me. I just walked into my office and my wife came, and we spoke. When we got home, we prayed and I told her, that, after God, the decision on what I would do next lay with her. I reminded her that her children were young and were still going to school and we would need to pay their school fees and all. But the following morning, she told me to go and resign.

She said we would eat whatever we had and that the Lord would take care of the children’s school fees. She said, what if I didn’t want to resign and the company just fired me? Or what if the church that God had committed into my hands scattered and went back into the world? I would have lost both and God would not forgive me. After listening to her, it was like a burden was removed from my mind. She wrote my resignation letter that morning. That was how I left."

Soon after, his wife, also a manager with another manufacturing company, equally resigned her position to fully join him in the ministry.

How we cope with the home front
With both Pastor John and Pastor (Mrs) Martha Ogundare fully involved in the ministry, you wonder how husband and wife cope with the demands of the home-front. "God has been taking control", he affirms. "Actually, our children are grown up. Our eldest child is in the United States studying Medicine. The second is in the university here, and the two youngest ones are in the boarding house."

In ten years, the Christ Redemption Bible Church has grown into a big phenomenon in this part of Lagos , with people coming to attend its programmes from even beyond the shores of Nigeria . With satellite churches in many parts of Nigeria as well as in London , England , and a programme on LTV every Tuesday night, you would think the General Superintendent would be a totally fulfilled man. But he says the church still has a long way to go.

"We believe we’ve not grown enough," he remarks. "Look, we have a commission from God to preach the gospel all over the world. So, as long as there remains non-Christians in the world, then we have not succeeded at all. And that is why we are not relenting. Very soon, we will be holding a crusade at Ijebu-Jesha, my hometown."

On prosperity preaching
Pastor Ogundare bears no grudges with pastors who make prosperity preaching their major preoccupation. What he frowns at is how everything is being centred round money by today’s preachers. "It is not a sin to preach prosperity," he explains. "But the way we handle it has made the society to see us as if we have abandoned what we should actually see as our focus. I teach prosperity. Prosperity is not about money alone.

It is about your marriage, about your health, and so on. But the way we hammer on prosperity and millions of naira makes our society to be worried and makes even the unbelievers to start suspecting us. And we have actually abandoned the key assignment. God told us, go ye into the world and preach the gospel. We need to resume the work of evangelism. Nowadays, you can hardly hear that Jesus is coming back again. Yet, whether we like it or not, rapture will take place."

I’m naturally quiet
In private conversations with this soft-spoken man of God, you will virtually have to strain your ears to hear the words flowing forth from his mouth. Yet when he mounts the pulpit, he undergoes a spontaneous transformation. That’s the Holy Spirit working, he quips. "One or two people have told me that," he agrees. "I’m a naturally quiet person. I hardly go out, unless it’s very necessary. I don’t socialize. I don’t have many friends. That’s me as a person. But when I’m on the pulpit, it’s the Holy Spirit that takes over and I won’t even know where those words are coming from."

Nigeria will arise
Pastor Ogundare enjoins Nigerians to be hopeful and prayerful, saying God is in control of things. " Nigeria is our country. We should always pray for its peace and progress. But I can assure you that, in the next five years, Nigeria will arise again. In the next five years, people from other parts of the world would want to spend their vacations in Nigeria .

And one thing I know is that, whatever that happens, happens because God allows such to happen. So, let us believe in God and be very hopeful. Let’s give our new leaders a chance, and very soon, we shall get there," he says.