Do you get the picture? It is one of the challenges of social engineering that on the one hand we complain that most of the people, who are celebrated, held up as heroes and therefore as potential role models, are charlatans. But on the other hand, those who deserve to be honoured and held up for the generality of the people to emulate, do not want to be celebrated! They shy away from the limelight out of humility; which is the Christ-like thing to do! Yet, even the Lord Jesus said that candles are not meant to be placed under tables and He wasn’t talking about the potential for setting off a fire! He was talking about the illuminating role of the candle. So what do we do? We play the leper as often as we can! The Bible recalls that as a result of the fact that the leper “…went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter,” people “came to him from every quarter.”
Please don’t tell this to anyone. Do not share it with even your closest confidant, lest it be noised abroad. But if you must, please do not say that you read it here that Rev Dr Chris Tunde Joda, President, Voice of Faith Ministries and Senior Founding Pastor, Christ Chapel International Churches will turn 50 on Tuesday, March 3, 2009.
If you are wondering why I shouldn’t be quoted, let me just put it this way: I am kind of playing the leper here… and you don’t want to join me in that, do you? You don’t want to join me in behaving exactly like that leper in chapter one of the Book of Mark. His story read like this:
“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter” (Mark 1: 40-45).
Do you get the picture? It is one of the challenges of social engineering that on the one hand we complain that most of the people, who are celebrated, held up as heroes and therefore as potential role models, are charlatans. But on the other hand, those who deserve to be honoured and held up for the generality of the people to emulate, do not want to be celebrated! They shy away from the limelight out of humility; which is the Christ-like thing to do! Yet, even the Lord Jesus said that candles are not meant to be placed under tables and He wasn’t talking about the potential for setting off a fire! He was talking about the illuminating role of the candle. So what do we do? We play the leper as often as we can! The Bible recalls that as a result of the fact that the leper “…went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter,” people “came to him from every quarter.”
In other words, for the true heroes to be known and appreciated; for the true role models to take their place for the betterment of society, there would seem to be the occasional playing of the leper. That is what I have found myself doing in this column now and again; and that is what I am doing again today.
Yes, Dr Tunde Joda, my Senior Pastor, my coach, my teacher and spiritual father is 50. I can hear many say, only 50? Yes, only 50, although he seemed to have been around and in our consciousness like forever! That’s partly because he has spent more than half of that, precisely 26 years, in ministry, having founded CCIC in 1983.
That is also because, he pioneered a new move of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, a move that not only took young people out of the formalism of denominationalism, but also weaned many of them from the not-so-informed fundamentalism of the Scripture Union era.
His punk hairstyle, which he still wears today, his sartorial choices, his general mannerisms and most important of all, his teachings on faith were all revolutionary at the time. His philosophy was come just as you are. This deemphasised the dress sense, or lack of it, of the potential Christian, which he sees as being outward manifestation of the state of the heart and which, he knew the Word was capable of changing. This drew a huge crowd of youths even if it opened the church to criticisms from either extremes of Christendom.
It is already well known that he gave up what was clearly a promising career in medicine, a profession he pursued with vigour at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, as someone put it out of “his natural love for humanity.” In the words of a piece published last year during the 25th Founders’ Day commemoration, “God had a greater plan of using him not only to heal men’s physical bodies but to make men totally whole by healing them spiritually, emotionally and financially.”
Since yielding to God’s plan for his life there has been no going back; no looking back and no turning to the left or to the right. He has kept his focus; daring to blaze trails here and there as he feels led of God. If a school room was what was available to “church” in, he took it. When it was a cinema hall that was large enough, he didn’t allow the social stigma associated with such a premises affect his judgment. Indeed many men and women who were later to become Spirit-filled pastors and leaders in many churches gave their lives to Christ at the Super Cinema in the Surulere area of Lagos.
It is incontrovertible that this man of God, has his imprint in a sizeable part of the word of Faith movement in Nigeria and beyond. This was demonstrated last year when a group of alumni of Christ Chapel decided to put together what they called a Home-Coming event. It was a spectacular reunion of men and women who cut their spiritual teeth under the ministry of TJ and Sister Ebun as the man of God and his wife are fondly called. And they came from all walks of life – Ministry, the academia, the professions etc.
There are no shortages of testimonies about how this man of destiny has been used of God to touch lives in diverse ways over the past 26 years, but space, the tyrant, would allow me chip in only this one.
Her name is Faith. Understandably. She is a product of faith, the God kind of faith, so powerfully propagated by this man of God. At the time of telling her story, last year, she was already 23 and a final year student in one of the universities.
Her mum had been had been prone to miscarriages of pregnancy. Of course you can imagine that she would not have been sitting pretty, doing nothing; there must have been regular visits to doctors and clinics of all kinds. Then one day a young doctor turned pastor came calling at the campus of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOLY) as today’s LACOSTECH used to be known. She attended the meeting, answered the altar call and thus became born again.
Then she started attending follow-up classes as the church located at Ibidun Street where she was counselled and encouraged to live by faith. The pastor during one of those meetings prophesied that there would be a turn around in the life of this aspiring mother before the end of that year. Here is how it played out in Faith’s own words:
“My mum conceived before the end of 1984. The pastor made sure she attended the ante-natal clinic at LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital), where he worked. To the glory of God and the joy of my parents, my mother carried the pregnancy to full term. I was that baby.”
Now, in spite of everything that God has done through this pastor of pastors, he has placed an embargo on celebrations! You organise or do anything to celebrate him at your own risk!! I can only pray that this piece is not seen as a violation of that embargo.
But if, like me, you were at that point where in place a buoyant spirit, all you were feeling was emptiness; where, you had started chalking up defeat after defeat and failure after failure in place of victories and successes; where it dawned on you that you had been foolishly taking credit for God’s wonder working power upon your life and he seemed to have decided to let you “do it your way”. If in that state He leads you to a flock where, led by his chosen under-Shepherd, you are fed with the engrafted word of God, taught to worship Him and nurtured back to spiritual buoyancy, you’ll probably, understand why I have chosen to play the leper and publicly acknowledge the coach at the golden age of 50. Thanks for letting God use you to touch lives, including mine, and glorify Christ.
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