…As Christos hosts 1,000 pastors

By Tony Eluemunor

Could the reader by any chance know one Miss Osuji, from Afikpo, who was a teacher at Isi-Uzo Primary school, Amenu, Okposi, in Ebony state by 1982/83?

Abuja-based Bishop David Ogudu, now in great demand to preach in local or foreign churches, has never forgotten her. Miss Osuji taught him at Isi-Uzo Primary School and impacted his life so much that he has honoured her by instituting the Miss Osuji Foundation which offers academic scholarships from the primary school to the university to indigent students.

Oh, Bishop Ogudu never knew or doesn’t remember Miss Osuji’s first name – which is common with primary school pupils because a teacher is either Miss/Aunty This or Mr/ Uncle That to a child.

Bishop Ogudu now pastors his own church, Christos International Worship Centre, in Apo Area of Abuja. No, Ogudu would tell you that Jesus founded Christos as the name proclaims: Christ the Anointed One.

He will tell you the owner of the church, Christ himself called him, an unworthy servant, to work in his vineyard and that it is the same Christ that has been sustaining him – as a Prophet of the Most High, though at first, he resisted the call which first came when he was just 19 years old.

Oh, yes, he remembers the exact date the call came which only a precious few, even among the notable church leaders, can say: “He called me” …and provide a date and the background within which that unforgettable call came.

From this year’s June 2nd to 4th Bishop Ogudu’s Christo’s International, Worship Centre, Abuja, will host the God of 11th of June Summit, with the theme: “BUILDING THEMAN BEHIND THE PULPIT, a Time of Refreshing For Ministers/Leaders”. 11th of June? Ah, Ogudu received that call on that date!

A summit? I called it “summit” for want of a better word. Bishop David Ogudu is always attempting the amazing, the astonishing, the marvelous. I don’t know how it occurred to him to seek to reequip, to refresh, to rearm, to rebuild the Bishops and Pastors for the work they do. He said that many people are unaware that a Pastor’s life could be lonely despite the teeming crowd he shepherds, that many Pastors are struggling against different problems but find little empathy even from the persons close to them or as the popular parlance goes, “picked up from the gutter and cleaned up”.

That got me thinking. I remembered Primate Olabayo of the Evangelical Church of Yahweh – my friend since August 1986 when I, as a Newswatch magazine reporter, interviewed him in Ilorin. He had a stroke in the mid-1990s.

I thank God he is still alive, and moves about, even travels. Yet, the crowd that used to mill around him, phoning him every hour of the night and day, the crowd whose demands on him could have instigated the stroke, has thinned out. Once, I met four military Governors in his house and a world acclaimed juju music exponent. But today, they must have moved on. In fact, among those he had prayed for, two Moslems – ex-Police Chief and NDLEA first Chairman, Fulani Kwajafa and Dr. Olusola Saraki, both deceased now, remained his truly unwavering friends.

I also remembered Patrick Anwuzia, Zoe Ministry’s head pastor. A crowd usually milled around him in his hey days, but today, he is sick and is hospital-bound over an organ failure. I was Anwuzia’s College Boy at St Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku, AniochaSouth LGA, Delta state, Anwuzia was a star athlete; sprinter and champion hurdler.

Even then he was restless – but nowhere near as restless as in the Zoe Ministry days as everybody wanted to see him.

Now, think of the lesser-known Pastors.

Nobody knows the burden they bear – health, finance, marital, peace of mind, being judged unfairly by members of their churches and all who know them, the accusations they face, often unfairly. And when a Pastor falls in any way, nobody forgives him or even understands that he is a human being that should be helped to rise again.

Often, we hold them to the angelic standards which non-pastors don’t apply to themselves. Is his marriage shaky or has ended? The society condemns him and pours scorn on him. On this, the female pastors bear a double cross; that was why the singer, Osinachi stayed put in a disastrous marriage until the bitter end. Is a Pastor sick? That becomes a scandal as though the pastor is not human and he is left in the cold. So, at the Christo’s summit, the theme: “BUILDING THE MAN BEHIND THE PULPIT, a Time of Refreshing For Ministers/ Leaders”, will come alive as pastors (and some Bishops too) will receive guidance on how navigate successfully in times of disenchantment and aridity of love and concern.

They will be told what to expect from their congregations and how to build bridges even among other pastors so that they can bind together as friends – instead of deriding each in a useless competition. They will be helped to prepare for the buffeting that would come when the wing changes direction and speed. Yes, they will be told how to spot the banana peels that often make them fall. Ogudu said that sometimes what could save a burnt-out pastor from suffering a stroke or heart attack is just knowing when and how to relax.

A summit of 1, 000 Pastors and 50 Bishops drawn from hundreds of different churches all across the globe should pose gigantic challenges – but Ogudu is used to such. In 2015 he produced audio bibles in 19 Nigerian languages; Igbo,Hausa, Yoruba, Efik, Ibibio, Gbagi, Gwari, Fulani, Igala, Idoma, Tiv, Bini, Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Igbira, Ogoni, Okrika and Pidgin English, now the most downloaded Christian phone app in Nigeria, for no monetary benefits Five main Ministers will drive the summit; Dr. David Anderson, Bishop Daniel Pinero, Bishop Angel Nunez, from USA and Nigeria’s Archbishop Sylvanus Ofili, and Ogudu.

Anderson, Founder and Senior Pastor of Bridgeway Community Church and Founder and President of Gracism Global, one of the world’s leading authorities on the divides of race, wealth, culture, and faith has worked throughout the world, inspiring and healing communities. Pinero, Pastor at New Dimension Church of God, Brooklyn, New York, United States Buffalo State College holds a Bachelor of Arts – BA Communication and Media Studies, 1998 – 2002. Earlier he and his wife worked as Regional Directors for the Youth Department of the Northeast Hispanic Region.

Nuñez holds a Doctorate Degree in Divinity with a Masters in Theology and has been in ministry for over 40 years and as Senior Pastor of the Bilingual Christian Church of Baltimore for over 32 years, he has traveled to 52 countries carrying a prophetic mantle and challenging word to the church to rise up and fulfill her destiny in Christ.

Bishop Nuñez provides an apostolic oversight to pastors and leaders, equipping them to effectively serve the body of Christ.

Archbishop Ofili is them founding President and