Churches need better impact to sustain relevance —Apostle Adegboye

General Overseer of Levites Christian Assembly, Apostle Kingsley Adegboye, is a teacher, author, and motivational speaker. He shares with TESSY UMUNNAKWE his thoughts on the uniqueness of his calling, as well as other religious and national issues.

Churches are everywhere; one would think by now Nigeria would be crime-free…

The first school of thought I will share is that you don’t know the value of a thing until what you particularly despise is missing. The society is beginning to show resentment to the church, feeling that their impact is almost becoming a mirage. While I can identify with that sentiment, I must say as well that we have undermined the involvement of the church as well. If the church today stops to contribute its quota to the larger society, only then will the true measure of their impact be felt. I do not concur with the opinion that the church is no longer needed. We may be overwhelmed with happenings in the society and begin to draw hasty conclusions that the church is not impactful, but this is not so. Howbeit, the second school of thought that I would also identify with is that the church is expected to make greater and deeper impact which I find questionable at the moment. I would agree with this school of thought that says much is expected from the church, because if we are doing so well, I believe we can curb all evils that the society is facing. So, rather than say the church is not making impact, I will tell the church to develop itself as a body to make more impact in curbing all the excesses that the society is complaining about. There are nations that have stopped celebrating churches; they do not have better stories as we speak. So, I believe the church is making impact, but not the required impact.

Is government really fighting corruption?

Yes, government is fighting corruption. I say so because they are making some efforts that I can see. Institutions like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have not been disbanded or stopped from doing their work. Government has not stopped them from arresting even those serving under the government. I’m a leader myself, so I can say that sometimes you have good intentions but within the arms under you, you now see a slow pace of execution of the vision. So, I think government is fighting corruption. But, if you ask me if they should do more, I would say yes. I have seen signs that they are fighting corruption. It would be insensitive of me to say they are not doing anything.

The Levites Assembly is only in its sixth year, and you have been involved in church planting in countries around the world. How did you achieve this feat?

Without grace, no spiritual assignment can survive. The only reason this is possible, even as a projection or as a concept, is the grace of God. For the least assignment that anyone can undertake for God, if grace is lacking, the assignment is bound to fail. The success story of this ministry is connected to the word ‘grace’ from God, Who called the assignment into existence.

With the achievements you have recorded in the ministry, how come your popularity rating has not soared?

I believe in news rather than noise. Part of the spiritual training the Holy Spirit gave me before I was commissioned into the spiritual assignment, is that news is better than noise. Before you go out and tell people that this and this is possible, the first thing you need to do is to build your assignment on a solid foundation. When you hurriedly want to make an impact, it is likely your impact will end in jeopardy. We need to understand that foundation precedes superstructure. We need to build first. So, we are using the first six years to establish what God has told us, and with the testimonies we have recorded, we are now very bold to go out there to tell the larger society that there is a God in Zion that is still in the business of doing wonderful things.

How did you come about the Levites?

I was driving one day, in the neighbourhood of Sango in Ibadan. My wife was also in the car, when the Spirit of the Lord started discussing with me. I heard Him clearly so much that I told my wife to pick her pen and write down what God was telling me. And the Spirit of God said: ‘Son, you have been chosen to start a church for God.’ He told me the name of the church would be called Levites Christian Assembly. The Lord said the structure of the church must be in tandem with the biblical arrangement to raise Christians that would devote their passion for the work of God and their commitment would be unrivalled. He said the church should raise believers who would do anything for God; believers who would go any length to please God. Then he reminded me: ‘Do you remember Levites in the Bible? When I was looking for devoted men, it was that tribe that stood for me: the tribe that did not follow the majority to commit evil; the tribe that stood for God even when they are standing alone.’ God said ‘Go and raise believers like that.’

You are a prophet, apostle, teacher, author and a family man, how do you combine these roles?

The offices of God are established by God and He determines who He calls into these offices. For more than 25 years of being with Him, He has taken me through grace into these offices. And if I appear to be doing well in virtually all the offices talked about in the Bible, I can’t take credit for it. As long as you begin to earn trust from God, as long as you begin to walk in a way that pleases God, He can draw us from one office to another and then He can grow us in grace. Now, linking all of these demands with the demands of marriage, I can say the reason I have not had chaos in my marriage is because I was privileged to have grown with the Lord, before I got married. I became born again before I considered marriage. I knew then that it was important whom you marry, because you are going to spend the rest of your life with that person. I also knew the importance of marrying someone who is compatible with your journey in life. So, I prayerfully waited on God for three years. Eventually, God spoke to me and connected me with the person He made for me. He made it a lot easier for the person to understand His workings in my life.