Why Christians must always celebrate Christmas rightly —Aladesanmi

You recently launched a campaign tagged: “Celebrating Jesus Right,” what is it all about?

A few years ago, the Lord started impressing upon our hearts about people’s attitude towards Christmas and the celebrations all together and the Lord made us realise that in a bid to celebrate Christmas, statistically, we noticed increase in crimes, maybe because people want to make impression on other people or out of greed. We also noticed all kinds of vices multiply during the Christmas season and all in the name of celebrating Christ. So, the Lord laid upon our hearts the need to let people remember what the season is all about which is Jesus. He came to save the world and to deliver us from our sins. We cannot celebrate the one who came to take sins away with sin. The Lord puts it in our hearts to let this message be heard worldwide that Jesus came to save us and it is important that we celebrate him right by giving our lives to Him as our Lord and saviour and by doing everything we can to glorify His name. That is why as a church and ministry, we are sending this message to the world that we should celebrate Jesus’s birth the right way.

 

How has this initiative impacted lives?

The directive came in 2017 and now, there have been testimonies that have seen the need to celebrate Jesus rightly during festive period. It has affected their planning, deliberately looking for ways to honour and glorify God and to thank Him at this season rather than engaging in frivolous things or putting themselves under unnecessary pressure. So, we’ve had good testimonies and we trust God that the testimonies will continue to increase.

 

Are you satisfied with the state of Christianity in the country?

The state of Christianity in Nigeria is a two-way street. We are grateful for the spread. People are becoming more aware of God and Jesus Christ in particular and are making their commitments to Jesus. However, we notice that the transformation that should be evident in people’s lives is not necessarily commensurate with the number of converts that we have. Development is a process, it takes time for people to actually change and be all that God wants them to be.  I believe that with the grace of God, we are moving in the right direction, as more people give their lives to Christ and then there would be a chance of real transformation. There can’t be a transformation without salvation, so one has to precede the other but eventually, we believe transformation will catch up with the salvation experience that we have.

 

What is your assessment of the government both the federal and the state levels?

To assess, you need to have the facts and with the age of social media, the facts are distorted. We don’t have the real facts behind the stories that surround us. One thing we can say is that the people expect more from the government and every citizen has a right to demand more. We want the facilities to be better, we want the economy to be better and we are praying for our leadership that the Lord will help them make that possible.

 

What is your advice to Christians as the year is winding down?

Christians should be grateful to God, be grateful that we are alive and that our nation still exists in unity. There have been all kinds of prophesies over the nation that ought to have completely disintegrated us, but God in His mercies has kept us. That should be enough reason for us to always thank Him. So, we should be grateful and believe God for a better tomorrow. Many people speak evil about the nation, but things won’t get better that way, they can only get better when we speak positively into the nation and believe God to make things better for us as a nation. We trust God that 2020 will be a better year.

 

How did you receive your call?

Back from the time I gave my life to Christ, I always had the passion to serve God, I believed it was right to serve God and serve Him with the whole of our hearts, so, it started with the desire to do anything and everything possible to fulfill God’s plan for our lives and to help with my local church. But as the years progressed, I started sensing that the Lord would have me do more and eventually it became clear in my spirit that the Lord would have me serve Him by way of preaching the gospel. It took some time for me to really understand what God wanted me to do, but I thank God for the grace to follow the right direction and heeding His call. I used to work in a bank, I trained as a banker and I worked in the private sector for nine years. The call came while I was in the bank. For the first five years of my pastorate, I was a banker and a pastor. Eventually, the time came for me to do the work of God full time and that was in 2010 when I came into full ministry.

 

What has been your greatest challenge in the ministry?

I have never seen the wok of God as a challenge. Instead, the experience has been beautiful. No one serves God and regrets it because there is the joy and fulfillment of doing what God wants you to do. As a matter of fact, life itself is more than money, clothes, all these things have their place, but ultimately, it is waking up with that inner satisfaction that I have spent my life the way I am supposed to spend it and I am doing the things that God wants me to do. In terms of challenges in ministry, it is as numerous as human needs because the work itself is designed to help people, let them come to know God.  So, it is about the enormity of the task. The size of the work that we have to do, we are trusting that God will send more labourers into His vineyard to be able to get this job done.