Pastor Samuel Adedayo Shares What it Means to be a Minister

April 29, 2023251 views0

Pastor Samuel Adedayo Shares What it Means to be a Minister

2023-04-29T09:30:48+01:00

By Marie

Pastor Samuel Adeyemo Adedayo is the Regional Superintendent of Akinyele Region and one of the intellectually sound ministers in Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria and Overseas.He was called into the ministry at the tender age of 18. Having heard God’s call clearly, young Evangelist Adedayo wasted no time in going for tutelage to properly understand what he ought to do and what he shouldn’t do in ministry.Apart from his tutelage under Prophet T. O. Obadare and his Ministry (World Soul Winning Evangelistic Ministry), Pastor Adedayo went for formal Theological training at United Missionary Theological College, affiliated with the University of Ibadan.He has plied the gospel field in the West, the North and the South-South parts of Nigeria. He fielded questions from the Christ Apostolic Magazine recently.Tell us something about your background, your upbringing, your family, your education and how growing up was likeI am Pastor Samuel Adeyemo Adedayo, born into the family of Prophet and Mrs Daniel Adeniran Adedayo at Ogbomosho South Local Government Of Oyo State. To be specific was born at ile Oje in Ogbomosho. was born into Christ Apostolic Church, well over six decades ago, and was called into the ministry at the tender age of 18. By the time I was 20,1 had been posted out to go and pastor a church as a catechist at the place now called Edo State But then, it was Bendel State. From there was doing God’s work as God directs and as God leads. I have had so many postings, so many transfers and so many experiences in the ministry, God willing, am now the Regional Superintendent of Akinyele Region.Cuts-in: You were born into the faith of Christ Apostolic Church.That’s right.There seems to be no formal training before you went into the field of the Gospel How true is this? May know the type of training you are talking about?Ah! There is training. When I was called, I was led by my Church’s Pastor, the Late Pastor Oloruntoba, who took me to Baba Obadare for tutelage and was there for two good years. That was the formal training I had before I entered the ministry. But after I had entered into the ministry, I knew I needed more training because of the future. I engaged myself in many years of theological training. I went to UMTC at llorin for my certificate course, between 1983 and 1987. I then went to the University of Ibadan for my Diploma in Religious Studies. I then returned to UMTC for my Bachelor of Theology because I knew that God had called me into the ministry and not into secular work. So I tried to fully equip myself. After my BTh, I had another opportunity and I went for my Master of Theology course at Life Theological Seminary at Ikorodu Lagos.Can you compare the situation now with what obtained in the past when you started in the ministry? We have cases of people who just jump into ministry after they claim to have been called, without having been discipled in a church or by a seasoned minister of God.You are comparing a very, very big thing to what is obtaining now. To me, the formal training I received helped me a lot. I have worked as a curate under so many Baba’s, yes even when I was a catechist I served under a Pastor, when I was a pastor, I served under a DS (District Superintendent), when I was promoted as a DS (District Superintendent) I served as a curate to a DCC Superintendent a Chairman then.So for those that receive a call these days, there is nothing bad in one receiving the call and heading away to seminary, but my candid advice is that if anyone finds himself in that shoe, he should in one way or the other before he’s promoted, serve under a senior pastor, he will acquire wisdom, he will acquire knowledge, he will acquire how to do things (tactics). Those are the things such a person will acquire but, if anybody says they are called by God you went to the seminary and then you come back and start a ministry as time goes on, it will show.Is it compulsory that a minister called into the ministry should have theological education? apart from the formal training theologically, tutelage is still essential from your reply as I can gather? Exactly, it is very, very important. There are many things you will not be taught in the theological seminary. But while you are serving a senior minister, you will know them, it will become yours. For somebody who said theological training is not necessary for somebody who is called (laughs). I think that man must be joking because there is no work you will engage yourself in if you don’t learn it, when you handle it those who learn will just be making jest of you that you are not doing it well, you are not doing it right. You see, the work of the ministry is more than just preaching and teaching, it encompasses so many things so it’s more than just you dressing up putting on your tie or your clerical collar and then you preach or you teach people. Even the teaching, if you are not theologically trained, there are poisons you will be giving to people because you will be misinterpreting the word of God.When you are in seminary you are taught the principles of interpretation of the bible which is hermeneutics, if you don’t go to school, how do you handle that! So, you will be interpreting everything literarily and there are some things you can’t interpret literarily in the bible except you go to a good, sound and standard seminary. Otherwise, you will just be giving people poison. And you will think you are preaching, you will think you are telling people the truth.Thank you sir, let us now come back to your region. You took over the region’s administration in 2021, what did you meet on the ground?Well, I will say that the region was running smoothly. Before I took over there wasn’t any problem, there wasn’t any uproar in the ministry. The region was running well when I took over from Baba M.O. Yusuff.What has been the attitude of DCC and Zonal Superintendents to the region’s administration since your assumption of duty as the Regional Superintendent, including the one year you spent in office?I want to thank God for the people we are moving together. I want to say more than sixty percent of the DCC and Zonal Superintendents are cooperating, so it makes the work easier. We are still praying for those that are yet to fully cooperate that God will enter into their minds and they too will cooperate very well.The Forty percent that are not cooperating, why are they not cooperating? Have you found out?Well, we have been doing underneath research and we have not gotten a cogent reason from them except that some make excuses of their locations being too far from the regional headquarters. Some complain about the Lagos traffic that it hinders them from attending meeting whenever it’s called. But we told them to always pay the levy that join us together as a region.Thank you for that, but I was thinking that it is the same old problem of planters that are making it difficult for the about forty percent to cooperate?No. Majority of the planters we have in Akinyele region are very cooperative. For example, Pastor J.A. Adelakun is very cooperative. Infact, it will be hard for someone to know that he is a planter. He cooperates even more than transferrable pastors.What is the central project the region embarks upon since you came in?We used last year and this year to pray. If God tarries come January 2023, we want to go into serious business. We want to engage ourselves in serious business of soul winning, training and some other things that will uplift the region by the grace of God.Will the region be thinking of having something like golden project or project that will be encompassing all the component DCCs and Zones, that people can point to that it is built by Akinyele region?Yes. We have that in mind but we need to start from somewhere. Come next year by the grace of God we will put our heads together and look at what exactly do we want to have as a project in Akinyele Region and then after that is done we can now see how we can execute such a programme.Apart from doing charity work which may not be announced because of the concept that Christ gave that what your right hand is doing don’t let your left hand know, they said that churches should be building businesses that can employ people, do you subscribe to that?Yes, it’s part of investment for the church. Churches like Anglican, Methodist, and Catholic have been doing this for long years ago so that they don’t depend solely on what the members bring as offerings. So, if we have a church that has land, they can do something about it some build shops, some build houses for renting, some go into a fixed deposit, some go into TB (treasury bill), some go into other things that can fetch the church money; so, if we too can think along that line I don’t see any sin in that it is very, very important and it makes the work of God more easier for the ministers and for the members.What is your vision of what the Akinyele region will be in the next five years?My vision for the Akinyele region in five years is to see that in everything that combines all the regions in Christ Apostolic Church together, Akinyele did not lag behind. I don’t want to use the word Akinyele should be on top but I want to leave that to God but I want to see that in everything that brings us together as regions want to be sure Akinyele is not lagging behind.What is your concept of a Man of faith? What should a Man of faith encompass?A man of faith should be someone who wants to know God the more, who exercises faith in God in all that he is doing. Somebody that can discipline himself so as to be a typical example for others to see and to emulateThis is very, very important, it is not just enough that we show ourselves out to people that this is what we are, this is what we are doing. But more than that, we must be an exemplary man in faith, in prayer, in discipline, in honesty, in humility.ALSO READ: Pastor Leke Adeboye Shares How He made His First Million