Pastor Rotimi Bolaji
On October 30, 2014, Praiseworld Radio played host to Pastor Rotimi Bolaji, the resident pastor of House On The Rock, Abeokuta, Ogun state on The Praise O’Clock Show with Tola (Spice On The Mic) & Bishop Gee, and it was indeed inspirational. I couldn’t help but take a few notes.
We’ve probably heard these words before, but have never really taken into cognizance the depth of our actions or inactions in nation building.
When asked to share his thoughts, he emphasized that our nation, Nigeria was his major concern. Well, to be honest, I thought to myself, we probably have given up on changing “Nigeria” as a whole; we probably are trying to make changes round about us, till our comfort zones in part are fit enough to live in and not making conscious efforts to change the whole…
Read more and share your thoughts with us afterwards…
Let’s meet Pastor Rotimi
TOLA: Right from when you were young, did you know you were going to become a pastor?
Pastor: That’s impossible, because I was a Muslim till the age of 24. I traveled out of the country in 1995 and by 1997, a friend of mine (who is a pastor now), whilst we were doing our Master’s Program, invited me to Redeemed Christian Church of God, Dominion Chapel, Houston Texas and that’s where I gave my life to Christ, and the rest is history.
TOLA: How did your family take it?
Pastor: I had liberal parents. I was a very naughty boy, and so when they heard of my new faith, for them it was a relief that I’d stop doing all the bad things I used to do. When we started HOTR, Abeokuta, where I now pastor, my dad (who is still a Muslim) was the first person to give an offering of Ten Thousand Naira. I could never forget that.
Speaking of Pastor Rotimi’s parents, Bishop Gee described such a scenario as…“well, if Jesus can calm him down, then we support it”… LOL
Pastor Rotimi To Nigerian Christians
Talking about our Nation’s plight, and the roles we have to play as Christians, here are a few excerpts to run with as we take our place in becoming the change that we seek.
• Never get used to Christianity. For those of us that were on the other side, we know where we came from before finding Christ. Amidst all of our weaknesses and wrong doings, we still know that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour… Regardless of everything, we know. Even when we don’t accept it… we must take this truth that we’ve found and put it to work in every phase of our existence.
• My focus for Nigeria is for Christians to stand up and take control of things. Nigeria is on my mind and Christians don’t even have to be in any political office yet, they don’t have to be governor, commissioner, president, minister etc to make a difference but from the backroom of their houses, they can control things that are happening in all of these places and people there would not even know why they do the things they are doing, but they would be doing it to the benefit of the nation.
• It’s time for us Christians to get down on our knees and pray! The Bible will always remain the true word. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land [2Chron 7:14]… Nigeria is our land and as Christians, we cannot keep pointing fingers.
Somebody will call in and tell me we’ve been praying for Nigeria since 1970’s and I say that’s a lie. Check a typical prayer session in the church when it comes to praying for Nigeria, it’s extremely silent. When it’s time to pray against your enemies, to get money, a breakthrough or a visa, our velocity is very high. But for the peace of Nigeria, the congregation is usually silent.
I keep telling my congregation, we must understand that Nigeria is not the land-mass, it is a people and so it is you and I that things will affect. Whatever the leaders do, either positive or negative will affect us. We have to pray!
At this point, my convictions changed… Maybe I can actually change Nigeria as a whole. Maybe of a truth, many linked hands can make a difference. It takes you and I… that’s all there is.
• It’s time that we became real disciples, not just followers of Jesus.
** Pause** Well TOLA had to ask, “What is the difference between being a follower and a disciple?
I can follow you but not believe in you. There are many people that followed Jesus and did not believe in Him. They followed Jesus because of the bread and butter. They’d be like oh, he fed 5,000 people last week, he’ll do it again. A disciple is somebody who is there, not for what they can get but because of the mission.
According to John 8:31-32, there are many people who follow Jesus and yet don’t remain in His word. They don’t open their bible until they get to church the next Sunday. Their bibles are always the cleanest because they don’t study anything all week long. It is only when you become a disciple that you’d know the truth.
A disciple would be told things that a follower would not be told. The mistake some of us have is that we have 60 – 500,000 people and we think everyone is a disciple… No! You know a disciple in the day of trouble. If we refer to John 13:35, we’ll find out that this is not a denomination’s agenda, it’s not about the church you attend. It’s a mission.
• We’ve not prayed like we should… We have a national problem and a national problem needs a national focus.
Nigeria must be a part of your focus. If the economy is not good, it’s still not a blessing. If the land is not blessed, how will we be blessed? We still struggle because the land is dry. As Christians, we must be focused. How is it that today, we are thinking as a country to get electricity from Ghana? We say we have natural resources yet they are inconvertible. We keep blaming politicians. And they have proven to us that they can never get it right. The power is in our hands.
If we’re going to have a Nigeria that will be viable to everybody, we must take the responsibility, not the politicians… and with time, we will decide who and who gets to “Aso Rock”.
I felt he had addressed all there is, but there were still more questions to be answered…
And so, Tola asked, “Are there other things a Christian should do? Is it okay for Christians to venture into politics?”
• Christianity and politics go together… “The government shall be upon His shoulders…[Isaiah 9:6]”, remember that! Politics is dirty, yes. As a pastor going into politics, it’s between him and God. As Christians going into politics, they must go! It is a blessing to empower people to go into secular endeavours and practice the Christian way of doing things.
• We must begin to teach the Church Character building. As Joyce Meyer rightly said, “May God never take you where your character will not hold you”. As a Christian, in a secular endeavor, you have a resumption time and you call someone when you’re running late to clock you in… These are character flaws. Ever wonder how unbelievers are getting blessed? They have character! Do we have the gift of the fruits of the Spirit?
The easiest thing you can do is work for someone else (9 – 5), because as an entrepreneur, you can’t do that. Even when you’re off for the day, your mind is still running. People jump into entrepreneurship without character. Many Christians have iPads and other devices, yet as someone hoping to be an entrepreneur, what would I find in your device? Games, video clips of worldly artistes? Eternity and time will not ask you what date Linda Ikeji’s blog was put down, but it will ask you “the time I gave to you, what did you do with it?”
On Marraige and Relationships
Can we ever talk about youths and leadership without laying emphasis on relationships? I doubt that… Here’s what Pastor Rotimi had to say about our relationships…
I once asked a sage, at what time do you stop getting tempted with the opposite sex? And he said I needed to ask someone older than him, because at his old age, he still gets tempted…
I’m beginning to reach a conclusion on relationships in the sense that for a relationship to work, you must love yourself first. If you don’t know who you are, how can you love the next person? You can only extend what you have to someone else when you love yourself, and that person, having known himself can decide if what you’re offering is what he really wants.
It is not a thing of being a “born again” person, but questions like… What things do you like? What’s your take on family? Where do you like to hangout? Do you like to stay by yourself? Can you be with a talkative? What makes you who you are? Must be answered.
Your mess will only become a message if you’ve taken out time to study you. You’ve spent too much time studying people, how about you?
Hey ladies, take care of yourself, stop waiting on a guy to take care of you. Take yourself to the movies, take yourself out. While waiting, keep on living, keep learning, and don’t stop living because of a man. You don’t want to buy a car or gain education because you don’t want to drive a guy away?
C’mon… Keep on moving, let the guy catch you!
Or Did I just cause confusion? LOL
The journey to a better Nigeria begins with us!
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