Pastor David Asoore is the General Overseer of the Royal Gospel Outreach Ministry in Bwari- Abuja. He spoke to AGBO-PAUL AUGUSTINE on his upcoming consecration as a Bishop and the role of the Church in fighting corruption. Excerpts
In a week’s time you will be consecrated a Bishop, share with us your journey in Pastoral work?
I came into ministry as early as 1994 but I fully entered into the Church to answer the call of God in 1996. By the special grace of God I was posted out for my first assignment in September, same year as the pioneering pastor of the Living Faith Church in Okene, Kogi State before I was moved to Abuja and other northern branches till 2004 when I had to obey the call of God to start Royal Gospel Outreach Ministry of which I am the General Overseer.
The pastoral work has been growing for the past 12 years leading to the new office of Bishop.
You have spent quite a long time in the ministry, what can you say are the challenges managing the church?
By the special grace of God I have spent 21 years in full time ministry. The challenges in managing the church is the people. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing on this earth that does not have challenge. But when you have God as your backing, then you have what it takes to overcome the challenges.
The challenges are the secret of growth, even personally I pray for challenges. The reason being that in the midst of that challenge, I will discover what God has for me, the step God want me to take and then what God want me to learn from that challenge and base on these three secret of challenges it has help me to embrace challenges as a step to grow.
So anyone that dodges challenges is not ready for growth and by the grace of God there are many challenges that have come my way and God has help to overcome them. Even people you have invested on they end up betraying you and at the end of the day many of them go and come and with lots of apologies.
For instance, three years ago, a group in the Church came to me with a request of the income and expenditure details of the church. Unknown to them I had all the expenditure books and when they called for the meeting, it was discovered that the income was far less than the expenditure. I now asked the question who is owing who? On realising that I have all the records of the church finances, they were so shocked and at the end tendered an apology.
It was then I realised that many people in the church are just ‘Church Goers’ and not true worshippers. But I didn’t allow the issue to weigh me down.
Some people may view your forthcoming consecration as a Bishop as a popularity show. What is the significance of being a Bishop?
By the special grace of God, Bishop Office is a place to serve. It is not by title, so for me coming to this is not because of my church alone, it’s because of my involvement in other Christian activities. Both in Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) and many others.
It is not a show of fame, but it is as a result of responsibilities that is been seen in me. If I am consecrated as a Bishop, I will do more for the house of God. God told me that he is taken me to the next level that will enable me to penetrate into nations for the Gospel. So it’s not a showbiz but a reward of service.
The Church of God appears to be growing physically but spiritually the people are lagging. What would you make of this difference?
The Church is doing its best in teaching the people. The challenge here is that people are not ready to study and that is why some fake Pastors are out there deceiving them. If all Christians can move by what they believe, there wouldn’t be any deception in the society.
The people refused to grow even as the Church is growing. The bulk of the work lies in the hands of the ministers, given the people what it takes to grow spiritually, like Bible School and other avenues for impacting spiritual knowledge matters a lot.
The issue of money and poverty in the Church has become a source of worry for many, how do you relate the vast wealth of Church leaders amidst poverty of followers?
Many see the money brought to the Church as pool of funds for the Pastors and that is why the Church leaders are living a flamboyant life style. Those in that realm of thinking are the ones that do not understand the call of God over their lives. Anyone that understand the call of God over his or her life does not look at what the Church use money for.
I must emphasis here that if we have the welfare of our people in mind, there will be no challenges in the society including the allegation of Pastors enjoying the monies of the Church alone. I will use this opportunity to encourage other men of God out there to always have the welfare of their people as one of their priority and that as they are growing let the people also grow along with them.
In the days of Jesus Christ on earth, people could hardly differentiate between him and others. He flows together with the people and my advice to the body of Christ is that, let’s have a forum where everybody will grow together.
The fight against corruption is one of the thrust of the administration of the Buhari Presidency. In what way can the Church help in this onerous task?
The Church is not relenting in this fight, it is fighting corruption too. We preach on the altar, we fight it by way of questioning the sources of wealth of members by interviewing them. We are doing that to discourage people from stealing money and bringing it to the Church. You can’t steal money and come to church and God will bless you. Since it’s not a genuine money, God’s blessings can’t be upon it.
The church need to join forces with government to fight corruption in Nigeria. When our voice is one then we will be able to end this menace of corruption.
Now that you are going to a new level, what should Nigerians be expecting from you?
Nigerians should be expecting a new move of God because when God is set to do something new he raises people. I believe that I am one of the new generation that God is raising to bring positive changes to the life of men and to the body of Christ.
With the new grace that is coming upon my life, it’s an avenue for me to be able to play my role both in the Church, politics, and education and in every aspect of life to add to what has been done.
As we prepare for 2019 general elections, what will be your advice to political leaders as well as aspiring ones?
Don’t just come on board because you have ambition, let it be as a result of the vision that you have something to deliver to the people. If you dont have anything to deliver to the people positively, don’t come out. It is not a do or die affair. I strongly advice that politicians should have the fear of God. If there is the fear of God, there will not be killing of fellow human beings in the name of politics. People after God heart don’t do cultism and rituals in politics.