Church should assist members with knowledge to make money, says Bishop Sola Adetunji

Bishop Sola Adetunji was a pharmacist before he was called into full time ministry. In 1993, he founded the Endtime Power Ministries (a.k.a, Chapel of His Power) and other satellite churches, although with different names, to teach the word, evangeliseJesus Christ and impact the people. In a chat with
OMIKO AWA, Bishop Adetunji talked about the role of the church in the nation’s current economic situation, use of herbs and faith healing among others.

How did you come into ministry and what were you doing before then?
I AM a trained pharmacist. I finished from ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1987. I served and worked in Niger State and later came Lagos for my internship and later went back to Ekiti State to work in a community pharmacy.

How were you called into the ministry?
In 1981/82, while I was still in secondary school, I had an encounter and became born again, but when I entered the university and concentrating on my studies, I temporarily forgot God. But on December 31, 1990, I was restored and I became very fervent, because I knew my God. In 1991, I got the vision of God’s call and I started a group called,the Hunters; it was a group of believers. We went to villages to show Christian films, distribute tracts and to evangelise the gospel. And by 1993, I founded the Endtime Power Ministries also known as Chapel of His Power. We started at Ifake, Ekiti with just nine members.While doing this, I was still practicing pharmacy until my professional practice began to run against my Christian ethos and ministerial ethics.

There was a particular case, where a married woman came for an abortion drug. She said, she had four children already and that the fifth was on the way and she and her husband had concluded plans to abort the child.Hearing this, I just don’t know what to say, I was between the devil and the deep blue sea because I did not want to give her the drug, but found it difficult to tell her. So, I said to the woman, while kill the one in the womb when we can easily kill any of the four children alive. The woman exclaimed: “Do you want me to commit murder?” And I replied, that is exactly what you want me to do. She grew annoyed and walked out of the pharmacy. Before long, the news spread around the town. My employers heard of it, became irritated and began to look for a way to relief me of my job. The incident boosted my popularity, especially as most of the people in the town could not differentiate the difference between a medical doctor and a pharmacist. My employers finally relieved me of the job, believing that if I leave the job, the church I was starting would also cease to exist. So, I was forced to go into full time ministry without adequately preparing for it financially. The funding of the church then, solely rested on me. I was well paid; I was earning N1,300:00, while my contemporaries in the civil service were getting N350.00 to N400;00, so, money was not my problem. I used to feed people in the church, a tradition we have upheld to date.

It was after I left the job that God in 1993, said to me: “After they led the sheep to the shore, they left all and followed him.” It is a scripture in the Bible, but it came to me as a Rhema; that is how God speaks to some of us. This means after I had led the sheep to the shore, I should leave all and follow him. This was how I came into full time ministry.

How then did you survive without adequate funding?
The people I could then reach out to were mostly young people that have just left secondary school. They were eating in my house, but when I ran out stock because I was no longer on a salaried job, it became a challenge. At that period, I got used to taking soaked garri and groundnut cake (kulinkuli). Then we referred the garri as cornflakes; so each time we say bring cornflakes among ourselves, we meant garri. However, God saw me through and today we are in different states.

As a pharmacist and a cleric, what is your take on faith healing, the use of herbs for curative purposes and people going to hospitals for medical treatment?
The truth is, God is not against the use of medicine. Paul, the apostle, had a physician that was following him around on his missionary journey. There were casesherbs were usedin the Bible. In fact, God never told us to eat beef. He said we should eat herbs, but we deviated from that. All sicknesses and diseases came from animals. Plants do not have diseases that could infect man, which is the reason when you cut down a plant or a tree it dies and nurture the ground. Kill an animal and leave it on the ground, it will bring out worms, which means there are some contamination in the belly of that animal before it died and while we eat the beef we get a lot of sicknesses. God’s intension for us is to eat plants, this is why some people have chosen to be vegetarians and they are healthier.

Being a vegetarian is like going back to bible days. I am not a vegetarian because I eat meat.

But the use of herbs and drugs are never contradictory to the words of God, rather they complementary. I use to tell people if “prayerquine” does not heal you, thenuse Chloroquine. This simply means if your faith cannot keep you outof the hospital where drugs could be administered to you, while did you fall sick.

If Apostle Paul could use a physicianthat took care of him, it tells us that medical doctors have a role to play among Christians. Doctor themselves will tell you that they cure only God heals. Drugs fasten the healing process in our body and should be used when necessary. I am not against herbs or drugs or prayers. Herbs or western medicine do not contradict each other, although a lot of people thought they do. The only place they contradict is when you begin to chant into the herbs. With this, you are evoking demonic powers into the herbs. Although, some of the chanting are sometimes psychological because the chanter wants to makeusers to believe the concoction has some spiritual powers. However, there are chants that actually work because demonic powers have beenevoked; this is the type that I am against because the scripture does not support it. I am not against herbalism, but cultism. I will only be against herbalism if it is mixed with cultism.

Is prayer not a form of chants?
No, prayer is a form of communication with the Almighty God. Cultism or incantation is a form of communication with the lesser gods, who are actually demons that God sent away from heaven. They are the fallen angels; they have their own powers, which are not complementary to God’s power. This is the reason they work against God’s purpose. They are the followers of Satan. Chants go to demons, while prayers go to the Almighty God. Mistake people make is to think that these demons pass their information to God, which is not true;they pass their information to Satan who consider and answer them. Satan has a level of power and people worship him. However, God’s power is superior to that of Satan.

With COVID-19, many churches suffered poor attendance and financial setback, and also the emergence of online worship. How do you see this move?
Development generally is a continuous one. However, COVID-19 seriously affected ministries that have no developmental hindsight, but people who understoodthat change is continuous and permanent, immediately embraced technology as a means to transmit the gospel to the world. This also expanded a lot of people’s ministry. The pandemic and the consequent use of technology moved the church forward. Although, the move might have been affected physical gathering, the pew might have gathered dust, many souls were still won to God, while online ministries flourished. Some Conservativesmay see the use of technology as devil’s idea to pull down the church, which is not true. Printing press started with the intention of printing the gospel and spreading itround the world. This later gave birth tothe press. So, God is using ‘Whatsapp, tiktok, facebook’among others to boost the spread of His world. COVID-19 only affected the physical church, while the main church, which is the gathering of the called out people flourished.

Do members get the sameblessings from online services, as they get fromphysical church services?
Yes, they do. It is just like having an overflow in the physical church where televisions are placed in some locations for those who could not enter the main church to watch what is happening in the church without seeing the pastor physically. Our fathers of faith including Pastor Kumuyi and Adeboye have been using this method ahead of time. Many people go to differentcamps and will not see the pastors there face-to-face, but will still be blessed. Some people that could not get to the camp will listen via radio and television stations and still get their miracles. However, the blessings or miracles happen based on member’s faith. It is not the medium, but the level of one’s faith that matters.

How can Nigeria and Nigerians overcome its current economic challenge?
According to the prophetic plan of God, in almost every country of the world, things are not going to get better; things will continue to get worse. Nigeria is experiencing it own portion in a heavier manner because we have dishonest leaders. If you observe you will notice that since 1983 the economy has been sliding downwards and successive governments have been working to improve on it. Everyone now is thinking of a way to survive the harsh economy and make life better for themselves. This is the reason I pity those on salary and asking for pay increase, which will not come. And with each salary increase comes inflation that will make everyone to go back to square one.

Sometimes, we behave as if we are in a socialist government where government is for the people. Going by what is happening in the country, it is a wrong definition, when we say democracy is the government of the people and by the people; no, it is not! Our own democracy is a government of the chosen few for the chosen few. People in politics today are doing it for their selfish interest; they are working for themselves and not for any common man. You can see the way they change parties each time they lose or fallout offavour in one party. All these are happening because they see politics as a game of survival so, they have to fighting to stay afloat. We should look inwards and begin to grow what we eat.

As a young man you served in Niger State, where you were well accepted as a Nigerian. With what ishappening in the country would you allow your children to serve in any part of the northern region?
The spate of insecurity in the country shows we are strange bedfellows. I love unity and embrace it, but things in the country have got to a level that we should sit down and address the issues one after the other. There are places in this country where Christians are forced to dress like Moslems. Our diversity, when it comes to religion is so heavy that some people find it difficult to tolerate people from other tribes. I will call on government to reverse the youth service scheme. I do not want it cancelled, butlet government allow the students to service within their regions, while putting restrictions on some states, especially Lagos and Abuja. Because they are the states most people would want to serve. In another way, government can even suspend taking these youths to different states and use the one-year scheme to teach them entrepreneurship. The monthly stipend given to them could be used as a startup package for them when they finish the course.

How can the Church bailout couples, its members at this economic downturn?
This is a time couples need to stand strong. Before nowyou could hear men (husbands) telling their wives they can carry the family load alone and as such allow their wives to spend their salaries alone, but now it is obvious that the men cannot carry the loads alone any longer. So, it is better for couples to be united in making expenses, in setting targets, and also to look for a way of diversifying their energy to make extra income. If you check the story of the Garden of Eden, the Bible says four rivers wateredthe garden, which means four rivers supplied the need of the garden. A family should not hold its peace until they have four sources of income.

Coming to the church of God, this is the time the church should assist its members, not only by given them money, but also by impacting knowledge that would enable them to make money. Very early in my church history, I do tell people that if you have some to sell, you will have something to spend; therefore teach your church member to have something to sell. It could be service, it could be knowledge, it could be skills, it be goods; they should have something to sell. If you have some things to sell, you will have something to spend because survival will not come automatically, neither will itcome through government. Church should care for its members.