Dr. Sam Oyemade is the President/Pastor of Bearers of Light (BOL) Missions World Outreach, Lagos. In this interview with CHRIS IREKAMBA, the accountant and managing partner at SO&C Compliance Services Nigeria, turned pastor bears his mind on the forthcoming International Ministers’ Conference (IMC), tagged: “Distincting The Nature Of Christ As God And As Man” holding from September 29 to 30 in Lagos and why it is a must-attend for pastors and ministers of the gospel.
What is Bearers of Light (BOL) Missions World Outreach all about?
Bearers of Light (BOL) Missions World Outreach was established with an ultimate mission to evangelise pastors and ministers of God, who would in turn evangelise the world as commissioned by the Lord. Our ultimate mission is to evangelise pastors and ministers of God for them to in turn evangelise the people.
What were you doing before the birth of BOL Missions World Outreach?
I am a chartered accountant and managing partner at SO&C Compliance Services Nigeria. I am a consummate accountant with more than 25 years in the industry, covering accounting setup, audit/insurance, tax management among others. I have always been working for God, especially as a trainer in a lot of churches within and outside Lagos, doing the same thing; that is, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and building leadership. I have been doing this for several years.
What is the aim of the yearly International Ministers’ Conference (IMC)?
The aim is to reach out to ministers beyond the class, to impact them, so that they can impact others, particularly their followers after each conference. It is usually an open and interactive conference of ministers from all walks of life. The ministers who may not be able to come to the class, maybe due to distance, can hook up online. The sixth edition of BOL Conference with the theme, “Tradition Vs Christ,” that held last year was wonderful, because we were able to separate Jesus Christ from the traditional of man; admitting that we are all people born in a culture. We all live in a culture. So, there is a high tendency for us to bring culture into our services to God.
We bring culture into Christianity and it settles in. Even the way we conduct our services, culture settles in because it is in us. There are many ways in our culture that are contrary to the Christian way. It is just the traditional attire, if it does not go beyond that into the message, into what is permissible, into what we practise or into how we pray. There is a way we pray using traditional sayings or proverbs. For instance, some people use incantations to pray because it is in us. Some of them will think they are mere proverbs or sayings, whereas some proverbs or sayings have deeper meanings. For instance, how can you explain this proverb, “Calabash put in the hand of God cannot break,” in a supposedly Christian prayer? We filter and import such traditional proverbs or sayings into Christianity; which should not be. There are lots of them that you may not even know that are contrary to the Christian faith until you begin to pay attention to them. I don’t know where Jesus prayed that his enemy should fall and die. I should not even go into that, which is apparently witchcraft prayer.
This year’s seventh BOL International Ministers’ Conference holding from September 29 to 30, 2023 in Lagos has a theme, “Distincting The Nature Of Christ As God And As Man?” We want to look at the nature of Christ, distinguish when Christ acted as man from when he acted as God. This is an issue of dual nature. It is a difficult discourse, but we have to look at it. Do we really have the dual nature of Christ? Is there a time we can be absolutely God? Is there a time we can be 100 per cent God. Is there a time we can be 100 per cent man. These are some of the tough issues or questions we shall look at, at this year’s conference. The purpose is to ensure we do not have too much expectations from ourselves.
For instance, if I hold a revival of I, 000 participants, and I say I will pray and everyone at the revival will be healed that means I am stepping out of my bounds. When we operate as man, people should not see us as superman, otherwise when we fall sick the people will ask, can’t we pray for ourselves? That is where deception starts. When we operate as leaders without arrogating any special thing to ourselves, we will live normally. The conference will also reach out to non-ministers and followers who love God and want to know more about the things of God. But, basically, we are focusing on the leaders because Jesus warned; strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. If the shepherds are in good shape, that is, doing what they are supposed to do, there are good chances that the sheep will follow suit.
Who are the expected speakers at the event?
We have Dr. Emiko Amotsuka, a veteran preacher of the gospel and seasoned teacher of the word. He has been in the ministry for over 40 years. He understands the subject matter very well. He has featured in virtually all our conferences. We have Bishop Abraham Olaleye, who has also been featuring in our conferences. He is also a notable man of God and an apostle of reformation. We have other resourceful ministers who also have the depth of the subject matter including, Dr. Femi Aribisala; a renowned Christian author who used to run a church, but now runs a fellowship. We have Pastor Kayode Oyedepo; a medical doctor, who also pastors a church, and Pastor Olaide Odusote.
How will you describe the impact of BOL generally in the body of Christ from its inception?
Bearers of Light (BOL) has trained and graduated over a 1,000 ministers and leaders across different church denominations.
We essentially run a Bible School. We are not running church; we only focus on leadership, and have trained a lot of ministers of the gospel and leaders from different church backgrounds. I believe we are here to strengthen shepherds. We are not competing with them, but we are here simply doing what Aaron did to Moses. That is what we do essentially. So, the feedback we have been getting are quite encouraging.
