Background
At conception, my father dedicated me to the service of God. But when I came to self-realization, I had the desire to study Engineering or become a pilot. My primary and secondary education was in Amuzi-Ukwu and Ibeku, both in Umuahia. I attended Government Technical College , Ohofia, all in Abia State .
After this, my father was struck by stroke and I went into business to be able to acquire higher education. By 1996, I gained admission to study Law at the University of Benin . By this time, I was already into the ministry. So, there was a clash.
Somewhere along the line, I discovered that there was no way I could cope with the two. And when I spoke with some senior ministers, their advice was that if it is my calling, I should face it squarely and be well-equipped and later, go for the secular education. So, I had to quit the law programme. Then I went into theological education.
First at Loveworld Ministerial College (LMC) in Christ Embassy in 1995 for a diploma certificate. Then I went to Sheperd Christian University , Lagos , for a bachelor in Theology and was ordained on June 12. 1999. I moved on to the International Christian University , Lagos , where I obtained my master's and doctorate degrees. It was at this point that God gave me the vision to open a theological institute.
Establishing Rhema
Basically, when I got my call into the ministry, I had this burden of dealing with ignorance among ministers and Christians generally. I believe this helped me to recognize that my calling was in the area of teaching. So, when the time was right, (2001), God put it so strongly in my mind to establish Rhema Theological College . But then, I was doing some other things to support myself. We started with three students, who were on scholarship. And since then, the number of students has grown even until recently when we graduated 38 students in different categories.
Bastardising the bishopric
Let me point out here that Nigerians love titles a great deal. And this has crept into religious scene. But from our point of view, a bishop from the biblical viewpoint is an elder. For me, there is no big deal as far as the title bishop is concerned. But our present generation of pastors has taken it to be a very high placed position.
Dubious bishops
Basically speaking, a bishop should be an elder in the church, a head in the house of God. Yes, there are so many dubious bishops, pastors and even prophets now. In effect, what I'm saying here is that before we lay hands on someone, the person must have been with us for some years and we set several hurdles which they must scale. What we look at is the person's spiritual qualification and not the amount of money he has or the number of congregation he has.
Of course, we cannot rule out the prevailing circumstance in Nigeria today. The hardship which people are currently experiencing and all that. So, they capitalise on the church as a quick way of making money or becoming relevant in the society. It is good to note that if among the 12 Apostles of Jesus, there was found a Judas, invariably, you cannot rule out Judases in form of bishops in the fold.
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