Having spent about 25 years in the ministry of our Lord, Bishop Sola Ore of Love Aglow Ministry, Festac Town, Lagos Nigeria must have something to say. And in a frank manner, he said it. "There were situations that I felt so low, infact there were times I asked God did you really call me? Am I in the right place? Please tell me and give me the grace to pack it up by telling my members that 'I'm sorry, God did not call me and so we have to pack up the Church. At that particular time, the Holy Spirit will come and say, did you not hear what I say, that in this world, you will have tribulations?" Sola Ore was born about 55 years ago in the month of May in Faji, (Osun State) "a village that is not in the map of Nigeria". "The Village, according to him is so close to Kwara State and we share the same culture and tradition with Ofa people of Kwara state. The second child of his parent, though the first one died several years ago, he is married with children. He attended primary school in this village, secondary and tertiary education in Kwara State where he grew up. An accountant by profession, pastor by calling, he is the current Regional Chairman of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in Badagry zone of Lagos. In this interview, the Bishop speaks on how his ministry began, his encounter with Pastor Enoch Adeboye and experience at Redeemed Christian Church of God and his assessment of the sermons by NIgerian preachers. Excerpts from an interview conducted at his church office by Bola Adewara.

Listen to sermons by Bishop Sola Ore

At what time were you called to the ministry? How did the call come and what were you called to do?
The call to start Love Assembly came in 1997. But before that time, I was in the Redeemed Christian Church of God for 18 years. I joined them in 1980 shortly after my salvation. I was called to preach and demonstrate God's love. God demonstrated His love by giving us His only begotten son. When the call came, we began to organize programmes in my house and we shared the word even with my little and limited knowledge of the word of God, and at the end of the day, we entertained ourselves. That was how the fellowship began to grow.
I was still in Redeemed and I didn't know what to do. I gathered people around share the word of God, show our love to them, and this thing continue until I became a pastor in Redeemed, then an area pastor and by the grace of God, we were able to establish one of the largest churches in Festac which we christened 'Love Assembly'.
But when God called me to leave and start this Church, it was not really clear because I was still growing in the faith but I knew that one day I will answer the call. So in 1997, the call became so clear, and I didn't want to go anywhere than just to remain at RCCG. But in 1998, I knew it was time to leave and start a new fellowship and I left.

Leaving an established Church to start a new one will pose a great challenge to you...
It was really a challenge and if not that I was so sure as to become what God asked me to do, I would not have gone ahead. I almost rebel against the call because I was already in a big church and starting an new church would;d be like starting from the scratch. But I knew that but I knew that if its the call of God, there would be challenges but we will overcome. It was like leaving the people i have pastored for a long time, people I have known to start cultivating new people. But I still knew that I was not starting a new, but a continuation of the calling. Even when I knew a year earlier that i was leaving in 1998, we still went ahead to start another parish of the Redeemed Church.

How did the new church react to your leaving not long after starting it?
I felt bitter and sad about it all and the people too were not happy about it. And I asked God to heal my heart about the whole saga. When i was about leaving, I told my state pastor that time, Pastor E. A Odeyemi what God is telling me to do. He agreed to pray along with me. I followed the protocol. He informed the General Overseer, Pastor E. A. Adeboye who happened to be my parish pastor when I joined Redeemed Church in Ilorin.
As a matter of fact, Pastor Adeboye's humility get me hooked to him and the Church having been born again and was worshipping in a fellowship.
So there was this relationship between him and I though I wasn't going to see him frequently because I knew he had a lot of responsibilities. I told God, don't let me be carrying problems to this man and God answered my prayer throughout my staying in Redeemed.
So when I was to leave, I told my state pastor who now went to tell him, and then he sent for me. I didn't want to go anyway because if he begin to persuade me, I may not have a gut to stick to the call of God. Fortunately, he didn't persuade me and he just said well he was sure that I know what am doing that the only thing that will pain him was if I was responding to the flesh.
When he was praying for me, he said God, he wants to go. If it is flesh, father please tell me, but if it's not the flesh, anytime am hearing about him or see him, let me be happy. That was what he said and I left. I told him I would be leaving in May, about three months to that time.
But I was so shocked the following week, the people told me to leave immediately. I was shocked because that was not what we discussed. Some people said I should go back and report to Adeboye but I said why should I, after all I have the mandate to leave. So that was how i left the church.

According to you, you were called to show and demonstrate love through the church. But most people fear the Church because of Church politics, backbiting, jealousies, etc. Churches are becoming the exact opposite of what they were meant for. How do you hope to carry out your mandate in a situation like this?
Really its a challenge, but the fact is Christians are people have been born again, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, people who had been to Calvary, that the spirit of Christ is inside of them. If we can get that definition right, it will be easy. But the unfortunate thing is that there are so many people we see in church today who are not Christians. We pastors have our own share of the b;lame so also the congregation. If Pastors come to the church just for what they will eat, they will not be able to share the undiluted word of God.
The issue is are the people in Church Christians? If they are not Christians what are we doing by the grace of God and by the word of God through the Holy Spirit to make them believe? It is so unfortunate that people can mimic and copy and still get to the top. I am so sad that we even have some pastors who are not born again so, and if you have such pastors who have not really experienced the love of God, we have got it wrong.
I in my little life on earth, I can't hate you. It's not by power. I thank God for the grace and if you offend me, because offence definitely will come, as Christians, we must offend one another, but it is for me to tell you what you have done so that you make amends. If you don't make amendment, the bible gives me how to treat such people. But when you are in church and you don't know the kind of person you are sitting next to, that is a situation we find ourselves today.
Look at the early Apostles, they go from one house to another, so the love was there, but now people are not in the church for the kingdom. People are now in the church for what they will get from it. Many people are serving God for what they will get from God, not for the love of God. There was a time God told me that people are seeking my gift but they are not seeking me as the giver of the gifts. He said tell them to seek Me, then I will give them what they will eat.
In Churches today, there is politics. The politics in Churches is bigger and cruder that what obtains outside there. If a Senior pastor is Yoruba, majority of the pastors under him will be of his tribe and those are the ones who will be getting the favours. So what are we talking about?

What has been the impact of that vision on your ministry?
We thank God, but you know, it is so funny is that, when I sit down I see some things happening even here that I don't really expect. I expect to see love in a greater dimension and magnitude but am not seeing that yet, but I believe we will get there.
What he Holy Spirit is telling me after this observation is that if you do not see hat kind of love in the Church, it is a challenge to the ministry. The devil will challenge love in the Church. That is why most of my messages in this Church is about love and I believe we will ge there someday.

Across churches, where will you place the blame? Is it the failure of love in the Church a failure of strategy or of the churches or is it that the preachers are not getting the principle right or the failure of morality on the part of man generally?
I believe it is not a failure from God; it is a failure from man. John the beloved wrote extensively on love. He says if you do not love your brother you are a murderer. It is the spirit of the last day, when the bible says many shall be lovers of themselves. Man, naturally speaking, we are self-centered, and if you are, there is no way you can extend the love to any other one.
God was talking to me some years ago, when the bible says love your neighbour as yourself, the correct interpretation of that verse is you should love your neighbour more than yourself. He exemplified this with a $1000 bill. He said if that money is to be given to one person amongst two of you, who should have it? I said naturally, I will take it, he said yes, but what the verse is saying is that you should give it to the other person because that is how to demonstrate love.
There are times that I commit money that should go into building my own house into Church. I believe God first. After all, I am not sleeping under the bridge. Assistance is most acceptable to God when you give it to people who cannot pay back.

But how do you preach this in your church?
Well, let me give you an example of what I did recently. There was a guy in the church who has nobody to assist him, and he was to pay for a computer course. At that same time, I should pay my son's school fees. But because of the scripture, I had to use my son's school fees to pay for the boy's computer course. Immediately I did this, the devil came to me and said you are an irresponsible father. He began to quote some Scriptures to me that I must take care of my own household first.
Initially I was disturbed. Have I done the right thing? Thank God for the Holy Spirit, gentle Holy Spirit who said don't worry, you have done the right thing. A week after that, somebody came and gave me money, more than the money I should have used to pay my school fees. Now, I was now able to pay my child's school fees and also help somebody else.

Let's look at the church in Nigeria today, how do you assess the quality of sermons from Nigerian pulpits?
I cannot stand to judge the quality of sermons, but I believe that there are many people that are currently preaching who are suppose to be under tutelage somewhere. And so when a baby begins to preach, he will give birth to a baby, and so there will be no growth to maturity.
I have not arrived, I am still learning myself. It is really good to preach a rounded gospel. Prosperity is good but when you over emphasize it, it runs us into trouble. Holiness is good but when you focus on that alone, it gets un into trouble. Preachers must be prepared. When i was younger, i would go and preach without preparing. The other day, I listened to a man in TV who said the Holy Spirit said he should not prepare again because the Bible says open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
That was what I was hen until God told me that I will get lost. He said I should not read the Bible because I want to preach but I should read it because He wants to speak to me through His word. He said I should stop using residual knowledge. He wants to speak to my heart because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So if a man does not prepare, then what does he wants to preach?
And the way many of us see ministry, many of us will look for the glamour without knowing that there is a price to pay. If a man gives shallow preaching, he will end up having shallow people and those who are serious minded will leave. So we tell the people to prepare. If you don't have a message, don't preach. If you do, deliver it. And don't deliver a message because of the pressure of pleasing the people so that many people can come to your church.
In my church now, I have gone back to preach some basic things in Christianity: my identity in Christ, evangelism, praise Worship, because I found out that the Christians we have today, coming from different places are so shallow.

For how long have you been in the ministry?
That should be about 24 or 25 years.

What has life taught you?
Life has taught me that man will always be man, no matter the height you might have attained, spiritually speaking. The best of the man of God is still man.
Secondly, that man must not be relied upon because they will let you down. Those that you rely upon, whom you think will follow you to grave when you die will even disappoint you before you die.
And also, you cannot do without man, the same man. You should love all but trust a few. What should guide you is the word of God. God once told me that I did not call you because of them. In other word, He did not call me so that people should come and assist me., he said he called me and anybody can minister to my life. So I should not look at anybody as my source of strength.

In my numerous interviews with preachers, so many of hem told me that they have faced situations that made them nearly shed tears. have you faced such situations before?
Some of them said they nearly shed tears, but I had shed tears. I wept that my wife was consoling me. There were situations that I felt so low, infact there were times I asked God did you really call me? Am I in the right place? Please tell me and give me the grace to pack it up by tell my members that I'm sorry, God did not call me and so we have to pack up the Church. At that particular time, the Holy Spirit will come and say, did you not hear what I say? that in this world, you will have tribulations? So when he speaks to me that way, you will see a pastor who was downcast some 15 minutes ago going to the pulpit to preach again as if nothing had happened. The pastoring work is so challenging.
So many church members think pastors don't have problems or challenges. To them everything is ok. When they have problems, they can run to us, but they don't know we have our own challenges. I told my members that how many of you have come to follow me up? Do you think I like to come to church always? Do you think Pastors are ok all the time? How many of you do pray for your Pastors or visit them?