THE METEORIC RISE OF NATION-CHURCHES
A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.
Isaiah 60:22
Part 1: Mushroom Churches and Gatherings of Church ‘Prostitudes’.
By Daniel Breakforth
“I am Reverend Benson Idahosa, Pastor of Church of God Missions. Our Church is across the Airport Road” the tall man tried to explain while standing in line on the Benin Airport Tarmac along with other clergy from mostly Orthodox churches as they waited the arrival of the new military governor from Lagos.
‘Yes that may be true but your name does not appear on our protocol list. We have a list of only Archbishops and Bishops. There is no single Reverend on our list. Sir, you will have to leave ” Insisted the military protocol officer to Idahosa.
With a tone of resignation, Benson Idahosa departed. Little wonder that in less than 2 years, Rev Idahosa had been consecrated as Archbishop-the first in Pentecostal Africa.
This was not the first time he would be ignored. Less than 3 years earlier, the Federal Military Government of General Obasanjo had reached out to all Christian organizations to convince them on the need to adopt the new National Pledge. It was at that meeting with Brigadier Shehu Yar’Adua (Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters or de-facto second in command) that the obvious disunity among Christians came to the fore. Yar’Adua did not want to ask anyone to pray so as not to offend the other. This led to a meeting outside the State House at Dodan Barracks immediately after that and Christian Association of Nigeria was formed. It would take a few years before any Pentecostal pastor including Idahosa was invited to join the body. This was despite the fact that he was already holding crusades both within and outside Nigeria especially in nations like Ghana and Zaire (Congo DR).






By 1981, Church of God Missions had 650 branches and had established it’s first nursery and primary school. However it wasn’t convincing enough. RCCG held her convention that same year in August and about 2000 people were counted. It was her largest convention at the time and with her new General Overseer, Enoch Adejare Adeboye. Already RCCG had 38 branches including one in Ghana. On the other hand, Deeper Christian Life Ministry had numbered about 8000 during her conference in the same 1981 and had gone on to establish a church called Deeper Life Bible Church. Interestingly, she had also set up a branch in Ghana. At this same period, Mike Okonkwo began what he called The Redeemed Evangelical Mission while one David Olaniyi Oyedepo and Wale Oke had also received their divine callings into ministry. David Oyedepo commenced the Faith Liberation Hour and had 8 people gather a week later in May. By the next year, the number of members in his ‘Power House’ had increased to 70. They soon began to leave when he started sharing his ‘bogus dreams’ in the name of prophecies. He said they will soon build a tent to contain ‘50,000 people’. Even Reinhard Bonnke could only boast of 5000 tent capacity in 1982. The young Kwara Polytechnic graduate didn’t stop there. He said they would soon be flying in ‘aircrafts’ and that he will be speaking in one place while the whole world will be watching at the same time forgetting that Nigerian Television Authority had no reach beyond a few million viewers in Nigeria. His annoying dreams eventually emptied the Power House as some left and never returned.
To make matters worse, Oyedepo and Wale Oke had gone to visit the renowned Papa S. G Elton, (Idahosa’s mentor) at Ilesa to share their vision and call with such a respected figure. Papa Sydney Granville Elton listened patiently and after everything, he told them frankly ‘You have not been called to start a church’. It could be something else you were called to do but not church. The 2 young men left and as they did, Oyedepo went back and prayed ‘Lord should I pretend never to have heard you, may I never succeed in anything else I do”. I am going full time so I can go full length, he vowed! . David Olaniyi Oyedepo soon resigned his job at the Ministry of Works to the consternation of his elder brother who had one response to him ‘Get out’!
As far as many were concerned, all of these groups being established up and down were all simply mushroom churches.
In a few years, the moss had gradually gathered, Idahosa had held the 1 million man crusade at Tafawa Balewa Square in 1985 as well as the Ibadan Crusade at the Liberty Stadium. Deeper Life had also been counted as the largest single church in Africa as at 1989 with 50,000 worshippers in attendance on sundays. Living Faith World Outreach Center was already considered the largest Pentecostal church in northern Nigeria in 1988. Archbishop Idahosa had thus moved for the consecration of several Pentecostal bishops in Nigeria. The RCCG had started the Model parish in 1989. There was a quick and quiet revolution. I had gone at that time for holidays to see my grandmother in Ibadan. She was very close to the Anglican leadership. She usually welcomed the Reverend of our local Church and other clergy to our home on Sundays as well as some weekdays. She would pause everything at home for them and send for their usual palm wine, Star Lager Beer, Gulder or ’33’ also known as ‘Double 3’ with big plates of rice or pounded yam if they came on Saturdays. My Granny loved and served men of God and my
Grandfather, ever so calm, was indifferent. She usually discussed with them about the Church while I listened. My parents had started going to a young Pentecostal Church back at home and I was very interested in Church related matters for reasons I couldn’t explain. One day my grandmother asked them about the noticeable growth of Pentecostals which she generally referred to as ‘Ijo awon elekun’ (Church of the weeping people) -(I later found that this was also a name for the Apostolic Faith Church) .





The response of the Church Vicar to my grandmother in Yoruba was simple. “The small churches are not growing. Forget about the crowd. It’s some people that are looking for miracles. They keep going from Church to Church. They are the same people moving around so they are Church prostitutes”. He stated with a tone of finality. I was about 10 years old at the time and I probably believed.
End of Part 1