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Catalyst of Unity!
Nigerian ex-Muslim Pastor Jonathan Oloyede from Glory House, an independent black led charismatic church in the East End of London, shares his remarkable story and some of the prophetic visions he has received for the UK.
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In my late teens I went to university to study medicine.
Within months of arriving on campus I came into contact with Christians
and heard the gospel for the first time. I used to argue with them about
their beliefs. Then one day I decided to go to one of their meetings
and see what they were about. The moment I walked into the church I
knew I was home. I knew in my heart this was the God I had always been
searching for. I didn’t need anyone to preach to me. I recognised
the presence of God instantly and it was vaguely familiar. Thrown out of the house When I left Islam behind, I made a contract with the Lord that he must speak to me every day, and he did, through the scriptures and in visions and dreams. This had never happened before. I got really involved with the Christian fellowship on campus and had the most incredible time with the Lord. It took me about six months however to summon up courage to tell my parents. When my father heard he was so angry that he disowned me and threw me out of the house. I had to go and live with friends for several months. Fortunately we were eventually reconciled and in the end he himself and my whole family became Christians. Drop your agenda and pick up my programme! My plan, when I left medical school, was to become a missionary doctor in the north of Nigeria and eventually go to China. But before I got settled I thought it would be a good idea to have a break. Thus I came to England for three months to stay with my sister. Within days of arriving here, however, I received a very powerful word from the Lord. He told me “You are not here by accident but by divine design as part of my recruitment to this part of the world for the preparation of the coming of Jesus, so drop your agenda and pick up my programme.” I struggled with the word for a time, wondering why, if this was the case, I should have wasted so many productive years in medical school in Nigeria if the Lord wanted me to become a pastor in the UK. But when I looked back on all the Christian work and experience I had gathered at medical school I realised it had been on-the-job training for Christian ministry. As a new arrival I didn’t feel ready to take up any kind of pastoral ministry immediately. I also felt I needed to get to know the people of this new country I had come to. I asked the Lord to help me to understand British society and culture and what made people here tick. God took me at my word and a short time later I got a job working for the civil service as an employment officer interviewing people in Harringay. This brought me into contact with many different kinds of people and nationalities – about 15-20 a day. When my people gather, not one speaks. I am the one who speaks All this time I had been attending a young people’s Christian fellowship of Africans which met on Fridays. It was the social and spiritual hub for a whole group of us. After a year or so, the leader, Albert Odulele, decided that we should become a church and I became one of the leaders of this. Within a few years we experienced huge growth and currently we are about 3000 members. My main role is in the area of pastoring the numerous Home cell groups, training leaders, prayer and preaching the Word, which the Lord blesses with miracles and conversions. All through my spiritual life God has continued to speak through visions and dreams. I received an important one around 1992-3. In this I had a vision of a huge stadium filled to capacity. I felt it was Wembley although it didn’t look like it at the time. In the vision everyone was worshipping and praising God. They seemed to be expecting someone to arrive. Everyone I knew seemed to be there. I remember wondering who the person coming to speak next was. Then I heard God say, “When my people gather, no one speaks. I am the one who speaks.” God was reminding me that when we gather it is not around a gift or a person, but Jesus. At the time I knew God was showing me something about England and this led me to pray even more for this nation. Eventually I just forgot about it. It was only when Wembley Stadium was in the news a couple of years ago, when it was being pulled down and I saw the plans for the new structure, that I remembered it because the proposed new structure was identical to my original vision. I realised then that what I had seen was not a symbolic vision but a prophetic picture that I believe will one day come to pass. Prophetic picture that will one day come to pass Meanwhile our church was growing and growing and we had to move several times to larger and larger premises until we eventually arrived at Glory House in Newham. I have always had a heart for unity and the first thing I did was to try and find out what was happening locally. Thus I went along to the Newham Christian Fellowship. The first thing that struck me was that it was mostly white, whereas our church was mostly black. I felt this shouldn’t be happening in a country that is multi-racial and that we really needed to come together more. As a result we began to pray together for the borough. Now many of the local leaders come every Thursday between 7-8am and intercede for our neighbourhood. Out of our prayer and relationships “Transform Newham” grew whereby we work and pray together for the transformation of our area spiritually and socially. The second significant vision I had was in 1997-8. In this I saw a multitude of young people coming out of banks and schools and clubs – everywhere. They were pouring out into the streets – 75% of them were white and 25% black and Asian. They were all young people. A voice said to me “When I call, my children hear my voice.” I heard myself saying “They are all here.” I realised they were young people who are not in our churches yet, but they are waiting to hear the gospel message and when they do, just like in the story of the pied piper, they will follow Jesus. Building bridges between the churches Over the last few years I have tried to build bridges with other denominations and church communities and as well as being part of Transform Newham, I’m also involved in Churches Together and Charismata and the Evangelical Alliance. I also was part of the leadership team of the Soul in the City, encouraging the participation of the black churches in this ecumenical youth initiative. I have tried to get to know some Roman Catholics as well and have invited Damian Staynes, a Catholic Charismatic with a preaching and healing ministry to minister at our church. In addition I have had wonderful conversations with Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor and Mgr John Armitage. Some of my brothers have sometimes been a bit concerned that I might be going out a bit too far. Some of them, I think, feel that I have a big heart but I will soon learn that unity just won’t work that easy. They worry too that I might become negatively influenced by some of the relationships I have with other Christians and wonder whether I still believe what they believe. Through all this I have had to develop a thick skin. I also realise that when I step out of my black Pentecostal community I step into a different world where I am not always recognised and don’t have the same authority or profile to speak out. I am nobody in this world and other leaders might well think; who is this guy to speak to us? Catalyst for prayer and unity About 18 months ago the Lord strengthened me in this calling to unity, however, and showed me in my early morning prayer time a vision of people meeting in small, large and massive groups all over the country. They were all praying the Lord’s Prayer and each group was represented by a light bulb. As they prayed the bulbs were switched on and they were all connected together so the whole nation was lit up like a Christmas tree. I felt the Lord confirming that he wanted me to be a catalyst for prayer and unity in this nation. I waited on it for a while and asked the Lord what he wanted me to do about it. He told me to begin where I was and not to start anything new. He gave me three clear instructions: to step into His Presence everyday; to feed on His current Word to me and to simply obey Him without doubting or questioning His instructions. Hiring West Ham Stadium for Pentecost In February last year I spoke to Joel Edwards the head of the Evangelical Alliance and Nicky Gumbel, from Holy Trinity Brompton and several key leaders. I shared with them the vision of being connected to the Global Day of prayer initiative which takes place on Pentecost Sunday and has been going on for several years round the globe. This was taken up in a small way last Pentecost when about 1000 or so people met to celebrate at Westminster Chapel. When I met with my brothers from Transform Newham, however, we felt that this year we should go for something really big and in faith we have hired West Ham stadium so that we can bring all the Christians in London together in a time of prayer and celebration for our capital and nation. We have also embarked on a Prayer Marathon from January 1st until December 31st 2007 praying the Lord’s prayer 24hours everyday throughout the whole year. We have received growing support for this from all the churches, including the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. The Anglican bishop of Barking in fact is the Chair of the organising committee of the Global Day of Prayer, and Mgr John Armitage and Bishop Bernard Longley from the Roman Catholic Church have also given their support. As the year has progressed the whole thing has been gathering momentum. Urgency to pray for our nation For me the important thing is not the event itself. The key focus is developing a deeper prayer life and that our leaders lead us into the presence of God. The event is only a catalyst. This is just to help us focus on what God is saying to us, which is that we as Christians of this nation have to pray. If we don’t pray and don’t pray with fervency we risk being over-run by the many negative forces that we face in our society today. We have to get back to that place of vulnerability and trust and we have to pull back from being confident in ourselves and our abilities and instead turn to the Lord and ask him what He is saying and what He wants us to do. My real goal is to see early morning prayer in every borough in London and the nation, where leaders gather early in the morning to pray together, praying in the kingdom in their neighbourhood, towns, counties and cities. See Noticeboard for details of the Global Day of Prayer |
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I
was born in England but my family is Nigerian and we went back in 1970
where we adopted the Islamic faith. I was very devout as a young man
and was always searching for the meaning of life. I used to pray five
times a day and would always be beseeching Allah to speak to me, but
he never did, and I was told by my Muslim elders that this was just
the way things were. 