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Ikere-Ekiti and Primate Ayodele's Template for Christian Ministry

  by Folorunsho Hamsat After thirty years of pastoring in Lagos, Nigeria, with his messages of deliverance and salvation echoing across the world, God has called Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele to return to his place of birth, Ikere-Ekiti, where he earned the inspiration that shaped his early journey in life to start a salvation ministry. It would be wrong to assume that Ikere-Ekiti was lacking a Christian ministry opportunity for all the years that Ayodele stayed away. But his return has been transforming and impacting, in that stories of positive testimonies began to spread from the community’s residents who hitherto have experienced various types of challenges including sickness, deprivation and, most importantly, hunger of the body and soul.  Primate Ayodele has started the Ikere-Ekiti branch of his popular INRI Evangelical Spirtual Church and one of the transformations he is bringing with him is a change in how a Jesus’ ministry should run. He is not fixated on enlarging the size of INRI alone, his emphasis is more on developing his kinsmen and women, on prayer, baptism in the Holy Spirit, and helping them to become spiritually healthy enough to know God. The signs that Primate Ayodele’s state, Ekiti, was home with his return were evident when on Friday, 26th of April, 2024, a large crowd of enthusiastic sons and daughters of the community stormed Area One Estate, location of his newly-launched INRI Ikere-Ekiti headquarters, in solidarity, to share in the blessing of his popular palliative market, a hunger-busting initiative which he pioneered in his Lagos ministry and has held twice. The two editions he has held in Ikere-Ekiti were unique and also drew the presence of bigwigs from Ekiti State social, political and traditional circles led by the paramount ruler of Ikere-Ekiti, HRM the Ogoga, Oba Adejimi Alagbado.  At some moments in Ayodele's journey of life, things were shaken up and nearly broken down. But he says he gave God the space to rebuild him and redirect his path for His kingdom's purposes. The wisdom provoked the birthing of INRI ministry, now a global embassy for charity.In the Christian ministry in Nigeria, Ayodele has taken his passion for charity and empowerment to an enviable height. Beyond evangelism and prophecy, for which he is most popular, the INRI leader notably has an irrepressible obsession for charity works; he commits a huge chunk of his personal earnings to catering to the need of the less-privileged. Yet, this surprisingly humble man, in spite of his towering image, do feel uncomfortable when he is being praised for doing the good. "I do not feel proud when people commend me for doing what I should do. It is my duty to share and make my neighbours happy because God gives me the blessing free of charge," he declares.While doing his usual giving to humanitarian needs, Primate Ayodele do remind the government of its social responsibility to transform the lives of the country's most vulnerable, and the marginalized. With Nigeria currently reeling in a three-pronged challenge of hunger, rising cost of food items and eroding purchasing power, and the economic hardship pushing the people to the edge, Ayodele always urges his church members and the Christian world in general to not focus on putting their money into building more churches alone, but also reserve some to help their needy neighbours afford basic needs of life. In doing that, he teaches, the love goes round and the world remains at peace.No doubt, the unprecedented reception accorded him by his people on the two occasions he visited the community with his Lagos team, was a solid demonstration that Ayodele's Ikere-Ekiti new parish is laid upon a rock, not on quicksand.-Folorunsho Hamsat is a Lagos based journalist and editor of Global Excellence magazine