8th Anniversary Of International School Of Ministry, The Rock Of Ages Christian Assembly On 05/03/2026

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, THE IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 8TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MINISTRY, THE ROCK OF AGES CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY, INTERNATIONAL, BENIN CITY, ON THE 5TH OF MARCH, 2026

 Protocols

Thank you very much for the warm welcome. But let me begin by thanking my dear brother and friend, Pastor Charles Osazuwa, President of the Rock of Ages Christian Assembly, for the very kind invitation that he extended to me to be here. And I must say that it’s a mark of his organisational skills and attention to detail that he gave me one year’s notice of this event. So I had cleared my diary for this day a year ago.

I must also commend you, Pastor, for the work you are doing in the Mother Ministry, the Rock of Ages, refining the destinies of thousands and the forward-looking work of equipping the Saints for Christian leadership that the International School of Ministry does. And also congratulations on the 8th edition!

I must also thank Pastor Deborah for the very warm welcome and for the very generous hospitality extended to my team and me since we arrived here.

I am to speak on Christian leadership, the need for capacity building. Christian leadership, the need for capacity building. Now, what is capacity building? I don’t want to indulge in any academic definitions. So I’ll just define it in the context of the topic. Simply, capacity building for Christian leaders is training Christian leaders to develop the tools and skills and the resources to succeed in their assignments.

The ultimate aim of capacity building is to transform the individual, in this case, to transform the believer, the leader, so that they, in turn, can transform others. The ultimate capacity builder, of course, you know, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word, the Gospel personified. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.

After Peter and John had preached the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost in Acts 4, verses 13 to 14, the Scripture tells us that when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled and they realised that they had been with Jesus. And in verse 14, it says, So two things happen in Acts 4, 13 to 14. The first is that untrained, illiterate men spoke life-changing words with boldness and power. The power of that truth that they spoke even healed a man. All because they had been with Christ. Their capacity was built by Christ. Their capacity was built by the Gospel personified by Christ Himself.

So this is my focus. The matter of capacity building, building men and women up, such that all who see them and encounter them will agree that these ones have been with the Christ, that they have been impacted by the greatest power in heaven or on earth, the power of God. As Paul described the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans 1:16, Paul described it as the power of God unto salvation for those who believe.

In other words, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the actual power of God unto salvation for those who believe. So this is why capacity building is necessary for Christian leaders. It is because the role of the Christian leader in any field of human endeavour is fundamental, because they serve as messengers of the most transformative message ever given to humanity. And that message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we speak about Christian leaders, we are talking about Christian leaders in any field of human endeavour, whether it’s in banking, whatever that may be, wherever that may be.

The second reason is that in every field of human endeavour, whether it is politics, whether it is religion, whether it’s education, entertainment, whatever, Christian leadership have a mandate to influence their sphere of activity with this Gospel.

There is a mandate for the believer to influence his sphere of activity, whatever that field of activity is, wherever you may be. Even if you are a receptionist in a place of work, you are the first person that people come across. Scripture says that as far as the Scripture is concerned, you have a mandate. And that mandate is contained in Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20, especially verse 19, where it says, Jesus commanded us, those of us who are believers, to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all the things that I have taught you.

There is a mandate given to each and every one of us that we are supposed to disciple the nations. Crazy as it may sound, incredible as it may sound, each and every one of us has an actual mandate to disciple, not just individuals, but nations. The third reason is grounded in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, that by this same gospel that we are talking about, believers are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Not just a type of salt, but the salt. Not just a type of light or a source of light, but the light. And that’s contained in Matthew 5, 13 – 16. So this emphasises the unique and transformative role that Christians are called to play in this world. So it is Christians, especially Christians in leadership, that God has given a mandate to transform their societies.

And to be clear, this statement that the gospel is meant to transform nations is not theoretical and is not hyperbolic. The gospel was probably the single most crucial transformative force in the socioeconomic development of Europe and America, the nations from which we received the gospel. So the principles of the gospel preached from the pulpits and practised willy-nilly by the Christians in those nations, completely transformed those nations.

The Puritanical movement, and we’re not going to have time to spend on a lot of the history, but the Puritanical movement was largely responsible for this change.

Beginning in the late 16th century in Europe, and exported to the United States of America in the 17th century through the Pilgrim Fathers, a great majority of those who were propagating this gospel were people called Puritans, a group of Christians who are called Puritans because of their complete commitment to the gospel.

And what were these principles that they taught? The principles they taught from scripture were hard work and productivity, education for all, integrity, human rights, the rule of law, justice, equality before the law, care and protection for the poor and vulnerable, fairness and justice.

These gospel principles were preached and practised in every sphere of human endeavour, in governments, in business, in the marketplace, in schools, and transformed not only individuals, but also institutions as well. So this new Western civilisation of that time, the Western civilisation that arose on account of the gospel, stunned the civilisations of Asia. The civilisations of Asia were shocked by what they were seeing.

Now, don’t forget that the civilisations of Asia were far in advance of the civilisations of the West. As a matter of fact, while the Anglo-Saxons, the origins of the British, were running around in the forest, running wild, barbarians in the forest, the Chinese civilisation and the Japanese civilisation were well established.

Five centuries before, the Chinese already had a civil service. They were well ahead of any other civilisation on the face of the earth. So was the Asian civilisation. All of a sudden, you can imagine their shock, seeing a civilisation that was considered barbarian, that was considered a stock of people running around in the forest, without order or structure or government, suddenly overtaking them.

The Meiji Emperor of Japan was the emperor of Japan at the time. On account of what he saw, he sent a mission called the Iwakura Mission, a mission of 100 Japanese leaders, government officials and students, also to Europe and America to study the reason for the dramatic progress of these nations. An actual event. I mean, he actually said, look, we have to go and study this. And this is not long. This is 1871.

He actually sent a group of people, and they spent two years studying these Western civilisations. He wanted to know how they had made this progress, and how they, too, could construct a modern nation. One of their major findings, and I quote the Japanese social historian, the historian called Izumu Saburo. Now, Izumu Saburo was the chronicler of that particular event. He was one of those who took down notes when the Iwakura Mission took place. And he said that the most startling discovery that the Japanese mission made was how Christianity acted as a spiritual pillar holding up Western civilisation.

This was the observation of Izumu Saburo. This was the observation of a non-Christian, a Japanese historian, that it was Christianity that held up Western civilisation.

So it is this principle of the gospel that Christian leaders must be equipped to fully understand, to practise, and to propagate. This is the capacity we need to build in Christian leadership. And this is existential; it is a matter of life and death. Because only the true gospel, and I want us to take note of this, only the true gospel of Jesus Christ, preached correctly and with integrity, can transform individuals, can transform commerce, the marketplace, politics, and nations.

The enemy knows the incredible power of the true gospel, and that is why the enemy has always sought to pervert the gospel, sometimes a little, sometimes by much. The enemy knows that if the true gospel is preached, nations will be transformed, and individuals will change.

The apostle Paul was so alarmed that the Galatians, to whom he had just successfully preached the gospel, were already being deceived by another gospel. So he said in Galatians 1 verse 6-7, he said, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is another. But there are some who trouble you. I want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

So the Christian leader must be equipped with the truth, the truth, not a truth, not a truth, not a version of the truth, but the truth. It is from us, and when I say us, I’m speaking about us believers, that the truth will be known to the world. That is our mandate. That is our God-given mandate and our destiny. We are required to let the world know the truth, but only the truth.

So we, and when I say we, I speak of the church, the people of God, and we are, as Paul said, in Timothy 3, verse 15, “the house of God, describing us, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground, all foundation of truth. Since this house of God, we are the pillar and the foundation of truth.” So this is a profound statement.

The church is the place from which must issue forth the principles that will guide and direct the nations. That is exactly what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. The leaders of the church are very special and very powerful indeed.

So it’s not enough to have Christians in leadership everywhere. It’s not enough. Some people have argued that, oh, if we had Christians leading the country, Christians everywhere, then the country would change.

Already, as you know, if we’re talking about politics or government, in many states in Nigeria, there are states in Nigeria where only Christians are in high political office, yet you can’t say that there has been a dramatic change. Why? Because often these Christian leaders are not equipped with the right gospel. How can a Christian leader, for example, who believes that the ultimate objective of the gospel is wealth, or that the greatest attainment of a Christian is material prosperity, and after praying for years for a breakthrough, he gets into public office? How can he make a difference to the lives of the community or to the lives of the nation that he serves?

Of course, he can’t make a difference, because the kind of gospel that he knows, the kind of gospel that he understands, is a perverted gospel. It is a weak gospel, the gospel that cannot transform itself, let alone transform others.

The true gospel and its practise involves much sacrifice. And that’s the truth. This true gospel and the practise of the true gospel involve a lot of sacrifice. So many who preach it want to sugarcoat it a bit so that it can become more acceptable, so that we can attract more members, we can attract more people, and perhaps bring in more resources.

But the true gospel of Jesus Christ is contrarian. It is contrary to what our flesh wants. It simply usually does not agree with our natural human inclinations or emotions. For example, to the question, how can a person be great? If you ask that question, how can a person be great? What does the Bible say? What does the gospel say? The gospel says in Mark 10, verse 43 to 45, says, whoever wants to become great amongst you must be your servant. And that’s very important. Servanthood is a serious business.

Every New Testament person, every one of those we see in the New Testament, is great anyway. Why? Because they will be remembered for as long as we remain here on earth, because they paid the price. They suffered deprivation, humility, and service for the likes of Peter, James, Paul, and Barnabas. We can never forget them. They stay in history as truly great people. Why? Because they paid the price.

But this is completely opposite to how the world defines greatness. So if you ask today, how do you become great? Perhaps a life coach may say, believe in yourself. You are the captain of your own destiny. Dress like a boss, talk like a boss. You’ll be a boss. That is the greatness of the world.

The missionaries who came to Nigeria went to the farthest parts of this country. They served the poor with everything they had. And many ultimately paid the price with their own lives. They confronted some of the most feared and devastating infectious diseases of their time. The Anglicans, for example, established the leprosy centre in Oji River in what was then the Onitsha province. While the Sudan Interior Mission was the mission of two Americans and one Canadian who went to the deep north, northern Nigeria. They founded the Bayara Leprosy Outreach in Bauchi, a community-based initiative that cared for people whom society had rejected, and nobody wanted to touch them. These missionaries chose to serve those whom no one else would touch, let alone speak to. Restoring dignity to the forgotten and hope to the abandoned.

In 1953, the Sudan Interior Mission established one of Nigeria’s first schools for the blind in Gendire. Later in 1958, the Baptist missionaries founded the vocational training centre for the blind, the one in Oshodi in Lagos. Equipping them with practical skills for independence and dignity. So these men and women did more than preach. They participated. They went where the need was greatest.

They served those who were most vulnerable and demonstrated through their lives that true influence requires presence, sacrifice, and action. Many of them died of malaria and other tropical diseases. But they understood the real gospel. They took the gospel to the poor. They clothed the naked. They fed the hungry. Visited the sick.

So the role of the Christian leader is not a life of ease. It’s not. It’s not a life of material prosperity. It is not. So these are the truths that we must equip Christian leaders with. But as we have seen, the truth is bitter. And the practise of the truth is contrary to what our flesh prefers.

What are the other truths? For example, what is the truth about dealing with our enemies? Of course, what feels natural to us is that when someone hurts you, you hurt them back. You fight back. When someone curses you, you curse them back. But listen to what Jesus says, and this is the gospel. In Matthew 5, verses 44 to 45.  “He says, Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute you.” This is contrarian. This is not what our flesh agrees with.

It doesn’t agree with our flesh. And sometimes, even with modern Christian language. In modern Christian language, sometimes we pray that fire should fall on our enemies and consume them. Oh, yes. Or that they should die an ignominious and terrible death. But Jesus says, love them.

What about those who harm us? In Romans 12, verses 19 to 21. The scripture says, “do not avenge yourselves. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” Instead, we are told, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Again, this is not natural. But this is the gospel.

How about this business of money and material things? What does the gospel say? What does the true gospel say? In Matthew 6, verses 31 to 33. The gospel says, and this is Jesus speaking. He says we should not obsess over what we will eat, drink or wear. He says unbelievers chase after these things. But our heavenly Father already knows what we need.

Instead, we are told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all these other things will be added to us. This, too, is contrarian.

Today, the message that is repeated in many of the pulpits in Nigeria and Africa, even in the United States of America, from whence the gospel came, is that we must seek every opportunity to make money. That we must accumulate wealth. And if our conscience bothers us, then we say, well, we just want to be kingdom treasurers.

But Jesus is clear. He’s not impressed by the wealthy or by wealth. Jesus has never been impressed by wealth. We are on Earth. Indeed, whenever Jesus spoke about wealth, it was always a warning. Always a warning. In Matthew 6, verses 19 to 21, Jesus said, and He warned us. He said, “Don’t store treasures on earth, but in heaven.” And then He makes a powerful statement, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Now, in other words, what you value most is what you will truly worship, no matter what you say with your mouth. What you value most is what you will truly worship. And it doesn’t matter what you say. That’s irrelevant. And Jesus explains why this matters. In Matthew 6, 24, He says, “you cannot serve God and money at the same time. You must choose one. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

And Jesus understood the compelling and beguiling power of money. He understood it. And the ability of money to even derail those who set out to do right.

At the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, Satan offered Jesus Christ the world and its riches. Satan offered Him the glory of the whole world and the riches of the world. If money were not powerful, if money were not definitive and able to derail, and able to confuse, and able to beguile and destroy, Satan would not have offered Jesus.

He offered Him money, offered Him the riches of this world, instead of death on the cross and salvation for the world. Christ turned it down. There would have been no gospel if Christ had fallen to the temptation. And He then warned those of us who will be His followers, that money, the love of money, will be the greatest competition with the love of God. The love of money, He said, will be the greatest competition with the love of God. You cannot serve God and mammon. Both can be served, and you cannot serve both.

So what does the gospel say about governance, the marketplace, and even running our individual lives? And as we said earlier, the institutions of government, education, commerce, and we’ve said that in Europe and later America, were dramatically transformed by Christian values.

Christian values such as integrity, hard work, education, care for the vulnerable, and justice were propagated and practised by Christians of that era.

I’m going to elaborate very briefly on some of those pillars and the teachings around those pillars. Take, for example, the concept of work. Work as a divine principle. Integrity, trust as a currency of business. The rule of law and justice. Care for those who cannot work or the poor.

Let’s take work as a divine principle, work. God set the pattern of work, and I’m preaching as though I were a Puritan because this is what they preached. God set the pattern of work and productivity in Genesis 2, verse 2, “And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.” This is God setting the standard for work. That work is a divine principle. That work is a way of creativity.

The second reason is that humans are made in the image of God. Genesis 1, 27. Humans are made in the image of God. And so, they inherit God’s creative abilities. According to the teaching, humans are unique among God’s creations because they possess the gift of versatile creativity.

This means that only humans have the ability to be productive, to add value to raw materials, and thus create and multiply wealth. So, the gospel’s view on wealth and godly economic success is that there must be work, productive or creative work, to produce wealth or material success. Work must be done diligently and excellently because all work was considered a service to God.

Indeed, Proverbs 14, verse 23, says, in all labour there is profit. And the parable of the talents, Matthew 25, verses 14 to 30, is the gospel basis for the principle that God expects us to work diligently and be productive. So, the Puritans on the pulpits of Europe and later America, traditionally taught this work-based approach to prosperity, emphasising hard work and diligence, adding value to resources, and building wealth gradually through consistent effort.

So, the meaning of the power to get wealth that God gives in Deuteronomy 8, verse 18, where we have those words, the power to get wealth, is that God gives us the power of creativity and innovation to be productive, so as we work diligently. The gospel’s influence, as we have seen in Europe and America, was to establish the relationship between work and success. Economies are built on this principle.

The great economies of the world, the liberal economies of Western civilisation, later copied by Japan, are the principles on which these civilisations were based. But compare this with the perversions of the gospel that we sometimes hear on our pulpits in Nigeria and various parts of Africa and, as I’ve said, also America. Messages on miraculous wealth, miracle money alerts, anointing for wealth, and various versions of the doctrine that donations or sowing seeds will automatically return in multiples in material wealth. Hands are sometimes laid on people; they’re anointing for favour, whole services are devoted to how to attract divine wealth.

At the end of the day, people part with whatever they have, but God has ordained only one thing: work line by line, precept by precept, as the only way to get wealth. These types of messages do not build economies or institutions. They build a mindset that wealth will come by supernatural means. They urge that we ignore work and productivity and focus on the miraculous.

That is a perversion of the gospel, a complete perversion of the gospel. This is the gospel that is meant to transform economies, transform nations, by the very mystery of its own power. The gospel sets out how it must be done, that it must be by work and productivity, not by miracles. No, miracles are not a process. Yes, miracles occur, but that’s not the process for building. No, there are miracles. Miracles are supernatural events. They don’t occur all the time.

That’s why all of us cannot miraculously become rich. No, the gospel is very clear as to how. It is building, honestly with integrity, line by line, precept by precept.

The second principle is the principle of integrity and trustworthiness. Christ said, let your yes be yes and your no be no, Matthew 5-37. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, integrity.

The Puritan preachers of the gospel emphasise these principles of honesty and integrity in every aspect of life, especially in business and government. Indeed, respect for credit and obligation was an important pillar of the growth of commerce. Respect for credit and obligation, simply put, if you borrow money, repay. Simple principle. Because Psalm 37 verse 21, it says, the wicked borrows and does not repay. Psalm 37 verse 21, the wicked borrows and does not repay.

The reason why borrowing without repaying is described as wicked is that if you do not repay, the pool of funds from which others may borrow dries up. That’s why it is said that the wicked borrows and does not repay.

Every successful economy is based largely on credit. Credit is based on trust. Trust is based on trustworthiness. If there is no trustworthiness, if participants in business are not trustworthy, the economy cannot grow.

Look at the economies of the West, every one of those economies has credit. I always give the example of a motor dealer in Nigeria called Coscharis, and that’s just one example. He, as many others, would take credit. Many take credit for cars that they import. Elizade is another who would take credit, and they would repay. Today, many, after 40 years, are so successful by themselves that in the case of some of those individuals, they are now assembling the cars that they used to import because they respected the principle of credit. The wicked borrows and does not repay. They’re repaid.

The church in Germany, and I speak of the church during the period of the Reformation, had a catechism on the Ten Commandments, which they taught regularly. For example, when the scripture says, thou shalt not steal, that commandment was broken down in the catechism into various practical implications. If you are an employee and you use your employer’s time for your own benefit, you are stealing because you are being paid and you are not working for your pay. They give a practical example.

Even if you leave work to attend church, to attend a church service, without the permission of your boss, you are stealing because you are getting paid without working. Taking money that does not belong to you is what this means. No wonder the average German worker developed a strong work ethic and strong values of integrity.

John Calvin, who established his ministry in the important business trading centre of Geneva in the 16th century, preached that honest and fair trading practises were important in glorifying God. That was a kind of message that came forth from the pulpit under John Calvin. Calvin taught that cheating in commerce was a sin against the image of God in my brother.

Calvin, through his preaching and advocacy, got the authorities of the city of the state of Geneva, which later became a part of Switzerland, to enact laws to ensure that the use of standardised weights and measures, those days weights and measures were used a lot, and we still use them now for various types of trade, to prevent cheating and dishonesty. Calvin’s model influenced Protestant towns across Europe. Many adopted similar ordinances and enforcement bodies, and they laid the early foundations for consumer protection and corporate accountability that we now see in modern legal systems.

The vigorous teachings from the pulpit on ethics in business, in factories and places of work, led to a revolution in the work ethic in many parts of Europe, which is why the work ethic of honest hard work and diligence was actually named after Christians of that era. It was called the Puritanic Work Ethic. All over Europe and later America, this was how Christian principles were taught, how the Christian in the marketplace, in politics, in the professions and entertainment, was able to influence their societies and establish righteousness everywhere they were found.

Christian leaders often stood for truth and justice at great personal cost. William Tyndale, for example, who wrote a version of the Bible, translated the Bible into English so that ordinary people could read it. For this, for translating the Bible into English, which was contrary to the law at the time, it was executed in 1536.

Yet his words, the translation that he used, were the ones that shaped the King James Version. In fact, almost 70 percent of the King James Version of the Bible was taken from Tyndale’s work. William Wilberforce, John Wesley, Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano and others were Christians, Christian leaders who fought against slavery despite persecution and hardship.

Their faith compelled them to confront injustice, to sacrifice their comfort, even to risk death to transform society, demonstrating that authentic Christian leadership has often meant costly courage, not any costly, expensive courage, in pursuit of truth and human dignity.

So what should Christian leaders know, for example, about giving and care for those who cannot work? Jesus was categorical in His assertion that the poor were a major target of the gospel. He said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach or bring the good news to the poor. Luke 4 verse 18. On at least two occasions, Jesus Christ mentioned that the consequence of ignoring or refusing to help the poor and the weak and vulnerable is hellfire, two occasions at least. In Luke 16 verse 19 to 31, the rich man saw poor and sick Lazarus outside his house every day, and he did nothing to help him. Scripture says he ended up in hell. Matthew 25, 31 to 46, Jesus concluded that those who ignore the poor and needy, ignore Him. He says, and those who help the poor and needy, give to Him.

He says, if you give to the poor and you give to the needy, you give me. In verse 40 of Matthew 25, he says, as shortly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Whatever you do for the poorest, you do for God.

The consequence of ignoring the poor and needy, as we’ve said, according to Jesus Christ, is hellfire. Similarly, James 1 verse 27 defines religion itself. It says, this is the religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless in practical terms. It says it is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unpolluted from the world. Caring for widows and orphans, the people at the bottom of society, is what God calls pure religion.

What does this expression treasures in heaven mean? The expression treasures in heaven. If you look at the scripture again, in Matthew 6 verse 19 to 21, Jesus said to the rich ruler, to the rich young ruler, he said, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven.

How about structured care for those who cannot afford to eat or who cannot work? The gospel’s teachings on caring for the poor and vulnerable are the basis for the great social welfare programmes in Europe and America. The unemployment benefits, the food stamps, shelters for the homeless, and all of those big programmes.

The gospel is the inspiration and the example for these pro-poor programmes, for the social investment programmes all over the world. In Acts 4, 32 to 35, the early Christians took responsibility for the poor in their midst. Scripture says, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that anything that he possessed belonged to him or was owned by him. But they said, all of them had things in common, nor was there any amongst them who lacked.”

This is so interesting. Just of the believers of the time, of the Christians of the time, no one lacked, no one was poor, nobody lacked. Why? Scripture says, for all who were possessors of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold to the apostles, laid them at the feet of the apostles. But that’s not why none lacked. It is because the scripture goes on, and the apostles distributed to each as everyone had need. That’s why nobody lacked. Nobody lacked because money was pooled, and the apostles recognised the importance of ensuring that everyone who lacked would be provided for.

It was not merely because the proceeds of sales were laid at the feet of the apostles, but because the apostles shared the proceeds in accordance with the needs of the people. In fact, distribution to the needy was such a key part of church life that the apostles in Jerusalem created an official role for it. In Acts 6, the office of the deacon was established specifically to manage the daily distribution of food to widows. Scripture says, they chose men who were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to oversee this particular charitable work. Why? Because making sure that the vulnerable were cared for was vital to the church’s witness. It was fundamental to the teachings of the gospel. It was the core ministry of the gospel. In Matthew 25, 31-46,  Jesus said, and I repeat, those who ignore the poor ignore him, and those who help the poor and needy give to him. And he said, you know, in verse 40, as I’ve said, inasmuch as you do it for one of the least of me, you do it for me. As much as you do it for the poorest, you do it for me.

The Christian leadership of the time took it to heart because this is what Jesus said, and they ensured that they lived by it. By the second century, this is 200 years after Christ, Christian communities were already demonstrating a remarkable commitment to social welfare. They were set apart from the Greco-Roman world. Sometime in about 300 years, AD 362, the Roman Emperor, who was a pagan, Julian, complained to the high priest of Galatia. He said, look, these Christians are drawing people away from our temples. These were their pagan temples. Why? Because they support not only their own poor, but our own poor as well. They supported the Christian poor and the pagan poor as well.

So the emperor complained that these people are drawing away our people because they are supporting poor people. Christian care was especially visible during periods of crisis. During the plague of Cyprian, which was a plague that took place between 249 AD and 262 AD. During that plague, most citizens fled the cities. They abandoned the city. But the bishop of Alexandria recorded, and this is a historical document, he recorded that the Christians remained to nurse the plague victims. They provided food and water and care for the dying, often sacrificing their own lives. This is authentic history. Often sacrificing their own life.

Christians also institutionalised burial for the poor and abandoned. In the past, especially in the late second century, if you were poor and you died, nobody took you to a special place for burial. It was the Christians who started the business of ensuring that people are properly buried.

The Roman catacombs show how the rich and the poor were buried side by side by Christians. And all of these were funded by the church. The early fourth century writer, a fellow called Lactantius, emphasised that Christians considered it their moral duty to bury the dead, including strangers and the destitute.

In fact, by the mid-fourth century and all of that, leaders like Basil and all of that were already funding organised programmes, special programmes for the poor. The early hospitals that provided care for the sick, provided care for travellers and the poor, and the Christians of that era started to establish hospitals. Don’t forget that before now, there were no such things. Before that time, there were no such things. So it was the Christians who began to formalise those things, establish those things.

Taken together, all of these examples demonstrate that the early Christian ethics created one of the first organised systems of social welfare in history, feeding the poor, nursing the sick, and burying the dead. They were not optional acts of kindness, but they were moral obligations forming a clear foundation for the principles that later inspired public social welfare in Europe and America. The Christian leaders, these are the lessons. These are the capacity issues that Christian leaders must imbibe.

It is the capacity we need to build in ourselves as Christian leaders, the capacity to train men and women in the things that Jesus commanded us to do, the Godly ethics, the gospel that the gospel teaches. The world should be able to say that look, if you are looking for an honest, diligent employee or manager of your business, or if you are looking for a trustworthy partner or a trustworthy business counterpart, look for a born-again Christian. That must be the testimony.

That was the testimony of Christians. That realisation that leadership calls for sacrifice, that every leader must be a true servant, and a servant has no ego. He makes the sacrifices, he takes the blame, and he may get no reward here, but we must speak up for truth and justice, speak against evil, even if at great cost.

This is what Christian leadership must fight for. It is Christian leadership everywhere that fought for qualitative free education for all, comprehensive health care, social welfare for those who cannot work, and justice for the oppressed.

This is a tradition handed down to us by the early Christians who transformed their societies. One final point. Christian leaders have a role that is uniquely their own, and that role is one that cannot be delegated or replaced. The role requires active participation to make a difference. We must be involved. We must influence. If we want to be influential, we cannot exercise influence from a distance. Influence is exercised through presence and engagement. You cannot shape the marketplace if you are absent from it.

You cannot meaningfully influence government if you are not engaged in it or with it. Influence requires participation. If you are not participating, then you cannot be influential.

I’ll end with one example of this issue of influence. When I was appointed Attorney General of Lagos State in 1999, I had been a born-again Christian at the time for about five years. I became born again in 1994. I was filled with zeal, and I was very convinced that we could do great things. One of the things that occurred, in fact, was that within my first week as attorney general, we held a meeting in a very small room in Alausa, the headquarters of the Lagos State government. There were about five of us in that room. One of those in the room was smoking a pipe, a very small room, air-conditioned room, was smoking a pipe.

You know how a pipe smokes everywhere. It had been a long time since I was in the company of anyone smoking anything. I mean, I’m a Christian. This smoke filled the whole place. In fact, my eyes were watering from the smoke, and the fellow would not stop. I mean, gentleman, why don’t you go and smoke this and that? Anyway, he continued smoking.

By the time we were through with the meeting, my whole body was smelling of cigarettes. I thought to myself, I was pastoring a church also at the time, and I thought to myself, what if I just walk out of here, and a member of my church walks past me and says, “Ah, pastor, are you also smoking? But as I was walking away, I felt the Lord telling me, how can you be the salt without being in the soup? How? How are you going to be the salt? Are you going to be the salt in your parish where you are pastoring? You have an opportunity to make a difference here. Whether the smoke smells on you, smells in your hair or your shoes, that’s your problem. Do the work. You are here to do the work. You are here to make the change.

Participation is the only way to make a difference. We have to participate. If you are going to be influential, you have to be involved.

Thank you very much. God bless you.