Pastor Chris: Building a New Nation

"I am personally convinced that one person
Can be a change catalyst, a "transformer"
in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast  that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative,

patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader."  — Stephen R. Covey

OVER the last two decades, President, Believers Loveworld Inc, also known as Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has been a catalyst that leavens far more bread every year. He has extended his ministry's reach further across the world, taking his message to millions of people, changing lives, giving hopes, and uplifting men and women. Even he is shaping governments, as more and more government functionaries across nations of the world discover the leadership wisdom in his message.
Today, The Believers Loveworld is now seen as more than a body of nations. It has grown into a new nation with no geographical expression. Everywhere he takes the gospel to, men, women and children all respond with hopes. He has also been raising leaders all over the world, which shows to a greater extent, his quality of leadership.  Yet his attitude to what he does is simply amazing.
'The person who leads by example communicates strong work ethic (I'm willing to get down and dirty too), accountability (I won't ask you to do anything I'm not willing to do myself), humility (I'm here as another human being on a mission  not as a superior trying to boss you around), and unity (We're in this together),” he once told his audience.
In the words of the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, “Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment  the moment in which a person finds out, once and for all, who they are.” This has been the major engagement of Pastor Chris, as he is fondly called, over the years, helping millions of people all over the world to know who they are, maximize the opportunities that knowledge of God's word brings their way, and go ahead to help others have same information. This has created a global ripple effect which has produced people of like mind, with same spiritual and intellectual disposition ready to take over the world and make it a better place. He is not only making great impacts in the ministry alone but his activities cuts across every field of human endeavour.
Pastor Chris' leadership is based on the teachings of love for one another as a compassionate leader. His style typifies what Victor Frankl said in the Brain Pickings that “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”
Aware that knowledge, no matter how deep, without spirituality is vain, Pastor Chris through his numerous teachings has helped millions of people around the world who listen and accept his message discover a better way of living in harmony. His outreaches have successfully raised great men and women who in their book, Practical Wisdom, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe, explained that “good deliberation and discernment were at the heart of practical wisdom…and that the ability to see how various options will play themselves out and the ability to evaluate them  is thus critical to perception. This is why experience becomes important  a critical assessment of what you have done in the past, for whom and with what degree of success. But it is not only the perception of the situation that is important. Wisdom requires the capacity to perceive and evaluate oneself, to asses one's motives, to admit mistakes or failures and to assess what has worked or not and why. His ministry is where it is today because he applied practical wisdom backed up by prophecies in virtually every aspect of the Church growth.
Writing on The Transforming Power of Faith, Richard G. Scott stated that “It is nobility of character, that fabric of inner strength and conviction woven from countless righteous decisions that gives life its direction. A consistent, righteous life produces an inner power and strength that can be permanently resistant to the eroding influence of sin and transgression.” This captures the seemingly speed at which the ministry has grown all over the world.
He is always at the fore front of developments. Pastor Chris is technological savvy. He sees the changes even before they come, and he prepares ahead of time for them. One major advantage of being in Believers Loveworld is that you get the opportunity to know the direction the world is taking, be it in politics, economics or cultural shifts. He will readily inform his members. Many business people have taken advantage of the nuggets of wisdom he shares to manage their businesses and even their lives. You can feel the trend even in the ministry. Every bit of information is now available in all digital formats: CDs, DVDs, web, multimedia, and other downloadable formats. Anyone can access all these online. Many large congregation of Christ Embassy churches were birthed through the ministry materials. Pastor Chris was the first in Nigeria to have e-books available online.

Reaching the world, changing destinies of nations
As the word of God aptly captured that the hearts of kings are in the hands of God, the Church has been doing a lot in that direction. Pastor Chris has, because of this, raised countless leaders across over a hundred countries of the world. He has been teaching his leaders and members the need to contribute to the wellbeing of the countries they live in and operate from. That is why Christ Embassy in all the countries adopts their countries of residence as their responsibilities, using the Rhapsody of Realities as a tool of change. Various Church groups in different countries have been engaging in community development projects in schools, prisons, police stations, and other public agencies all geared towards contributing to the good of humanity.
Today, Rhapsody of Realities daily devotion, which is the number one daily devotional in the world, had been translated into more than 550 languages as at November 10, 2014. This means many more people now have the opportunity to study God's Word in their own languages.  Pastor Chris is changing the destiny of nations. The Reachout program of Rhapsody of Realities has become the number one project so many different countries look up to annually. Many communities in many countries have benefitted immensely especially places where the government efforts have made little impact. This year alone, so many communities in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Cameroon among others benefitted from the ReachOut programs which saw, among others, schools getting free hand sanitizers against the Ebola outbreak, prisons getting thousands of mattresses, generators, Police Stations being beautified and equipped and schools getting rehabilitated. Also, some of the zonal churches held free skills acquisition training for unemployed graduates. Only a generation with desire to change the land can do this.
International School of Ministry(ISM): raising leaders across borders
Highlighting the differences between a boss and a leader, H. Gordon Selfridge, said, “"The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on goodwill. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says "I"; the leader says "WE". The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, "GO"; the leader says "LET'S GO!"
The statement above aptly captures the manner Pastor Chris has been raising leaders across the world through the International School of Ministry, which is the first of its kind in Christendom since 2007. The burning desire to bring God's Word to all men in simplicity and with the power of the Spirit inspired Pastor Chris to envision the International School of Ministry, specifically, to train and equip ministers of the Gospel of Christ, irrespective of their denominations, building in them the realities of God's Word and empowering them to carry the message of eternal life in Christ Jesus to their world, with great demonstration of the miraculous power of God. The vision of ISM is teaching, demonstration and impartation. This vision easily rubs off on the students such that on returning to their churches, these ministers find themselves teaching the Word with great conviction and accurate knowledge, demonstrating the character of the Spirit, healing the sick, casting out devils and imparting others with the divine unction. The ISM provides up-and-coming leaders with the opportunity of being tutored under the ministry of the man of God, Pastor Chris.Since inception in 2007, the ISM has trained and equipped thousands of ministers from different nations of the world. The lectures at ISM are captivating and inspiring. Students are served a detailed and insightful curriculum of course topics and lectures. The courses have been specially selected to meet the ministerial needs of every minister, from Kingdom Finance, Soul Winning, Structuring for Growth, Introduction to Ministry, the Work of a Pastor, Church Administration, Ministry Gifts, Lay Ministry, Doctrines and many more.
ISM has literally reproduced the same vision of teaching, demonstration and impartation of the Spirit, in the lives of many of her graduated students who are now producing amazing results in their lives and ministries with the Word of God. At the completion of your course at the ISM, a graduation ceremony is conducted for each set and certificate of attendance issued to each student. Everyone is given the opportunity to register to become a member of one of the after-school communities of the ISM-either the ISM Ministers Network (ISMMN) or the ISM Alumni Association (ISMAA).
However, the ISM maintains continuous communication and correspondence with all her graduated students through the after-school communities, ISMMN and ISMAA, providing them with necessary continuous learning and spiritual guidance from the ministrations of Pastor Chris. The teachings at ISM are for every minister of the Gospel. It doesn't matter where you are, what continent or language. If you desire growth, expansion and in-depth knowledge of God's Word in your life and ministry, then you are heartily welcome to an impactful and refreshing experience at the ISM.

Using technology to change the world
The Internet has revolutionized the world we live in today as it has set the stage for an unprecedented integration of capabilities and therefore given birth to new possibilities. The Internet was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automatic information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes for information dissemination; a medium for collaboration and interaction between them without regard for geographic location. Pastor Chris has variously adopted cutting-edge mobile applications and the deployment of various mobile technologies. A whole new race is now being impacted with the gospel through the ministry of Pastor Chris.
It is estimated that over 3 billion people in the world today are active mobile users and through the various mobile applications, the gospel is been made available to them in the palm of their hands. Noteworthy among these apps is the Live TV app (with a combined download of about 120,000) which broadcasts the TV programmes of the ministry satellite stations all around the world. Through the app, the coverage of the stations is greatly multiplied beyond the limitations of satellite coverage, political barriers and geographic barriers. As the pioneer mobile application for the ministry, it has led to the expansion of the ministry into the various countries of the world. Apart from the Live TV app, there is CeFlix mobile app. Through deep insight and revelation, the man of God had begun preparing the ministry to take advantage of this statistic by pioneering an online Internet TV Platform called CeFlix. CeFlix is a social WebTV platform which provides opportunities for millions around to fully express themselves
The Internet multimedia arm of the ministry was born by divine foresight. As media content consumption channels shifted from traditional terrestrial media channels to the worldwide web, Pastor Chris once again made a strategic decision by the Spirit to stay ahead by setting up Internet television platforms through the Internet multimedia ministry. This gave birth to the development of platforms like the Live-TV application, the Pastor Chris online Channel and the CEFLIX platform.
The Live-Tv app brings together our three satellite TV stations of the ministry, and streams their content on the web; this makes it possible for people to enjoy a wider variety of our life-transforming programmes no matter their location.
On the PastorChrisOnline platform, the cleric gives answers to questions from believers around the world on a wide range of topics and proffers solutions to problems, which have held men bound and hitherto vulnerable. The Internet Multimedia went on to expand the PastorChrisOnline platform in 2012 into a multichannel platform with The Pastor Chris Teaching channel, Worship channel, Miracles Channel and many more. The platform now attracts an average of 20,000 visitors daily from around the world, with testimonies of healings and deliverance constantly flowing in. CEFLIX is a social web-TV platform with an app made available across all mobile platforms. It gives the world the opportunity to experience wholesome content; it is a haven from the decadent stream of content been broadcast by the secular media.
As a visionary leader Pastor Chris also mandated the Internet multimedia ministry to bring every member of the ministry into the mobile technology revolution and this gave birth to the mobile world educative campaign. The campaign has helped brethren take advantage of technology for increased productivity in their lives and also for the furtherance of the gospel and the Christianization of their communities.
Global evangelization has without a doubt been made more efficient and effective through the Internet multimedia ministry.

Yookos
During his interactive session with Young African Leaders this year, United States President Barack Obama said that the internet and social media is causing a paradigm shift in Africa and that Africans are also teaching the world one or two things through platforms such as Yookos and MixIt. Yookos since its launch in 2011 has made tremendous impact and contributions in knowledge sharing. It has helped millions in and outside the ministry have an alternative means of online interaction that is secured, devoid of all the social ills the other platforms are suffering from. Today, Yookos subscribers are in the neighborhood of 40 million people - and still counting. Through this platform, Pastor Chris has increased his daily interactions with members and awesome things have been coming off it

Inner City Mission for Children: molding great minds of tomorrow
The Inner City Mission was conceived by Pastor Chris in response to the understanding that every child is your child. It is used as an avenue to give hope to inner city children most of whom are orphans, destitutes and from dysfunctional homes. Its initial aim was to go around the city and adopt these children, give them home, educations and love. Also, there are those whose parents could not send to school because of poverty. Inner City Mission catered for these people.
As time went on, the Inner City Mission for Children of Christ Embassy (ICM4C) became a call to reach children and teens that are in this very challenging situation. It was founded in 2005, as a ministry arm of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome to the indigent children living in deprived communities and the forgotten places of our world. Nine years after, it is a full-fledged faith-based Non-Governmental Organization that delivers a sustainable solution to the problem of urban and rural child poverty.
The key focus was the slum areas of urban environment where many kinds are easily found in the garbage dump scavenging for a living. This initiative began in 2005 and has grown in impact to include a defined program. It is a recognized registered NGO in Nigeria and other countries as well as a registered resource centre. A very important impact of ICM4C is in networking with other organizations of like passion to extend the compassion of Pastor Chris and partners alike. Some of the kids that came to Inner City in 2005 are already in the universities today and they are doing so well showing that environment is everything and if street kids are well taken care of the society will be a better place. These children are growing with a different mindset; they now understand the power of the word of God and will be great ambassadors tomorrow. They are a new generation of a new nation, and indeed the Man of God is pioneering a new generation across nationalities to form a beautiful people of a beloved country.

International Day of Service
Every December 7, Christ Embassy churches all over the world embark on special charity projects to reach the needy in their environment in commemoration of the birthday of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. This involves raising money, food stuff, and materials for the needy in the society especially Motherless Babies Homes, old people's homes, Remand Homes and Prisons among others. There is no event like it as each church caters for those within its own vicinity.
All over the world, Pastor Chris is raising a new generation that sees the world differently and are eager to rise to be counted. His influence across the world is expanding at the speed of sound and men and women across racial, ethnic and linguistic divides are all accepting his message, making him one of the global influencers with the widest reach. As he celebrates his birthday, we wish him the very best and pray that as his tents are daily enlarged God will help him raise men and women who will continue to buy into this message and make it theirs.