GCK in Ogun: Trying Times and Transformation the World Needs

Banji Ojewale

When the train of the nondenominational Global Crusade with Kumuyi (GCK) stopped over in Ota, Ogun State, for a five-day programme in late August, it was more than a historic homecoming for its convener, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi. He recalled old ties with Ogun; he had his primary and secondary education right here in Ogun, when it was part of the sprawling Western Region of Nigeria; he was born again in the state; and it was from here he got admission into the University of Ibadan; and at Ikenne, here again in Ogun, he had the unique experience of working as a teacher under the mentorship of late Tai Solarin, one of Nigeria’s greatest educationists and social critics.

Of course, as the milling millions watched worldwide, starting with the gathering at the Anglican Church Grammar School, Ota, the event venue, they observed that the celebrated preacher wasn’t going into those pasts as an orthodox raconteur under the moonlight; he was making a statement to deliver a message. He was saying he had moved on, he had also gone through a change he wanted all to embrace for meaningful and profitable existence to benefit themselves, family and society.

But Pastor Kumuyi needed to deploy those nostalgic landmarks to make a couple of points. First, he was a completely changed personality, no longer what he was back then; he had gone through major transmutations that offered him a turbo boost in the achievers’ highway; God through His Son Jesus Christ had been the prime change Agent. Every entity, individual or corporate, needs to encounter Him for the life-time transformation Kumuyi himself got to sail him across several decades of tireless evangelical work.

GCK brought to Ogun revelation about the spiritual translation of its convener, its objective being to teach that the Impartial God Who did it generously for Kumuyi was as keen to do it for those who assiduously seek Him. The crusade, therefore, had the broad theme, “Total Transformation through Christ,” contrary to the theme I erroneously presented in my pre-crusade piece with the title, “GCK in Ogun: Dead bones will live again.”

The dead did live again, as Kumuyi preached, prayed and the audience watched and believed in the Christ he presented as the sole Source of the abiding transformation man urgently requires to reset his fatally malfunctioning environment.
Every meeting brought Kumuyi face-to-face with expectant congregants, who learned that Christ’s total transformation delivers from sin and its consequences of crime, poverty, deadly diseases, family and social disharmony, national and global upheavals, tension, community unrest, loss of inner peace for individuals, joyless prosperity, vanishing moral values, giant scientific and technological strides not matched by improved quality of life etc.

One of his messages had the topic, “The Divinely Planned Transformation by Grace for Glory.” Preached at the GCK Sunday Worship Service, it dwelt on the First Century personality called Saul, who was in his early years a pestilent persecutor and murderer. He pillaged and ravaged and savaged the Church of God. He sent the followers of Christ into hiding in Jerusalem; if they left town for asylum abroad, Saul sought official permission to drag them back for punishment. He fed on making miserable the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Saul’s depressing story didn’t continue to end on that tragic thread: the man met the Ultimate Transformer, Christ Who effected a transition in his life, that translated his name from Saul to Paul. He turned out to become one of the greatest evangelists of all time. He fiercely preached and defended the Gospel of Christ, writing about half of the New Testament of the Holy Bible.

According to Pastor Kumuyi, the total transformation through Christ transported Saul from the land of wickedness to the land of saints. He donned a benign apparel that translated him from “an antagonist to Christ to an ambassador for Christ,” in the words of the GCK convener.

The charge from Kumuyi to the participants of Ogun GCK and the world at large is, we all must be like the changed Saul through the total transformation salvation unleashes. As Paul, he became a God-loving citizen, shunning violence and his previous proclivity to kill and destroy. He was no longer vindictive. So fully immersed in his new life, Paul would write later: ‘’Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another…Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.’’

It is citizens and religious and secular leaders bearing these visible traits of change who can make the impactful difference for better living in the nations of the world. Institutional policy bereft of the morality which God alone grants will flounder and founder eventually.

Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church Worldwide who made a surprise trip to the GCK location on one of the nights also gave a homily with the title, ‘’How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?’’ in which he went back to Kumuyi’s theme. He challenged believers to act out genuine transformation instead of a life of pretence.

There were other aspects of the Ogun GCK, such as the equally all-faith programme called All Believers’ Conference, capturing ministers from the denominations, Impact Academy for youths and young adults as well as a pre- GCK Medical outreach that allowed health personnel to offer free treatment including surgeries to residents in the neighbourhood.

The GCK convener visited the Olota of Ota, Professor Adeyemi Obalanlege, to launch the crusade. Kumuyi declared: ‘’Our desire for our country and the desire of everyone, every citizen is peace, security, progress in our land.’’
Attendees weren’t the same after the programme. There were verifiable testimonies of those saved from sin, backsliding and diverse physical and spiritual ailments that had defied old remedies. An adult was delivered from 19 years of bedwetting. A Cameroonian woman spoke of recovery from severe internal affliction. God, through the prayer of Kumuyi, broke the drinking habit of a person invited to the programme from Ondo State.

These were all miracles that followed the preaching and acceptance of the Word of God by faith. The pointed expectation of God when He sends His servants to preach is to get men and women transformed for a righteous relationship with their Creator, so they can be handy citizens in nation-building and amicable homemakers ready for Heaven.

•Ojewale is a writer in Ota, Ogun State.