By Tony Eluemunor

Since 2018, the Christos International Worship Centre, Abuja, has
hosted thousands of Pastors, Ministers, Evangelists and dozens of
Bishops in a yearly conference. While the themes of the conferences
have differed from one year to another, the aim has always remained
the same; to enhance the unity in the body of Christ, help the budding
workers in the Lord’s Vineyard to navigate hidden land mines, learn
how to stand firm in the face of adversities and to encourage
networking and foster even more love among them. And to grow stronger
and become more effective as soldiers in Christ’s Army.

The two –day Conference will kick off on Saturday 14th June with a
grand gathering of Ministers’ Conference. Thousands of church
Ministers – Pastors and Evangelists will converge inside the sprawling
Christos church headquarters called the Dome, at No. 1 David Ogudu
Avenue, Off Kabusa New Express Road, Apo, Abuja, opposite the African
Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE), a gigantic hospital which
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu commissioned a few days ago – on the 5th
of June this year.

The following day, Sunday the 15th will mark the closing of the
conference and it will witness ordination of Pastors and Thanksgiving.
Yes, on the final day of the conference, the Bishops present help to
ordain the new shoots coming out from the vines of the church, the new
Ministers and Evangelists that will go on with the work of spreading
the Gospel of Christ. And Thanksgiving? Oh yes, those who have been
attending the Conference over the years must have noted one solid fact
about Bishop David Ogudu and the Christos International Worship
Centre; that the Conference grew from the heartfelt massive and
celebratory thanksgiving the Church and her Bishop render unto the
Lord for the great event of June 11th. Yes, that is when the church
celebrates the God of June 11th. Why? Answer: God called Bishop David
Nwachukwu Ogudu, while he was a student of Chemical Engineering at the
Bida Polytechnic – aged 19! And he has been in the Lord’s Vineyard
now for some 30 years. Does that tell the entire world his age? Oh,
don’t worry about that, he even declares his age right from his
pulpit. So, yearly since 2018, he has hosted the God of June 11th
Yearly Prophetic Conference.

To watch Bishop David Ogudu in action is to have an idea of an Old
Testament prophet in action. No, I’m not dwelling on the fire and the
brimstone part of it, though he is not averse to calling them down if
the Spirit leads him. What stuns the first time visitor to his church
is his confounding authority. He would first tell someone of his, say,
medical problem and then ask “Oh, did you bring a copy of a
lab/medical test from a hospital” (which proves that someone is
actually ill)? He could just pray and ask for a photocopy of the
medical test result, then tear it into pieces declaring with all
authority that the person has been healed. Then, please, wait for
this, he will then make the patient promise to return to the same
laboratory at an appointed time for another test which should be taken
to the same medical doctor to prove that a miraculous healing has
taken place. For that person to come to give testimony, he or she must
come with the result of the subsequent lab test or doctor’s report
which would scientifically prove that a healing has actually taken
place. He puts himself to that rigorous test!

In fact, he encourages the members of his congregation to take
adequate advantage of the goodies medical sciences have to offer. So,
too, he hates people who would refuse to work but spend all their time
in praying for miraculous benefits to fall from heaven. He said that
to be idle when there is work to do is sinful and that we must work as
hard as if success depends solely on how much we work and to pray at
the same time as if our success comes from God alone. He added that
there is no confusion there because the life and energy we have to
enable us to work comes from God who also blesses the work of our
hands.

And oh, he does take church hymns, worship songs, very seriously. No,
I’m not saying this because he waxed a music album this year which is
doing well in the number of downloads and shares it has received, but
he inter-spaces his prophetic messages with hymns, leaving the
congregation in no doubt that he hears the hymn first with an inner
ear. Then he would approach the choir asking it to match the tempo or
cadence as well as the melody of what he heard in his inner ear.
Sometimes, he may not even know the title or the wordings of the song.
And if the choir flows with him, the more the prophecies flow from his
mouth. In fact, Bishop Ogudu explained that this Sunday will be a
prophetic service.

He also said that the theme of this year’s conference –Upward and
Forward- is biblical, and comes from the Book of Revelations, chapter
4 verse 1; “After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in
heaven; and the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a
trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will shew
thee things which must be hereafter.” This verse describes the apostle
John being invited to a higher place, a spiritual realm, to witness
events that would take place in the future. So, this year’s conference
is geared towards helping the invitees to develop their closeness to
God and their spiritual gifts.

Last year’s theme was on how to know how to avoid burn-out while
labouring in the ministry. That year, General Overseer of Christos
International Worship Centre, Bishop David Nwachukwu Ogudu, from
Okposi town in Ebonyi state, stressed the need for Pastors and
Evangelists to learn how to juggle their duties towards their church
congregations and taking adequate care of themselves. He said that if
they unduly forget to take care of themselves, especially to take
adequate rest, they will experience easy burn-out as their health
would begin to suffer. He said then that the Pastors should remember
that they often have spouses and children, as well as other members of
their families such as parents (for the young ones) to take care of.
He said sagely that the same God that gives holiness and answers their
prayers and performs miracles through them, also gave them wisdom at
the same time.

Also, on that final day of the conference, the church will empower
some 250 widows. Someone explained that most of the widows to be so
empowered are not members of the Christos church. When I wondered why,
he laughed, saying that at Christos they have very few widows as they
rarely lose church members through untimely deaths because it is a
prophetic church and the “Lord reveals to redeem”. He said that
sometimes though some members could fail to obey prophetic
instructions and they only have themselves to blame if anything
untoward happened to them.

Over the years, the conference has brought many Bishops, at the same
time, to Christos. This year, for instance, Bishop Angel Nunez is
coming in from Baltimore, USA, while several respected Bishops from
Nigeria will be in attendance. Over the years other Bishops from
Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, the United Kingdom and other far-flung
countries have attended the conference.