Apostle Nkechi Iloputaife is the General Overseer of Victory Christian Churches and President of Faith Revival Ministries World Outreach. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, she speaks on her sojourn into the ministry and experience as a church leader since the death of her husband 28 years ago.
It has been 28 years since your husband, Bishop Harford Anayo Iloputiafe, died. How has it been?
Indeed, it has been 28 years of God’s mercies and goodness, the pressure of ministry and leadership notwithstanding God has been faithful. Whenever I have to recount my blessings and weigh my burden, I am awestruck. How God has brought us through various challenges and we are still here, I am so sure that the naysayers will be disappointed because they did not expect us to survive the storm. In all, we give all the glory to God. It couldn’t be done by any human being or by me, God has brought us this far and we give Him all the glory.
How has it been managing the congregation?
Looking back, I can only give credit to God. One of the most difficult tasks in life is church leadership. Leadership generally is difficult, but it is more difficult when it has to do with ministry. Then when you think about the gender bias of our society, the church ministry seems to be the men’s thing where women have to work more or twice as much as men to be recognised that they are doing anything.
For me, or any other woman whom God has called to do anything for Him that is substantial, focus on God who has called you and stop apologising for doing what God has called you to do. Don’t even compete, but keep unleashing your potential against all odds. This is because the odds against women are high, especially when they are widows.
When they are married and have their husbands with them, they still have coverings. But against every odd, they should continue to inspire greatness. What has helped me is focusing on being what God has called me to do, being the best version of me and not apologising about being who God has called me to be.
Have you at any time been bullied?
I will say not directly, but sometimes in a very subtle way. I never allow that to capture my thoughts, anytime I run into people like me and they speak up, I tell them not to allow that to capture their thoughts, they can judge you but their opinions do not matter.
Stay sweet, loving and be authentic. No matter what they do, don’t ever doubt your worth or the beauty of your values. This is because all of these can make someone begin to doubt her worth or the call of God upon one’s life. No matter what it is, do not doubt your worth; just keep doing what God has called you to do.
Some denominations place ban on ordaining women as clerics while some are reconsidering the practice. What is your take on this?
This is largely due to ignorance because they do not understand that the Jewish tradition is different from the tradition of the Bible. They are unable to interpret or reconcile the word of God. They are not able to interpret and separate what applies to the Jews and what applies to the law because the background, conventions and traditions of the law are Jewish. They are not able to separate the law from grace and rightly divide the word of God.
The Bible says if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The Bible also says; let us make man in our image. The word man is used as a generic term in the Bible. The spirit has no gender; there is no she or he in the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that is in a woman when she gives her life to Christ is the same spirit that is in a man when he gives his life to Christ. Though ignorance is giving way, the light of God’s word is shining, people are changing their belief system and the revelation is shining.
The bias is part of the attacks from the devil because a woman has an important role in humankind. I believe that no church or nation can rise above its womanhood. This is because Genesis Chapter 3 verse 20 calls her the mother of all living. The man who is showing prejudice against the woman comes out from a woman’s body. We are on a journey of progressive revelation. Many decades ago, when my husband was projecting me, not many churches were projecting their women. I didn’t get involved in the ministry when he died.
From day one when we were in the car garages, I was next to him; I was the vice president of the Faith Revival Ministries World Outreach because of his exposure, especially in the word of God. That exposure helped me survive subtle prejudice. He seemed to build that strength and courage in me to be everything God has called me to be. He would say what a man can do spiritually, a woman can do equally, even more in some cases depending on how much yielded she is to the Holy Ghost.
Yielding to the Holy Ghost is what gets the work done and not gender because the spirit has no gender. I am happy that the belief system is changing and will continue to change because the church is living in the last days and the revival of the last days will take both males and females.
The subject of succession recently resurfaced as some spouses and children are taking over from church founders. What is your view?
I particularly do not have anything against this and I think no one should have a problem with that. Ministry is not business, it is a covenant between the founder of a ministry and God who has called him and given him specific assignments. I see ministry as a covenant relationship between God and the founder. Every covenant must have provisions to carry on to successive generations.
The man whom God has called and covenanted within one area of ministry or the other will know who the successor will be. I did not just become the General Overseer because I was married to my husband. I shared the same heart; the covenant of grace and victory was binding on us. No one else shared the same thing, they may claim they do. None shared the same insight and covenant ties that we shared. When nobody was there only the two of us understood what we were going through.
They did not know what was going on when things were tough. We spent hours waiting on God when he had to write all that God told him and the time we spent holding hands together believing God. Like the Bible says, when two of you shall agree on anything on earth, it shall be done. Covenants have obligations; people in a covenant share the same interests.
There is a heart they share and you don’t force a covenant relationship, it is mutual. God called Aaron and his children. Joshua said he and his family shall serve the Lord. In some cases where family members are not buying into it, I know that God will also bring people who will buy into the covenant relationship of that ministry.
