From Pentecostal Church General Overseer to Deacon in The Anglican Church, The Story of Bishop Dapo Asaju

My story is very complicated but I will summarize it. I was born an Anglican, grew up an Anglican of several generations, but then on account of my exposure in the course of my movement in life, I had been exposed to several other ministries and other influences. At the University of llorin, Pastor E.A. Adeboye was a lecturer.

He was a mathematics lecturer at llorin. He was the one teaching us at the fellowship and I gravitated towards him. He became like a mentor to me when he was still a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Sabo-Oke, llorin. Early in life, he mentored me to a point. When I was there also, Oyedepo was just a student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, llorin. We were sharing the same compound with the University of llorin there.  He started a ministry at llorin Teachers College, I was there with my wife-to-be. I grew up.

When Bishop Oyedepo started his Winners Chapel ministry, I was there. I was exposed to him. I was close to him. Then, he went to Kaduna and when he later came to Lagos to start Winners Chapel at New Era Road, I was part of the first 40 people that started Winners Chapel there. We were sitting on benches there. We were very young at that time. I knew all that.

I was also  exposed to Pastor W. F Kumuyi as far back as the 1970s. I had been there close to him, close to his ministry, when Deeper Life was starting. So,  having been exposed to Adeboye, Oyedepo, Kumuyi and all that, I eventually got a job at the Lagos State University and I was living in Badagry, staying with a cousin of mine who was very active in the Foursquare Gospel Church. And because I lived in his house and we worshiped with them together, I also got exposed to the Foursquare Gospel Church. Eventually, I continued as a lecturer there.  Incidentally, I now decided to say ‘okay, let me go to the Anglican Church Ministry.’ So, I went to the Anglican Church Seminary in Lagos.  But at the Lagos Anglican Diocesan Seminary at that time, something very dramatic happened to me.

 I was gifted in evangelism; and a church that I had been familiar with in 1973, invited me to come and minister; and it was during their harvest and the man was into prophetic ministry. As soon as I finished ministering, the man embarrassed me. He took the microphone and said: “Thus says the Lord. This young man has been appointed by the Lord as an Apostle. I am asked to hand over this ministry to this young man and I should go about on worldwide evangelism.”

Here was I, just a guest minister, a young man in the seminary and this man made the announcement before everybody. I was embarrassed. But he said: “Come down young man let me pray for you.” I came down, and without telling me before, he just anointed me and prayed for me. And that was the end of the matter.

Three months after that, the man was on a crusade in Kaduna and he had a stroke. They flew him abroad. When he went abroad, the church became leaderless. I was in the seminary, and a delegation came. They said: “We were there when they anointed you. This man has stroke now and we are not too sure about his condition of health. He is outside this country please come and take over this place. I resisted but God said: Go. So, I got there and I became a General Overseer,  and  I had  to suspend my seminary training.

Eventually, I went back to Archbishop Vining in Akure and from there to my seminary. I was already a professor when I went to Vining at that time. So, I had to take it up as an evangelistic call because the man was in a critical condition. The place was leaderless and I had to reluctantly assume duty. So, I started my pastoral ministry as a General Overseer of a church. I started climbing from the ladder.

 I was a Bishop wearing purple, I became an Archbishop wearing purple. I had four Bishops under me. One in the North, one in the East, One in Kwara and one in Lagos. My Bishop in Lagos was Bishop F. L. O. Menkiti – A former federal permanent secretary under the government of General Yakubu Gowon. He was the one who announced the election result between Shagari and Awolowo.  Big people were under me. I was an Archbishop and a Bishop. I ordained over 38 ministers into ministry-10 in London, two in America, two in Germany. I established about 16 churches. As far back as 1996, I had my own television programme Moment of Hope with Dapo Asaju on Lagos Television, Ikeja. So, we had gone far. Then God said to me: ‘I took you round all these churches, I took you round this leadership position, I exposed you for a purpose because you have a work to do in the Anglican Church. Go back to your church now and release it.’

Thanks be to God, the man had recovered a little bit and he had returned from overseas. He survived the stroke and I simply told him: ‘Sir, this is your Church; God has enabled me to do this much. I’m going back to the Anglican Church to continue from where I stopped in my seminary and go on.’  So, I relinquished all those positions – Archbishop,  General Overseer, with many children of the Lord, in the Lord, all over the world. Big people, big ministers were coming to minister in my church; and I handed over. I said look now that you are well enough you can take it off again.

Maybe God wanted me to fill in the gap during the period when you were ill but for me I started climbing my personal ladder from the top so God now brought me down. I now went back to my Bishop, Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye.

I am wearing his ring and I’m wearing his pectoral cross now. He said to me: “My son, you are the one we watch  on television every Sunday?” I said: Yes. “You are coming back to the church?” I said: “Yes, I never left the Anglican Church. It was just a call to duty, a circumstantial interruption.” And he laughed. Then, he said: “Adebamiwa”. There I was a postulant ordinant, the most junior in the procession. But after about six months, he decided to ordain me as a Deacon.

When I was ordained a Deacon, The Guardian newspaper put it as a back cover page ‘General Overseer of so so so church re-ordained Deacon in the Anglican Church .’ And so I humbled myself and to the glory of God, I served there. I was posted to Epiphany Church, and some other churches. Eventually I became the Chaplain of Lagos State University Chapel. I was taken to Church of Transfiguration, Lagos. Then, I became a Canon and an Archdeacon under Baba Adebiyi. I was under Baba Adebiyi until 2009 when I was elected  as the Bishop Theologian right here at the Basilica of Grace, Abuja, under Baba Peter Jasper Akinola.

So, that has been my story but that is not all. I was a professor at Birmingham University (2003) and during that period, I got the license of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to be a priest in the Church of England; and Archbishop John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, was my pastor as the Bishop of Birmingham. So I was exposed to the English Church as a priest in the Church of England during the period of my professorship there. Something happened when I was elected Bishop. I was sent by Baba Akinola to Lambeth Palace to represent the Church of Nigeria at the Theological Forum. And there, I had a heated argument with the Archbishop of Canterbury over their romance with Islam.

He suddenly turned to me and said: “Are you not the professor who has just been elected Bishop in the Anglican Church of Nigeria?” I said, yes, your grace. He said: “Meet me in Canterbury tomorrow. I have a gift for you. I went to Canterbury the following day, which was a Sunday on Saint Nicholas Day right at the same place where Ajayi Crowther was consecrated. And he called me and said to me: “Young man, God will use you for the Anglican Communion and the gift I have for you is my pectoral cross. He said this pectoral cross was given to me by George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury. He gave it to me but God said I should give it to you and pray for you.”

So, he gave me the pectoral cross of George Carey and his own, and prayed for me. That was the cross I wore when Baba Akinola consecrated me as the first Bishop Theologian on the 10th of January, 2010.

My story has been that of just service and exposure. It’s God’s hand moving me. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know. I know I only move according to His leading.