A SHORT HISTORY OF FOURSQUARE GOSPEL CHURCH, OKOTA.

THE INCEPTION

The vision to transplant the Vine in Okota-Isolo was given to Pa E. Olu Oshibanjo the Senior
Pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church, Somolu in early 1982. The vision was as a result of
spiritual challenge that Papa received after attending the church growth conference in
Vancouver, Canada. On his return, he introduced the house fellowship system. One of such
centres was in the house of Bro. Lanre Oberbe (now, Late Bishop Lanre Obembe, the founder
and the General Overseer of El Shaddai Bible Church) at No. 3, Tunji Aderinto street, Ire Akari
Estate which was jointly run by Brothers Sope Elegbede and Lanre Obembe.

By the conviction to go ahead with the vision which was clearly revealed to him, Pa Oshibanjo
mandated Bro Sope Elegbede to scout for two plots of land on which to build the church. On
confirmation of available plots for sale, Bro Elegbede with the assistance of Pa E. Ola Olu
Renner, a very senior Land Officer at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, accompanied
with two council members from Somolu church, made payment to the land owners in the
presence of Oba Goloba, the late Osolo of Isolo, who warned the sellers that they should neither
deny payment nor disturb the church anytime the construction works had to commence.

As a follow up to preliminary works, the house fellowship leaders/members engaged in every

Saturday-evening evangelism. In order to encourage them better, Pastor Emmanuel Osakwe from
Somolu often followed the evangelistic team every Saturday evening. The growth in the number
of the house fellowship members was very encouraging to the leaders, which gave an indication
of the success of the vision.

The council at Somolu church mandated the late Rev Patrick Olakulehin to rent a flat which was
to serve as the church and the Pastor’s resident. A ground floor of three bedroom flat was paid
for at No. 9, Apena Street.

On the 21” of Feb 1982 immediately after the Sunday school, Pa Oshibanjo made an altar call for
volunteers to start off the Foursquare Church at Okota. Few members that lived at Adeoye Street
along with Bro. Lanre Obembe, Bro and Sis Sope Elegbede, Sister Yinka Oshibanjo, Sister
Mosun Oshibanjo, Brother & Sister Mafe and their Children, Sister Dago, Brother Nathaniel
Elegbede (late) Sister Elizabeth Elegbede and Pastor John Adejo with his wife came to the altar
and were prayed for as people who volunteered to pioneer Okota church. After the prayers, all
the volunteers marched into a waiting van and taken to No. 9. Apena Street, Okota where the
service for the new church was held. The pastor seconded to preside over the church was Rev
John Adejo.

On Sundays and midweek meeting days, the Pastor’s sitting room had to be rearranged to
accommodate the church and after the services, it turned to his personal sitting room. Because of
the need to construct and occupy the church within the shortest possible time, the one year tenure
of the church at Apena Street was not renewed but the pastor in charge had to be relocated to
another three ■bedroom flat at No. 33, Esuola Street which is a three minutes walking distance
from the church site..

LEADERSHIP

The pioneer Pastor was John Adejo, assisted by Pastor Onyekwere Opara (associate Pastor in
charge of Christian Education and Music).

The council members were Brother Adedapo Marcus (now Pastor Adedapo Marcus), Bro.
Rowland Takon (now Rev. Rowland Takon, Founder and Pastor of Eternal Foundation Church,
Gbagada), Brother Adedayo Ajayi and Brother T.A. ip Elegbede (Rev. Dr. Sope Elegbede,
retired as the Senior g- Pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church Ago).

THE CHURCH BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

A Saturday was chosen as the foundation-laying day. Soon the after Pa Oshibanjo and other
elders laid the corner block, excavation, carrying of the block, mixing of concrete and Rev
drawing water from the well were done by Somolu the members; male, female, elders and youths
with the artisans demonstrating their expertise. Because the construction works were not
completed same day, subsequent days of work on site by the mother church was usually led by
Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo (now the founder and senior Pastor of KICC, London) who then
was a youth.
By virtue of his profession as a civil engineer Bro Lanre Obembe did a lot of supervision and
ensured that quality materials were used in each of the sections of the work.

After completion of the foundation, the mother church instructed that the few members available
should continue the work and that the roof would be provided by her.

This was a trying period for many of the few members available as it was not financially
convenient for many who had the mind to build. Nevertheless to give everyone the opportunity
to participate, the construction work was phased out and three to five members were allowed to
jointly contribute to provide either the burglaries of a single window or window panes with the
metal carriers. To accelerate the work, some brethren gave personal effects that were converted
to cash. One that was particularly notable was the gift of a jeep (his only asset) by Bro Lanre
Obembe to do the ceiling work.

THE GROWTH

The growth of the church was not as sporadic as was expected, even though few who came in
were equally fire brand for Jesus. The decision was to move to Jakande housing estate where
there were indigenes living in their quarters. This was a pioneering church pioneering another
church. Our ambassadors were Brother Aborishade Inow Aboludes) and Bro Lanre Obembe.
With this, the church will be fuller on 1 Sunday of the month when we have joint service and the
Holy Communion. There was a low turnout in the church when the Buhari/diagbon regime asked
all aliens to go. This really affected our fellowship especially Sunday school as there were little
or no students. We prayed and the Lord that answers prayers did answer us. Maroko was
demolished and so there was an upsurge in the residency of the community, Land and house
owners who thought Okota is far from Lagos came. There was access to Cele bus stop and many
people were looking for where to fellowship. The little flock was enlarged and there were power-
parked spiritual activities.
The church became chartered in 1987 when we had al minimum of thirty members in good
spiritual standing in the church and the ceremony was conducted by the Late Rev. (Dr.) James
Abayomi Boyejo.

It is worthy of note to state that while the church was grappling with numerical growth, Brothers
Lanre Oberbe and Segun Abolude had engaged in church planting and evangelism at Jakande
Estate. The members who gathered there usually came to Okota every 1st" Sunday for the Holy
Communion.

The first planned budget of the church was to buy a drum set. To achieve this, price was
confirmed and the worshippers were levied. Because of the harrowing experience of
transportation to and from the church as the motorable part of the road stopped at the present Mr.
Biggs (Ago Round about, brethren from Adeoyo, especially the elders, found it convenient to
return to Somolu church while the only two youth sisters Mosun Oshibanjo (now Mrs. Mosun
Osaylwu) and Yinka Oshibanjo (now Mrs. Yinka Ademosun) stayed back because of their
ministries in the church and did not leave until they were happily mmarried

At that time, the difficult terrain (water log and swamps), made evangelism difficult. This led to
the second need that confronted the church then, which was the provision of means of
transportation. It was decided that a bus should be bought, as one of the youths Bro Gani could
drive. When fifty percent of the cost of the bus had been contributed, an SOS was sent to our
mother church in Somolu who added the balance and gave us a brand new Mitsubishi Lt 300
Bus. This helped in our Saturday evangelistic outreaches, and Sunday worship attendance
increased. This enabled street comer film show evangelism and tracts distribution, all of which
helped the church growth.

Since the church bought into the vision of Pa Oshibanjo, the Lord ministered to few members
that very soon from then, the two plots of land on which the church was sited would no longer be
ideal. Hence specific prayers were offered directly towards the acquisition of adjoining plots of
land on both sides of the church site, where the thirty by sixty feet church building stands In an
effort to strengthen the spiritual growth and standing of the church members, at the instance of
Bro. Rowland Takon, the pastor, Rev. John Adejo arranged a visit to late Pa Elton who was then
at llesha. With his prophetic declaration, he laid hands on each of the Council Members and
prayed them into Pastoral Ministry. Today all that were prayed for by Pa Elton are now Pastors.
Shortly after the chartering of the church, Somolu Church demanded the return of Rev. John
Adejo. The announcement caused a revolt, as few members challenged the wisdom of
transferring the pioneer pastor of a young growing church. At last, when the dust settled on the
issue, Bro. Adedapo Marcus, one of the council members then, took over the roles of the pastor
of the church as approved by Papa Oshibanjo. Under his administration, the church grew
numerically and spiritually. Structurally, he constructed a story building attached to the church
auditorium.

After few months of his taking over the administration of the church, Papa Oshibanjo came to
the church on July 3, 1988 to formally introduce and install Rev John Adekoya Adesanya as the
new Senior Pastor and who remained the Senior Pastor of the church up till Sunday November
18, 2019. Rev Adesanya took Okota Church to an enviable height to the glory of God. While we
have extensively discussed the foundational history of the Church mothered by Somolu Church,
it was under the pastoral leadership of Rev John Adesanya that most of the achievements that
make the Church to stand out as a role model church today were achieved. The unique strengths
of Rev John Adesanya that greatly enhanced the remarkable growth of Okota Church include:
team work and excellent team-building spirit: passion for mission and church planting: unique
gift in identifying, motivating and helping to develop spiritual and ministerial gifts in people;
integrity; and a calm and humble disposition that goes with firmness and discipline. Several
churches were planted under the leadership of Rev J.A. Adesanya, virtually all of which are
standing firm today, and many of which have become chartered and have also planted grand-
daughter churches. Some of these churches include the Foursquare Churches in: Amuwo Odofin,
Ago, Isolo, Samuel Ekunola, Oko-Agbado in the Riverine, Arewa Church, Itobe in Kogi State,
Agbor in Delta State, Hiagbalomeh and Zogbodomeh in Benin Republic, among others. Okota
Church almost single-handedly assisted in building the Church in Aneho, Togo, under the
leadership of Rev. John Adesanya, while the current leadership of the Church has forwarded
money to carry out the roofing of that church building.Scores of Pastors and Ministers were
identified, groomed and built up by Rev. John Adesanya, all of whom are working assiduously
within and outside the country in the building and expansion of God's Kingdom.

It was under the pastoral leadership of Rev John Adesanya that the Foursquare Nursery and
Primary School was founded. Foursquare Nursery/Primary School started as Havilah Montessori
Day Care, Nursery & Primary School, as a Day Care Centre in the year 2000, with a population
of three babies by a Visionary, Sister (now Deaconess) Mercy Ofoh. It became a duly registered
and approved school in 2018, and now has more than 300 pupils, while hundreds of pupils have
been graduated. In his 31 years leadership of the Church, he continually rebuilt, developed and
expanded the Church building to what it is today, which can sit close to 500 worshippers. Of
course, it goes without saying that Rev. Adesanya did not singlehandedly achieve all of the
above feats, but constantly worked effectively with teams of able and committed Pastors, leaders
and workers, with his excellent team building spirit.

On the retirement of Rev. John Adesanya in November 2019, Rev. Samuel Omoleye briefly
acted as the Senior Pastor of the Church until a substantive Senior Pastor in the person of Rev.
Dr. Tope Oni was appointed and introduced on Sunday 30" November 2019 and formally
installed in December 2019. The Okota District was created by the National Leadership of
Foursquare Church, with Okota Church as the District Headquarters Church and Rev. Dr. Tope
Oni as the District Overseer. He was introduced and installed on Sunday July 13 2021. Till date
Rev. Dr. Tope Oni serves as the Senior Pastor of the Church; he is also the Zonal Superintendent
of Okota Zone and the District Overseer of Okota District, Under his brief leadership thus far,
the Church at Igbologun in the Riverine was planted in July in 2020; a semi-completed property
was bought for that Church in April 2022; and a missionary Church was planted in Atakpame
Togo in May 2022 by the District, with Okota Zone playing the principal role. We have also
continued to support the Missionary work in Aneho Togo, and the Senior Pastor of that Church.
Between February and May 2022, an office complex building has been erected and roofed,
remaining the internal works and finishing touches on the building.
We give glory to God for all the Pastors, Ministers, leaders and workers that God has used to
move Okota Church to where it is today. Okota Church is not tired; it is still waxing stronger and
stronger in the glorious work of the expansion of God's Kingdom on earth, and its current
District Headquarters status has further enhanced its positioning in this noble and glorious drive
of building God's Kingdom on earth and reaching out and discipling thousands of souls, to enjoy
the abundant life in Christ Jesus here on earth, and helping in perfecting them to spend eternity
heaven with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We trust that our rewards are immense and
unquantifiable. both here on earth, and in heaven on that glorious Eternal Day, in the Mighty
Name of Jesus. Congratulations, and well done to all, in Jesus' Name.