Barack Obama’s incredible knack for translating his Audacity of Hope to what is now globally perceived as rare guts is a pointer to the fact that there is hope for the black race, more so for those who are called according to the Lord’s purpose. This was the appetiser from Pastor Taiwo Odukoya to a little over 100 men who sat at breakfast in the serene premises of Terra Kulture in Victoria Island, Lagos, in the early hours of Saturday, November 8, 2008 in a chat entitled Heart to Heart.

Pastor Taiwo charged the men to live up to the great challenges of the time as the world eagerly looks in the direction of Africa – particularly Nigerian Christians - to alter the continent’s under-achieving portrait. Pastor Taiwo relayed the negative confessions of some compatriots during his recent trip to the United States of America where he noticed the outright unpatriotic nature of Nigerians. He considered unbecoming especially as no African nation has been able to hold her head above water decades after their political independence. Worse still, out of every four blacks on planet earth, one is a Nigerian, yet with all that endowment, Nigeria has only her physical size to show for it!

He reminded the men that God endowed them with leadership qualities from creation (Psalm 8:3-8). To accomplish our leadership potential, Pastor Taiwo made a case for leadership-in-hope as skilfully demonstrated by the U.S. President-elect, Barack Obama.

Looking at the impressive dossiers of the heroes of faith, he noted that the difference between the two main categories of men is in their confession - “I can” and “I can’t”. The poetic refrain of “Yes, we can” in Obama’s victory speech, he said, was a glaring evidence of a paradigm shift in the mentality of the present African-Americans. Therefore, those of us in Africa must wake up to this reality before it is too late.

He encouraged all those who see themselves as inadequate to consider biblical characters like David, Daniel and Joseph, who all emerged from obscurity only to hit global limelight long after their days. Significantly, each of these icons gulped an overdose of vicissitudes on their way to stardom; yet, they were undeterred.

Evaluating the efforts of The Fountain of Life Church in community development, Pastor Taiwo submitted that “the church is solving an international problem in a local way.” This is being pursued with the mindset of not leaving the neighbours to define their relationship with the church. Be it its determined effort to disengage the miscreants from the streets and reintegrating them into the society, or providing better schools for the communities, or cleaner water supply. The Church must take the initiative. But it cannot do this in isolation; Men can rally round such initiatives or start theirs. If the church does these at a local level only to receive global recognition, so can each man listening to him, he affirmed. Whereas success, in the world’s view, may be defined as gathering everything to oneself, leadership connotes wider influence. Men should aspire towards leadership as it is sure to guarantee influence.

THE VISION
Earlier on Mr. Ron Mgbatogu, Director of Publicity, had shared the vision of Discovery for Men. He relived the encounter between Philip, a disciple of Jesus Christ and the Ethiopian Eunuch who was a great man in all ramifications. Mr. Mgbatogu said that just the same way Philip was sent to the Ethiopian to deliver him from spiritual blindness; many men today await the enlightenment that will make them free to pursue purpose. Discovery for Men, founded by Pastor Taiwo Odukoya eleven years ago, is one redemptive channel through which many men had been delivered.

Mr. Mgbatogu appealed to the men to identify with the Calebs, the partnership arm of the ministry. Each man, he appealed, should see himself as a worker in God’s vineyard, and assisting Pastor Taiwo’s vision to help men manifest.

TESTIMONIES

1. BIODUN BALOGUN

…Lifted In a Meltdown
Job 22:29 teaches that when men shall say there is a casting down, the believer should proudly maintain that there is a lifting up. A good student of that scripture is Mr. Biodun Balogun, CEO, Allied Computers. Mr. Balogun, a man from a Muslim family and the first testifier at the Breakfast Meeting, spoke of the positive reversal of his fortunes at a time when the whole world is experiencing a financial meltdown. Like many entrepreneurs and investors, Mr. Balogun and his company were originally hit by the global catastrophe, but he knew better than to moan. He resorted to prayers. It was while seeking the Lord’s face that he caught the ‘rhema’ for the season. He was led to go through one of Kenneth Hagins’ books on attitude. He then moved on to read and internalise Joel 2:25-26 and all those promises. Today, Allied Computers is in a blossoming relationship with several multinationals including Microsoft, HP and Cisco.

2. OLIVER NNONA

…Creating the Big Picture with a Pencil
A few years ago, Mr. Oliver Nnona was faced with the dilemma of continuing to bask in the euphoria of a top management position in a Fortune 50 Corporation with all the perquisites of office or taking a step of adventure into entrepreneurship. The latter got the better of him in 2003, thereby triggering off an odyssey of business development strategies. Assembling the building blocks of such an organization over the past five years has not been without tough demands on Mr. Nnona. What with the economic hiccups within the period. Knowing his limitations, he took them all to God, the Master Strategist. It was in his prayer-dialogues with the Lord that both business and corporate execution plans were revealed along with the nimble use of the lead pencil. With the help of the Lord, the company has not only accomplished the one million dollar mark over the past one year, it is looking forward to a flourishing time in the market place within the next few years.

3. BODE JOHNSON

…A Tragi-comic Enthronement
When Mr. Bode Johnson took on a particular client it was for him another run-of-the-mill assignment as a lawyer. But before long, the lenses and guns of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission were trained on him. Believing that his interest transcended a passion for his profession, the EFCC went after Mr. Johnson with their full might. At some stage, friends advised him to abscond overseas so as to allow the dust to settle. Some even suggested seeing some senators and other powers in Abuja, but Mr. Johnson kept calm, sinking to his knees in prayers with his loving and confident wife. After the crime commission had gone full circle in their investigation and discovered that Mr. Johnson had been branded unjustly, they proceeded to apologise and offered him a clean bill of legit-health. And, for good measure, they went into negotiations which resulted in his being offered the much sought-after position of an EFCC consultant. This came in a season when Pastor Taiwo had been prophesying that in the same place where true believers had been dishonoured, double honour awaited them.