If Not God, Who Else? Pastor Wole Oladiyun Speaks on CLAM’s 25th Anniversary and Success Factors

Address by Pastor Wole Oladiyun, Senior Pastor, CLAM Global at the 25th Anniversary Press Conference Held on November 27, 2023, at the CLAM Auditorium, Omole, Lagos.

Members of the Board of Trustees of CLAM here present,

Pastor (Mrs.) Bukola Oladiyun, Executive Head, Family Life,

All the Executive Heads of CLAM,

Pastor Akintunde Kolade, Centre Pastor, CLAM Lekki.

Pastor Tunde Dada, Centre Pastor, CLAM Houston, Texas (who I believe is with us via the Livestream),

Heads of Departments and Coordinators,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press.

Indeed, if not God, who else?

Romans 9:16 (NKJV) says “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy”. Equally, Psalm 127:1 reminds us that “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders’ labour in vain…”

God reigns supreme in the affairs of men and the God factor is the nucleus of all success stories. No matter how hard we work, or how diligent we are, we need that divine touch to succeed. This is validated in 1 Corinthians 3: 6-9 where Apostle Paul said: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase”.

It has been 25 years of God’s abundant grace, steadfast love, and unending mercies. That we are still standing strong after 25 years is an indication of God’s abundant grace in our lives. We do not claim to be perfect, or to be the best: we are not infallible, but we are proud to say we are products of Grace. We have been planting and nurturing for the past 25 years, and God has graciously watered us to the extent that I sometimes ask God – what have we done to deserve these blessings?

I welcome you all to this media chat as part of the activities marking CLAM’s 25th anniversary. We invited you here to share our success story with you and to listen to your ideas and suggestions on how we can get better as a ministry. After all, you are one of our critical stakeholders. This is not an occasion for thump-chesting or back-slapping; rather we have come to return all the glory to God, and to let the whole world know that CLAM’s success story is traceable to the grace of God.

We appreciate you all for the positive roles you are playing as the fourth estate of the realm, striving to make society a better place. We also thank you for being our strategic development partner in the last 25 years. I sincerely thank you all for being our allies on this journey. Without a supportive press, no organization can go far.

AT THE BEGINNING …

CLAM started on a rough but ASSURED footing on April 2, 1998. I was called into the Ministry with nothing on the ground. No worship venue, no music equipment, and no appreciable congregation. It was indeed a humble beginning, but I was sure of the call, and I was focused on the assignment God gave me and the vision He unveiled. Despite the numerous challenges we faced, I remained undaunted and unperturbed, because I knew what God told me and what he promised that He would do with CLAM.

Things were so difficult that even my wife at one point asked me to be very sure God indeed gave me this assignment. She was not doubting God or trying to jump the ship, but it was normal as human beings to be sure of what one’s partner is doing. It would interest you to know that my wife has remained my source of strength and inspiration. Without a wife such as Pastor Mrs. Bukola Oladiyun, I wouldn’t have gone far in this ministerial journey.

TEETHING PROBLEMS

I cannot possibly intimate you with the multifarious challenges that we battled as we tried to steady the ship of the ministry. There were issues of:

• Disloyal workers who did not believe in the vision and were easily lured away by other ministries.
• Hostile neighbours who could not come to terms with our power-packed, firebrand approach to our prayer and deliverance ministry.
• Financial problems that threatened the foundation of the Ministry.
• Campaigns of calumny and blackmail by rival ministries.

However, I was not bothered. God told me that he was sending me into Ministry empty-handed so that He could prove Himself and validate the call so that no man would share the glory with Him, and so that I could look up unto Him, and not unto any mortal being.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today, the story of CLAM can be summarized with Joshua 21:45: “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel, all came to pass”. God has indeed been our present help in times of need.

OUR SUCCESS FACTORS

• Hearing from God and doing His will: One of the things I thank God for is the gift of hearing Him clearly. God has been speaking and revealing His will to me since I was ten years old. Over the years, the Holy Spirit has helped me to develop this gift, and this has been the mainstay of our existence and success. I hear from God and do whatever He asks me to do. I don’t move unless, and until He says move. Sometimes, I would wait for a year to hear His instructions on an issue. The Holy Spirit is my teacher. I am a learner, I rely on the Holy Spirit like a baby. Without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

• Purity and Holiness. God told me that He would hear any prayer that we offer with a pure heart and with holiness on our sanctified altar. We do not compromise on purity, hence we are receiving answers to our prayers.

• Word-based, scripturally-validated prayers: The greatest and most reliable prophesy is the one that is clearly and firmly backed by the scriptures. The word of God cannot be broken and the scripture has to be fulfilled. I often tell my congregation that don’t pray any prayer point I call that cannot be established in the bible. Our ministers have also been trained to back every prayer point with the appropriate scripture. The word of God is the language of prayer, so we get speedy answers when we pray His words back to Him. God likes it when we remind Him of His words. He performs them without delay.

• Undiluted faith and belief in God: Every CLAMITE has been trained to pray with faith while having an expectation of answered prayers. “Say to them, as I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you”. (Numbers 14:28). Our members also know that God is not a man who will lie, neither is He the son of man who will repent of His words (Numbers 23:19).

• A Committed Workforce. God enabled us to overcome the initial issue of disloyal staff. Today, we have a group of dedicated, hard-working, and supportive ministers and workers who will go to any extent to serve God cheerfully and sacrificially. 

• Soul-winning and Evangelism: Crusade is like a blood tonic to me. I cannot do without it. We have a soul-winning department called CLAMGO – CLAM Global Outreach – which organizes crusades all over the country. We have so far held crusades in over 50 locations. At each crusade, we don’t collect a dime as an offering, rather we give. We donate welfare items to each community – food, shoes, and clothes, and we organize free medical outreaches. That is in obedience to God’s instruction that we should never collect an offering

• We are a giving ministry: Every year, we spend an average of N80m supporting the Kingdom of God in different ways, through donations to other ministries, support for worthy causes, and other edifying initiatives that move the household of God forward. I believe that the task of lifting the Kingdom of God should be more important than the individual ambition of any ministry. CLAM gives and supports people irrespective of their religious affiliations.

• Commitment to being a human development institution: Any ministry that wants to be relevant in the 21^st century must evolve programmes that empower and support people in the fulfillment of their destinies. That is what we do through various initiatives such as the Pastor Wole Oladiyun Foundation (PAWOF) through which my wife and I personally support members and non-members with scholarships, grants, medical expenses payments, and other personal needs too numerous to mention. This is being done in addition to what CLAM does as mentioned above. We support even non-Christians.

It was in furtherance of the above that we established the Soteria Maternity and Hospital here in this complex. It is a heavily subsidised, world-class hospital that provides first-class medical services to CLAMITES and members of the public.

• Strong Governance Structure: We believe in transparency, accountability, proper administration, and best practices. We are not perfect, but we go out of our way to do things according to established procedures.

• Uprightness and High Moral Ground: By the grace of God, CLAM has been scandal-free in the 25 years of its existence.

• Expansion: in the last 25 years, we have successfully expanded into the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada by establishing CLAM Prayer Academies. In Nigeria, we have prayer centres in Lekki and Abuja, and the one in Ilishan, Ogun State, will soon come onstream to serve the needs of students of Babcock University and other residents of Remo Kingdom. All these were done to take the gospel of salvation to the nooks and crannies of the world.

• Family Life Academy: We realized early that since the family is the smallest unit in society, if things go well in the family, things will go well in society, especially in the area of politics and governance. Over the years, once-cherished family values have been eroded and sacrificed on the altar of greed and materialism. Marriages are no longer what they used to be, and many homes have been wrecked by a combination of ignorance and arrogance.

• Burdened and concerned by fast-disappearing Christian family values, Pastor Mrs. Bukola Oladiyun was inspired by the Holy Spirit to inaugurate the Family Life Academy where intending couples are schooled and mentored through a well-structured re-orientation programme that has proved to be impactful and useful in saving many marriages. Marriages are not consummated in CLAM unless and until the intending couples have completed their Family Life Academy orientation. This way, we have succeeded in impacting knowledge and wisdom required for peaceful and blissful marriages.

CONCLUSION

There is a lot to talk about but we are constrained by time. I believe that in the course of the questions and answers session, more issues will come up for discussion.

I thank all those who have contributed in one way or the other to the success of CLAM over the past 25 years. They are just too numerous to mention. I must single out the Trustees of the Church for their guidance and support, especially in those early days. The good Lord will reward you all in Jesus’ name, amen.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen of the press for your time and attention. God bless you all. Amen.