The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said that he is not ready to open his church “until the coast is clear.”
Pastor Bakare disclosed this while speaking during a session at the second edition of the virtual 3Gz programme, “Guys, Girls and God” of the CGCC Legacy Youth Fellowship.
According to him, “government cannot shut the church, it can only shut a building,” hence, he said, the church is marching on.
Bakare premised his action on the discussion he had with the Lagos of State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his team, during a recent virtual meeting, where he said it was predicted that August would likely witness a lots of coronavirus infections in Lagos and Nigeria.
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Further addressing questions on the he will reopen his church, Pastor Bakare said, with the projections by the government on when the disease would subside, he was looking at reopening September or the end of the year.
But most importantly he said, “We are not opening till the coast is clear.”
Pastor Bakare said he was not in a hurry to reopen the church, a building, when services can be done virtually and the “word of truth” can be circulated to more people online.
Quoting form the Book of Genesis Chapter 8, citing the case of Noah in the his encounter with God, he said, “Noah was on lockdown for 150 days,” after which he sent out a raven to check if the water on the earth had receded.
“Noah was not trying to prove his anointing by coming out to swim in the flood before the water had dried up,” Bakare said, noting that, Noah waited another 40 days after the 150 days before setting out.
“Those who want to be the raven sent out to check the water can go out and check, but I’m not ready to put the life of my people at risk to prove anything.
Pastor Bakare also gave an example of a choir in the United States, who he said gathered for rehearsals, but in the gathering, there was transmission of the novel coronavirus disease among over 40 of its members, some of whom later died after that meeting.
Consequently, he said, he was not ready to expose his members to danger, noting that the church is not about tithe and offerings but about “edifying the people and fixing the challenges of the world.”
Much earlier before now, it will be recalled that Pastor Bakare had given up the CGCC halls as isolation centres to the Lagos and Ogun State governments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
