Controversial Celestial televangelist, Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe, aka Genesis, the shepherd in charge of Genesis Global recently held the standout conference at the prestigious Lagos Oriental Hotel’s Grand Ball Hall Lagos.

The event which was a transformative experience had an impressive lineup of influential spiritual leaders and talents who performed leaving a lasting impact on individuals seeking inspiration and spiritual upliftment.

He is the author of “The Unstoppable, “Enough of Slavery, “From Your Mess To Your Message, “Standout, and Outstanding

In this interview with ipledge2nigeria.net Webteam Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe talks about his journey from CAC to Celestial, How Genesis Global became massive, what is the stand out conference about, what Genesis Global is doing to equip the youth and other issues.

Tell us a little about yourself, and your journey from CAC to Celestial.

 “I was born out of nothing but I have never allowed my history to affect my destiny. It is not about where I was coming from, it is about where God is taking me to. I was born into Islam and my Muslim name is Wasiu, From Islam, I grew up as a Christ Gospel Apostolic Church boy before God took me to Celestial Church. Something took me from CAC to a white garment church and that was love that was shown to me. The mockery that happened there took me to a white garment church. My mother was mocked, she cleaned the church, she was the poorest, and we were the poorest family. So it was a mockery that I was unable to stand that moved me. I was walking down the road and I saw a Celestial Church, I mean a young man, gathering people, encouraging people and I decided to go to that church because they showed me love. There was no need for me to change cloth because even then when we were going to church, my mother wore one cloth for four years and as the Pentecostal Church that it was, you had to change your clothes but my mother was not bothered about what she was wearing, she was concerned about what she was hearing and the Bible says faith cometh by hearing the Word of God not by wearing”

When I joined celestial church and contrary to what people were saying about celestial church or white garment churches, when I got to that church, I was monitoring maybe there would be one ritual they do or something so I started staying in the church, fasting all the time and because I couldn’t go to school, no funds for university, no polytechnic, I couldn’t go to school at all so I started developing myself, fasting and praying.

How did Genesis Global become this massive?

“I started building up youth, bringing up people together; I mean entrepreneurs and other people together so that the church would not be connected to religion. Christianity is not a religion; it’s a way of life. I mean church that cannot impact people, I don’t think the church is a blessing to the world and so considering what I have been through, my life, and my parents, I made up my mind according to what I learnt from my mentor, Bishop T.D Jakes, my father, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo and the person that charged me spiritually, that encouraged me most, that helped the CAC part of me happens to be Daddy Wale Oladoyin”

“We prayed more in Genesis, we studied more, and we developed and thanked God for a lot of mentors. I needed to be peculiar, what was going to be different about me, what am I going to do that would change people’s perceptions and their concepts and ideology about celestial or white garment churches so when we started?

What is the stand out conference about?

“This is the third edition of the standout conference. We are going to have different ministers in Word, in prayer. The conference is building people beyond denomination. We have been able to break denominational barriers. Standout is a program that has metamorphosed to this stage. It started as Excel but then, there was a need for transitioning and growth so we have metamorphosed because excellence is speaking in our ministry, Genesis Global, and we have metamorphosed to the level of standing out”

“There should be something that should make you stand out of the crowd. You don’t move like every other person is moving, when you are peculiar for yourself, you understand who God has created you to be, what He has called you for and how He has programmed you to journey your life”

So, that is what we are trying to help to transfer into, not just our members alone but also our well-wishers and all those who understand that they have a lot to learn from this ministry.

“From them, I came to ministry. When we started Genesis Global, it was formerly Genesis Parish and later, Genesis Model Parish, now Genesis Global we started studying the word of God and growing every day and so we started teaching and building youths. We started building lots of departments and we started teaching people about how to invest in themselves and that they shouldn’t allow their history to affect where they’re going”

When we started, I told God if this is what you have asked me to do, something needs to be different about me. I believe in the Holy Spirit and everything we do, though we have lots of attackers but some of them don’t know me, and some of them have distorted vision.

How has the standout conference been able to use entertainment to impact the youth?

I am not going to talk about entertainment without talking about talent. What your certificate cannot give to you, your talent will be able to give to you. That is when you embrace an elegant value that is connected to your gift. Your gift will help you, assist you and give you a push that will make you enjoy the next level of your lifting. So your talent and the gift inside of you is bigger than your certificate.

“Standout is beyond religion, it’s beyond church, it’s beyond denomination, it’s about growth, it’s about empowerment, it’s about mental liberation, and it’s about transformation”

In each edition, we bring leaders and speakers to talk to our youths, it is not only about church, it is not about prayers, and fasting alone; you can’t transform anyone if the mind of that person is not transformed. If the mind is transformed, the life of that person would be transformed. We have churches all over the world if we’re going to be able to change our concept about Christianity and we disconnect it from religion. We will have more schools, we will have more things to build and that way help the country and encourage other people because I don’t believe that you have to go to church to be rich, I don’t believe that you have to go one mountain to be rich, what you just need is to be transformed, when your mind is transformed, your life will be transformed.

What is your advice to the youths?

I am not going to condemn our youths because I am one of them and I am not going to relegate them. Of course, we have to react, but sometimes we have to react positively. The youth need to disconnect themselves from the mentality of entitlement. When I was a bus conductor, when I was sleeping in the market, I wasn’t blaming the government; I was not blaming my father. My father brought me to the world, he taught me how to serve God and I discovered myself. I moved from one level of discovery to another. The youth needs to understand that, your father does not owe you anything, your mother does not owe anything, and the government does not owe you anything. You are that government, you should be the change you are expecting to see in the country and that is why you should stop giving excuses. Stop running away from problems, what you cannot confront, you cannot conquer. There are opportunities in this country but first thing, discover yourself and discover God’s purpose for your life.