The Grace Rock Church to raise leaders of character and influence

By Chukwuma Umeorah

Founder of The Grace Rock Church, Pastor Ebenezer Olufunso Popoola, has urged the Christian faith to strengthen its role in building leaders of character and influence capable of contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s national development.

Popoola made the call on Sunday in Lagos at the formal inauguration of The Grace Rock Church, where he said the church must move beyond routine worship to deliberately shape values, leadership capacity and societal responsibility.

“With this inauguration I feel a very heavy sense of responsibility to meet God’s expectation because He gave us a clear mandate to raise for Him a people of character, power and influence.”

He explained that the vision for the Church was received in 2014 and developed over an 11-year period marked by prayer, confirmation and personal sacrifice. According to him, the decision to leave the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where he served for more than three decades, was a divine instruction.

Popoola said leadership formation would remain central to the church’s mission, stressing that leadership is often misunderstood and wrongly restricted to political office or formal authority.

“Everyone that comes to this world is actually made to be a leader. Leadership is not title, leadership is not weight, it’s not money, it’s not certificate, it’s spirit,” he said.

Linking leadership directly to national progress, he argued that Nigeria’s development challenges cannot be separated from the quality of leadership in both public and private life. “There can never be development without leadership. As a matter of fact, it is leadership first, then development,” he said.

He also called for leadership education to begin early in life. “If I have my way today, leadership is supposed to be part of the curriculum for primary school,” Popoola said.

According to the church’s leadership, Grace Rock Church will operate on five core values summarised by the acronym SPEED – Selfless and sacrificial service; Power-packed prayer; Effective evangelism; Excellence in service delivery; and Discipleship. Its guiding mantra is “Help and Grace from God for destiny fulfillment, receiving help on the altar of grace.”

The inauguration was conducted by the Senior Pastor and General Overseer of Christ Livingspring Apostolic Ministry (CLAM), Pastor Wole Oladiyun, who charged the leadership of Grace Rock Church to remain anchored on divine enablement, integrity and total dependence on God.

Oladiyun, while praying for the new ministry, urged the founder and members to recognise that sustainable ministry growth is rooted in God’s grace rather than human effort or connections. “I pray for everyone, that the Lord will perfect all that concerns you,” he said, citing Psalm 138:8.

The cleric further charged the leadership of Grace Rock Church to live lives worthy of their calling, noting that credibility and moral consistency remain critical to effective ministry.

“We’re asking our Lord to enable you, to live a life worthy of his call,” he said.  Oladiyun also prayed for divine guidance and clarity for the church’s leadership, urging them to continually seek God’s direction in decision-making.