For the want of a perfect description, Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, the head pastor of the popular and widely known Synagogue Church of All Nations SOCAN, is a misunderstood personality. The most reason many see him as a controversial person, but to him, he is just doing the work his creator has directed him to do. Despite the high level of criticism from some quarters, he has stayed true to his beliefs and continue living his life in line with the scriptures.
Apart from Prophet T.B Joshua ‘s work as a Shepard leading a vineyard of multitudes with international award and recognition to his credit, he has dedicated his life to charity and cheerful giving inline with his ideology of ‘Changing Lives, Changing Nations and Changing the World’. His milk of kindness has flown down most especially, as he has often send medical and other aides to troubled counties like Haiti, India, Philippines, Ghana, Ecuador and other countries.
At the location where his church is situated in Ikotun, Lagos, TB Joshua has constantly donated food to inhabitants of his host community. He has also privately funded the education of many students who could not afford it. Sources said; one thing that the Arigidi Akoko born pastor loathes is the sight of people in distress, he is always ready to render assistance and do everything humanly possible to put smiles on their faces.
All his life, he has dedicated it to propagating the gospel far beyond the shores of Nigeria, making his church a tourism destination for foreign nationals across the world. At a point, his church is a mecca of sorts for thousands of foreign nationals who come to get healing from various kinds of diseases and ailments. With his continuous effort to put Nigeria on the world map, he fought several battles underground with the backing of his creator, he was able to triumph. At a point he was written off, several aspersions were cast on him but like the mantra of his church which is ‘Emmanuel’ meaning ‘God is with us”; he always prays for God’s guidance for his critics.
A few weeks ago, at his regular church service, popular online streaming platform YouTube suspended his YouTube channel Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), which is one of the most subscribed Christian channels on YouTube worldwide with over 1.8 million subscribers. The suspension came after the British association OpenDemocracy complained against his sentiments, denouncing hateful and homophobic speech. When many thought he was going to make a controversial statement as regards the suspension; following the teachings of the bible; the Televangelist tweeted via his official Twitter handle on his sermon saying; “Help me pray for YouTube, pray for them, we must consider them friends, we must be strong”.
Immediately after the ban, in the spirit of getting the millions of subscriber to follow the teachings, he quickly ordered that another channel be opened and immediately that was done; within the next 24 hours, the page got thousands followers as the figures keep increasing on a daily basis. Sources say; “the man of God has shown respect and Christ-like way of handling situations, instead of him to speak ill of Youtube for suspending his channel, he opted to pray for them. Regardless of any criticism he receives, he will not relent in his quest to keep preaching the word to millions of lives across the globe and has also promised to keep touching lives with charitable gestures. For his love for education, he is currently working on a private University that will be quite affordable for all sundry at his Arigidi-Akoko home town. The school should be ready for academic activities by mid-next year.”
