Nigerian comedian turned pastor, Abiodun Olapade, popularly known as MC Abbey has stated that pastors do not enter the ministry for financial gain.
The Master of Ceremonies made this claim, in an interview with The Punch, asserting that those who become true clergy do so because they have been called by God to do so and in order to further the message of Jesus Christ.
According to him, he has been spending his own personal fund on the ministry.
In his words;
“Well, it is a wrong notion. People just generalize stuff. There is no iota of truth in that. A genuine man of God called by God is not in it for money.
He is in it for the purpose of the gospel. I have been the one spending my money in the ministry. We are also not looking for funds. I still go to my church, House on the Rock, and I have told my pastor that I am not leaving in a hurry.”
When asked why he entered the ministry, the comedian stated God had chosen his path but he had been there since 1985, long before he began performing stand-up.
MC Abbey said;
“It is God that chooses one’s path. I started ministry way back in 1985 before I started comedy. I was in primary school then. That was when I got born again and started a fellowship in my school.
When I got to secondary school, I was a fellowship head, up to the Anambra State University, Awka, where I pioneered the Word of Life Campus Fellowship and I became the first national president.
I have always led my life around church. When I left school, I thought I was going to go straight into ministry but I was told by God to hold on till the right time, which He would tell me. It was through God’s divine direction that I was ushered into anchoring events and comedy, which I did not find funny at that time because I was not interested.
That defining moment convinced me to do it and I thought it was going to be for some few years. Then, I was going to do ministry, but it (comedy and anchoring events) lingered for 30 something more years.
Every time I felt the nudge within me, I asked God what was happening and He kept telling me to hold on. There was a time I was in Lagos and I wanted to start my ministry and I prayed over it, but it seemed that God went on holidays in my head that day. I woke up the next day and asked everyone to forget about it.”
