Encomium
Pastor Taiwo Odukoya is the Senior Pastor of Fountain of Life Church, Ilupeju, Lagos. The ministry which
was made popular by his late wife, Pastor (Mrs.) Bimbo Odukoya through her international weekly television programme, Single and Married has grown with a membership in excess of 8,000. Pastor Taiwo, who holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering and worked for 12 years with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) until his voluntary retirement in 1994, to concentrate on the business of the gospel of Jesus Christ, has taken the ministry to a higher level through his initiatives like Discovery for Men, Discovery for Women, The Woman Leader, Home Affairs and Grace Springs Medical Centre. These efforts have tremendously pumped up the ministry as oneof the most vibrant churches flocked by upwardly mobile young men and women.
An accomplished author, he has to his credit over 300 publications including books, articles, seminar papers, etc. His books, Unleash Your God-given Potential, Created for Blessing, Limitless, 100 Nuggets of Wisdom for the Man of Significance (Volume 1 and 2) have gained a wide readership both locally and internationally. This publication allegedly rake in over N50 million annually.
Another section in the ministry by Pastor Taiwo, which has been attracting accolades from friends and worshippers is the Grace Spring Rehabilitation Centre. The home took off in 2004 with 50 boys and is now registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Welfare Department of Ikorodu local government area. In 2002, when the ministry began the rehabilitation campaign, Child Life Line Centre, Ibeshe, Ikorodu run by Mrs. Marion Sikuade was approached to accommodate the children picked from the notorious Oshodi axis of Lagos metropolis. The church supported with upkeep allowance every month.
The ministry expanded over the years and the home including a vacant plot which now functions as a Non-Governmental Organisation was finally purchased by the church. This ministry is worth N50 million with an average of N20 million is expended annually to sustain the project.
Also, the ministry runs Grace Springs Forms. The acute food problem, particularly the unattractive nature of manual farming and related activities particularly at the rural level, the need for young people to be re-oriented, mentored and given skills that will make them entrepreneurs, and ambassadors of positive change necessitated the birth of this ministry. Hence, the vision was cast a few years back by Pastor Taiwo Odukoya. The farm was set up as an integrated agricultural and human development programme. The project is handled by people with vast experiences in different areas of mechanized agriculture. The farm is within a farming community, hence the villagers have over time developed a huge interest in off-farm income activities.
The proximity of the village to other major farms, two processing factories (rice and cassava) and two cities (Lagos and Abeokuta) gives it a huge employment and marketing advantage, yet to be fully tapped. The current activities of the ministry include the production of crops such as oil palm, cocoa, maize, cassava with the plan for further expansion. The livestock production section consists of broilers and layers. This ministry is worth well over N100 million with a monthly income of an average of N5 million.
The ministry also had Grace Springs Medical Centre. This is the hospital outreach of the church. Its establishment in 2002 arose from divine instruction to Pastor Taiwo that a hospital be established in 
Ilupeju, Lagos as an outreach to the underprivileged to demonstrate tangibly the love of God to all men and prevent easily avoidable deaths. The medical facility which is at Oba Adetona Street, Ilupeju, Lagos, provides access to 24 hour medical services delivered by highly quailed personnel in a divinely inspired environment. It is also on record that 70 percent of the patients at the hospital on a monthly basis are indigents referred from the church office. Also, the intimate network which the hospital has with the Dorcas Ministry (ministry of the needy), and the Mission Department Foundation of Life Church, as well as other arms of the ministry, provide an invaluable channel for reaching the underprivileged with fee medical care. This ministry reportedly worth over 30 million, nets an average of N2 million. At present, the centre has a 60 bed in patient facility, pharmacy and an outpatient facility. It is run by Dr. Gbloahan Ogunrinde as head of the hospital management.
Also, the Lord’s Kitchen is the benevolence arm of the ministry with a commission to shower the abundance love of Christ on the less privileged spiritually and physically. The concept was to run a full kitchen to service physical and spiritual needs.
Meanwhile, the Grace Spring Vocational Centre is one outreach of the ministry being patronized by unemployed graduates. It’s a non-profit centre set up in January 2009. It caters for both genders, training them in vocations they can easily set up on a small scale businesses, thereby providing a means of livelihood for them. Training is in well-equipped air-conditioned classrooms and workshops.
Finally, the educational support project of the ministry arose from a vision given to Pastor Taiwo to reach out and affect the standard of education in schools in the neighbourhood of the church.
Periodically, they supply desks and benches for SS3 classes, provide textbooks in Mathematics and English language to senior secondary classes. The books are retained in the schools and replaced every three years and supply of laboratory equipment and materials, etc.
Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, father of four kids from late Pastor Bimbo Odukoya namely Jimmy, Tolu, Timmy and Tobi lives in a duplex in Maryland, Lagos and drives exotic cars like two Mercedes Benz G-Wagon black and grey. He remarried in 2010 at a subtle, but elaborate ceremony at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, to a South African lady, Pastor (Mrs.) Rosemary Odukoya and the union is blessed with a baby boy.
Pastor Taiwo Odukoya is arguably one of the successful clergy in Nigeria. He runs a ministry that is worth over N10 billion. With the completion of N4 billion cathedral, annual offering estimated as N1billion and tithes within the range of N2 billion and other multi-million naira ministries within the empire.
Pastor Taiwo Odukoya was over joyous on Saturday, June 28, 2014 when he dedicated the new cathedral which can seat up to 20,000 capacity to the glory of God. The church which started in Ilupeju Recreation Club about 20 years ago with his late wife, has begun to sing a new song. The beautiful edifice was officially opened by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola and his amiable wife, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola joined by the General Overseer of Winners Chapel, Pastor David Oyedepo, Bishop Mike and Peace Okonkwo, the General Overseer of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission with several other bishops.
With a followership of over 50,000 all over the world, a bulk of the ministry’s income come In through offering, tithes and donations from financial partners scattered all over the world.
-FEMI OYEWALE
