Magnificent and royal splendor aptly suits the description of the newly reconstructed and commissioned auditorium of the headquarters of the Christ Royal Family Int’l Church, Egbeda, Lagos. A highly respected Bishop, Jide Orire before his recent ministration on the marble altar of the ornamented church confesses that he has not in a very long time seen such a magnificent church auditorium all trough his wide length of sojourns home and abroad.

The widely traveled Ibadan-based preacher who was obviously impressed with the beautiful chandelier illuminations hanging princely on the two-decked church auditorium then remarks: “this place looks like the lounge of an international airport” to a frenetic admiration of the entire church congregation, including the general Overseer, Apostle Tom Samson.

Apostle Tom Samson was indeed very delighted at the new ground the church has broken with the reconstructed church headquarters, called the Royal Cathedral, executed within a record time of one month at a mouth-watering cost of millions of Naira. He cannot be any less delighted to the glory of God with a flashback of how the church started 18 years ago inside a bakery at Egbeda, Lagos.

“This is a story of commitment and total dedication since I gave my life to Christ. I came to Lagos in 1992 as a young graduate: no mentor, no friends, but just one of my school friends with whom I put up when I arrived in Lagos. It was rough and difficult but it was what I chose to do,” he disclosed to Christian Benefits.

What Apostle Tom Samson was called and chosen by God is to preach the gospel from when he gave his life to Christ in 1985. By the time he gained admission into Ekpoma University in 1986 where he studied Biology(Ed) the Lord started using him to preach the gospel on the campus

From Ekpoma campus to Ife, Ibadan Port Harcourt, Enugu, etc the itinerant young Samson started preaching the gospel from campus to campus using his little stipends on printing handbills to call people unto salvation. By the time he was in year two in the university, his preaching campaign has transcended campuses as he moved further to cover more grounds for the Lord.

“I had a strong spirit for evangelism as a young man on campus. From year one to year four, I was doing campus evangelism and village evangelism and organizing youth revival programmes for churches; that was when I practically started. The Lord instructed me to go fully into ministry, that he would use me to set captives free and to teach them how to reign over life challenges, that is how our church was name Christ Royal Family Church; setting the captives free, teaching them to reign, and which also informed our programme called reigning in Life conference.”

Since he graduated from school in 1991 and came to Lagos, Apostle Tom Samson never looked back; doing God’s work and imparting lives, particularly with his popular Reigning in Life Conference which has become a household name across the length and breadth of Nigeria, and even beyond. Through the program he usually holds at Lagos Airport Hotel, countless number of souls have been save from the captivity of marine spirits, witchcraft, barrenness, and most significantly from yoke from poverty to breakthrough into prosperity.

According to the Delta state-born cleric, fondly called Apostle of Deliverance and Breakthrough, the Reigning in Life Conference    Programme marks a significant turning point in the life of his ministry after several years of struggling to get its footing in Lagos, particularly ay Egbeda, a very low profiled community from where the Lord today has announced him and the ministry worldwide. He shares with Christian Benefits the story of the turning point thus:

“The other major challenges that affected the ministry were in year 2000. The Lord said, son, you will go outside the ministry and start a programme titled Reigning in Life Conference and he gave me Lagos Airport Hotel as the venue. He said there are so many souls to set free and this is why I called you. I wrote four books and somebody helped me to dedicate it with N200, 000. I wanted to buy a car with the money but the Lord said use the money on publicity for the conference. So, we publicized the Conference in The Punch, Encomium, City People, The Sun, MITV, NTA Channels 2 & 5.

“Although I contemplated keeping part of the money for personal use because of the fear of not being known in Lagos and that programme wasn’t going to turn out fine. But, I was wrong as many people attended the programme from which barren women carried babies; people received employment, even in the oil & gas and the banking sectors. It marked a big financial turnaround for us as God began to raise pillars through people who had testimonies from the conference.

“The members began to give me millions with testimonies everywhere as the attendance was increasing. We moved to Oranmiyan Hall which was also being filled by people. At a time, I was in all the TV stations in Lagos. We then moved the conference to Abeokuta, Abuja, Port Harcourt; I appeared in 17 TV channels and we started putting structures everywhere. Before I knew it, we had breakthrough into America, London, Dublin, Manchester, and Atlanta.

“Three years ago, God instructed me to build him a city in Ota, Ogun State. In over two years, we have spent over N2billion in building the City at Iyesi Ota where we have over 100 bedroom chalets, a hospital, schools; nursery and secondary and Stadium for crusade on 100 hectares of land. We have over 30 building on 15 hectares in the Royal City without borrowing money from any bank or anywhere. God has been so merciful. So, the turnaround came in 2000 through the Reigning in Life Conference,” the lively and effervescent royal Apostle disclosed.

Editor’s note: This story was first published by Christian Benefits magazine in 2009. It is reproduced here by the magazine in celebration of Bishop Dr. Tom Samson’s breaking of another landmark with the Monarch University’s approval by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Crew of Chrisstian Benefits magazine congratulates Bishop Dr. Tom Samson and his lovely wife for their breaking of another ground with the maganificient Monarch University Iyesi Ota, Ogun State.

PHOTO CREDIT: BISHOP TOM SAMSON’S FACEBOOK PAGE