'How I sing reggae from the pulpit'

At the Oasis of Grace Church, he is simply known as Pastor James. But unknown to many, Pastor James used to be Jim Godson, a reggae music crooner, who tried to find his way to fameland but got diverted like Saul on the way to Damascus.

Though he has since taken to the pulpit, James has never forgotten his keyboard and guitar and never overlooked an opportunity to sing melodious tunes. For him, music is a gift, a talent that must not be buried.

And for the sermons, it’s still the same message, only without the rhythm. Pastor James Grand Okocha, who coincidentally is the son of a music teacher, recently launched his debut Awesome God. In this chat with Daily Sun, he spoke about his new effort which he says is a message of ‘keeping on and not giving up’.

Tell us about yourself sir, before now.
I’m Grand Okocha, from Item, Bende local government area of Abia State. For a while I’ve been a pastor, my training has been in the area of ministry. Before ministry by the reason of talent and passion, I’ve been into music(reggae) before I received the divine calling. And ever since then I’ve been on the pulpit preaching for over eight years, at the Oasis of Grace.

Music and Christianity
I’m a pastor as well as a music minister, and I consider the two as being the same. We have the gift of God and the calling of God. The gift of a man makes way for his calling. I’m called to preach and I also have the gift of music. It is the gift that goes first to announce the calling, just like I know there are people that began reading Bishop Oyedepo’s book ever before they had the opportunity to sit under his ministration. So one’s gift is like a forerunner, like John to Jesus. So I’m a preacher and at the same time a music minister.

How I started music
Right from the time of my birth, I’ve been exposed to good music because that’s what my father studied in the university. So right from childhood I’ve watched him play and sing, and as I was growing, the interest grew in me and I found myself playing music.

Becoming a pastor
I started this through God’s inspiration. I was initially singing raggae, it wasn’t gospel neither was it vulgar. Somehow my music had always been religious although I wasn’t a pastor then neither was a committed Christian.

James Grand Okocha
I once had a stage name called Jim Godson. At the time I was working on an album, Back to Eden, and I was in the process of striking a deal with Tabansi records which was the reigning recording label then in Eastern Nigeria (about 16 years ago) , but I was intercepted by divine assignment. I just returned from a show in Umuahia. Early that morning I was going to meet my friend, and I passed by a church with a service in progress.

It was a Methodist Church, and the Sunday service was on. All of a sudden I became frozen on the spot. It was like someone poured cold water on me. Then I heard someone say, “ That place (the church) is where I formed you to be”. I had the same encounter more than two times and in a revelation someone just directed me to Rev David Oyedepo to learn. I’m a graduate of the Word of Faith, from the Bible Institute, so that’s how the whole thing started.

Church business and the ministry
Actually it’s a wrong concept when people say church is not a business. People who are succeeding in the church today have a business approach to it. They do advertise, they work hard, doing everything business people do. And that is where they earn their living.
And that is where the early church failed because they thought church was not business.

The church
The early church failed in the area of prosperity. Because I can remember as a kid, the pastors I saw then on the streets never inspired me, they looked haggard and wretched. Why do you think poor people are referred to as church rats? They tried to bring the church close to poverty, so most of them in the early church approached it as if church was not a business.

They did well, preach to others but most of the pastors died in poverty. Even in the scripture we were told of a man who was referred to as the son of the prophets during the time of Elisha. He died in poverty and even the people he was owing came to take his two sons and that is not the plan of God for us. So we must have this perspective of business to the ministry for us to sit up and work. So it’s business because preachers earn their living from the church.

The new project
It’s called a New Day, it was inspired by the storms of life. Everyone who is a visionary goes through some storms, but you know after every storm, there is a testimony. I’ve gone through my own stormy days, my own days of adversity. And you know people have their own storms, and the idea is if I could come out of my own storms, my dark days, anybody else can. The album was launched in July.

The good news about A New Day
The message centres on the supremacy of God. For example, I was not called to preach everything, but preach something. Anybody that is preaching the whole Bible has not discovered his purpose in the preaching school.

For example, if you listen to Chris Oyakhilome, when he opens Genesis chapter one, before the message would be over, it would become a healing message. If it’s Oyedepo it would be a faith message, if it’s T.D. Jakes, it would be an encouragement message. So we are called to preach specific things. For me, I encourage people, so all the songs are mainly that of encouragement.

Source: http://www.sunnewsonline.com