“Peter began to say to him: ‘Look! We have left all things and followed you’. Jesus said: ‘Truly I say to you, no one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundred times more now in this period of time…and in the coming system of things, everlasting life’” – Mark 10: 28-30, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
By Substance Udo-Nature
The last time we met, I deliberately refused to ask Pastor Ephraim Inyangeyen if he is experiencing the reality of Peter’s conversation with Jesus Christ in the above quote since he was ordained a Pastor exactly a year ago. I needn’t ask. By the manifest joy on his face and obvious peace of mind on his entire personality, the answer was all over him.
Pastor Inyangeyen now looks fresher, healthier, happier, more relaxed, more contented, more exuberant, surefooted, and more provident than I ever knew him to be throughout his trailblazing strides in the public service of Akwa Ibom State, and elsewhere hitherto. It appears his youth has returned to support him on this special mission he now spearheads for the Lord!
Not that he hasn’t been a happy fellow all the while. But in comparative terms, the difference now is so instructively and enviably evident that there is an overwhelming aura around him that when he shakes your hand, it feels as if something mystical is mysteriously transferred from him to you as a token of the ecclesiastical unction he now enjoys.
Mr. Ephraim Akparawa Inyangeyen was formally ordained as a pastor in Insight Bible Church on July 20, 2025. That sacred ceremony of consecration setting him apart, as it were, to serve in the Lord’s Vineyard was dutifully performed by Dr. Sylvanus Ukafia, the Founder of Insight Bible Church, at the Abuja wing of the church where Pastor Inyangeyen is now pastoring with infectious zeal and fiery enthusiasm.
In a phone chat with the new Pastor on the crest of his ordination back then in 2025, he had told me with relishing delight that he wholly and wholeheartedly accepted the ordinance that has lifted him from the temporal strata of the mundane to the Elysian realm of divine service of eternal reward:
“I have been preaching the gospel for many years. But the ordination signals a new level of commitment to this gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ”, he said.
Accordingly, to commit yesterday to memory for the sake of tomorrow, my next day’s essay, as was published across media platforms, appropriately carried the title, “Ephraim Inyangeyen’s Ordination – Desire Granted”. It is expedient I reproduce an extract of that essay as it appeared on Monday, 21st July, 2025 here:
“His recent ordination is therefore not a gate-crashing experience. To reach this point, Inyangeyen deliberately had subjected himself to divine tutorship in the Latter Rain Assembly back in days leading up to 2013 in Lagos. Over the years thereafter, he has been refined by further studies and life’s challenges. It means that the Pastor has a good grasp of theology, theosophy, and epistemology, to effectively deploy his endowed eloquence in boldly and persuasively passing the message of life”.
20th July, 2026 therefore presents a stocktaking moment for a soul-winning commission that began same date in 2025. Is Inyangeyen sighing? No. Is there any possibility he will review his vows? No. Rather than regret, or look back at things left behind, Pastor Inyangeyen, like Apostle Paul, delightfully reechoed the words in Philippians 3:8.
I like the peculiar way The Amplified Bible version lexically amplified the verse:
“But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus My Lord (and my growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him – a joy unequalled). For his sake, I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ”.
Exponentially, it must mentioned in all modesty that Inyangeyen didn’t join the ministry like those we see with big eyes today. Those who conspire with Simony and Avarice to exploit the greedy logic of "those serving in the temple eat from the temple" to impoverish the congregation, merchandize the message, and pilfer Church treasury with bamboozling grandiloquence.
In plainer language and in my unsentimental assessment, Pastor Inyangeyen is not like the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing who see the Pastorage as the last resort and shortest staircase to ostentatious opulence in a harsh Nigerian economy that does not pity the lazy and unproductive.
This becomes more comprehensible when we consider that Inyangeyen didn’t join the ministry cap in hand, like a man lost at sea fumbling for survival. Although he is not rich to make Forbes' list of the world's richest, he enjoys existential richness that never denies his family sufficient daily bread. His successes and achievements in life are biological fruits of genuine labour. Such that the pastor is not struggling for survival but has been blessed by God for meaningful living.
Long before becoming two-time Commissioner of Works and the pioneer Chief of Staff to the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Pastor Inyangeyen had left tall landmarks in private enterprise, patriotic national duty like in the Nigeria Customs where he served with outstanding patriotism and voluntarily resigned at the enviable rank of Chief Superintendent.
It is to say that his trajectory of entrepreneurship and distinctive public service record are marked by impeccable credentials, indomitable zeal, integrity, capacity, excellence, and consequential deliverables.
More admirably, his resolute choice to serve full time in the Lord’s Vineyard, in spite of his celebrated competences, achievements and potentials that once made him indispensable in Akwa public service and politics is a case study in willful submission to divine will.
Had Inyangeyen chosen to hang onto the iron rails of partisan politics, he would till today still be a factor in strategic circles of subnational and national importance. But, for more rewarding and eternal returns, he chose to sow seeds of the Kingdom, on near and distant lands.
While all glory and impact of his stewardship go to the Almighty, we cannot forget to acknowledge the big and small human contributions of his dear wife, Mrs. Imeobong Inyangeyen, his entire family, Dr. Ukafia, the Church and a host of friends that directly or indirectly keep him on the mission's demanding track.
Hence, as this brave steward and staunch believer in celestial Grace clocks one year in the Lords Vineyard, we can but pray the One who called him continues to guide and bless him as a Special Project Instrument to win souls and move mountains.
Congratulations, Pastor Ephraim Akparawa Inyangeyen. The ministry certainly needs great minds of your specie who serves out of love and necessity rather than craze for personal gains!
Comments
Post a Comment