With a passion for community development and mission work, Pastor Funmi Obilana is an author, conference speaker, life coach and the senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God Living Spring Miracle Center. Since she started the church in 1998, Living Spring has opened several other churches in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Under Obilana’s leadership, Living Spring provides free grocery giveaways, free basic medical screenings, subsidized summer camps, free SAT help, STEM programs, free ego enhancement activities and programs in the community.
The church’s international work includes providing boreholes for drinking water in Trukana, Northern Kenya, and making medical missions to Kenya and Trinidad and Tobago.
Obilana studied law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1982 and the New York Bar in 1998. She holds a certificate from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in London, England and a Master of Laws degree (LLM) in corporate law and finance from the Widener University School of Law, PA.
Obilana served with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and the Unemployment Compensation Agency of the Department of Labor and Industry. She went into full time ministry in 2007. She has been married to Tope Obilana for more than 35 years. They have two sons and two grandchildren. In a recent interview with FunTimes, Obilana said: In May of 1997, I went to my church convention. One of the pastors asked what I was doing in Philadelphia?
For the last three years he had been trying to talk me into starting a Redeemed church, as there was none in Pennsylvania. I told him I was ready. That changed the trajectory of my life from that of a secular professional, maybe political, to a future as a spiritual leader.
That decision 20 years ago has led to the birthing of over 30 churches in major cities of Pennsylvania, and many more in other places. These churches are impacting neighborhoods by providing community services. These churches and their pastors have brought a sense of community and family as homes away from home for many Africans in the Diaspora.
They are attracting our African American brethren to a place of identity and belonging and other races to a place of acceptance, fellowship and all together a place of Godly interaction, spiritual growth, meaningful life and divine purpose.
Challenges: Climbing the leadership ladder for a woman in any industry is a
herculean task that can be frustrating, demoralizing and damaging to one’s self esteem. Gender discrimination is open and non-apologetic across race and nationality. Compound that with discrimination rooted in race, you’ve got a double whammy. When you add the layer of ministry you are talking of some very serious resistance because ministry is traditionally regarded as the preserve of men.
The stained-glass ceiling is real and you can only imagine what any woman in church leadership is contending with.
Many feel women should not lead churches and have a cultural push back when they see a woman in the pulpit, and even more, when she is the leader of the church. I am compelled to be true to myself and accountable to God who entrusted me with the work of planting churches for his kingdom. I have tried to be resolutely focused and committed to my call. I must deliver on the vision that God has given me. People who discriminate are part of the side show and I will not allow that to distract me.
The Bible says, “by their fruits you will know them.” The fruits of God’s call on
my life are evident. Over the years, thousands of lives have been transformed, destinies repaired, souls saved from hell, deliverance, miracles, transformed communities etc. God had raised communities of believers who love the Lord and are growing in Him every day.
Life is about pleasing God, serving his purpose and allowing him to use you to make a difference. When God smiles on me, I’m good and I receive the strength needed to continue in the purpose he has called me to.
Your impact in the community: Relocating to the West Philadelphia has been our most community impacting project. We prayed over that location, for over two years before moving there, that God would transform the community, heal the people, and make the community viable and prosperous. When we renovated the building, people asked why we were spending so much money in West Philadelphia.
We believe God deserves the very best so we upgraded the interior and turned it into a showpiece. We wanted the community to come in and see how beautiful God was. I never got tired of that wow! effect when people came in. At the time we bought the building, over 60% of the houses on the block were boarded up or run down.
We believed in West Philadelphia and our model worked. We have seen the whole street fully inhabited, built up and totally transformed. The community has changed, the Sayre School upgraded and new programs running like a health clinic.
Bridge the Gaps: Africans, African Americans, and the Caribbean must all remember that we are family; we’re all of African descent. We must be on the same side of the fence not hostile to each other. My grandmother used to tell how the slave traders would raid and leave families and whole villages heartbroken and traumatized by the forceful taking away their family members in slavery. We all suffered, those who were taken and those left behind. On both sides, there was trauma. Now we all need to heal together.
Providentially, some were left in Africa, so those who were taken, have a home to come back to and reintegrate. Those who were taken have come here ahead of the others to show the ones immigrating here the way and settle them in. In essence, let’s leverage what was meant to divide, separate and destroy as a source of strength, because now we all have two homes. If we have this mindset, the Black communities everywhere will be stronger, richer, and more progressive.
We will then be singing we have overcome. The Black race is a special breed. We are strong, resilient, beautiful and highly gifted. We must not allow anyone to make us feel inferior. We are not! Look at all the sectors: media, art, science, sports, and music. Look at what the Black race has accomplished. We are the ones who bring color to all areas of society. The slave masters and the White supremacist are playing us against each other and exploiting us from both ends. Let us put an end to that, wise up to their games and come together as one to enrich each other. We are not enemies, we are brothers and sisters. We are family!
