In Abeokuta, with the gospel and by the Spirit. Nine years of a growing church anchored in the apostles’ teaching.
It did not start in a stadium, with a strategy deck, or with a denominational mandate. It began with a small group of people in Abeokuta, a conviction about the gospel, and a sense that the Holy Spirit was inviting us into something.
Three of us gathered that first Sunday. Pastor Opeyemi Akodu, who pastored the work in its early days. Pastor Taiwo Oladokun, Pastor of TLLC Abeokuta. And Sister Adesola Adejuwon, who serves as a leader in TLLC to this day. From that small beginning on 1 January 2017, the Living Light Church took its first steps in Abeokuta.
The name is not decorative. Light in Scripture is what shines into darkness, what reveals what was hidden, what gives life. Jesus called Himself the Light of the world (John 8:12). He told His followers, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).
“Living Light” is the conviction that this light is not a static idea, not a slogan on a wall, but a Person, Jesus Christ, alive in the believer, alive in the gathering of His Church.
The name is anchored in scripture. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). He said to His followers, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). And John writes of Him: “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The light is not a metaphor or a mood. It is a Person, Jesus Christ, alive in the believer, alive in the gathering of His Church. That is what “Living Light” means.
And we hold to Habakkuk 2:14 as our vision: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” The light is going somewhere. We are part of how it gets there.
The leaf in our logo is an oak. Oaks in Scripture are pictures of righteousness and strength: “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord” (Isaiah 61:3). The leaf is autumn-coloured, warm gold and plum, because the same Scripture says of the believer that “his leaf also shall not wither” (Psalm 1:3). We are planted by rivers of water. We do not wither. Even when seasons change, we hold our colour.
Our tagline is not branding. It is the line that names who we are.
“With the gospel” means we are anchored in what the apostles preached, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of all who believe. We do not move from that.
“By the Spirit” means we are not running on programmes, methods, or talent. We give the Holy Spirit free course among us. We teach when He teaches. We pray when He prays through us.
The gospel is the message. The Spirit is the power. We hold both.
The dream is two-fold, and we hold both with equal seriousness.
To raise ministers who are full of the Word and full of the Spirit. Men and women who carry the apostolic gospel and operate with the gifts of the Holy Ghost wherever the Lord sends them.
To build strong local churches here, where believers are taught the Word and trained to flow with the Spirit. Not church as event. Church as a body where every believer comes into who they are in Christ.
We want to see every believer who walks through TLLC’s doors come into the fullness of who they are in Christ and walk out walking in the Spirit. We want the gospel preached here to reach further than Abeokuta. We want the next generation of TLLC to be more faithful, more Spirit-filled, and more in love with Jesus than the last.
The story is still being written. The best way to know TLLC is not to read about us. It is to come on a Sunday at 9:00am, hear the Word, see how the Spirit is given free course, and decide for yourself.