HEAD OF CCU SPEAKS: “Sometimes We Need To Apply A Measure Of Firmness” ---Dr. TIMOTHY ANAKE, (FT News)

One Love Feast that really lived up to its bidding was the recent one organized by Faith Tabernacle Crowd Control Unit. Indeed there was Love in the Feast that took place at the Faith Academy multipurpose Hall on Sunday 28 June, 2015. The well-attended event had the Faith Tabernacle Resident Pastor, Ubong Ntia in attendance as well as other great stewards in the commission. The other side of the always stern-looking, hand-tying, ‘use-the-walkway-commanding’ CCU members was generously displayed as there was drama, comedy, choir ministration, exchange of gifts, a lot to eat and drink, and of course, apostolic blessing from the Resident Pastor who also unveiled the new ID Cards of the unit. Dr. Timothy Anake, the chairman of the Unit had a brief chat with FT News at the event. Excerpts:

What is your impression about today’s event?

I am very glad, I think that God manifested Himself in today’s event and I believe that the philosophy and the vision behind this year’s love feast have been achieved.

How were you able to achieve this?

Well, it started with planning. We decided to have a love feast that would really reflect what we are doing at CCU and so I called my team and I said, look let us get our members to touch one another’s life and so we set up the committee and we sold the vision to them and they ran with it and to the glory of God, today, that has been achieved.

What does it take to head a group of this magnitude?

God. God has been really helping me in the running of this great group. To add to this also, I think it is about the membership having trust in what you are doing which of course means that you are transparent and you have a vision that you would sell to them and they would accept and I think we are very blessed.

Since you became the chairman of CCU, what difference have you made?

Quite a number. First of all, we felt it was necessary to begin to impact lives with whatever money God has blessed the group with. Secondly, we thought that it was necessary for us to recognize Jesus’ Wives – these are the widows in the group. During someone’s birthday party one day, we used that occasion to reach out to these widows and then of course like the Resident Pastor dedicated, we have the new ID cards for the unit. Before now, we had the breast tags but you can see everyone is hanging an ID card and we thought that we should do something that would fit into the entire flow. And several other things I can’t recall right now.

How do you handle situations where there are frictions between CCU and other service groups like the Security and Ushering Department?

Well this is God’s kingdom and is one house. Usually there will be some friction. I have been in CCU for quite a while now, incidentally I started serving in the security unit of CCU and that created a lot of interaction with the security unit and we have a surveillance group in CCU; we don’t wear the usual CCU uniform but somehow by God’s grace, I was the leader of that unit for some time and by so doing, I had to broker some kind of relationship between the security unit. For the ushers, I think it is ongoing. It is all about the individuals who intercept at a time, not really about the group. I think we’ve been resolving it and we are going on very well.

Some people are of the opinion that some CCU members, out of over-zealousness, harass members. What’s your take on that?

I think what you might see as over-zealousness is actually efficiency. We have our own parameters to measure whether we are doing our job or not. However, that’s not to say you can’t have one or two overzealous members. Sometimes, worshippers can get very difficult and you need to apply some measure of firmness to get the job done.

Where do you see this unit in the next one year?

Well, in the next one year, I see a very strong CCU that aligns with the five core values that we have initiated and is now an integral part of our training modules. They are spirituality, integrity, responsibility, accountability and sacrifice. With all of these and the structure that we are putting in place by God’s grace, I see CCU flying very high.

How do you train people and what are the stages?

Before now, our training section was just for one Sunday but when we came on board, we thought it was not really enough so these days, we have designed a one-month training and we have about fifteen modules that we must do in a month each Sunday until the final Sunday when the members are inducted.

Tope Olukole, Funmilola Omolola and Lucky Ihanza