The home he built
Family
Mrs. Rebecca Bosede Omotayo
Married 1985
The Family
As a father
He was a structured father. He had lived through enough of his own childhood to understand what it cost children when the home was unstable, and he resolved early that the home he built would not be that. His children grew up in a household that was ordered, where faith was practiced rather than just professed, and where the standard held.
He attended every wedding and thanked God for every grandchild. He was still pastoring the week before his health forced him to stop. His children and the members of his congregation would have described him the same way and with the same affection.
Family values
Prayer is the work, not the warm-up
He was not the kind of man who prayed for five minutes and then got on with the real business of the day. For him, prayer was the real business. He expected his household to understand the difference.
Holiness is not negotiable
He held a standard and made no apology for it. He expected it of himself first, and then of the people in his home.
Read the Word every day
He did it himself, daily, without exception. It was not advice he dispensed while doing something else. It was a practice he kept.
Win souls
He expected this from himself and from his family. A faith that does not spread, in his view, is a faith that has stopped being taken seriously.
Things he always said
Prayer is the work
He said it often enough that his children remembered it without prompting.
Holiness is not an option
A phrase he returned to in preaching and in ordinary conversation.
Read the Word every day — not when you feel like it. Every day.
The emphasis was on the last two words, and he meant both of them.
Every believer must win souls
Not just the pastor. Every believer. He said it because he lived it.