Pastor Sam Adeyemi Celebrates Father at 85

“Look to the rock from which you were cut and the quarry from which you were hewn.” These opening lines of the song of the Jewish prophet Isaiah speak to Pastor Sam Adeyemi, renowned pastor, author, motivational speaker, and development and leadership expert. Even though he has climbed to the apex, he has not forgotten his roots and continues to celebrate them. This he did recently on the birthday of his father, Chief Stephen Adeyemi.

On his father’s 85th birthday, Pastor Sam Adeyemi did not spare any words to demonstrate his filial love. For one, this was towards the man who nurtured him along with his younger brother, Pastor Victor Adeyemi, and set them on the path of instruction and inspiration. Thus, Pastor Sam invited his vast following to celebrate his father with him.

It is proof of common sense to realise that Chief Stephen Adeyemi cannot be an ordinary person. Nobody who was able to guide and guard one as frustratingly brilliant and effective as Pastor Sam Adeyemi can be explained away as ordinary—regardless of how far the word is stretched.

To those who know Pastor Sam Adeyemi as only the Senior Pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Lagos, the man is an effective communicator, the kind that can get to the meat of the matter without ruffling the furs of his listeners. Nevertheless, his disciplined personality shows him to be the kind of leader who is both hard and soft—the kind that Niyi Osundare described as being “a little bit of a lion, a little bit of a lamb.”

Pastor Sam’s prestige has surpassed the bounds of Nigeria, earning him a top position among development (self, community and nation) and leadership speakers on the globe. But before Sam Adeyemi became the luminary he is today, before his beloved wife, Nike, and his lovely children, before he arrived Lagos for the first time with nothing but plans in his head and hope in his heart, there was Elder Stephen B. Adeyemi, his proud father.