IF you had ever witnessed Pastor Chadwick Samuel’s praise and worship, you wouldn’t have missed the zeal he brings to the sessions. The elder son of Pastor D Mohan of New Life AG Church in Chennai is a well-known worship leader in the State.  Chadwick, who is an engineering graduate, followed in his father’s footsteps and took to ministry a few years ago. He now leads the English services at NLAG. Thirty-four-year old Chad, as he is known in his circle of friends, is married to Sumi with a 21-month-old baby boy. His younger brother Benjamin Clifford is also engaged in ministry while his sister Merilyn is pursuing MBA in Karunya University, Coimbatore. The Christian Messenger met up with the soft-spoken pastor. Excerpts from the interview:

The NLAG church, we hear, has a vibrant prayer walk team. How did you get the inspiration to do it?

In 2000, I fasted for 7 days praying for the growth of the English congregation. At that time, I was also reading a book through which God specifically spoke to me about prayer walks. God talked to me about doing prayer walks in and around our church. That’s how it started. We had a season of prayer, three weeks of fasting and continuously praying inside the church. In the first week we worshiped and in the second week we interceded. In the third week, we nullified the powers of darkness and in the fourth week we went on the top of St. Thomas Mount, looked over the City and prayed.

How effective were the prayer walks?

The immediate effect of what we did was that our English congregation grew from a gathering of 300 to 700 in a span of four months.

Can you share with us some of the things that you have learned from your father?

The greatest things that I learned from him are humility, simplicity, living a life of prayer and making cautious yet creative decisions.

Do you recall any difficulties that you faced in your childhood?

I don’t remember so many difficult experiences. But I have heard that when I was born my parents did not even have enough money to buy milk for me on a regular basis. I have seen the blessings of the Lord as I grew up. My parents taught me to pray for the things I wanted. When I was three years old, I asked my parents for a cycle that I had spotted in a shop. They just looked at me and said ‘Pray!’. Every night before going to bed I prayed for the cycle. A few months later, one of my dad’s friends came to our church. He came in an Ambassador car, lifted the boot and pulled out a tricycle for me. It was exactly the same model I had seen in the shop. I have seen God provide me with all that I need.

How were you as a youth? Were you a quiet kid or a troublesome guy?

I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life when I was 4 years old. Since that time I have been growing in the Lord. I have learned to hold onto God all the time. Of course, I have sinned and gone through difficult periods in my life, but by the grace of God I have never drifted away from Him.

How is your married life?

I got married in 2005 when I was 31. Many considered that as a long wait but if you ask me that was God’s time and season. We have been having a blessed life.

So how do you balance your life with responsibilities of the family and ministry?

Balancing life is one of my greatest struggles. With a congregation of close to 3,000 members, dealing with their family issues, raising leaders in the church, being involved in leadership training, organizing concerts, leading the youth ministry and managing invitations from within and outside the country make things a little tough sometimes. But I try my best to balance. I am praying about it.

What are your ministry goals in future? What would you like to achieve in it?

God has placed a large vision to reach many, establish churches, help and develop churches, to focus on leadership and to do evangelical programs just like the concert we are going to do. I try not to focus too much on what will happen in the future. I really want to be a useful vessel in God’s hands. Honestly speaking, if you had asked me this question 10 years ago I would have given you a long list of my goals and what I wanted to achieve. But now, God has really changed my entire attitude towards goals, visions and dreams. I just want to live for Christ.

How are you doing in the area of personal evangelism?

I often have to make a conscious effort at personal evangelism. I try to talk to people in the gym that I frequent, but sometimes it becomes a sort of conscious effort that I make. Being in the ministry, I am constantly surrounded by pastors, leaders and believers all through the day. I am in touch with a few of my school and college friends whom I invite to concerts and meetings. I talk to them about Jesus. I try to associate with the people in my apartment, but that becomes difficult as I often use my flat only to sleep at night. I struggle in the social life outside the Christian boundary.

What advise can you give the youth of the churches?

It’s not worth being without Jesus. If the youngsters of the churches get fired up with God, then the whole church will be revived. The world projects the youngsters as being weak, but the Bible projects the youth as strong. When I was young I often did not understand that what the elderly people said had meaning and lot of experience. But if the youngsters take the advice of the elders and co-operate with their plans and vision, they will not fall.

Some years ago it was reported that you were kidnapped. Is it true? What was the reason behind that?

It’s true. The person who kidnapped me is still not in the hands of the police. The reason he kidnapped me was he wanted money.

Tell us something about the upcoming ‘Eight’ concert.

After the concert ‘Seven’ in 2007, I only wanted to do one in 2010. But God spoke about doing a concert in 2008. We expect a great time of worship to build the throne of Jesus so that He will come there to break the powers of the evil one. Our focus is on 3 things 1) Building the throne of Jesus by praising 2) Casting out demons - I personally believe that every person tormented by demons will be delivered 3) Inviting people to live a life for Christ. We expect God to bring 50,000 people to this concert that we have arranged on St. George’s Ground in Chennai. We are praying for it. Continuous fasting prayers are going on in churches. There has been a lot of cooperation by the pastors.

What’s your take on Prophet Bernard Blessing?

Prophet Bernard is a specially gifted man of God. He prophecies to the nations. God significantly uses him in healing ministry, and more than that in deliverance ministry. He is one of the key ministers God has given to the world. He has personally been a very strong mentor in my life.

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