The blurb at the back of her new book aptly encapsulates her personality: “A woman who wears many hats.” Reverend Bunmi Javia Denton is not just your anyhow regular cleric. She is also law lecturer, an author, a singer, song writer, mentor, public speaker, producer and CEO of a fledging gospel group, DelightsomeOne Ministries. According to the UK based mother of three, her quest to impact positively on peoples’ lives is the major spur that fuels her drive. And this gingered towards researching and writing a book on self-discovery, purpose and mandate. The work entitled The Worshipper’s Purpose: A Journey to Knowing Man’s Mandate was recently launched, and is already on the shelves of major bookshops in the country. In this chat with HENRY OKONKWO recently in Lagos, this soft-spoken author speaks further on her drive and passion, how she manages her career and home, and her desires to see improvement in the lot of Nigerian women and youth.

Let’s start with your new book, The Worshipper’s Purpose: A Journey to Knowing Man’s Mandate. Is this your first work?

Yes it is the first book that I’ve authored. And I hope to write more.

What were those experiences that stimulated your drive to write this book?

I’ve been a worship leader for quite some few years. That is my background. And I’ve gone through the process of building choirs, leading choirs, organising concerts up to the point I became ordained as a reverend of the Anglican Church in the London. And just looking at the whole process I’ve gone through, I began to see the loopholes, the distractions.

There are two things that could attract one to a position: the assignment or the attraction. And I began to see that most times people join the choir, wanting to lead worship, because of the attraction of the office or the attraction of them being in the limelight, or being a centre figure in the church. That is what I could find going on a lot in the church. And I started asking: “What are we missing?” “Why is it that we are worshiping God and things are not changing?” So, I had to go back to the Bible to investigate where we missed it. Because in the olden days, when people worship God in spirit and truth, there’s change and things happen. So, why is it that we have now become like the prophets of Baal, cutting ourselves, screaming, falling down in tears and after we leave that experience we go back and things don’t change?

And then I started doing my research on what “Worship” really is. And that took me to do more research on the original Hebrew and Greek word, which one of definitions showed worship to means “to crave”. And I started to wonder, are we actually craving God’s presence? Another definition described worship as ‘licking the feet of the king’ and the image that comes to my mind is when a dog runs to and starts licking the owner. If you’re a stranger the dog could attack you or bark at you. And I was looking deep into that.

Again, sometimes, when I go to Christian shows, I would see a lot of things that I’m not just happy with, because I have been there before. Sometimes the worship leader would get involved in arguments before coming on stage, or there could be arguments on how much they were not paid, how things weren’t organised or sometimes they argue about the run. You can’t do that and expect the presence of the Holy Spirit. And for me, I find those experiences empty. So, I started thinking about putting something together which is authentic and inspired by the Holy Spirit that would help not just the worship leaders, but also guide individual Christians, to understand what it is they are engaging in. It is a book that would help us in our daily walk with God.

It is my passion for adding value to lives, because I’m a law lecturer, and every year I find out that I add value to hundreds of student lives. So, as a reverend, I wanted to add values to lives of people, especially Christians all over the world; those I may never meet or know. It is my passion to make people learn new things, add value and enrich lives. So I began to seek God’s face, and He revealed so many truths to me. The whole book is backed scripturally, so it’s not just things I just think up and write.

So the book is strictly for Christians?

It is a Christian book, but it is not strictly for Christians. Although the references there are biblical, but the book tells everyone about worship, so if you’re saying you’re worshiping God, but are doing the things that contradict worshiping God, then you can use it to check yourself no matter the religion. The book is for every one that wants to gain knowledge.

You’re a law lecturer, a reverend, motivational speaker, a song writer. How do you balance the demands of these responsibilities with running your home?

I talked about that in my book as well. It is about finding your path, understanding who you are, discovering and thinking about your strengths. Sciences say we only use 10 percent of the ability of our brain. So, if you’re able to find the other 1 percent to the other 10, you’ve excelled as a normal human being. So it is about going back to your closet to find out who am I? Am I just put on this earth to give birth, run a home and die? I don’t think so. So, what I started doing for a long time is soul search on who am I, and what am I here for. What can I do to add value to lives?  And for me, everything I do comes from my passion. Because I believe I’m able and empowered to do it. So I have been able to discover the talents that I’ve been given by God and I have the strong desire to use it help lives.

I also bring the same energy in running my home. I have three lovely children, and I do motivational speaking with them. My first child is 20. She is at a university in the UK. My second child is 17 and my baby is 14. It is a lot of work, but, right from birth, I raised them to be focused. And I’ve never had any trouble with any of them. And I thank God for that.

Singing is natural to me. So I was able to write three songs and did an EP first. But because I became very busy I was unable to finish it. But I had the EP out and everybody that listened to it really liked it.

For some men, it is really a big deal having a wife that seems to be doing a lot other things besides running the home. Doesn’t your husband complain about your activities?

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My husband is very quiet, and he can see that I’m full of all these gifts. And the best thing is to support me, because what I’m doing is not for selfish gains but to leave a legacy for us. And I’m doing it all for God.

But what would be your advice to men like that?

I think for men like that they would need to go back and get their own self confidence. Because I think you be like that if you’re insecure as a man. If you’re secure in who you are as man, your wife’s growth should not be a problem. But if you’re insecure and immature you’ll start feeling that someone else would steal your wife.

You seem to have a very desire to add value in the lives. Do you see yourself dumping writing, singing and preaching to delve into politics?

I don’t know about that (general laughter). Since 1994 when I relocated to the UK, there has been a lot of infrastructural improvement in Nigeria today. But for the typical Nigerian man or woman in the grassroots, I’m not sure that there has been a change in orientation and thinking. And in other to add value, the work has to be done on the grassroots’ mentality. And I’m sure not enough effort has been made to help the grassroots change. And as a woman of integrity, I could cause a lot of controversy in politics (laughter), because I would not be the type that would keep quiet when things are going wrong or call black white.

But have you ever thought about it?

Don’t put words into my mouth o (laughter). To be honest if I ever get into politics I would see it as a way of serving and giving back. Not a way of getting wealthy. But who knows what God has in store for me. Like I wrote in my book, ‘your destiny is made up of your decisions and choices’. People are deluded thinking that there’s a destiny somewhere but the Bible is clear, the Lord says ‘the thoughts I have for you is of good and not of evil; to bring you to an expected end’. So every child of God’s destiny is of good but the choices we make are what end the destiny. So we have to be very careful with the choices that we make, because those are the things that inform our destiny. For now, the choices I’m making is to add value at a certain level. But who knows what the future holds? Maybe it might graduate to choice of adding value to another level. But if anybody calls me for appointment and it’s something I can do. Then why not?

What qualities or attitudes would you love Nigerian women to imbibe from your work?

The first one I would love to see is for women to be able to understand and prioritize on what is really important in life. Many women both young and old have misplaced and mismatched their priorities. Everybody wants to live in a big house and drive big car.

Then number two, is to understand their role in the home, society and at your place of work. What are you there for? Why are married to this man? Why are you mother to these children? Why are you at this position at work? If you understand your role, you’ll stay on your lane. You’ll not be bothered about what the other person is doing. You’ll be focused.

Then the third is for them to seek to know their assignment and mandate. The fourth is to know yourself and have your own self confidence in what it is you’re doing. Women should not feel that they are who their husband is. I wish women can learn to stand on their own feet. I wish they realise that no matter how rich their husbands are there, there is always something to add value to whatever he’s doing.

After this work what next should we expect from you? Will you be delving into singing or more writing?

There’s a lot on the platter now, and I’m at a stage where I want to trim it down. But there will definitely be another book, and there will be more songs. I would love to write a circular book about adding value.

And your word of advice to the youths?

Get your priorities straight. Empower yourself with everything you need to know about whatever it is that you want to become. Give it time, and go through the process. In my book, I did an analogy of the unripe fruit, if want to enjoy a mango, and you pluck an unripe one because it is big, when you get home what taste are you going to get? It is going to be sour. But, if you had left it a few more weeks, and it comes to maturity, then you go and get it. You’ll enjoy it more. So youths should not be too quick. First, get your priorities right, educate yourself, go through the process, learn and build. They must understand that some of the things they see on television are not real. It is all celebrity hype. So they must strive to know their calling and have a level head.