Testimonial from Pastor Tani

Article from Faithworks

Church leaders and politicians alike have hailed the Liverpool Lighthouse as a shining example of church-based community development. Dr Tani Omideyi, the 50-year-old Nigerian pastor who founded the project, recalls how he helped turn his persecuted church into a beacon of hope within one of Liverpool’s most deprived communities.

When we moved to Anfield in 1991, our plan was to grow a church that would cater for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. At the time of our move, black people did not cross into that part of the City. The National Front was known to operate there and several people had warned my wife, Modupe, and I about the dangers of setting up a church in the area.

When we managed to acquire a building in Anfield, a small number of prominent people within the community let it be known that we were not welcome.  We faced strong opposition from certain sections of the community including threats from the National Front to burn the church down. All this time, however, the Lord looked after us and the church grew as many people were saved.

During our first few months in Anfield, God impressed on us the need to reach out to the community around us. We were invited by some residents to help deal with the problems caused by a group of young people, which included violence to older people, house break-ins, and stealing of vehicles. Gradually, and through the wonderful commitment of the congregation, we began taking them into our hearts and soon into our homes. The turnaround in their behaviour was astonishing as they committed their lives to the Lord and became active participants within the life of the church.

Our experience with these young people opened our eyes to the depth of problems in Anfield. Drugs, alcohol and unemployment were all daily realities for many of these young people and their families. We were really overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need that surrounded us. 

We responded by organising various programmes aimed particularly at engaging the young people, including running football teams and youth clubs.  At the same time we opened a drop-in centre in a neighbouring ward for the young homeless.  Through these we began to gain the respect of a lot of people. But the Lord was making it clear that he wanted us to do more. Although our church was successfully growing into a lively, mixed congregation and had formed an award-winning gospel choir, we still had an overwhelming feeling of irrelevance.

In 1997, we noticed that the disused cinema across the road from the church was up for sale. Our vision was to have a building that truly served the people of Anfield, but we had no money to buy the cinema.  In faith we intensified our prayer. The answer to our prayers came when the owner of the cinema agreed to transfer the ownership over to us until we had money to pay him, although he had received higher offers from others for the building. He said he had observed our activities from a distance for the past 6 years, was impressed by what he had seen and believed that we would put the cinema to good use.

After miraculously raising £200,000 to refurbish a small section of the derelict building, it was re-opened in 1998 as the TOP Centre - a community centre with a recycled furniture shop, employment and skills training centre, an information and advice centre for the homeless and a multi-purpose café. To our amazement more people from the community visited the Lighthouse in one month than had previously come through our church doors in the previous 7 years.

Following a further refurbishment programme costing over £1.5 million, the project was renamed the Liverpool Lighthouse.  Several new initiatives have been developed to transition the building towards becoming the first Urban Gospel Arts Centre in the U.K. Liverpool