Olusegun Akande

I am a pastor in Lagos. I have been in pastoral ministry for twenty-two years, the first ten in a Pentecostal tradition and the last twelve in a more liturgical non-denominational community that I helped to start. I am also a man who has had a long, complicated relationship with my own faith, and who has lived through seasons of doubt that I now consider essential to whatever spiritual maturity I have arrived at.

I do not work with brothers as a pastor in the formal sense — I do not preside over their weddings, baptize their children, or hold them accountable to a church discipline. What I do is more like spiritual companionship. I sit with brothers who are wrestling with faith in ways their home churches do not have the space for. The brother who has stopped believing in the prosperity gospel his church preaches and is unsure what to do next. The brother who is reading the scriptures more carefully than he ever has and is finding that they do not say what he was told they said. The brother who is trying to raise his children in a faith that he himself is still working out.

I do not see this work as steering brothers anywhere. I have my own theology — it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise — and I will name it when asked. My theology is broadly Christian, broadly orthodox in the ecumenical sense rather than in any single tradition, and increasingly cautious about the institutions of Christianity that have caused harm. I do not require brothers I work with to share that theology. I have worked with brothers who ended our sessions still in their home churches, brothers who left their churches for other churches, brothers who left Christianity altogether, and brothers who deepened their existing faith. All of those outcomes are honored.

The work is conversational. We meet by video, usually every two or three weeks, in sessions of about an hour. I do not assign homework in the structured-coaching sense, but I often suggest readings — scripture passages, theological writers across traditions, the occasional novel — that have helped me or other brothers do the work. The brother reads if he wants. We discuss if it is useful.

I do not charge for this work. The reasons are long-standing in my own theology and I do not put them on other brothers in this field. I respect the brothers in the platform's other pastoral and spiritual mentor roles who do charge; I am only speaking for my own practice. I keep a limited number of ongoing spiritual companionship relationships at any time, usually six to eight, and I add brothers as existing relationships taper off naturally.

I work primarily with brothers across the African and African-diaspora Christian tradition, though I have worked with brothers from other faith backgrounds who were looking for a conversation partner outside their own tradition. I do not pretend competence in traditions I do not know well; I will refer brothers to colleagues in those traditions when that is the right move. My sessions are in English and Yoruba.

If you are considering reaching out, write me about where you are spiritually and what you are looking for. I read every note. I respond when I can — within a week most of the time — and I am honest when I am not the right companion for what you are working on. I am not the right companion for brothers in the middle of a religious crisis that requires professional mental-health support; for that I will refer you to one of the licensed clinicians on this platform. I am also not the right companion for brothers who want to be told their existing faith is correct. The work I do is the work of holding the questions seriously. If that is what you are looking for, write.