Dr. Joseph Akinyele was born to his Anglican parents in Nigeria. After his junior high in Kaduna, he proceeded to a Technical College in Niger State where he gave his life to Jesus for the first time in the mid 80s.
His dramatic experience of finding Jesus outside of the church began his life long search for what church was really all about. This search led him to joining a newly planted charismatic church of less than 50 people in 1988, and was later lead by God in a dream to a seminary in Nigeria, an affiliate of Honolulu University, USA and was ordained and licensed into ministry after graduation with a Diploma in Theology. After his studies from this seminary, he served in various capacities for 15 years with this church.
Joseph grew so fast that he rose from just a new member to being the pianist, the leader of the Worship team and then to becoming a Pastor and member of the Pastoral team of this then small church that has now grown to over 5000 member church planted over 11 daughter churches in the same city.
Joseph has experiences ranging from being Worship leader/Music Director, Youth Pastor, Music Pastor, Studio Technician, presenter of the weekly Radio program, the sound man on the church´s Weekly TV program, broadcasted to over 60 million viewers.
Pastor Joseph founded, was member and sat over several organizations including Adonai Orphanage Kaduna, Youth For Peace, Kaduna, an NGO with the aim of reaching youths with the gospel of PEACE instead of revenge, reaching out to Christian youths affected by the various ethno-religious crisis that engulfed Nigeria in the recent years. He was later invited on board the internationally acclaimed Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim Christian Dialogue Forum (MCDF) based in Kaduna Nigeria, as a Program coordinator, (Christian matters) a position he held until he relocated to europe where he then founded the International Worship Mission e.V Berlin Germany a ministry he planted in 2006. He has also founded the Initiative for Change and Transformation located in Kaduna Nigeria, an organization aimed at training young minded Nigerians in Personal Transformation so as to bring that transformation to bear on their communities.
This call to establishing the Kingdom Culture in the nations took Joseph to various continents, nations, tribes and tongues. Among the nations are Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, Canada, Ukraine, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United States, Czech, Slovakia, India, Ireland to name just a few and has just established Kingdom Culture Norway and planted Tønsberg International Church in Norway where he is permanently resident and serves as his International head office.
Some of the visible gifts in Pastor Joseph´s ministry and areas the Lord is using him are in the Teaching, healing, Prophetic, Evangelistic, and Worship. Word of Knowledge and discernment of Spirit are assets in his ministry too.
In his pursuit to spreading the Kingdom Culture, he was invited to be a staff at the Smyrna Bible Institute Norway, where he served as a lecturer and mentor.
Dr. Joseph is married to Pastor Esther Akinyele (Nee Afuwape). Pastor Esther has been a strong pillar to Joseph due to the call of God upon her life and her maturity in the Lord. She currently holds a Masters Degree in Christian Psychology and Children/Youth work. They both have 2 children a daughter Sarah and a son Joel-Timi as he is fondly called. They all live in Norway.
Pastor Akinyele has a Diploma in Theology, a Bachelors of Art in Leadership and Administration, Masters Degree in Missiology and Church Growth and a Ph.D in Missiology and Church Growth. He also has several diplomas, certificates and trainings from various institutions in Nigeria, USA, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway in the fields of, Theology, Nonviolence in the Context of War, Conflict management and Mediation, Training for Social Action Trainers, Trauma Counseling, Christian TV, Radio production and Editing, Electronic Media, Data processing, Community Policing, Norwegian Language etc…
Travels: Dr. Akinyele is widely traveled, both locally and internationally.
Hobbies!
He loves teaching, preaching, mentoring, playing the piano, leading worship, traveling, meeting people, making pictures/videos, and helping others.
About Tønsberg International Church
The vision of the Tønsberg International Church is to reach every sphere of influence with the message of the kingdom of God. Presenting the unconditional love of God to everyone that would receive it. This is being accomplished by equipping, developing and providing mentoring to people from all walks of life to take the gospel of the Kingdom into all areas of the society, as they bring the influence of God practically into their daily lives.
The church believe “go into all the world” is not just geographical, but includes spheres and mind moulders like the Media, Arts and Entertainment, Politics, Family, Education, Government, and Religion. Up until now the church in general has focused its mission work mainly on geographical locations, and this we must continue with. However, we must not neglect the family unit, the political arenas, the media, Entertainment, you name it. Most of these spheres have been almost totally neglected by the same people who were supposed to bring answers there. These mountains must be brought back under the influence of the Kingdom of God. But this cannot be done without the proper equipping of the saints. We need to equip believers on how to be the light of the world and salt of the earth at their places of work and not just on Sundays or meeting days.
