Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is the founding director of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World and an ordained and accredited Baptist minister.
He is the pastor of Woolwich Central Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic, multicultural inner city church in south east London having pastored Crofton Park Baptist Church (2007-2011) and Catford Community Church (2011-2013).
He is a Yoruba Nigerian coming from a Pentecostal background. He holds a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and MTh from Carolina University of Theology (CUT).
Israel is the editor of African Voices: Towards African British Theologies (2017), Turning the Tables on Mission: Stories of Christians from the Global South in the UK (Instant Apostle, 2013), and co-editor of Encountering London: London Baptists in the 21st Century (2015). He is also on the editorial board of Missio Africanus an online journal of African missiology in Britain.
He is the author of Reverse in Ministry and Missions: Africans in the Dark Continent of Europe (2010), 20 Pentecostal Pioneers in Nigeria (2011) and Partnership in Mission: A Black Majority Church Perspective on Mission and Church Unity (Instant Apostle, 2015).
He has also contributed to academic journals, chapters in books and various other contributions on the subject of Reverse Mission, African Christianity, mission and Theology and Black Majority Churches (BMC).
He is a member of the Global Connections Council and a trustee of Redcliffe College. He previously served as a member of the Baptist Union Council.
Israel’s research interest includes African Christianity and theology, Reverse mission, multicultural churches, intercultural ecumenism, Contextual Theology, Pentecostalism, Black Majority Churches and World Christianity.
He is a Borough Dean in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and also a Baptist District Minister having oversight over about twelve Baptist Churches in Greenwich/Bexley.
He is very passionate about the Bible and likes to help people connect with its stories.
Israel is happily married to Lucy Olofinjana a first-class graduate in Social Anthropology and International Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Lucy works as the Unity Programmes Manager with the Evangelical Alliance serving on projects like the One People Commission and the Great Commission.
