Los Angeles' Nigerian diaspora has no shortage of gatherings that pull young people together — but on August 8, 2026, one room was pulling them somewhere deeper. At International Christian Center Los Angeles (ICCLA), the church's TORCH young adults ministry hosted Encounter 2026: The Glory, an evangelistic night built specifically for the city's twenty- and thirty-somethings navigating faith, career, and identity far from home.
From the opening notes, the room made its intent clear. The TORCH worship team — a tight-knit group in matching "Encounter" shirts — led the crowd through a set anchored by the declaration "What a God," pairing it with lines that framed God as Father, Friend, and the one "no other god" can rival. It was less performance than invitation, the kind of praise that eases a room into posture for what's coming rather than simply opening a program.
That posture mattered, because the night's central message leaned hard into a single idea: glory that shows up in ordinary people. Preaching under the banner "The Glory," the evening's speaker built his message around 2 Corinthians 4 — the picture of "treasure in earthen vessels" — and 1 Corinthians 10:4, reminding the young crowd that the "spiritual Rock" that followed Israel in the wilderness was Christ Himself. His point landed squarely on the diaspora experience many in the room live daily: cracked, unglamorous, far from certain — and still carrying something eternal. God's glory, he argued, was never meant to shine around broken vessels. It shines through them.
Presiding over the night were Bro. David Eze and his wife, Sis. Grace Eze, who head TORCH and have built the ministry into one of the more consistent young-adult touchpoints in ICCLA's calendar. Their leadership was felt in the room's energy — unforced, familial, the kind of atmosphere that makes an "outreach event" feel more like a homecoming for people who may not have set foot in a church in months.
The evening moved under the covering of ICCLA's senior pastors, Dipo Kalejaiye and Nony Kalejaiye, whose presence gave the night its final and most striking turn. As the message closed, Pastor Dipo and Pastor Nony stepped forward with a direct, simple invitation: anyone desiring the infilling of the Holy Spirit was welcome to come to the front. What followed wasn't rehearsed altar-call choreography — it was a steady stream of young adults leaving their seats, forming a line across the stage, some in tears, others simply still, as the Kalejaiyes and the ministry team prayed over them one by one.
For an event built around reaching young adults where they actually are — skeptical, tired, searching, sometimes disconnected from the faith they grew up with — that closing image said more than any sermon point could. Encounter 2026 wasn't asking attendees to admire God's glory from a distance. It was asking them to become vessels for it.
As ICCLA's TORCH ministry continues to carve out space for LA's young Nigerian diaspora to wrestle with faith on their own terms, nights like this one are a reminder of why that space matters: community, honest preaching, and room enough for people to respond — right where they are, cracks and all.
Encounter is an annual outreach hosted by ICCLA's TORCH young adults ministry. For more on upcoming ICCLA events, follow the church's official channels.