About us

Who We Are

“creating a positive counter-culture”
 
ChurchOutside Initiative, a faith-based nonprofit organization, was launched to invade this nightlife with a creative and positive counterculture centered on the message of love and forgiveness and to reach at least 500,000 youths with the gospel each year.
 
At ChurchOutside, we engage the “unchurched (disenfranchised youths, drug users, etc)” by using the tools of popular culture and entertainment in often unconventional ways to push the Gospel to people who will not ordinarily accept it. Some of these methods include concerts, football competitions, singing contests, dance, contests and so on. We are involved in creating platforms for urban gospel artists whose mode of expression may find no place in conventional church gatherings and are therefore discouraged from growing within the Christian fold, hence the constant lure to move to secular music and lifestyle.
 
In addition to creating a positive counter-culture through entertainment, ChurchOutside also seeks to empower inner-city communities where the signature event, The Xpression with CDO, is hosted through relief gifts and other grants that encourage the youths to reach for the best. The initiative is also a platform for mentoring the artists who regularly use the event platform to project their music and ministry.  
 
ChurchOutside Initiative was founded by Gospel music artist, producer and businessman, John CDO Ikeotuonye.

Team Lead: CDO

John CDO Ikeotuonye is a Gospel music crusader, businessman and politician. He has worked with multinational corporations like British American Tobacco and Globacom Nigeria and has consulted for top brands in the corporate and entertainment spaces like Signature Group. 
Before founding ChurchOutside Initiative, CDO has, in his personal capacity, been funding and supporting creative talents. He launched Rectitude Records in 2007 and signed five (5) acts including former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Emmanuel Babayaro. In the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, CDO hosted football competitions in Anambra state, to discover and promote local football prodigies from across the state. 
In 2018, he founded ChurchOutside Initiative in order to put proper structure and reach more lives than he would ordinarily reach. The testimonies from the impact of these unconventional missionary journeys are what inspire CDO to do more. 
John CDO Ikeotuonye is happily married to investment banker, Buky Ikeotunoye, and their union is blessed with beautiful children

Meet The Team​