I faced an intimidating ministry
transition. I and my family were serving in a small church in the popular side
of Ikorodu-Lagos, and I had served in various ministries in Lagos as Music minister and Music director… we unexpectedly found ourselves in the midst of
some forms of a backlash for standing for the truth and that which was expected
of a true Christian. So, in the midst of that journey we had to obey Gods call
to startup our own work. We knew this would mean one of the biggest move of our
lives—both spiritually and emotionally—but we couldn’t escape the
sense that it was the move we were supposed to make. The whole thing felt
handed to us, from beyond us. So we said some difficult farewells and began making
plans and preparation for the new work(assignment).
Just a few weeks before embarking on
our new assignment, I got some phone calls from some friends and members of the
church we served in getting some mind blowing news and rumors here and there(False
rumors). I thanked the this people for their honesty, and told my wife we might
be steering into a tough one soon.
“A tough one” was a remarkably
inadequate phrase here, but I guess I knew from the start the journey wasn’t going
to be that easy.
Before our first Sunday, we had made
plans of how we’d like the church to look like and all… the church program had
been set right from when the vision of the ministry was placed in my heart(2006) and other paper works had been
sorted out— but, in actual sense we were faced with the challenge of the venue for
the church, payment and purchase of other needed amenities. Sincerely we were
behind budget, and at this point we were wondering what we’d gotten ourselves
into.
As at
this point I was off work(no job) and couldn’t afford renting
a place nor acquiring any form of ministry materials. We had to launch out in our
living room. We were desperate to get volunteers and support from anywhere
godly, but the drought threatened to shut down the ministry and swallow this
vision.
Our
focus was to see how to get people to join us and be part of the church; the
more it seemed impossible for people to join, we talked about this after every
Sunday service and the more we planned on getting people – sincerely the more
we seemed to hit the rocks.
All of
this—and so much more that is too painful and exhausting to write about—led to
the tear-drenched decision to give up.
Just barely
a year I was going to let go and forge ahead, we had an offer from a house
owner who gave us a pay per Sunday deal with an unbelievable price that left our hearts overwhelmed… and by
faith we agreed to the deal but, we were short on cash.
Remember,
I had no job and my little consulting firm was barely thriving to stand and get
its required attention. We were barely surviving on my drops of tips from few
clients and my wife’s salary.
We
spent our Sundays together as a congregation and we kept believing we were going
to witness God’s divine visitation.
And after every Saturday before the Sunday
service I felt optimistic that we’d have a visitor, but we’d end up
fellowshipping together and I’d feel so
down-casted and felt embarrassed.
But in all of my thoughts and discuss with my
Master I kept hearing Him encouraging me and making me understand He was
preparing us for something greater than our heart desires and expectations. In
one of our services He took us to this scripture;
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, "Go, eat and
drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain."
1 Kings
18:41-42NIV
And in
that service I heard God ask me “don’t you hear the sound of people coming in?” and we all claimed it and
keyed into it in faith…
But,
here we were thinking in our hearts out, on what could be the problem? We
hadn’t money to print our tracts, banners, booklets and other materials that in
our human thinking would aid grow a small church like ours. Emphatically we had
no finances to help us out of the state we found ourselves, ‘ or rather where
we decided to place ourselves’…
I said
that because remember we had a very daunting situation earlier that seemed
impossible; when we were in search of a venue, and I remember hearing God tell
me to keep designing our banners and keep preparing our stationaries and all,
that He’d give us a venue and in my heart I felt I could help God in that area.
I’d go out seeking halls and very good spaces asking for the price, and they’d
continue giving me very high prices far from what we could ever afford at that
time. Until one of the days I gave up and was totally frustrated and He quietly
asked me if I had finished deceiving myself and I said “yes Sir”. He said “go back to designing of the banners and
preparation of all other stationaries you’d need and leave the rest as it is”.
You
know when we got the venue it was like a dream and it seemed not so true. He
did it seamlessly and it did not come as we’d have designed it to come.
In that same light He kept telling us in our
services to keep building and keep getting ready for the people. Even though
every Sunday I kept coming to pastor my lovely wife, my 3year old daughter and
my 9month old son, we kept putting our all and kept doing it according to His
pattern as the Architect , He has the blue print and as Apostle Paul said he is
the chief master builder(Corinthians 3:10), I decided to pattern myself to be a
builder that is keyed to follow His patterns and principle even though it seems
slow, not realistic and uncertain I chose to follow… This word I found on a
Christian blog caught my attention and gave me hope doing what we were doing
and still doing; “God does not call you to be successful; he calls
you to be faithful.” The thought that faithfulness hovered
somewhere far above success in God’s eyes was a foreign, yet wonderful notion
to me.
I got
strength in this words and kept at what we do, and not just doing it, but doing
it according to Gods desired pattern.
Those
words make so much sense to me and triggered me to:
pray
when called to pray, believe when called to believe, love when called to love,
Speak when called to speak, Confront and correct when called to confront and
correct, Forgive when called to forgive, Stand firm when called to stand firm,
Let go when called to let go…
If all of this is intact, then I have
been faithful, and that is enough—as enough as it was for Peter, for Paul and
the Apostles, even when breakthroughs proved ever-elusive for them.
Friend,
Your faithfulness is success, regardless of the scorecards you all so
thoughtlessly dream up and ruthlessly impose upon Yourself.”
I
offer this with no small amount of trembling, because it sounds awfully
arrogant, but as I’ve carefully and prayerfully reflected on the few days we have
spent on our journey with our little church, I know my family have been
faithful and all who stuck together with us in prayers(never forgetting my ever
encouraging parents) , all this were faithful.
My
message to us is to keep being faithful and never think less of faithfulness compared to
success, because our little community’s faithfulness to this point has
kept us going regardless of all the odds. This faithfulness is enough in God’s
eyes, so with each passing day, we keep building and keep growing, slow but
healthy a little more each day.
As I write
these words, I whisper a prayer for you as you read them—a prayer that you,
too, might awaken to “enough-ness.” A prayer for you on Monday morning as you
take stock of a Sunday sermon that fell far short of the goal you’d hoped for.
A prayer for you after another seemingly fruitless evangelism and counseling
session. And a few prayers, too, that reach beyond the rigors of ministry. A
prayer for you who stand in the smoking ruins of a marriage and you who
couldn’t woo the prodigal home. – I pray
that you be Faithful in all you do…
Because your
faithfulness is success.
