PASTORS WHO RUN FROM CHURCH TO CHURCH HAVE IDENTITY CRISIS

Pastors who run from church to church have identity crisis —Peace Emmanuel

By RACHAEL AGUNTA
Saturday , March 06 , 2010

•Grace

Pastor Peace Emmanuel was a teacher but abandoned the teaching profession when God spoke to her. This was not funny because her dream was to become a politician. Her calling was obvious when God told her to clean up her certificate and put in the box because she was never going to use it. All these she found so frustrating but today, she is making impact and affecting lives through her ministry of emotions and recouncialiation. In an interview with Saturday Sun , She spoke on her conviction, challenges of a female minister, why she wears jewelries and other issues.

Women were meant to keep quiet in the church. What is your take on this?

When Jesus died, he did not die for the men. He died for all, including the women. If a woman finds what is right to do like reaching out to people, helping them to stand their ground and helping them to live pure, is that wrong? The bible didn't say the women should not talk. Even, when Jesus died and resurrected, the first person that went out, as an evangelist was a woman.

I am begging the women in the name of God not to keep quiet when things are going wrong and I know that God will be glad to see women rise and do what is right. If you go to the book of Judges 4vs4, Deborah was a woman, in Judges 5-6, the same Deborah arose even while the men were there, and spoke. What she handled became a law. It was a retrieval of a nation that would have been closed forever. But God decided to use a woman. If God can use a donkey, women should not keep quiet.

Her conviction, that she was actually called
It was more like an encounter. It began when I was growing. There were lots of prophecies but because I am naturally stubborn, I never believed any. Later, it became a burden. As the burden was becoming heavier, I didn't know it was a call. I didn't even know how to explain what it was but I found out I was so keen on relationship issues and matters that had to do with marriages. Why people break up? Why people are hurt? Why can't they be happy?

All these questions I kept pondering in my heart. If I see people in a relationship that has broken, I would cry my eyes out, as if I am involved. It was getting out of hand and I began to see revelations where I was handling cases, talking to people and they smile. There was one I saw that was very outstanding that I had to go and ask somebody I trusted so much. Then, I haven't met my husband. He just told me that I had a call and I was not happy because I wanted to be in politics. I even felt it was politics God was speaking about.

Challenges of a female minister
When it comes to young people, they would come for counselling but most of them don't follow the counsel. They have their minds made up. Even when you counsel in sincerity, some of them still go against your counsel. It is painful when you have taken time to counsel someone, you still see the person ending badly. It makes me weep. I expect that after I have counselled someone especially those that have all it take to stand informatively, biblically and experientially.

Their fallen apart makes me feel I have lost something. Some I don't even know but by virtue of call, I am tied to them. When it comes to marriage, the challenge I am facing is that I don't know why two people cannot live together in happiness. How could somebody leave his parents and say I am getting married only for the person to wake up one day and say he is no longer interested. I sincerely pray that a lot of believers will arise and live well in their homes, no matter the huddles. I know it will come but so long as you have left your father and cleaved to your wife, they should try. The greatest of the challenge is that people tend to look down on the ministry. They think that emotional ministry is not supposed to be. They think it is what they can walk out on but Sampson tried it and he went down. No matter how big and successful a man is, if his emotions are not in place, he is a bomb going somewhere to explode. So, I believe that emotional ministry should be given a place in the church, in our lives and destinies. We have looked at this sex issues and left it that it shouldn't be talked in the church now, almost all the sisters in the church are pregnant. Now, the pastors are coming back to reality.

Courtship and duration
Courtship is a must. There is no biblical standard for timing but it is a must. You can't marry a stranger. There are so many things you need to learn and you cannot learn about a person in a day neither can you learn it in hundred years. But to an extent, there are few information that will be handed out to you, that will help you to see if it will work or not. Courtship is just like a formular for solving a problem and there is no perfect being anywhere. In courtship, there are some traces of some things you see that those traces will help you to pull down the mountains if you are ready and if you are not ready at that point, you break it. That is why in courtship, it is time for discussion and not sleeping together. It is time to know one another and time to ask a lot of questions. Getting to know the family and the challenges ahead of you and to make up your mind to face the challenges.

Where can the people in courtship meet?
Visitation is not allowed. I don't like that to an extent, but whatever rule the church has made is to help us and not that they are trying to stop us. Even if the church follows you to everywhere, you can still do whatever you want to do. If there should be a visitation, let it be that the man visits the family of the girl. Then, once in a long while, the girl can visit the man's family. If the man crosses over to your own family, there is a kind of rule. Naturally, he would want to behave himself but when you are in his territory, he may lose his temper and act. I cannot say yes or no, but in everything, let us see God. If you want to be together, you can go to programmes, talk out, with the consent of your pastor. There are Eateries, open places where you know that nothing funny will ever happen. I am not saying that something funny cannot happen anywhere but it will also help you to build your emotions so that, whatever the devil has planned, in the presence of others, you will keep your emotions together because whenever a man or woman stays together, the environment changes. It is natural