In August 2020, I saw a pastor who buried a member of his church in the morning. I attended the funeral because the person who died was my friend. As we left the funeral, he received a call that another member just died. The same pastor buried the other member that evening, the same day. I was at the second funeral too. I shuddered at the pain and burdens that the pastor must have gone through.
Most people see the pulpit; few see the pain behind it. You see some of the bling, but most of them have made a huge sacrifice. Share on X
When we raised funds to get 27 prison inmates released from Kirikiri Medium Prisons in 2017 in collaboration with the music artiste Yinka Lamboginny Lawanson, four of those former inmates decided to attend our church of their own volition.
Unfortunately, one of them caught tuberculosis in prison. His cough was terrible and he was lean. We assisted him to get treatment at a primary health centre and gave him money every Sunday for his medicines and feeding. His family rejected him and he slept in an uncompleted building.
I personally invited his blood sister to talk to her so they could assist him. She rejected him and said she had her own problems. Our church treated and supported him for almost a year and we ended up raising funds for him to go back to Akwa Ibom.
Behind every growing church is a pastor carrying unseen burdens. These stories will change how you see them. Share on XI was in Akure for work on a Friday night when I got a call from Lagos. There was a lady we met on one of our evangelistic outreaches who started coming to church. She was a single mother with a special-needs baby. Her family was too poor to assist her. No one claimed responsibility for her pregnancy.
We rented an apartment for her and supported her. That night, she was on the line howling. Her baby just died. I was very confused that night. There was very little I could do because I was far away in Akure while she was in Lagos.
I called a brother in church who rushed to her house. The dead baby was still in her apartment. The brother got a doctor to certify the baby dead, and we rented an ambulance to evacuate the baby. We paid for a spot at the cemetery and buried the baby.
I heard about a pastor who learnt that one of his spiritual sons was down with Covid-19. This spiritual father still came to the house of his son and had to be restrained from physical entry. He wanted to see to the welfare of his spiritual son. I know the parties involved.
I can recount hundreds of stories.
Encourage your pastors; you may never fully know what they’re carrying. Share on XYou see, one of the hardest things to do is pastoring. You think it is easy to gather people together and grow their number? For every megachurch you see, there are thousands of smaller churches whose memberships are less than 200. Their pastors are quietly labouring. By the way, no church started as a megachurch. All of them started small.
You just don’t understand the burdens and the pains of pastoring. You see some of the bling, but most of them have made a huge sacrifice. Many are still going through that pain. We need to encourage pastors and pray for them more.
Selah.