By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
Although not known for controversies, the Senior Pastor of Dunamis Church, Dr Paul Enenche got the attention of irreverent social media users following a paradoxical aspect of his sermon they couldn’t understand. His “offence” was for admonishing members to “live with the consciousness that God has placed a prophet over your life, and that prophet is responsible for your preservation.”
This extract attracted torrents of comments, most of which indicated how the enemy robs Christians of their inheritance: God places someone over you, yet you feel he’s overreaching himself for stating that he has the responsibility of seeing to your preservation! Who knows what the reaction would have been if the man of God had highlighted the honour due to him. Yet, 1 Timothy 5:17 demands that “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.”
Unless there are other aspects of the sermon that one isn’t privy to, the rebuke expressed in the comments is unwarranted. If that message excerpt had been published in secular or mainstream media, the backlash would have been understandable coming from unbelievers. Alas, the report and the misguided responses were on an evangelical blog. It was a case of supposed Christians taking one of their leaders to the cleaners over what is not.
The righteous indignation was because the interlocutors felt Pastor Enenche’s assertion undermined the finished work of Christ on the Cross. Several commenters kept harping on the truth that since Jesus has granted everyone direct access to God through the torn veil, the so-called prophetic covering is a farce. It remains to be seen whether those with this belief have ever latched on to the torn veil to see God. Do they even have the required discipline to access ABBA? How many of them can wait upon Him and discern His voice and will for their lives? And how long can they tarry in the place of prayer?
These dissenters may not even be aware that the Dunamis set man’s statement is actually scriptural. It can be found in Hosea 12:13 to wit, “By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet he was preserved.” The Old Testament is replete with narratives of how God preserved the children of Israel, using prophets. Indeed, the Lord Jesus hadn’t manifested at the time, but since He has and now lives in the believer through the Holy Spirit, how many are maximising His presence so much so that they can do without men of God?
Those who are vehemently opposed to Pastor Enenche’s comment need to state what the role of prophets (read: pastors) really is. If they can’t guarantee the preservation of the flock that the Lord has placed under their care, why then are they called into ministry? While who gets preserved is at the discretion of the Lord Almighty (Romans 9:15), pastors stand in the gap to resist the enemy who cuts life short and whose mission is to kill, steal and destroy. The truth that Christ has defeated satan and handed us the victory doesn’t mean that appropriating the same is automatic.
Pastors’ role in steering congregants from the paths of damnation and from acts that can make them susceptible to the devourer is already an act of preservation. Most translations render 1 Peter 5:2 as “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers…” That choice of words and metaphor is deliberate, considering the extent a true shepherd can go to keep his flock from harm and predators. Also, Hebrews 13:17 points to the role of pastors in “keeping watch over your souls.”
That excerpt from Pastor Enenche’s sermon must have been within the context of getting the cooperation of his congregants. They’ve got to believe he is sent to them so that their expectations can be met by Heaven. Even Jesus, while He walked the earth, required this buy-in. This was why he declared in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” As such, there is no blunder in Pastor Enenche saying what he said. After all, he was addressing the people he’s sent to.
This undue intrusion by critics didn’t start today. In July 2020, an exasperated Daddy GO had to tell them, “I am not talking to you; I am talking to my children.” You see, pastor-bashing has become such a lived sport in the country that trolls now go about looking for hair in an egg. They throw caution to the wind, unwittingly advancing the kingdom of darkness.
Yours sincerely once attended a major Pentecostal gathering where feeds from the headquarters were livestreamed. Whenever the Senior Pastor was about to make an interesting anecdote, the microphone would instantly go off. This happened repeatedly during the sermon. I later gathered that it was a deliberate strategy by the media department to keep the founder from being dragged on social media for what he said in the pulpit.
As the Sage, Chinua Achebe said of Eneke the bird, “Since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.” But at what cost? It doesn’t bode well for soul-winning. Perhaps those muted segments of the sermon would have been the word that would convert and save some sinner somewhere.
If what Pastor Enenche said was out of line, you can be sure that social media personalities who enjoy calling out pastors over perceived excesses would have come for a receipt by now. Netizens who readily jump on the trend of criticising pastors do not know that they are making themselves foot soldiers for persons who hate the Church and believe they have an axe to grind with pastors.
Meanwhile, this column would be naive not to recognise the reality of the god of men backronym. Someone pointed out that such a remark by Pastor Enenche is how men of God transmute into the god of men. Such abuse of privilege has become a recurring decimal that most Christians fly off the handle whenever there’s a whiff of it. This may explain the negative sentiment in the comment section of the said post.
As Pastor Mensa Otabil recently noted, “In many modern charismatic circles, Christ has quietly been replaced by the personality of the pastor. Believers put more faith in a leader’s oil, mantle, or special grace than they do in the finished work of Jesus. But there is no New Testament scriptural basis for tapping into a human pastor instead of Christ.” This better not be what the full message is trying to institute in the Dunamis International Gospel Centre. Pastors who encourage hero worship or cult following must desist because the reverence meant for God is toxic to man.
There’s the other issue of fake pastors. Some days ago, the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, observed that, “There are many fake pastors in ministry today; there are plenty of fakes.” The shenanigans of these impostors will definitely make many Christians perceive pastors with suspicion.
O child of God, it’s your responsibility to discern the authenticity of your man of God. And when you find them to be the genuine article, “Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
VIS Ugochukwu is a sage, storyteller and branding specialist who welcomes feedback sent to nmiringwu@gmail.com
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, views, opinions, or position of News Wings NG, its management, editorial team, or staff.
