By Wilson Adekumola
The President of Mount Zion Faith Ministries and Mount Zion Television, Evangelist Mike Bamiloye, Rev Tony Akinyemi, and Pastor Albert Aina will speak at the 2022 family ministers’ conference.
The conference will begin on Thursday, September 15, and come to an end on Saturday, September 17.
It will hold at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Maranatha Church, 22, Layori Soetan Street, Oremeji Roundabout, Gbagada, Lagos. The conference is hosted by Family Booster Ministry run by Pastor Bisi Adewale and his wife Yomi Adewale.
Evangelist Bamiloye who has been in ministry for about 40 years will bring to bear on the conference his wealth of experience in the area of family life.
Reverend Tony Akinyemi, one of the foremost natural health and healthy living experts will take participants on issues concerning their health; while Reverend Albert Aina, family leadership and ministry finance expert, will be talking about ministry finance and money management.
The president of Family Booster Ministry and the convener of the event, Pastor Bisi Adewale gave a rundown of the conference on Friday, September 1 during a press briefing.
He said the conference was borne out of the desire to look deep into the lives of pastors.
Pastors are special people
He says, “Pastors are special people because of their calling and not because they are angels. It is the work they do that puts them in a difficult position. They are the ones that most Christians call first when they need help. They are consulted for almost everything.
“At times, they have to act as marriage counselors even when their own marriage is hurt. At some other point, they have to act as financial counselors even if they have not handled more than N10,000 in their lives.
“They act as psychologists, trauma healing experts, guarantors, and so on. They are consulted for every problem by everybody all over the world. But these same pastors are often accused on social media and stabbed in the back by their own people. But they are seriously needed every day by the same people that are hurting them.
“They stand with people when they are getting wedded, stand with them if they cannot become pregnant, and help to raise money if there is a complication that needs a surgical operation. Pastors name babies and nurture them spiritually
“They conduct weddings, counsel married people, bury dead members and support the bereaved families.
Pastors are grossly underrated
“Despite all these, they are still grossly undervalued, underrated, abused, and maligned. They are hated, not recognized, and above all, they are not well paid.
“Pastors are the second lowest paid professional in the world. They are paid whatever the church can afford. The pains of the pastors are much. But they must not be angry. They must continue to smile as they suffer.”
Adewale noted that pastors often cannot get help when they need help. “We need to ask ourselves where pastors go when they need help. Who talks to them when they are down? Who helps them when they have marital challenges?.” he asked.
Many are passing through difficult times
From findings at Family Booster Ministry, Adewale disclosed that many church leaders are passing through many challenges that they find difficult to discuss with anybody.
“Some of them have challenges with their marriage. Some battle with emotional problems. There are some who are having issues with their health. Some need new knowledge to drive the ministry.”
He said the conference has been designed to address all these issues.
Another major issue that the conference will tackle is that of the wives of pastors.
Adewale said his ministry discovered that majority of pastors’ wives are not happy with the state of things in their homes.
Children of pastors
“Their children are turning against their parents and many youths are turning their back against the church. Most pastors are lonely, sick, and poor. Some work all year without vacation or time to rest at all.” he said.
Quoting statistics from the US-based Pastoral Care Incorporation, he said, “38% of pastors are thinking of quitting the ministry, 51% are from mainline denominations. 50% of pastors are age 56 and above and many are having serious health issues. 72% of pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week and so on.”
The gripping statistics according to him make it necessary to stir up conversation about pastors’ lives.
“So it became necessary to help stir up conversation about pastor’s health, marriages, finance, emotions, and family life. That is why we are bringing the three-day conference.
“Rev Akinyemi will be talking about pastor’s health, so as to strengthen these men and women who are attending to the needs of other society. Saturday of the event will be a get-together for pastors and their wives. On that day pastors will be encouraged to dance with their wives. We will make them understand that it is not unholy to touch their wives.”
Adewale: What we do in ministry
Adewale said what they have been doing basically in the ministry which is about 23 years is to help bring life back to dead homes.
He said, “Family Booster Ministry is not a church and it is not planning to form a church anytime soon. We organize a series of programmes for singles, parents and the married. We help the family to support society. We help children curb social vices”
While noting that the ministry started before he married he said, “Anything that has to do with family depression and emotional trauma is what we stand for.”
He disclosed that it was the day their marriage clocked 20 years God directed them to broker truce among pastors who are experiencing trouble in their homes.
“As our marriage clocked 20 years in May, God put it in our minds to pay attention to pastors’ marriage. A lot of pastors are hurt and suffering from a broken home or emotional trauma yet they counsel people who have broken home.
Pastors who fight their wives
He said, “In the course of our counseling, we have attended to a pastor who said he has been fighting his wife for 31 years. The pastor said he has been a widower for 15 years while his wife was sitting beside him. You can imagine what that means.
“We have also met a pastor who has been keeping malice with his wife for 18 months. We met another one who has not had sex with his wife for 10 years.
“And they are preaching, conducting services and laying hands on people and helping others because that is what a pastoral work demands. So what they do is to pretend all is well while attending to people when in actual fact they are also going through trauma.”
Our books on marriage
Adewale has written about 122 books on marriage. He co-authored about 100 of those books with his wife. He said, “We discovered that there is no textbook for parenting as we have in secular subjects. There is no textbook about character. We have published books on parenting. By the grace of God, another five are being released as we speak. We believe if the family gets it right the nation will get it right”
He stated further that, “nobody teaches us how to make money. We were only taught how to account for money. We were taught how to save money for the company, not for the family. The resources on personal or family finance are scarce.
He said his ministry also does a lot when it comes to the emotional health of families. “We have books that will teach children how to manage failure and several other issues in the family.”
The program which is basically meant for; but not limited to all categories of church leaders and their wives has been highly subsidized. “Participants will only be required to pay a token,” he said.