A
case for travel ministry - Evangelist
And
after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent
unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for
the people, say on. - Acts 13:15 KJV
The above scripture seem to support that even before
the New Testament the Jews welcome travel ministers into their synagogues. It
is not clear whether Paul and Barnabas had introduced themselves or that the
synagogue ruler discerned who they were, but we cannot but marvel at the
humility of the later in allowing a visitor share his pulpit.
I have benefited from this kind of gesture, having
worked among Assemblies of God Churches. In those days you can just enter a
church and the pastor will discover you are a gospel minister. He will readily
call you to the altar. It will most likely turn out that you will have the
opportunity to preach that Sunday. In a situation the church has other programs
lined up; the pastor will allow you to say a word of prayer for the church.
Soon some miscreants began to take advantage of this
privilege, supposing that godliness as a means of cheap material gain.
(1Tim6:5) and who worship their appetite as god (Phlp3:19). This really created
problem for the church, in that some who became pastors were there because they
failed in every other area of life. Some who became evangelist came in because
of the honorarium they expected to get.
Stories abound where travel evangelists took
advantage of the magnanimous gesture of the host and duped the members of huge
sums of money. There are also occasion where the pastor invited an evangelist
and tried to use him to extort money from the flock. When the evangelist
refused, he turned him out and lied against him in his absence, so that people
hear all kinds of unconfirmed bad report about the evangelist.
One time a man who linked me to churches as I
visited his country came to my hotel room and asked for his share of the money
collected in the last program we had. When I told him how much our host gave to
me despite the fact I paid my hotel bills and travel cost, he did not believe
and forced some money out of me. He was later to discover it was the host that
kept back the money collected. I don’t know how they settled.
There are also travel ministers who seem to
specialize in working where others have worked. They get into a gathering and
try to teach them what their pastors were not teaching them. These do not go
out to unreached people and when they come they plant confusion among the
believers. Apostle Paul struggled a lot with these kinds of people. The letter
to Galatians and 2 Corinthians were focused to deal with the negative influence
of these groups. All these contribute to the distrust pastors have for travel
ministers. It is not ruled out that there are occasions the travel minister
actually brought a fresh revelation that can help the church but the pastors
are afraid that if the congregation learns that truth, then they will lose
their means of livelihood. Most genuine travel ministers carry charismatic
gifts and the responses of host ministers are at times not different to that of
the Jewish leaders against Jesus Christ.
Then
gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we?
for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will
believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and
nation John 11:47-48 KJV
Away from the bad news, let’s consider our brothers
who visit from Australia, Europe and America. Andy Lane told me that the
impression he had about churches in Africa is that of very remote. That was
when I took him to a seven thousand capacity church. Some travel ministers from
the West come with the mind set of those who had visited in the nineteenth
century. Most parts of Africa have passed that level. We love you and wish that
you visit but that impression is wrong.
Travel
Evangelism is Good
Travel evangelism is good both for the local church
and the evangelist. When the local church hosts the right kind of minister, it
brings freshness and revival. It is also an opportunity for the host pastor to
rest and be preached to. The evangelist himself may be a pastor in his home. It
is opportunity for him to talk to fresh set of audience. From the scripture we
read, it is an age old practice in the church.
The
Challenges
There are two principal challenges in this
relationship. From the angle of the visiting minister, some evangelists behave
as if the host pastor allowed him his pulpit because he had lost his
“Anointing”. In some cases that may be the case but not always so. But even if
he had lost his anointing, he was the one that gathered the people for the
evangelist. It is wrong for the evangelist to talk him down. The evangelist
should remember that after he has gone, the congregation will still remain
under that pastor. If I have some word of knowledge that can hurt the pastor’s
reputation I don’t share from the pulpit. I call him later and then pray for
him. I agree with those who opine that you should have been a pastor before you
can function well as an evangelist.
Let me share this experience. The revered man of God
Brother, Gbile Akani, visited Port Harcourt city to run a conference. So I
decided to attend since I have never heard him life in spite of reading his
books. In an interactive session he held just for ministers, I made to
contribute something and he said something like this, “Hey, sit down there.
Instead of remaining on the subject, you are saying something else. These are
the kind of people who go about copying messages they will go and preach
somewhere”.
He did not know me, I may not be as “BIG” as he but
I know I am not in the league of those who go copying messages. That scene
became a landmark in my ministry. I told myself, “Emma, you see, you may enter
a city and another Emma is sitting in the congregation. So watch how you talk”.
Another thing the travel minister can do is to see
the possibility of sharing pulpit with some ministers that may have different
gifts in the land. This is for those who operate like PNUR and trying to break
new grounds. This goes specifically for our brothers from the West. Most times
the people gathered with mind picture of Renhard Bonnke and Benny Hinn. When they
come and all you have WORDS, though they don’t tell you but they are not
impressed. We call it Grammar preaching and Grammar does not go down well with
us in Africa. It is true some of our brothers are following that example but go
see the kind of congregation they have. So bringing in ministers with power
gifts will help your meetings and keep it from being boring. The spiritual
realm over us is very hostile, so we need to cleanse it all the time through
power gifts.
For the host minister, it is needful to point out
that you note that your guest has problems and perhaps borrowed to come to you.
I have been to churches where after ministering for days, my host will tell me
he will see me later. In some cases I never hear anything from him after. Some
of them who sent something later, sent what is not worthwhile, even though I raised
a large sum of money in that meeting. There was even one case where I had no
money to pay the taxi that carried me. To God’s glory, the driver asked me not
to pay because he was blessed in the meeting. What would I have done if he had
asked for his money?
Something happened in my city few years ago. An
evangelist and his host were quarreling over the money raised in a program.
The guest minister had told his PA to flee with the large sum. When confronted,
the evangelist said that the pastor invited him every year for that special
program. It was a five days program, at the end of which people gave to support
the church and for the evangelist’s up keep. For the past five years, the
pastor gave him only ten thousand Naira which could barely pay his transport. The
people did not know what happened after. So on this particular year, he
prepared to teach his host a lesson. He came in with a PA with a clear
instruction. So immediately they took the money into the pastor’s office, his
PA went off with the whole money. When asked like how much the total sum could
be, they said, more than seven hundred thousand Naira.
In some cases, the people give more when there is a
guest minister, the guest minister should be kind enough to share with the
host. In some cases, I let the host have a larger portion. That is if I
discovered he needed the help more than I do.
It is observed that because of these discrepancies
some pastors block their congregation from visiting ministers. The result is
that people who had needs he had no gifts to address suffer in the church. Soon
they begin to wander from place to place seeking help. Most often than not,
they fall into wrong hands.
Let us cooperate to help the flock under our care.
Emma your brother @PNUR
Emma N J Nwosu is the international President of Prayer Network for Universal Revival PNUR www.pnurnigeria.org
