Ministry of Pastor (Part II)

By Odon Bumba (3rd Nov 2000)

Secondly, pastors must have only one wife, never have two. We didn’t say that the pastor will be a woman with one husband, so women can’t be pastors.

The pastor must be very careful and know that sin can be also in his thoughts. Let’s say that Peter is married, and a pastor. Peter sees Ange walking past, deep in his heart Peter loves Ange and the message God gave us in the Bible: “If you love a woman that is not your wife, you have already committed adultery”, Peter is disqualifies straight away and must confess and many pastors they don’t have 2 wives but in thoughts they commit adultery. They must control their thoughts and watch out carefully for sins.
The pastor must have one wife. Let us see the qualities required to a pastor’s wife.

In Titus 1: 7-9

The Bible says that he must not have a reputation of disobedience or bad behavior. He must also look after God’s business. And, I ask you, pastor’s wives to leave your husband alone and be busy with God’s business. Most wives resent their husbands being fully in God’s business because they feel forgotten by their husbands. Some wives tell their husbands they have the right to be with them all the time. Sometimes, pastors leave the house for 3-4 days, they go somewhere to pray: wives, don’t be worried, just acknowledge your husband serving God. Before belonging to you, wife, he belongs to God, I know how difficult it is but wives, you must be patient.

Pastors must be neither arrogant, nor quick tempered, nor violent, nor a drunkard. What is arrogance? What is it to be angry? What is it to be a drunkard?
If we take examples in the Bible, for examples John the Baptist and Samson: when their Mums were pregnant God told them not to drink wine. But nowadays, in pastors’ houses in the States for example, when you visit them, they offer you wine or spirits. They say that the Bible only asks Christians not to be drunk, but a little wine is okay. They serve you and themselves and invite you to drink together. Be careful! A servant of God, a pastor is forbidden to drink: not only to be drunk but not drinking at all. This is written in the Bible. The Bible says: “Woe to man who offers someone else alcohol.” So, pastors’ wives, watch out too, because you are the ones who serve visitors, you know exactly what is in your fridge and you go shopping! If you buy beer, know that you will be a stumbling block for some people, and that you will disobey God.

Pastors must not be violent.
When they speak, pastors must use soft words and must be soft in his behavior. The way he behaves must teach us about kindness. And he must also hate dishonesty with money. He must have true joy to have visitors at home but most pastors are good when they are at church and after the service they take off their pastor’s costume and leave it there in the church. They become someone just like us. Try to go to their place at 1:00pm (someone like me who suddenly feels like visiting Michael, without warning) and you will see. When I knock at the door, Michael first looks at his watch.
- This is my lunchtime, really.
He opens the door and looks happy to see Odon:
- Welcome. Come in.
And Sylvie in the kitchen:
- I wasn’t expecting him for lunch. His lunch is not here. Why did he come like that?
And she might even get angry.
- I can’t prepare for him.

Be very careful. These are little trials to confirm who you are. Remember this Mum in the Bible, who shared what she had: she used her little oil left to give to the prophet. God gave her back something great.
Pastors must be like that and shouldn’t worry even if Odon knocks at 1:00am. When I knocked at the door at 2:00am, at night, some people assume there is a problem. This is because his own will be there and the first question to ask you is if there is a problem. They ask it because they love their sleep.
- This is my sleeping time. You disturb me, Odon. He doesn’t say it but it is deep in his heart. This is what he really thinks:
- Go away now, it’s time to go not to talk.

Pastors must be patient and know how to welcome people at your place. When you welcome them do it the way it is written here: true love opens its arms and closes its eyes. Forget what you had and hug the person, welcome them and praise God for that because you don’t know what this person is bringing; it might be a message from God, it might be a blessing and your attitude will help them speak.

Pastors must love what is good and must be fair and sensible. Pastors must not make a decision influenced by people: if I say this it will be against Ange, and with the way we work together, this will shock her. So, because I am a pastor I will change my message, so I don’t want to give my message if Ange is present, she would be shocked. Be careful because the measure you use to assess others, God will use the same to assess you: this is not from me but it is written in the first 5 books of the Bible. If you use flattery, people will flatter you too, if you are a hypocrite, you will reap the consequences later.

With wisdom and kindness God gave you as pastor, you will get closer to the person and talk to them.
Because husbands and wives are one flesh, they are only one person, so pastors will start to tell their wives what is happening is other people’s lives. And this will be very bad.
Doing that will break the rule in Matthew 18:15

Matthew 18:15

So if your brother has made a mistake, as pastor you go by yourself to see this person and talk to them. If you went and told your wife what happened and if this person discovers that later, you will be in trouble.

Micah 7:5
Keep quiet even with your own wife

So, even your wife doesn’t have the right to know everything. In our Republics, when a minister can’t do what he has to, the President of the Republic has the power to lay him off. In Zaire, you could be at home, watching TV, and suddenly you see: “FLASH, FLASH, FLASH” and they announce this minister is dismissed and the minister himself hasn’t been told. The minister might be at home watching TV and this is how he also learns he has lost his job, because he didn’t respect the standards of his work.

And the church of God must know this too, the pastor’s wife must know who her husband is. Do not force your husband to tell you everything they have discussed at the elders’ meeting. Do not force your husband to tell you what Guillaume or Odon said, otherwise you will do what Eve did for Adam and make him eat the forbidden fruit. Consequences will come and stay over the next generations. So avoid this. Pastors, you must also know how to keep a secret. Most people can’t, and when it’s heavy they try to get it off their chest.
- Michael, do you know what happened there yesterday?
And I start talking and say everything. You will do this once, and twice but the third time God will intervene and stop you. Nowadays, most pastors loose their authority and respect and they are like simple Christians, they have lost the anointing, because they can’t keep secrets.

Let’s stop now and next time we will talk more about pastors and also pastors’ wives. Thank you for listening.

Let us pray. We will pray for all the pastors and for those who are being prepared by God to be pastors: may God help them fulfill all of this. We will also pray for the evangelists so that God will help them have these characteristics of evangelists.