Photo shows heavy infighting as Assemblies of God Church factions clash in Kaduna
The General Overseer of Abiding Faith Church, Bishop Tim Iyke, could no longer bear the nauseating meddlesomeness of Pastor Egwuatu.
He realized his mistake only two weeks after elevating this son of a bitch to a pastoral chair. The new man of God has become a torn in his flesh.
“I shall defrock Pastor Egwuatu and publicly too.
“Yes, publicly to ensure that he leaves with disgrace otherwise he would leave with some hard earned members of my church”, he told himself.
Pastor Egwuatu was no stranger to controversy.
He was one of those that led a group of Catholic Charismatic Movement at Oraifite out of Catholic Church over some doctrinal irreconcilables.
Their group couldn’t locate some church practices in the bible.
They had also prayed asking God to reveal and revalidate those practices to them and got no response.
They pulled out and started their own bible believing church.
They would later disagree and disperse, each seizing an item he or she donated to their new church.
Before joining Abiding Faith Church, Pastor Egwuatu had been expelled from four other Pentecostal churches for uncommon boldness in challenging the leadership of the church on issues he strongly believed were not in consonance with his own idea of Christianity.
He had made a personal decision to become an ordinary member of this new church, worship God, go home and mind his business.
He had also realized that men of God in all churches were mere humans with frailties not bleached by “bornagainism”.
Before becoming serious in Christian activities, Egwuatu was the man inside the feared Agu (i.e. leopard) masquerade in his town.
He could scale a high fence without touching the wall. Many people had also accused him of hitting them with iron even though he only slapped them with his bare hand.
The force in him could also be seen as he prayed with his muscle.
Pastor Egwuatu had initially declined the invitation to become a pastor in this new church to avoid what led to his expulsion from his previous places of worship but the general overseer insisted.
The G.O liked his zeal. Now, his fear had materialized.
He was well aware that he had not been delivered from the spirit of insubordination.
Egwuatu liked the fearlessness of Prophet Jeremiah and hated the craftiness of Prophet Nathan who would not go straight to the point.
He would say it as it was.
He also was impressed as Paul publicly lampooned Peter in the Acts of Apostles over Peter’s ambivalence and racism against the Gentiles.
Though Egwuatu was now born again but fearlessness imbued in him by the Agu masquerade he personified was still part of him.
Can a native doctor stop winking from a cured mad man? Even his given name Egwuatu meant “never afraid”.
His problem started when he was bold enough to ask the General Overseer why only non-members of the church from faraway places benefited from miracles during crusades organized by the church for three years running.
He expressed his unhappiness that after a usual weeklong fasting, fervent prayers and huge financial seed sowing, strangers would come and claim the miracles.
He was wondering if the church members were disqualified by God from receiving miracles promised by the bishop before the crusades.
All kinds of miracles were promised and people were admonished to come prepared and they would leave disillusioned and empty-handed.
The general overseer wouldn’t have minded if Egwuatu had privately asked him this fouling question.
He found it dangerous and unbecoming for this man to raise the question during a general meeting of workers, elders, deacons and pastors of the church.
It could demoralize the flock. “Satan is at work” the G.O hummed.
Egwuatu shocked his audience with an eloquent exposition on how he tried to trace the miracle beneficiaries using the addresses they gave only to discover that they provided fake addresses.
It was a thorough research with facts and figures. He was bent on bursting the bubble once and for all.
“A true child of God should be bold and courageous”, he assured himself.
He asked the church to set up a commission of enquiry to find out if someone was arranging the miracle claimers or to find out if their congregation had been blacklisted by God.
He said that he suspected that someone high up in the hierarchy of the church was manipulating the faithfuls.
“Mbanu!” a loud voice was heard shout. It was the G.O’s.
If Pastor Egwuatu had looked up, he would have seen the General Overseer taking murderous steps towards him.
He barely raised the microphone to continue reading his well prepared speech when the General Overseer, a six-footer with giant palms plastered the microphone on his face.
The microphone amplified the sound of the slap. It was thunderous.
The spirit of the masquerade Egwuatu had cast out since he became born again repossessed him.
He had never been this humiliated by a fellow man.
The bishop had touched the anointed and must accept an anointed consequence.
“No anointing is superior to the other”, Egwuatu muttered.
Before the audience could awaken from their shock, Egwuatu had brought the General Overseer to ground, breaking his head.
His left eye was seriously injured which would require a miracle to heal well.
But Pastor Egwuatu should have turned the other cheek. Was it not what Christ taught in the bible?
Anayo Nwosu