For all the time I had served in my position as the second pastor of RCIGC, I felt being used instead of being in a position of authority. Pastor Derick took all the key decisions during the leader’s meeting. I could not counter his decision when I felt like expressing my view. He used me as his puppet. For God’s sake, I was more highly qualified than him, I had a Bachelor’s degree while he only held a High National Diploma from the polytechnic. In fact, I was academically better than he was. I could express myself better in English than he could. He was the principal signatory to the church’s account and apart from receiving my salary and hearing the quarterly account of the church’s finances; I had no idea as the second pastor how financial issues are managed. My key role is to preach, teach, counsel and help coordinate the activities of the men, women, youth and children ministries.
There were some key opinion leaders, who shared the same sentiment with me. They believed that I was more qualified than him and should be made to do more than I have been assigned and that should also translate into more privileges for me. One of these key leaders was Mr Ofori. He was a well-travelled entrepreneur who owns quite a number of businesses in Accra. In fact, he was tremendously rich. He is one of the few people I visit when I go on visitations. When I go on visitations, I visited church members who have been supporting me in kind and cash. I usually will not visit folks who had nothing to offer. I saw them be stingy and not appreciative of my effort as the second minister. There were some who pour a lot of goodies on Pastor Derick and his wife but when it comes to me, I am overlooked. My decision or simple principle is that those who love me would have my attention and ministry extended to them. Surely, I will respond to their call anytime they needed me.
When I visited, Mr Ofori we had an interesting and eye-opening conversation. From our conversation, it was clear he had issues with Pastor Derick. He told me Pastor Derick, only needed me to be part of his church because of my special abilities. He knew him to be one who uses people and later dumps them. He recounted his own experience of how he was used and mistreated. “Pastor Sam, you are a hardworking young man and have a lot of prospects but if you don’t think fast and act swiftly you will remain where you are and eventually be mistreated like me. I was part of the few people who started this church with Pastor Derick, I was very supportive, especially when it came to cash donations for chapel projects. I had the shock of my life when I was denied the position of an elder in RCICG. I later heard that Pastor Derick was behind my denial. He told the interview committee that though I was rich and supported the church, I was not committed to spiritual things, I was not punctual at church and my business schedules would not allow me to faithfully take care of the members who will be assigned to me.” He continued, “Pastor Samuel, I was really hurt and even stopped coming to church for some month but later I realised that I had invested a lot into the church and needed to continue coming as a member. I am currently on the leader’s board because I have been made the project committee chairperson only for three years. Please, I know you are a humble and hardworking man, I don’t want what happened to me to also happen to you”.
Before I left, he gave me a sum of GHC 1000 to purchase fuel for my rounds. I was happy with his kind gesture and his genuine concern for me.
I sat in my office later in the same week to ponder over the issues we discussed. I began to see Pastor Derick differently. I spoke audibly to myself.
“Now I understand why this man is treating me like this,” I said to myself. I made the following observations and conclusions about Pastor Derick. There was a huge gap between our salaries and he enjoys annual trips paid for by the church. His car was more luxurious than mine and no one seem to see anything wrong with it. His office had been equipped with the state of the art furniture and technology. It was apparent that if I did not act swiftly, I was not going to move forward in my ministry. I knew I had the capability to handle a mega-church. I started developing ill feelings toward Pastor Derick upon my new revelation of who I construed him to be.
In one of our Monday pastors’ meetings, I gathered the courage to face Pastor Derick on some issues I felt he left behind when it came to the administration of the church. I requested an upward adjustment of my salary since I was also a trained and ordained pastor and moreover a family man. My salary at the time was GHC 1,500 a month aside from other allowances. When I requested that something should be done about my salary, Pastor Derick’s disposition changed and he seemed surprised about my request.
“Pastor Samuel, you have not even worked up to five years and you already asking for a salary increment”. I responded with a distressed voice, “Pastor Derick, you know I have been working for this church a long time now, even before I went to the Bible school I played a lot of roles in the church and was also your personal driver. My colleagues with University degrees are not paid the kind amount this church is paying me, I feel I am being treated unfairly when it comes to the salary I am due.” “So Pastor Sam how much do you think you are due?” he asked me.
“Anything within the range of GHC 2500 to GHC 3000 would be very much appreciated Pastor Derick.”
He exclaimed, “Pastor Samuel, my salary is not even up to GHC 3000, let me let you know that my take-home salary is GHC2500 a month and I started receiving this amount six years ago when the church started growing by the grace of God. For about ten years my salary had been between 800 to 1000 Ghana cedis depending on the income of the church. Please work diligently and you would realize that your salary will be adjusted upwards as the years go by .”
The meeting ended on a sad note, I was not happy about the response given to me by my head pastor. This furthermore convinced me that he was greedy a man, besides I knew people paid huge sums of tithe and give generously when I stand to appeal for funds on harvest celebrations. Mr Ofori was right about this so-called man of God. I went home angry but faked my smile to communicate to him that all was well.
Some weeks later, I went to visit Mr Ofori to thank him for opening my eyes and also to let him know that I have confirmed whatever he told me about Pastor Derick. I narrated the outcome of my meeting with Pastor Derick about my salary increment and his refusal to approve it. Mr Ofori said he was not surprised at all, he knew the man like the back of his palm and that he was highly insensitive and only appears to care about my family and me. Through our conversation, I realised that Mr Ofori was not the only embittered folk who was tired and fed up with Pastor Derick’s administration of the church. There are some six key influential people on the leader’s board who wished Pastor Derick was no longer the head pastor because they felt I was better looking, academically better, more grammatically eloquent and charismatic than him, for which reason I would make a better representation of RCIGC in parachurch programmes and ecumenical councils. I was indeed swollen-headed and grateful for such appraisal of my competence. I began to see myself as the Bishop of RCIGC.
My comprehension of the issue became clearer when I began having flashbacks of our Leaders’ meetings. Usually, these seven people would disagree vehemently with any idea championed by Pastor Derick. They consistently create the impression that the church funds were not being managed well. There was a time when they suggested that all members of the leader’s board should be paid a monthly allowance, a suggestion which was squashed by Pastor Derick and supported by most people. These concerned members of the church were ready to support me and make me great. They met me at my house and had meetings that I would say focused on my future and prospects which will lead me to greater heights. One of them, Elder Sosu, made it clear to me that some of them suggested to Pastor Derick that since I was very intelligent and toped my graduating class, the church should sponsor my master’s course at the University of Ghana but the bishop flawed such an honest and developmental agenda. The reason he gave for not supporting such an agenda was that I must first serve the church which sent me to school for some few years before embarking on further studies.
In addition, Elder Minta, who was one of them, told me that he personally made a humble appeal that since one could work and also school, I should be allowed to take advantage of that arrangement. All these sincere concerns for my welfare were bitterly received by Pastor Derick. Finally, they all concluded that he was envious of me. They had to collectively do something about the issue. They edged me to unite with them and they will take care of all my needs and make my ministry fruitful. “Osofo Sammy God has anointed you and we are not ready to lose you, we shall do anything within our power to make you our new bishop,” said Elder Sosu. Before they departed to their homes they gave me an envelope of GHC 1,500 as a token of their sympathy towards my predicaments. They told me they knew very well that things were not going well for me financially and moreover I was underpaid so they took it upon themselves to make sure that I was comfortable.
After lunch one Sunday afternoon, my wife opened a conversation that obviously showed that she eavesdropped on my conversation with Mr Ofori,
“Sammy what is going between you and Pastor Derick?” she anxiously asked. “Nothing, have you heard something which suggests that there is unrest?”
“Yes, my dear, your demeanour and the manner in which you spoke about Pastor Derick on the phone yesterday evening with Mr Ofori leaves much to be desired. Besides it is not right to talk about your Bishop that way”. “Woman! who are you to advise me on what to say or what not to say? You have no idea who Pastor Derick is, the Lord himself will fight my battles for me” I angrily answered her.
My wife certainly was not in favour of my attitude towards Pastor Derick and this made me feel betrayed by her. I least expected her to disagree with me on the issue. That afternoon I got upset and left the house and returned late in the night.
Pastor Derick and I met to discuss an issue he wanted to table for discussion at the leaders’ meeting. It was about the renovation of his apartment. Indeed I agreed with him that, it was a matter of urgency and needed prompt attention but I was sincerely not happy about that. Before the meeting, I called my concerned folks and discussed the issue with them. We conspired to kick against the renovation and rather champion a different agenda which was in my interest. The counter agenda which was to be tabled by one of them was the construction of a 3 bedroom apartment for the second pastor.
The time for the meeting came and after some other issues had been discussed, Pastor Derick said “Beloved in the Lord, we the pastors have decided to bring before the house a very important matter which needs urgent attention and that is the renovation of my apartment. For those who have been to my house recently, you would see the dilapidated situation in which my wife and I live in. The paints have faded and some part of the roof leaks whenever it rains. Our doors and locks are old and need replacement. Some of the ceiling fans are no longer functioning”.
I realised the facial expression of some of the people showed concern and wished something would be done about the concern expressed by the Bishop. Unexpectedly, Mr Ofori raised his hand and was given the opportunity to talk.
“Brothers and sister, as much as I sympathise with Pastor Derick, I also think that we should look at the predicament of our second pastor too, where he lives far from the church premise. I think by now we would be talking about at least building a two-bedroom on part of our church land to accommodate him and his family. He is a devoted and hardworking pastor and deserved to be handled well, I believe Pastor Derick’s house can wait for some time, after all, he is closer to the church premise.”
After raising the counter issue, the other friends vehemently convinced those they were sitting beside to consider what Mr OFori had said. At the end of the day, it was agreed that some but not a total renovation would be done for Pastor Derick. However, a new house would be built for me to enable me live closer to the church premise.
I did not need a seer to tell me that Pastor Derick was not happy about the decision. The good news is that he had no idea I played a role behind the scene in what had just transpired at the meeting. After the meeting, we met at Mr Ofori’s house to refresh ourselves, it was more like a victory celebration. The dominant drink was alcohol in its various brands with grilled chicken. When it was time for me to go home, I began feeling tipsy but I managed to get home without any incident. My wife was not happy with me because I came home tipsy.
“Sammy since when did you start drinking”?! She yelled at me. I ignored her and walked past her and our baby and jumped into bed. I was aware my mother was in her room so I tried not to create a scene for her to hear us.
Mum eventually had to return home after spending some months with us to help my wife cater for our baby. We still needed someone to stay with us to help with the house chores. This time we were fortunate to have a young lady from the church who opted to stay with us and at the same time use the opportunity to learn some trade around our area. Her name was Afariwa. Afariwa came from a poor family and was the seventh child of her parents. She counted herself blessed to be part of our family. We had planned to enrol her in a dress-making training school once Emmanuel began attending school. She was to complete her apprenticeship in three years. She was a dutiful girl who would wake up and tidy up the house and did all that is expected of her. Our baby felt comfortable in her arms due to the special care and love she gave him.
There were times that my wife would still wonder about the whereabouts of Miriam our first house help. We were going to bed after a hectic day and I could hear her talking to herself,
“What at all happened to Miriam and where could she be by now especially, in a situation where none of her relatives lives in Accra” I interjected “perhaps she found a better place than ours and left, you know some of these young ladies can be very ungrateful, I am sure she had plans to leave long ago because there were times she would sit quietly. I believe she had been pondering over the opportune time to leave us”
“But we have never maltreated her or done anything to her to merit this kind of departure, I only pray she is safe wherever she is now. At least she should have made her intentions clear to us so that we could see her off properly” replied my wife.
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