By S. Siapha Mulbah
Liberian pastors gathered on Sunday November 12, 2023, at the Harvest Intercontinental Cathedral to commemorate the inaugural service of the International Pastor’s Day.
The IPD is a day set aside by the Christian Community to celebrate the work and recognize the sacrifices they endure around the world.
The vision for such recognition was bred by Bishop Sam Oroge of the Grace Church Monrovia.
He said the vision of celebrating International Pastors Day came to him years back, looking at the work done to keep followers of Christ closer to God.
According to him, the second Sunday in every November, the world will gather to appreciate pastors and celebrate their efforts in taking the gospel to all nations, which is the dream of the IPD.
“International Pastors Day is setting the crucial need of that man or woman that God has assigned over the soul of every child of God. That is how he designed it,” Bishop Oroge disclosed, referencing that pastors are sent as shepherds over the children of God.
According to him, the day is also set aside to educate believers about why God has sent them to be covered by particular pastors, because the state of blessedness that God Almighty gives his people is usually channeled through pastors, even though they that preach the word are not angels free from faults.
“He is not an angel. He has flesh and blood like every other human and needs to be supported, encouraged, and taken care of. Some will say pastors have faults, flaws, and shortcomings, but that is not what God is saying now. He is saying the mouth of his servant is crying and it is time to be lifted and once his servants are blessed, his people will be blessed,” the IPD convener said.
Samuel Reeves, the president of the Liberia Council of Churches, said attending the vision of a fellow Liberian pastor was a wonderful experience, to have God’s word going to the people.
Speaking on key biblical points, Reeves said the word revolves around two groups of people with different responsibilities. As pastors, value your call and be sure of being called by God, and as followers, you are called to care for and appreciate your pastors.
According to him, the current generation has opened room for many to run onto altars in the name of being called by God, and at the end, they go running when trials come by the way of their respective ministries, only because they are not valuing calling and spiritual growth.
He said the pastoral ministry is a place of preparation and giving time to grow in the things of God, in order to guide the people that fall under your watch the right way, and it is not a place for biggity.
The LCC president called on all pastors to see Christianity as a calling that needs to bring all pastors together in spreading God’s word, and avoid discrimination or differentiation of denominations, because the church is not for a particular denomination.
“Too many of our churches are denominationalized and some of you will be shocked when you get to Heaven and you realize that denomination does not exist in Heaven. There are unnecessary competitions among pastors; Baptist churches only call Baptist pastors and Pentecostal churches call on Pentecostal pastors, and so on. We need to work with each other because the church was built on one foundation,” he said.
The inaugural ceremony of the International Pastors Day was graced by others, including Bishops George Harris of the Philadelphia Central Church, Wolo Belleh of the Harvest intercontinental Cathedral, and Oliver Kpan of Life Tabernacle.
Others are Apostles Jenkins Peal of El Shaddai Ministry, Samuel Kollie, Alphonso Dean, among many others.
