Mama Ephraim entered the room and met Pastor in a sober mood. She could sense that all was not well. She inquired what the matter was.

“I just got a phone call from the General Overseer. He ask me to report to the headquarter tomorrow morning. I don’t think that all is well. I had the feeling that the church members must have gone to report me to him. You know the consequence.”

“A clear conscience fears no accusation. I am a witness that you have shepherded this church. You often go out of your comfort zone to ensure that things work well for your members. You pray, admonish, encourage and reprove. If at this point, God say that our stay here is over, so be it. I have no regret. We will move up to higher responsibilities.”

“I think that you are right. Let the will of God be done.”

***********
Pastor’s heart was pounding vigorously as he entered the General Overseer’s office. Though the General Overseer’s calm expression helped in stabilizing him a bit. After a very brief exchange of pleasantries, the General Overseer launched into the reason of inviting him.

“How are things going in your church? I mean the relationship between you and your members,” he asked almost immediately, steading his gaze on pastor Ephraim.

“Sir, it is not really cordial. Some members of the church have been giving me issues. It started after about six months that I resumed in the church. One of the elders whose shop was in the church street, requested that I connect his shop to church power supply and I declined. That was the only issue I could remember. Since then, he has not really been happy with me. I had the feeling that because of that and other reasons I may not know, he mobilized some other members of the church against me.”

“This just a feeling that you have which means, that you are not sure. As the shepherd of the church have you made an effort to draw them close and really find out what their grievances were?” the General Overseer asked.

“Yes sir. I have made an attempt. At one point, I invited them to a love feast. They came but some of them refused to eat the food. I had to kneel and beg them to forgive, if I offended them in any way but I received a heartless rejection.”

“You have a six member church elders. How many of them are in support of your programmes?”

“Two are with me, Three are against me, while one is neutral.”

“That is not too good. Not good at all. That means you don’t even have the support of half of your executive committee. It means you have lost grip of the church.”

“Sir I have the support of majority of the members.”

“That is okay. What of your neighbours who are not church members. How are you coping with them?”

“Everything have been well until recently, when one of the landlords raised an unfounded accusation against me. He said that I was disturbing his sleep with my prayers. He accused me of using microphone for my personal prayer. All these are false. None of such happened.”

“Pastor Ephraim, I must tell you that I am not happy with the news I got from few of your church members and even one of your neighbours. They really painted a bad picture of you. One of your neighbours brought report against you. I decided to contact the most senior elder in your church, his report was even worse than what your neighbour told me. That does not mean that I believed all that they said. At least, this is not the first church you have pastored. I recalled vividly that your former church never wanted you to be transferred. They wept profusely when they received the news of your transfer. In fact, some of them came to meet me, requesting that the transfer should be cancelled. On the other hand, the church you are pastoring now has enjoyed relative peace with all the ministers that have pastored them. They have never reported any of their pastors to me. The neighbour who came to report you, even told me that he had been the landlord there for about 10 years. He had never had problem with any Pastor. Why is your case different?”

“Daddy, I don’t really understand what is going on. With the small ability God gave to me, I have tried to be the best that I could be to my members. I don’t know how I went wrong. However, I am sure that they must have given malicious and untrue report about me.”

“It’s okay. Like I said, I am not blaming you for the situation. I will also not allow the church to suffer. The best is to transfer you to another church. Be prepared to move any moment from now. But mind you, it is not a demotion. We will take you to a bigger church. Congratulations in advance.

Pastor bowed his head and tears flowed freely from his eyes.

“Father, I bow to your will. No matter how painful it is,” Pastor muttered.