Ministerial Calling is a Journey of Process, Responsibility, and Grace -Rev. (Mrs.) Esther Madubufo

Rev. (Mrs.) Esther Ekwy Madubufo, the senior pastor of Fruitful Men & Women’s Ministry International, Ejigbo, Lagos, is a product of three prestigious higher institutions in Nigeria. A graduate of Political Science from UNIZIK, a product of UNILAG, MSC in Political Science, and an MBA in Human Resources from LASU. A seasoned and prolific Bible teacher, conference speaker, writer, certified counselor, mentor, and administrator. She is a member of many local and international faith-based and professional organizations, including the International Ministers’ Forum (IMF) Nigeria, where she’s the National Director of Public Relations. She is the co-author/publisher of the best-selling Daily Devotional for Fruitfulness, Our Daily Fruit. 

Her ministry celebrated its 11th anniversary, and she spoke with Gracious Akintayo about her ministry, the state of the church, and the society. Excerpt:

How do you feel celebrating the 11th anniversary of your ministry? 

Awesome, great, and glorious. It has been a journey of process (smiles), but God has been faithful with His sufficient grace. If not for His grace, we would not have been here. There are a lot of challenges in running a ministry. Humanly, it’s not easy. But, because it’s of God, His grace is sufficient and makes it easy. 

People will come expecting you to solve their problems, not knowing you also have them. When you couldn’t meet their needs due to lack of capacity, they feel rejected, and brand you as not a good pastor, who couldn’t do anything despite their explanations. 

What has kept us going is looking unto Him, as our Master who has called us to His service. And remaining focused, because many things distract you from the vision. Once you are focused, no matter the challenges, you will excel.

How do you overcome the challenges in the ministry?

Challenges are everywhere, and in different forms. Ministerial calling has been challenging, but we thank God for grace. The human to financial capacity, technical resources, and other major resources are not limited. Not just that, many things compete with those resources. But by the grace of God, within these 11 years, we overcome most of those challenges, and it has been a great journey of grace without which, we would have packed it up. Many things are involved, sometimes there will be nothing in the house, and the work of God must go on. Many times you will be sick but still have to minister healing to people (laughter), sometimes you are struggling to pay your house rent, or children’s school fees, and someone will come crying to you they have not paid their rent, their children are not going to school, still you have to encourage the person to be strong, put smile on their face, and be hopeful in the Lord. You cannot tell the person you are in a similar situation, if you do that, the person will be discouraged and lose hope. From the inception to the inauguration of this ministry, I didn’t know how big the vision was. Peradventure, if I knew, I might not enter. But, I was following God, obeying His instruction and direction. Do this, and I will do it, go there and I will go there. Before I knew it, it was getting bigger. But at a point, I was asking, what have I gotten myself into? But thank God, when you’re looking at yourself, God is looking at the bigger picture. Some colleague’s ministers were surprised when they talked about how they were afraid to launch and step into the ministry, but I never had such fear. Recently I thought of it and understood that I was not scared because I was following God, and didn’t see the big picture. If I see the big picture, I will be afraid. So, I didn’t see the big picture, I was only doing what God told me to do, and I will do it.

Step by step, God has been leading me, and it has been a process. I was following what the Lord said. If you believe in God and follow Him as He leads you, you will not be afraid.  He owns the work, not me. I don’t own the work, I only hear what He’s saying and I do it.

All the guest ministers coming to our convention have always been men connected to us by the Spirit of God, including the last guest speaker, Rev. (Mrs.) Ajetomobi without any previous contact or relationship, aside from the privilege of listening to her husband, Rev. Samson Ajetomobi at a ministers conference in Lagos. Immediately after the 10th convention, we started praying for who should come for the next one, God told us a woman would be coming because a woman inaugurated the ministry in 2013, and you are now entering into the next decade, you need a woman that has a womb to open the next decade, not a man.

But we didn’t know who the woman would be until it was laid in my heart eight months after God told us that a woman would be coming to minister at the 11th Convention. This is even when I didn’t know nor have I met her or had any contact with her. Apart from the inauguration, she’s the first woman who ministered in our conventions, and by His grace, God has already told us, that she will come next year. That’s how God has dealt with us in this ministry, and I have come to understand that God gives His word every season to overcome the challenges heating up in the ministry. One thing with us is that we follow Him. If God tells us to start running from here now, we will begin to run immediately without questioning or doubting Him. We have learned to follow God because of what He has done so far for us. There are testimonies, and everything concerning the ministry has been a story, a journey, and a testimony of grace.

What is your opinion on people complaining about the challenges in the ministry’s work?

No one needs to complain of challenges if God calls you. The problem is that many called themselves, claiming it was God, and some others did not patiently hear well from God.

The call to the ministry is both an honor and a grave responsibility. It is a God-given desire with the conviction that one possesses the gifts and godly character suitable for the ministry and is empowered by His Spirit.

You can’t be called to the ministry without God’s standards. Those who answer the call will be held to a higher standard of judgment. This is why no one should take the call of God lightly.

God called some people, but it wasn’t the time for them to launch. God may be calling you, but you have to be patient enough to hear Him well on what to do, where to go, how to start, and when to begin. Many hear God without clear direction, instruction, and guidance to launch out, and when the problems start, they won’t know what to do. Some, God did not call them, maybe they just got a revelation, prayed for someone who got healed, or just because they knew how to quote the Bible and preach, they claimed God called them.

Many claimed God called them, and they just launched out. When God calls you into the ministry, He will prepare, equip, and give you all you need to face challenges that may arise, because ministry work is not easy. It is the only work that does not have scheduled time, or shifting like those in the medical field, or other fields with shifting time. However, the ministry work dont have scheduled time, shifts, or privacy. The day you entered into the ministry, is the day you lost your privacy, people barged in and out of you. 

Those complaining and finding it difficult without direction are not called. If God truly calls them, He will make things easy for them. No matter how daunting the situation and challenges, His grace will be sufficient to make things easy.

We know we are called, and know it is not our work, we are just holding forth for the owner. What we only do, no matter any situation, or challenges, is to lay them at His feet for solution and direction. Secondly, many think it is their work, and carry it as theirs. God created the Garden of Eden and put Adam there to care for it and maintain it. God created the ministries, built the church, and brought us in as ministers to supervise it. If you understand that, you are only supervising His work, and know it’s not your own, He will never allow His work to suffer. If He calls you, He will not forsake you, no matter the difficulty, He will see you through at the end of the for His glory. 

Due to the proliferation of churches and different people coming into the ministry, would you support the creation of a censor’s board for the church? 

By the time you start bringing government policy into the things of God, contentions will begin to rise. The fact that unethical things are happening in Christendom, should not be a reason to create a censors board. We have a lot of people who are not called and don’t have business in the ministry. These are people into all manners of wrong things, causing trouble for the church, and Christianity. I will not support the church to be under the control of the government, once it gets to that point, the government will make one policy and close up on both the genuine and those not genuine. Christians and ministers of God should understand that the devil is seriously fighting against the church, and he is going to use every available channel and means, including government policy to fight the church. The church needs to be close and near where policies are being made. We don’t have people in government. A lot of Christians who are supposed to be in the government are not there, and the people some are against the church. What then would you want them to censor? If we have genuine Christians in the government, there will be no issue to oppress the church, and Christians will not be suppressed. But if it goes the other way, the target will be that churches will be shut down.

Little things one person does in the name of being a pastor will be blown out of proportion. The censor board will now be an instrument to be used against the church because the motive behind it is against the church. Gradually they will clamp down, and bring other things against the scripture. It already exists in some states of America and some other countries of the world, they have legalized gay and lesbianism with a criminal policy that if you don’t wed them, as a pastor, you will go to jail. 

It will become political, and the church also needs to be political because they will come with the idea of curbing the excesses of people that are not genuine and stop the fake among you, from entering into divine territory that is not supposed to be ordinarily entered into, to mortgage everything of our faith and believe.

In the next decade, where do you desire the ministry to be?

I desire the ministry to be a global brand and revival agent, this is the structure we are putting in place. In the next 11 years, the Fruitful Men and Women’s Ministry will be a ministry without a wall and will be established internationally because we are not meant to be in one place, we are to be around the world making men and women fruitful, and reconciling them back to Christ without limitation, or barrier to that.

We have established a branch in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. In 11 years, if Christ tarries, the word of God would have been entrenched in the subconscious of many, as we would have impacted many souls for God with branches in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia.

This is our desire in the next 11 years, we are looking forward to the brand, Fruitful Men and Women’s Ministry International being in the global terrain.