Bishop Leonard Umunna is founder and General Overseer of the Bible Life Church, Apapa Lagos. He speaks with Omolara Akintoye on what it takes to be a servant of God, increasing rate of divorce and how to build healthy marriages. Excerpts:
What were you doing before you accepted the call to ministry?
Interestingly, I have been on the altar since age seven as a mass-servant in the Roman Catholic Church. I was to be enrolled in the seminary to take the seven priestly vows before I was converted into the Pentecostal movement, precisely Assemblies of God Church, at age nine.
I left the eastern part of the country for Lagos as a young boy after the civil war. I was engaged in so many things such as tailoring, hawking and serving as a helper to my uncle, among others.
While at my uncle’s shop, I would listen to NTA News and would be taking jottings. From this, I developed myself in stenography, which earned me my first job as a copy typist at the Nigeria National Supply Company (NNSC).
While at NNSC, I enrolled into many part-time studies, which helped me to gain promotion from the post of a copy typist steadily up the ladder until I became a manager in NNSC. I served in various capacities without warning, let alone query for thirteen and half years when the Lord asked me to resign and face the ministry work fully.
What are some of the challenges you faced and how were you able to tackle them?
The challenges were numerous. They emanated from family members, colleagues to clients (contractors mainly). It was mainly the challenge of corruption. That is why I tell people that corruption did not start today in Nigeria. My own uncle at a point in time advised me that “People do not wear government cap straight.”
There were instances that a particular contractor brought the key of a brand new Peugeot 504 just for me to award him contracts and I told him that my salary was enough for me. I added that scriptures taught me that the whole world put together does not equal my soul.
How I overcame was only through the word of God, which I have clung to from my youth giving me the grace to overcome all. People used to say that I was carrying government’s work on my head as if it was my father’s work and I would reply them: “Yes, it is because the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
What are the major problems facing servants of God in the society and how can they overcome such problems?
In those days, it was mainly persecution from family members and the society. Then, if you wanted to be a pastor, they saw you as someone who had lost it, especially being a Pentecostal preacher/pastor.
Today, the major problem is that of pressure to be like others; the problem of originality. A lot is being carried away because of financial needs and problem of popularity. To some, the family members find it difficult to differentiate between his office as a pastor and as a father, uncle or brother.
So many pastors out there cannot hear God correctly. If they hear Him, they miss it on application and timeliness and sometimes how to present God’s message. Many lack scriptural interpretation and application as a result. They become conservative and adamant to change.
God’s principles are the same but His methods differ from generation to generation. Next, they should be focused. Do the right thing consistently and hear God rightly or else such an individual will be pursuing shadows.
As I tell people, a truly called servant of God is greater than any nation’s president. I have a principle, “God’s work done God’s way never lacks God’s supply.” So, I avoid borrowing. I owe no man.
What is that day in your life you cannot easily forget?
I have never had a better yesterday. My yesterday was good, today is better and my tomorrow is best. Every day to me is special because my life is full of testimonies. Which one will I tell?
Is it the day I rose from half burial and by God’s providence walked through music? Or the day I went to mock brethren in the Pentecostal church (Assemblies of God) that they used to cry and I ended up crying because God arrested me? Is it the day I received the Holy Ghost Baptism or in hell when I promised God to see me as the last key and pass any message or assignment no servant of God is ready to undertake to me because I was refusing the call to serve in the Pentecostal way?
They are too numerous. When God turned me into a pillar on the altar when hired assassins came and searched for me for hours pointing torch lights on me but could not see me.
How did you meet your wife and how long have you been married?
I never wanted to marry but God virtually forced me to, telling me that to do His work and get to where He is taking me to, I need a wife. He directed me to where to go. I was inside the vehicle going when He flashed the face of a lady to me and I prayerfully rebuked that vision because I never had a girlfriend, never fornicated, never drank alcohol nor smoked cigarette.
I married as a virgin. Well, it happened that when I arrived, the person I was led to was the same face I saw in the vision. I married her and lived with her for 35 years without laying hands on her any day before God called her home.
What does it take to have a successful marriage?
It takes God to have a successful marriage. It takes understanding of the purpose of God for marriage and understanding of your partner; it takes humility, respect and love.
The woman must respect the husband because he needs it and the man must love the wife and show it because she needs it. Also, have the ability to forgive in advance, to give and to keep giving.
To have a successful marriage, the man should do what Jesus did for the church – He died for the church and the woman must do what the church does for Jesus – submit to Him in everything.
What do you think are the major causes of divorce and how can it be avoided?
Incompatibility, finance, especially when the man lacks the financial capacity to play his roles of providing for the family. Lack of fruit of the womb, lack of submissiveness, taking undue authority; insecurity on the part of the woman and when the man’s ego is violated. Third-party influence and when God is voted out of the marriage through broken family altar, which could arise due to offences and bitterness of heart.
Know your duty or role and play it well. Don’t have the mind of what to gain from the relationship but what to give to it to make it work.
