How evangelism led me to Italian church where choir, church workers were prostitutes — Pastor Emmanuel

Founder of Calvary Bible Church, Pastor Olumide Emmanuel, in this interview, reveals how evangelism led him to preaching to a church in Italy full of commercial sex workers. The clergyman, who marks 35 years in the ministry, discusses prosperity preaching, tithing and citizens’ attitude towards their country.

In 2001, I was on a global tour that started in Europe. I toured France, Italy, Spain and Norway for minister’s conferences and evangelism. I ended up opening an office in Verona, Italy, where I even had staff members. I soon realised prostitution was a major issue there. It first hit me one day when I preached and made altar calls to people interested in giving their lives to Jesus.

Before then, I had people who came to me seeking deliverance from sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. I would counsel them, and asked how they got it. From those conversations, I got to know it was through sexual immoralities. I was also told that they could also not stop because they were under contract, more like a covenant. Because it sounded so strange to me, I started wondering: how would one say one is a born-again Christian yet into prostitution?

I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t judge them. I also could not deny what the Bible says. So, it was a conflict for me. The climax was I went to speak at a church, one of the major churches. The church population should be close to 1,000. The choir was amazing. After my altar call to those who wanted to give their lives to Christ; because of the nature of the message which was living a purpose-driven life, living a life to please God, living in holiness and all the stuff; would you believe that the whole choir came out, ministers and church workers? I initially thought that maybe the interpreter didn’t interpret very well. I said, come on; sorry, I mean, if you want to give your life to Jesus! How can you then living as prostitute? And they are in the choir, ministers, and church workers! And they claim they’re born-again, speaking in tongues. And at the same time they have a contract, they have entered a covenant with prostitution, and until they finish paying, they continue in whoredom! You know, I heard many other funny stories I cannot go into. At that point, I knew that, this place, these people here have another level of grace and anointing. I didn’t understand because I could not judge people. This shocking realisation discouraged me from embarking on evangelism in these parts of the world.

I’ve written over 100 books. Well, the inspiration is from God, and the energy is from God. I don’t think that any man or woman can achieve anything without the support of God. It’s just been God all the way.

And one of the things I’ve come to realize is that even though people think that I’m very, very hardworking, I’m only hardworking in my purpose. If you tell me to do something that is not in line with my purpose, I will suddenly become a lazy man. You tell me to do something that is contrary to my passion, I will become a lazy person.

But when it comes to my calling, my purpose, my passion, I can work 24 hours. So, it’s all about being at the centre of gospel for your life. Like I said, fishes do not struggle to swim; birds do no struggle to fly because that’s what they are created to do. So, when you are doing what you are created to do, grace will flow, inspiration will flow.

In school in those days, we used to have a mid week service every Wednesday. It’s normally a fasting and prayer school. Work, lectures ended at 12 to 1p.m. One of those days, I heard a voice clearly that “Study more of my words for you need to teach my people.” Like, I always say to people, life is only forward but understood backwards. As at then, I did not know that it was the call. I didn’t know that that was an encounter, but I later got to know that it was an encounter I had and that it was God calling me to be a teacher of his word. Because from that point, I had this insatiable desire to study the word.

And every time I read the Bible, I see things that others don’t see. My level of understanding just opened up, expanded, increased, grew; and I didn’t know that it was when I started sharing with people all that I know. With others, we started doing a lot of stuff on campus: under the trees, in village, we were planting onje or two churches. Then, we did a lot of evangelising and stuffs. I became a pastor at 21. I was an assistant pastor in that church for about three to four years. So, God now called me to pioneer and start a ministry, which gave birth to Calvary Bible Church.

Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. I’m not a prosperity cleric. I’m an economic empowerment agent. I don’t preach prosperity, I teach people economic empowerment.