The Sunday Mail
Scott Thomas in “Hey, you’re a pastor’s kid – why aren’t you crazy?” writes: “Dad may be following God’s call, but the pastor’s kids (PKs) are just following mom and dad…(and), the only one facing as much pressure as the pastor is … the pastor’s kid.” Pastors spent a lot of time with their flock, and this can adversely affect their families. Children need quality time with parents. This need saw Zaoga FIF starting the Sons and Daughters of Prophets Ministry in 1991. Tendai Manzvanzvike spoke with Pastor David Guni, who is in charge of the ministry.
Q: What is Sons and Daughters of Prophets? And, why prophets and not pastors?
A: You can call us sons and daughters of prophets/pastors, but we see our parents as prophets. I saw my (late) parents ministering to people and speaking the word of God into their lives and those things coming to pass.
As SADOPs, we share this common view. We just bracket them as pastors, but truly speaking, most pastors are prophets.
The Bible talks about them being priests or shepherds, and if you take it from the Bible, shepherds were the once who would lead the sheep to greener pastures. And, a seer is a prophet. So, our parents are prophets and we are sons and daughters of prophets.
We are also in the school of prophets, just like during the time of Elijah and Elisha. Our father (Archbishop Ezekiel) Guti teaches us that we are not just staying in a pastor’s home, but we are in the school of prophets for us to also be prophets.
As pastors’ children, we see what our parents are doing. That’s the line we want to follow through our motto, “We wanna be like them.”
Q: Let’s go back to what SADOP is . . .
A: This is a ministry mainly for pastors’ children in Zaoga FIF Church. And, what we really stand for is to have time with pastors’ children and help them understand the kind of work their parents are doing.
Q: Why did Zaoga FIF see it important to have such a ministry?
A: Archbishop Guti in 1991, during a pastors’ conference, discovered that many of the pastors were crying about their children not coming to church and not understanding the work they do. You know, pastors deal with people; most of the time they are in counselling sessions, church meetings, etc. Because of that, their children were lacking time with their parents. That is when the Archbishop said bring the children to me so that we can sit down, talk to them to make them understand their parents’ ministry.
Q: What are the ministry’s core values?
A: The ministry’s vision is in line with that of the church’s visionary Archbishop Guti, which is to see pastors’ children standing with their parents in the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our goal is to reach out to every pastor’s child individually to make them understand that their parents are not engineers, CEOs, managers etc, but servants of the Lord.
SADOP also reaches out to pastors to let them understand that they must create quality time with their children, nurture and raise them in the fear of the Lord, and help their kids to handle the expectations that are upon them from the congregation and society at large.
Q: Your parents have gone to be with the Lord. What was it like then?
A: Growing up in a pastor’s home is not easy. Our parents were full time pastors, and when we say full time, we mean 24/7.
Q: So, they would spent most of the time with the flock and not you?
A: They would have time with us, but not as other normal kids would have with their parents. Having quality time! So, that is when that need to educate us as pastors’ children and also our parents arose.
As pastors’ kids, we understand each other and what we go through.
Q: Do you face problems?
A: Yeah! You know like at church, people look at you as PKs and they expect perfection! They don’t expect any mistakes from pastors’ kids. But, we are like other kids, and there are times when kids just become kids, but then, there is that wedge of expectation that sits over our shoulders as a PKs, and you feel it and you can’t express yourself like other kids.
The congregants being led by your parents expect you to be a role model, whereas, as I said before, maybe sometimes you don’t have much time to be with your parents, in order for them to mould you into that person that these people expect.
Thus there is that pressure, hence, the coming in of this ministry to talk to pastor’s kids, and to also connect them to have a personal relationship with God.
Q: Are you winning?
A: (Sighing) – Yeah, we can say we are getting there. It’s one step at a time.
Q: There is this stereotype that PKs are delinquent, rebellious…
A: Exactly, every child is naughty in a way or two, but when it comes to PKs, we are the black leopards. But, every leopard has spots, so, if a kid has got wayward characteristics, people cannot say that pastors’ children are no good. It’s not correct.
Q: What is SADOP doing to address that?
A: There are several things that we are working on as a ministry. Outside just meeting as pastors’ children, we are also working on each individual to develop a personal relationship with God – not just going to church, just because my parents go to church, and yet at the bottom of their heart they don’t have that relationship with God.
Our main agenda is basically taken from the church’s agenda, which is to let someone know who Jesus Christ is; being born again; being water baptised; being Holy Spirit filled; having a personal relationship with the God whom they worship. This is also strictly coming down from our father (Archbishop Guti), and is taken right to the pastor’s kid.
As we work with them in order to understand all these things, we first of all want to deal with them to understand that they are a child of God, and that they need to have a relationship with God.
Basically, that’s the ministry’s core agenda – to make sure that a pastor’s child is also born again. And, the challenges will be dealt with as each individual presents his or her own case. That basically, is what we are doing.
As we begin to sit down and also explore our ministry, we are learning that pastors’ transfers for example, are profitable as they enable exposure and benefit the child to get to know and appreciate different types of people and cultures. We have some very some successful PKs, because of these kinds of interactions during their parents’ multiple transfers.
Q: What was once detested is now a plus in the ministry?
A: Yes, we are now taking it as a positive.
Q: Are you saying that the pastor who leads thousands to Christ is not able to lead his/her children to the Lord?
A: They can, but put into consideration what happens in the home set-up. Back then, when this hue and cry came out, the pastors’ work load was such that, they did not have time to sit down with their own kids.
But as Zaoga FIF grew, our fathers also began to understand that even in the Bible God instructs Abraham to teach his children.
So, it was our father Archbishop Guti, who said to us, come, I’ll first of all sit down with you. And at our first conference, he sat down with us – both of them Baba and Mama (Eunor Guti). They just came, took their chairs and said, ‘We are here to talk.’ On that first day, we sat down just as God had instructed Abraham.
When Baba Guti went to the pastors, he told them that he had been with us, and said this was what they were supposed to do at home – sit down with their children.
As we speak now, this is what is developing. Baba Guti realised that we need a forum, a ministry where we sit down and relate as pastors’ children, for we understand each other better, and we are free to relate to each other as PKs.
Q: What is the rate of success and the challenges?
A: From the 1991 group up to the early millennium – we really scored big, because we now have PKs like myself into ministry, something that was unheard of then.
PKs did not want to go to Bible school. But now, we have got a number who are into full time ministry, with some leading provinces, districts, etc. To us, that’s a huge success.
Based on that success rate, we can say that the present generation of SADOPs is very much engaged with the things of God, and with what goes on in the church.
Q: Apart from meetings, what other programmes are there?
A: For now, we hold conferences in August, and we’re thanking God that in Mozambique they had a conference last year in Beira, and we managed to attend. We’re also moving beyond our borders to help them start SADOPs. Our goal is that in all the countries where our churches are, PKs are attended to, and that they have time to meet and fellowship together. When we meet to fellowship as a ministry, sometimes we want to engage our parents. We are also planning social activities like the clean-up campaigns, which we want to take to every city and town in Zimbabwe. We really want to give back to society , and show that we are good and responsible citizens who care about their communities.
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