I once preached in Italian church where workers were prostitutes, speak in tongues

Founder of Calvary Bible Church, Pastor Olumide Emmanuel, has revealed that he once preached in an Italian church where the choir and workers were prostitutes.

Pastor Emmanuel said that evangelism led him to preach in the Italian church that had a lot of commercial sex workers.

He said in 2001, he embarked on a global tour that started in Europe, which saw him tour countries such as France, Italy, Spain, and Norway for ministers’ conferences and evangelism.

According to him, he ended up opening an office in Verona, Italy, where he even had staff members, but he soon realised prostitution was a major issue there.

Pastor Emmanuel explained that it first hit him one day when he preached and made altar calls to people interested in giving their lives to Jesus Christ.

He stated that before then, he had people who came to him seeking deliverance from sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, and he would counsel them, asking how they got it.

The clergyman explained that from those conversations, he got to understand that it was through sexual immorality, but he was also told that they could not stop because they were under contract, more like a covenant.

Emmanuel said that because it sounded so strange to him, he started wondering out of curiosity how one could say one is a born-again Christian yet be involved in prostitution.

He said he didn’t understand, but he couldn’t judge them; however, he also could not deny what the Bible says, adding that it was a conflict for him.

“The climax was I went to speak at a church, one of the major churches. The church population should be close to 1,000,” Vanguard quoted the cleric as saying in an interview.

“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 be living as prostitutes?

“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 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.”