1. Unbelief or total absence of Salvation.
I am aware that most of us seated here are preacher’s kids, some are workers in church. We have been involved in our parents’ ministries from the time we were wise enough to know our left from right. We probably believe that we are saved. But permit me to ask you these questions.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? (Mat 3:17, Mat17:5) Do you believe that it is only through him and him alone that you are saved? (John 14:6). Have you given your life to Christ? I am asking you these questions not to mock or ridicule you but to stir up a thirst within you. Just because you are a worker in church does not mean that you are saved neither does the fact that your parents are in ministry mean that heaven is certain. Like I mentioned earlier, salvation isn’t transferable. It’s personal. How genuine is your salvation? Perhaps another question is; Are you sure you have not lost it? There are many who though they initially have their lives to Christ, lost it later as a result of many factors some of which we shall consider below.

2. Inconsistent lifestyle of some our parents.
For many of us as minister’s children, we find it difficult contending for the faith because we did not see good examples in our parents. There are pastors that will deceive their congregations and tell lie which the children are aware of. There are those who will preach peace and forgiveness on the altar but are cruel to their spouses at home. When a child is under such inconsistent lifestyle, it is difficult to contend for the faith that was once delivered unto them. In fact some of them will grow up to become more dangerous than their parents.
There was a pastor in our church one time that gave a fantastic testimony to the congregation about the exploits he did for God in the presence of his children at church. When they got home, he called his wife and children together and told them that the family must cover the nakedness of their father. Though they knew that he told lie at the church, they must never let anyone know that it was all lie. When as a minister’s child you witness such deceit consistently, he becomes confused as to what integrity is all about in ministry.

3. Inability of our parents to have time for us.
There are many pastors who doesn’t have time for their children because of the work of ministry. Some of such children grow up making the wrong choices because they got wrong answers from others since their parents were not available to give them the right answers. To illustrate this, let me share a personal experience with you.
A few weeks after I gained admission to a private university, some guys came to me to lure me into cultism. The pressure was so much on me as they kept on disturbing and even threatening me. I had to send a message to daddy that they should be praying for me as cult guys were after me. Immediately daddy got the message, he called Mum and they started praying for me. They called me and gave me confidence that I must avoid them by all means as such is not in the will of God. They also took steps that I never expected, by doing away with the fees that they had already paid for the session and withdrew me completely from the university to Ajayi Crowther University where I eventually completed my university education. Can you imagine what could have happened if my parents were not available for me? After all manners of pressure and and threats, I would have joined, and who knows what the result would have been.

4. Inability of our parents to provide for our needs at critical junctures in life.
There are many ministers’ children that their parents are not able to provide for due to one reason or the other. Such a situation may make have a negative effect in the mind of their children. The way a pastor manages lack in ministry may go a long way to determine how their children will handle such issues in their lives. If as a pastor you are always complaining about what you are lacking, your children are likely to believe that God has not been fair to you in ministry. The children of such pastors may end up resenting the God of their fathers, but if the pastor is appreciative of the good things that God has been making him to experience in ministry though they don’t have everything they need, his children will end up appreciating God for His faithfulness in their lives. A heart of appreciation goes a long way to helping a pastor’s seed to contend for the faith in ministry.
Generally speaking, the level of success of a minister and the way it is handled may go a long way to determine whether a pastor’s seed will respond positively or not to spiritual matters.

5. Frustrations due to high expectations from others.
Often, the pastor’s child is subjected to a lot of pressures as a result of unreasonable expectation from the world. The members of the congregation as well as the outside world seem to have the feeling that because we are pastor’s children, we should be perfect. They seem to forget that we are also children or youth that are growing. If other youths are absent from church, people don’t seem to mind, but when a pastor’s child is late to church it is something else. As pastor’s child also, you may expect your relationship to be monitored by the whole world! Any imperfection will get noticed. All these undue pressure make many pastors’ children to have the feeling that the society is not fair to them, hence find it difficult to contend for the faith. But please remember that there is no crime in falling. The only crime is staying down when you have fallen.

6. Unholy influences.
A pastor’s seed who is not selective about the friend he moves or who loses him/her identity just so they can fit in with friends may lose the faith that was delivered unto him instead of contending for it. For instance, when you are admitted into the university and you discover for the first time that you are now to largely take your own decisions about who to move with and you discover how trendy things that your parents warned you against is. You may as such be tempted to try something new which may have a negative effect on your spiritual life or have eternal consequences. Sometimes when unbelieving friends introduce us to ideas that will not help our faith, we look at our parents ideas as ‘old school ideas’. However, many realized later that when they make their parents ideas to appear as old school ideas, it is like throwing away the provisions of God for their lives. Unholy friends is therefore one of the major reasons why many of us are not able to contend for the faith that was delivered to us because by the time it is realized that they went into error, the damage might have become irreversible.

7. Distractions.
In the world today, it is as if we have more distractions than encouragers concerning contending for the faith. Especially in this era of the internet, it is so difficult for the ministers’ seed not to be distracted. The internet makes things that our parents once forbade us to see to become commonplace for us through the internet. Parents have mostly lost control because the control is really in the hands of the youth. The social media has so much widened our horizons that it is only a solid foundation in the faith that can make you to be able to hold on to the faith which your parents delivered into your hands. From Insta, to facebook, to Snap chat to whatsapp, it takes the grace of God for youths to stay focused. For instance, it is now evident that it is going to be extremely difficult to bring the youth back to the era of carrying the big Bible with concordance that our dads and mums used to carry about as ministers. Now we mostly depend on our tabs, but our tabs have other attractive options that may make us to pretend as if we are reading from it while we are actually reading a message from our friends or even watching pornography!
Even if you have the intention of going to your Bible app, all these social media platforms have been designed to be much more attractive than the word of God that you were originally looking for. The social media is a major challenge which takes a youth that has got deep roots in the world of God or sheer determination and the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome.

CONCLUSION
Though our salvation is personal, we must always realize as ministers’ children that we owe God the responsibility of contending for the faith that was delivered unto us. Often, it does not necessarily mean taking over the ministry of our parents as God may call us into another assignment that is different from that of our parents. However we must realize that despite the labour of our parents in ministry, they may be judged unfaithful on the account of whether or not we are able to contend for the faith that once was delivered unto us. We will also be held accountable for our children and the next generation of believers that are coming after us. Let there be the determination to stand firm in our faith. May our parents not be judged on the account of errors that we committed in Jesus name.
Thank you.

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH. Mike Adedamola Oluniyi.(Being a ministration during Ministers’ Seed Conference 2021)”Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3)
While preparing for this conference, the holy Spirit dropped something in my spirit that I want us to Look into as we begin discussions this morning.Some of us had the opportunity to study social studies or Civic Education. We were taught the definition of family. We were told that a group of people related by blood or marriages is referred to as a family. The natural order of things is that father and mother birth children who also take on spouses and have their own children and the first couple become grandparents. This entire family depends on each other as should be. Depending on how affluent they are, the grandfather covers the children and grandchildren and ensures that they are not in trouble. The parents could also influence things to go in the favour of their children. All this are not so bad because of cause that is what parents are for, to provide for, guide and protect us. Some of us seated here have or still in fact believe that the same thing operates in the kingdom of God. We believe that our parents’ Goodwill with God is enough to cover us. We believe that since our parents are preachers or commitment church workers, their salvation covers us children too.I want us to know that God has no grandchildren. Salvation therefore is as personal as it gets. I am certain of this because the Bible says in the book of John 14:6 that ‘I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the father except through me’. As much as we would want to be willed our fathers salvation just as all other earthly possessions that may like to get from them and as much as our fathers would like to do the same, the Bible says that; ‘Yes, each of us will give personal account to God God’ {Romans 14:12 (NLT)} There are no hand me downs when it comes to the issue if salvation.At the same time however, looking at the scriptures will make us to realize that though salvation is personal, it is something that God hates when a minister of God does not raise his children in a way that will make such children to be useful for God. Prophet Eli, one of the foremost prophets in the land of Israel, got into trouble with God, despite his exploits for God because of the way he raised his children. The following were the words of God to the prophet through young Samuel;
“For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever.” (1Sam.3:13-14)
If you also examine the life of Prophet Samuel himself, you will discover that the same thing happened.  While in the case of Eli, God judged him for not restraining his children from evil, Samuel was judged because his own children departed from God in his old age.God also views succession in kingship the same way, in fact, it was only when the children of the incumbent were not available that the positions became vacant.

You may be wondering why this introduction is examining the connection between family lineage in matters of faith and ministry.  I feel such background is important for us because of the theme of this conference, CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH.  Why should we contend for the faith as ministers children.  Well, seriously speaking, there are several reasons why we must contend for the faith as pastors children.  However, that is for another speaker, Pastor Femi Emmanuel to speak on.  I am to look at the challenges which we have as minister’s children in contending for the faith that has been delivered to us.