Faye Richards

I let people know that God is in full control. Even though a lot of people have had a lot of success, they forget where the success comes from. The success came from the making of the Creator. He enabled you to study, He enabled you to be good at your profession. Let's give Him, first of all, the credit. Let's give Him the number one credit, because of Him. One of my favorite scriptures is Acts 17, verse 28, which says, in Him we live, we move, and we have our being. That's one of my favorites - in Him we move, we live, and we have our being, meaning we exist. Everything about us is because of Him. So if you're gonna credit your success, if you're gonna credit your education, if you're gonna credit whatever God has done in your life, He did it. Nobody else did it.

I was reading a magazine at the doctor's office, and this man had written an article - I think he was the president of the Small Business Association. In that particular article, he wrote, if you're gonna work hard, you might as well work hard for yourself. That light bulb came on right then. From that point on, I've even had my little dress shops along the way, I did that for a while. I even did my little catering business. I like working for myself. I like the fact that I could just take nothing and turn it into something. I even like decorating, home decor. I like to work hard, but work hard for myself. People always say that dirty hands make clean money - when you work hard, it's gonna be honest money. I like working hard for myself.

My advice would be for them to be true to themselves, and always be transparent. Be teachable. You've got to be teachable. If you can't be teachable, you can't learn. I don't care if you're the CEO, you can learn something new every day, but be teachable. Most of the time in ministry, women fail because they don't know how to be submissive to leadership. They want to be in charge, but you got to respect the man and woman of God in charge. That's even on your job - you got to have respect for your manager, respect for your peers around you. But be teachable. If you can't be teachable, something is wrong. As far as me, being a woman in the ministry and a senior pastor, you got to make time for your family. When I come home, my children don't need to see Pastor Faye, my children need to see Mommy. I make sure that I had to separate those boundaries. You got to know which hat to put on, and when to put it on. Because if my son is hurt and has fallen outside, he doesn't need me to lay hands and pray over him - he needs Mommy mode in operation. You got to know which hat to wear. But when you come home, let the children see you. The Spirit of God does not strive with man always, for he's flesh. In other words, you're not gonna be in the Spirit 24-7. You shouldn't be in the Spirit 24-7. You got to let your individuality show.

When I first started in the ministry 25 plus years ago, there were people who did not want to accept a female. The lack of acceptance did not come from men - it came from women. So we, as women, have to learn how to pull each other up. Don't step on us, pull each other up. I don't know why the women were so against the fact that they didn't want to hear or listen to a female preacher. But it didn't bother me, because it doesn't bother me what they think or what they say. I'm on a mission, and my mission is to tell it and go. I don't have time to sit there and try to pacify your feelings or whatever. Whatever you got going on inside, that's between you and your demons that you're dealing with. But mine, hopefully the work that I deliver will help soothe some of your hurt and some of your pain. And usually it does - they'll come back and say, oh, I really enjoyed you. But don't let someone else's views of you stop you from doing what you was made to do, or what you was created to do.

Complete honesty. I value honesty. I believe that your word is your bond. If you don't stand up to your word, what else do you have to rely on? Complete honesty is what matters most to me.