This piece of article may generate a lot of negative backlash, but at least my voice represents that of some remote Nigerians who night and day are increasingly getting confused as what the real intentions of some Churches in Nigeria are.
As I write this blog, a friend of mine questioned my right to say anything against the leaders of these churches.He said,"Patrick are you a Pastor? please leave this issue for men and women of God to discuss" he said.
My friend advice might come out as a result of naivety and wrong baseless beliefs because to many like him any issue that has to do with the Church, can only be discussed or mentioned by a man of God, not just any Christian but by an ordained preacher to avoid the wrought of God.
Eventually I made him to understand that I am also an ordained preacher as well, then he drew a big breath of relief and eventually gave me a breathing space to continue my blogging.
The fear in which my friend and many others like him were buried in all these years has made discussion such like this a taboo but to some, time has come for it to be discussed as it has generated strong silent debates ever since it surfaced publicly.
Needless for me to tread on the Biblical verses to support my argument, the Bible is there for anyone to read and deduce for themselves the truth therein.
The church in Nigeria has done many great things in the last 30 years especially when the pentecostal movement famously demonstrated Gods power with biblical teaching that made it became widely accepted.
The likes of Arc.Bishop Idahosa of the blessed memory,Pastor Kumiyi, Rev.Ezekiel, Pastor Oritsejafor and Rev.Uma Okpai and many others brought a different dimension to biblical preaching, tele-evangelism and healing miracles with several crusades all over Nigeria showcasing foreign preachers like Reinhard Bonnke, Benny Hinn and many others at the early stage and shortly after, mega Churches began to emerge with powerful Ministers like Pastor Adeboye,Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo,Pastors Tunde Bakere, Mike Okonkwo,Okotie, Olukoya,and Chris of Christ embassy and not forgetting Pastor T.B Joshua(no matter how controversial you may see him) and many others.
The emergence of these strong army of God brought diverse miracles and led many to believe and Pentecostalism blossom astronomically. The expansion of the church was welcomed by many, people demonstrated their faith by selling off their properties to support the church and many landed properties were freely given to Churches or sold to them with little to nothing to say the least.
The passion and charity that greeted some Pastors actually became infectious and many abused and took advantage of these benevolence from numerous worshipers, exploiting and mesmerizing a lot of them, yet everybody moves on and see it as a blessing in disguise.
Listen Folks, when it comes to how preachers preach or their ways of lives I do have my reservation alright but I will not be bothered and truthfully it is none of my business, because it might be from an encounter with the spirit or what I may call "religious experience" which in most times are personal, bringing about different preaching styles and methodologies, but when it comes to Church extra curricular activities, that is activities outside the core calling, I will most certainly comment.
I will comment because it is more of a mundane thing than spiritual even as we are meant to believe. The bible is clear on all these and anything not in line with the biblical teaching calls for real questioning. You cannot combine mundane things with spiritual things together as a core calling package. The mission is simple "save souls" and not to loose focus and start chasing fame and financial empire that will never benefit the very people who labored vigorously to build the church.
In Nigeria today all the mega Churches are in completion of one business venture or the other unlike the early days of its growth. If you ask any members of the churches, the reason for these impromptu wave of financial boom and searching instead of soul searching, they will readily tell you that they are celebrating the glory of the Church(already?)wow.
Is that a great news ? when many souls are being wasted and needed to be saved and the Church is already celebrating its glory.
Is that a great news ? when many souls are being wasted and needed to be saved and the Church is already celebrating its glory.
There is no mega Church today in Nigeria that does not have a university or at least about to get one. This undoubtedly should be a welcomed news but many have fouled it claiming that they are almost out of reach to the vast majority of the members who contributed immensely to the building and funding of these churches and their universities.
The universities were founded so that they can serve as an alternative to the secular ones where many ill vices like cultism reign easily.They were supposed to be role models, platform of excellence and above all a seat of qualitative yet cheaper fess than the secular ones, because the founders are Christians as well as the administrators whose main target is not to profit but delivering quality with the fear of the Lord.
A senior member of one of the churches that operate a university in Ogun state once told me that, no member of their congregation can say he is poor because the bible says we are rich and poverty is a choice.
Well understood, hmmm.., so, with this kind of teaching, nobody can actually complain of high school fees publicly because "they can do all things through Christ Jesus". If you do otherwise who knows you may be seen as a faithless person and eventually may be recommended for deliverance and perhaps removed from front seating row.
This is a good piece of scriptural verse but it is misinterpreted here and used as a tool for mere exploitation. If I may ask, to whose detriment and to whose gain is that scriptural verse, while the school fees go higher and the parents suffer, the church on the other hand is immersing enormous wealth. These is forcing the same parents who are worshipers so seek solace everyday in secular schools with cheaper school fees apparently.
The original objective is defeated, isn't it? make no mistakes some of the parents who are members of these churches by the way, readily stand tall to cover up for their spiritual masters and will shamelessly send their kids elsewhere to study with so many unpleasant excuses but the kids on the other hand are still bewildered on how they could not study in the school where they and their parents have sacrificed all and all to make sure it was built. Oh poor kids, for how long will they be deceived?
In the beginning it was the miracles and the sharing of things within the brethren in the communities that motivated a lot of people to join the pentecostal church but today a lot of them are gradually defecting from this basic joy of salvation and increasingly becoming insatiable with material things.
Preachers go a long way to support materialism with every portion of the Bible. There is no way you can win these lots of soul if you continue to put up exotic universities simple unreachable to the majority of the people and members of your church and expect to win people confidence on your mission.
Eventually questions will be asked one day, trust Nigerians, it has happened in many places around the world.The Apostles of old had to ordain deacons to handle the sharing of food so that they can preach the word of God but today many preachers first and foremost think of what to get from the ministry as a priority over what to preach to the people to save and better their lives. Not only that, today competition and class status have created unimaginable quest of spiritual power, fame and branding.
Church should be separated from profane competition, the missionaries of old had schools and used them wisely and everybody had an opportunity to be educated equally regardless of their background. My father will ever be grateful to missionary schools that offered him the opportunities to be one of the few college graduates of his time. His father was never thinking along that line and wanted him to be a farmer but for the mission schools he would have never known the other side of life.
It was available to the people, it was cheap, it was encouraging, promoters were supportive. People saw help instead of exploitation, they saw hope instead of failure but today it is just the opposite, the mission universities are an exclusive reserve for the rich physically and not the rich spiritually. What a shame.
We must go back to the basics and find out how these addenda to the church like schools and business can actually be beneficial to everybody regardless of your financial pocket.
I know it can create employment to many, provide stability and security to educational process, but let it also be a source of bringing and keeping many into the Christian faith instead of being a source of dividing opinions that could see its merits decimate into a calamitous disaster.
Let it also be a source of hope for the hopeless, a platform of truth and justice, giving chance to the brilliant and talented youths who may never have the muscle to struggle with the rich of the society on the road to greater heights. This will go a long way in bridging the gaps between the rich and the poor. The government is doing their lot, recently the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okoroacha announced free education to university level for all Imo state born students studying in Imo state. In the past the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Michael Opara and The Sarduana of Sokoto did the similar things in their time.
Many church adherents will say who cares, as long as we are growing bigger and more famous, than other churches, we shall be number one in the world, but remember folks, not all things that these leaders lead you into is real, some of them are being mislead by their own greed and flesh and as they are being mislead, they also mislead many, please be careful and remember the infamous biblical "Tower of Babel".
I will end this blog with this passage from 2 Peter 2 verses 2and 3,
"and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken and through
covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchadise
of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their
damnation slumberth not"Kjv.
This is becoming serious business in Nigeria, hospital is no longer the case it is now schools and universities
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