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WHERE OUR CHURCHES MISSED IT (PART 4)
I don’t want to call people names, particularly supposed men of God. However, I saw something was fundamentally wrong with that approach. When a person raises an opinion that intends to build rather than destroy, that person’s action should not be termed antagonistic or ‘misleading’ particularly when he had addressed it to the right quarters (like a Pastors’ Forum) that can investigate and verify the claims he has made. Unfortunately that’s the position of our senior Pastors in many contemporary churches. They block avenues for improving the church and the leadership do not have cogent information to work with to improve the church. And the churches continues with its old practices which are detrimental to their own growth.
Some leaders, even when they get the information, all they say is “get out if you are not pleased with our policies”. Whichever way the optimistic observer tilts, he is met with a brick wall. The options left for him are: quit the stage or remain in there but be silent and watch things deteriorate. Many people adopt the latter approach and they act with insincerity of heart which the bible calls “hipocrisy”. They don’t believe in what they are doing but they want to please man, not God which is the most dangerous thing to do.
I have talked majorly on three major areas where churches our churches need to improve upon:
1. The monies they collect from people which make them look like business centres. Collect monies that are biblically allowed. Do not to say what is not biblically mandatory is mandatory to cajole people to drop money unwillingly and at all costs. There’s this confusion as to whether all the old testament laws are applicable in the New Testament. Let’s leave tithing alone. According to the old testament, men ought not to shave. Why are men of God clean-shaving today? Men ought not to eat certain animals because they are unholy. Catfish is one of them. Today we do eat them. Paul had serious encounters with the Jews who insisted that circumcision of the flesh is law but he tutored them to understand that ‘circumcision of the min’’ is more important. Men ought not to divorce their wives but Jesus says that is God’s intention but the hardness of our hearts led us to do divorce. A woman by the well had several previous husbands but Jesus said that even her then supposed husband was not her husband which means she has made wrong choices and has not even got it right. Please let’s not get lazy, all these things are in the Bible. Asking me for the Bible Passages? I urge you to read the Bible not just portions of it so that you can appreciate the context in which the Bible is talking.
2. The uses they put the application of such monies so collected to be in line with God’s intention for collecting them. People have been criticising our churches for building schools that their members cannot afford to send their children. One thing ought to be made clear to the membership of our churches. Let them know whether it is the church that owns the church or the General Overseers. There’s nothing wrong if a General Overseer owns a School. Everybody will know that it is a private business and no unnecessary expectation will be placed on them for scholarship. But if it is the church that owns it, no doubt many members of such church will expect that they get some benefits from them. Our church leaders are silent on the ownership of the schools their churches seem to be running. This has led to misconception and wrong expectations leading to avoidable accusations.
I used to know a boy who lost both of his parents when he was very young. Finally the grandmother relocated from Lagos to her village. On getting to the village, the boy who was very skilled in drumming started using his talent for God in an orthodox Church. The church took over the education of the boy and today, he is about completing his education. This is a meaningful welfare package. Whereas there are many Pentecostal churches today that have no adequate welfare packages to cater for the needy. They know how best to receive, not to give. Yet they are building cathedrals! This unbiblical practices must be changed.
3. Over-burdening the people with Crowded church programmes. Over-crowded programmes are derailing the people being recycled to attend them psychologically, medically such that they lose focus on how to plan their lives. For instance, churches take advantage of Holidays to make their members restless. They have taken over their members’ week-ends 100%. Many students have misunderstood spirituality and devoted less time to their studies and they failed. It takes time to think through and it takes time to plan and get results on any pursuit in life. Many have been overburdened with spirituality that they have no time left to think, plan and execute projects that would have bettered their lots. Let me share a real life experience here to the glory of God and to the edification of man. I studied privately after Primary education to become a University Graduate and get called to the Nigerian Bar. It took hard work, devotion of ample time, energy financial resources and a lot of prayers for me to accomplish this. I devoted ample time to my career yet I was schooling. In spite of these, I looked after my home front. Yet I did not sacrifice serving God to the best of my ability to the point that I attended as much of the Bible Studies, Colleges, etc and got certificated in all of them. In the process, I got ordained as Deacon and finally an Assistant Pastor in a reputable church as RCCG and eventually voluntarily retired as an Area Pastor at age 60. Today, I am all the better for all the efforts invested in all those directions. Anytime I looked back, I give glory to God and I pat myself on the back for being wise not to ignore anything needed to be done. How did I achieve these? I must tell you that much as I was persuaded to devote my entire life to spirituality, I was able to discern that that would not profit me and I applied wisdom to give some time to other pursuits.
The story has changed today. Many of our converts are so gullible that they can’t distinguish which programme to attend. They want to attend everything because the churches lay more emphasis miracles without action which unfortunately, they believe in. When they review their lives later, they discover that they made avoidable mistakes, some too late to correct! For God’s sake let’s not over-saddle our church members with programmes that give them no time to attend to their private lives. We cannot fix mid-week vigils and when the workers get to work and are unproductive and get punished for such and begin to send Holy Ghost fire to consume their superiors. A lot of lives have been lost to travelling to Campgrounds for programmes that can be watched over the net. For instance RCCG’s Dove Decoder is subscription free. Why ask people not to come to the Camp Ground for what Dove TV can beam to them in their local parishes or private homes? The cost of logistics is financially overburdening and the exposure to all sorts of travelling risks are there. Many people (Pastors and families inclusive) that I know have lost their lives to road accidents due to these exposures to imminent dangers. It is not that we won’t die but we should not die so cheaply.
These are the truth that is worth considering by our churches. I have nothing against anyone of them. They are the representative of God. However, their actions must protect the sanctity of their members lives by not exposing them to unnecessary hardships. Here I rest my case. May God Almighty help us, and our Church leaders not only to accept but to follow the path of truth that will set us all free in Jesus name.
WHERE OUR CHURCHES MISSED IT (PART 4)
I don’t want to call people names, particularly supposed men of God. However, I saw something was fundamentally wrong with that approach. When a person raises an opinion that intends to build rather than destroy, that person’s action should not be termed antagonistic or ‘misleading’ particularly when he had addressed it to the right quarters (like a Pastors’ Forum) that can investigate and verify the claims he has made. Unfortunately that’s the position of our senior Pastors in many contemporary churches. They block avenues for improving the church and the leadership do not have cogent information to work with to improve the church. And the churches continues with its old practices which are detrimental to their own growth.
Some leaders, even when they get the information, all they say is “get out if you are not pleased with our policies”. Whichever way the optimistic observer tilts, he is met with a brick wall. The options left for him are: quit the stage or remain in there but be silent and watch things deteriorate. Many people adopt the latter approach and they act with insincerity of heart which the bible calls “hipocrisy”. They don’t believe in what they are doing but they want to please man, not God which is the most dangerous thing to do.
I have talked majorly on three major areas where churches our churches need to improve upon:
1. The monies they collect from people which make them look like business centres. Collect monies that are biblically allowed. Do not to say what is not biblically mandatory is mandatory to cajole people to drop money unwillingly and at all costs. There’s this confusion as to whether all the old testament laws are applicable in the New Testament. Let’s leave tithing alone. According to the old testament, men ought not to shave. Why are men of God clean-shaving today? Men ought not to eat certain animals because they are unholy. Catfish is one of them. Today we do eat them. Paul had serious encounters with the Jews who insisted that circumcision of the flesh is law but he tutored them to understand that ‘circumcision of the min’’ is more important. Men ought not to divorce their wives but Jesus says that is God’s intention but the hardness of our hearts led us to do divorce. A woman by the well had several previous husbands but Jesus said that even her then supposed husband was not her husband which means she has made wrong choices and has not even got it right. Please let’s not get lazy, all these things are in the Bible. Asking me for the Bible Passages? I urge you to read the Bible not just portions of it so that you can appreciate the context in which the Bible is talking.
2. The uses they put the application of such monies so collected to be in line with God’s intention for collecting them. People have been criticising our churches for building schools that their members cannot afford to send their children. One thing ought to be made clear to the membership of our churches. Let them know whether it is the church that owns the church or the General Overseers. There’s nothing wrong if a General Overseer owns a School. Everybody will know that it is a private business and no unnecessary expectation will be placed on them for scholarship. But if it is the church that owns it, no doubt many members of such church will expect that they get some benefits from them. Our church leaders are silent on the ownership of the schools their churches seem to be running. This has led to misconception and wrong expectations leading to avoidable accusations.
I used to know a boy who lost both of his parents when he was very young. Finally the grandmother relocated from Lagos to her village. On getting to the village, the boy who was very skilled in drumming started using his talent for God in an orthodox Church. The church took over the education of the boy and today, he is about completing his education. This is a meaningful welfare package. Whereas there are many Pentecostal churches today that have no adequate welfare packages to cater for the needy. They know how best to receive, not to give. Yet they are building cathedrals! This unbiblical practices must be changed.
3. Over-burdening the people with Crowded church programmes. Over-crowded programmes are derailing the people being recycled to attend them psychologically, medically such that they lose focus on how to plan their lives. For instance, churches take advantage of Holidays to make their members restless. They have taken over their members’ week-ends 100%. Many students have misunderstood spirituality and devoted less time to their studies and they failed. It takes time to think through and it takes time to plan and get results on any pursuit in life. Many have been overburdened with spirituality that they have no time left to think, plan and execute projects that would have bettered their lots. Let me share a real life experience here to the glory of God and to the edification of man. I studied privately after Primary education to become a University Graduate and get called to the Nigerian Bar. It took hard work, devotion of ample time, energy financial resources and a lot of prayers for me to accomplish this. I devoted ample time to my career yet I was schooling. In spite of these, I looked after my home front. Yet I did not sacrifice serving God to the best of my ability to the point that I attended as much of the Bible Studies, Colleges, etc and got certificated in all of them. In the process, I got ordained as Deacon and finally an Assistant Pastor in a reputable church as RCCG and eventually voluntarily retired as an Area Pastor at age 60. Today, I am all the better for all the efforts invested in all those directions. Anytime I looked back, I give glory to God and I pat myself on the back for being wise not to ignore anything needed to be done. How did I achieve these? I must tell you that much as I was persuaded to devote my entire life to spirituality, I was able to discern that that would not profit me and I applied wisdom to give some time to other pursuits.
The story has changed today. Many of our converts are so gullible that they can’t distinguish which programme to attend. They want to attend everything because the churches lay more emphasis miracles without action which unfortunately, they believe in. When they review their lives later, they discover that they made avoidable mistakes, some too late to correct! For God’s sake let’s not over-saddle our church members with programmes that give them no time to attend to their private lives. We cannot fix mid-week vigils and when the workers get to work and are unproductive and get punished for such and begin to send Holy Ghost fire to consume their superiors. A lot of lives have been lost to travelling to Campgrounds for programmes that can be watched over the net. For instance RCCG’s Dove Decoder is subscription free. Why ask people not to come to the Camp Ground for what Dove TV can beam to them in their local parishes or private homes? The cost of logistics is financially overburdening and the exposure to all sorts of travelling risks are there. Many people (Pastors and families inclusive) that I know have lost their lives to road accidents due to these exposures to imminent dangers. It is not that we won’t die but we should not die so cheaply.
These are the truth that is worth considering by our churches. I have nothing against anyone of them. They are the representative of God. However, their actions must protect the sanctity of their members lives by not exposing them to unnecessary hardships. Here I rest my case. May God Almighty help us, and our Church leaders not only to accept but to follow the path of truth that will set us all free in Jesus name.
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