Building Churches in Africa at the Expense of Economic Growth.

China is currently the world's leading economic power. Yet, in China, there is a zero tolerance for church existence. Finland has the most stable economy in the world today. Yet, there are less than twenty churches in the entire Finland. Switzerland has the second most stable economy in the world. In spite of that, Switzerland has fewer than thirty churches. Denmark is the third most stable economy in the world. But there are about 23 churches in Denmark. These countries are considered to have the highest number of atheists, but they are blessed.



Now, let's go to Africa. Over there are more than 10,000 churches  per region. There are 4,000 churches in the city of Yaoundé (Cameroon) alone. 4100 churches in the city of Abidjan (Ivory Coast). 7000 churches in the city of Kinshasa (Congo). 10,000 churches in the city of Lagos (Nigeria). Please note that Lagos City is four hundred and thirty times more numerous than the whole of Switzerland. In Africa, we have more churches than schools and hospitals combined. There are more pastors than doctors. Almost every Christian is a bishop, pastor, deacon, deaconess or evangelist. Almost everyone in Africa is "born again". Even, the Moslems have their own version of "born again" among them. Almost every Christian is covered with "the blood of Jesus". Jesus is actually considered as the "husband" of all single women (according to them) in "revival" churches. 

Almost every Christian is filled with the "Holy Spirit". Even, a con artist will start his/her "business" with a prospective victim by solemnly saying, "Let us pray". And the churches? Some of them are richer than some local governments and states combined. Yet, they neither pay taxes nor contribute to the growth of their communities besides the presence of their monstrous edifices. However, none of these claims is reflected in the moral elevation that is expected in such an environment. We are among the laziest, the most deceiving, the most corrupt, the most hypocritical, the most hateful on the planet today, with all our religious posturing!

Capitalism and the Church – The Way Forward.

There is a work side to prosperity. It is the works of your hand God blesses. People are in farms planting yams and you are busy sitting in church, when it is harvesting time; don't expect yams to fall from heaven. When it is eating time; people are eating and you are "believing" God for yams. Faith without work is dead. There should be a corresponding action in line of faith.

When the gospel came to Africa, the missionaries saw two vital areas of deficiencies; hospital and school. They filled these gaps. Today, directly or indirectly, we have all benefited from it. Today, we have a major problem; unemployment. Instead of filling this gap we are taking advantage of it.

We gather the unemployed and "prophesy" jobs to them. We give them stickers, sell "holy water", tell them to sow and expect harvest, convincing them to "work" for the Lord, that breakthrough is coming... All these we do to exploit and explore the vulnerable.

We travel abroad. We have gone to Isreal and see the agricultural exploits there. But we are not willing to bring them home. When we sow, instead of our money to be invested into ventures like agriculture that would alleviate the sufferings of the weak ones among us, we channel the money to an atheist in Germany who designed MOG's customized car. We channel the money to Buddhists in China where we bought our building materials. We channel the money to a gay in America who produces the sound system and lighting system.

We channel the money to a Muslim in Dubai who did the interior decoration of our " magnificent " building...what a Capital Flight! Why are we crying of poverty and for breakthrough? The God that I know respond to work wherever he sees man doing something to advance humanity, be it a Hindu, Gay, Buddhist, atheist etc. 

I don't want to start mentioning names, neither do I want to indict any person. But just imagine Living Faith going to rice production, RCCG going into Cassava production, Christ Embassy into Maize, God's Chosen into Yams, Catholics into millets etc. The land is there, the man power is there, the money is there, like the missionaries, who saw a problem and filled it, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food security.

Just imagine a church sending hundreds of trailer-loads of food to evangelize the north. No man can resist love. Feed them in love and watch how their hearts change. That was how the missionaries changed the hearts of our forebears. The missionaries have tried for us, and instead of us to keep pressing northwards, we have resulted in building empires. We have commercialized the gospel. It is all about breakthrough, money and less Jesus, His Person, His Sacrifice and Finished works. 

We have the manpower to feed Nigeria and Africa, generate employment by adding values to farm produce and exporting them. We have traveled abroad and have seen great agricultural exploits, it is time to bring these inventions home. 

It is time we convert our exotic cars in our garages to tractors and other mechanised and modern agricultural tools. Doing what government cannot do, by do doing this; "THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ". When we roar, the government is supposed to quiver, not because of our large bank accounts, but because of our intimidating exploits.

It is time to wake-up... I see a day when we shall be holding our numerous church services in farms and factories. It is time to take the government upon His shoulder. It is action time!

Courtesy: Enenche, a Nigerian comedian.

There is Honor in Humility.

Mega Church Pastor Fred Price Jr. Steps Down because of Personal Misjudgments?


Back in those days, even though I was considered an unbeliever by the "righteous" people all around me, a typical Sunday of mine was never completed until I watched a sermon of Dr. Fred Price (the senior) on TV. The man preferred to be addressed as a teacher and not a pastor. And he was a great preacher! But then, he retired and imposed his son on the church. I heard that some members disagreed with him and quit the church.

Now, I got two lessons from this story: 

1. It takes a huge courage to do what this young man did here. How I wish many pastors (especially those in Nigeria) would have the same courage and humility to accept that they are mere mortals and that whenever they mess up as this guy just did, it's important for them to own up instead of carrying on as if they can do no wrong.

2. Why do a lot of modern-day pastors turn their ministries into a dynasty? Just because a man is "called" does not necessarily mean he is called along with his wife or son or daughter! Or was it because prophets Lot, Elijah, Elisha, Samuels and the rest of them didn't set up churches? Do we even know if any of the apostles in the new testament passed down their anointing to sons or daughters as some sort of legacies?

Photo of father and son. 

Beware of the Fake Preachers.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” – 2 Timothy 4 (3-4).

Tithing and Today’s Christendom.

I’m a Christian. I accept that tithing is encouraged by both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible. And I believe in tithing. I however don’t believe in the interpretations given to tithing in today’s Christendom. It’s not written anywhere that tithing must be performed before God can answer prayers. And neither is it written anywhere that the only way to enter the kingdom of God is through tithing. It is an expression of gratitude to God but definitely not the only way to thank God for His blessings, protection and grace. Therefore, there is no reason for pastors to turn it into a decree that must be obeyed by their congregations. God actually prefers and indeed, encourages us to give whatever we can afford and, in a cheerful manner too. These days however, many of the so-called new generation pastors have turned tithing into a compulsion. They make it look like God has a bank account that must be filled with money at every turn. The fact however remains that the pastors are more interested in piling a lot of cash into their churches’ coffers for their own personal purposes.  

The urge to tithe needs to come from the heart of the giver, and not by coercion or some subtle emotional blackmail as is being practiced by many pastors in the modern-day Christendom. As if he already knew what those “Pentecostal” pastors would do after he must have departed the sinful earth, Jesus Christ is known to have denounced the Pharisees not really for tithing but for not observing and practicing the principle of justice, fairness and mercy while tithing. Jesus admonished them thus: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Matthew 23:23 (ESV). 

These days, the scribes and Pharisees of old have been replaced by scam artists, corrupt politicians, drug dealers, thieves and sundry criminals whose sources of wealth are filled with dirt. And unlike Jesus, today’s “new generation” pastor is only interested in having his church’s bank account filled with money so that his personal desires can be taken care of with such money. They don’t care about the behaviors or the givers’ sources of money. The so-called men of God are always being presented with cash, expensive gifts of cars and air planes while turning a blind eye to the atrocities of the givers. And, in turn, the pastors pay and bless their benefactors unashamedly while completely ignoring the poor people who sincerely give their “widow’s mite”. Fortunately, it’s God that decides who gets blessed, not some mere mortals that parade themselves as “men of God”.

The Millionaire on God’s Payroll.

Rows of sick people queue up one afternoon in downtown Lagos. There are people with crutches, mothers with crying babies, a couple of wheelchair-bound people and several with bad coughs. This is not a hospital; it’s a sports center. And they are not waiting to see a doctor; they are here to see a priest. 

T.B. Joshua is one of Nigeria’s most controversial clergymen. Besides claiming to have a direct line to God, this 52-year-old has been performing so-called “healing miracles” for 20 years. Call him the Oprah of evangelism, the African case study in the kind of mass preaching that much of America is so famous for; he has his own TV shows, two million Facebook fans, sold-out events and branded merchandise. And like Oprah, he’s rich as hell. The latest estimates put his wealth at about $150 million. His church has branches all over the world, from the U.K. to Australia. He often goes on what he calls “Miracle Crusades” to other nations, and he claims that more than a million people have paid to attend his Tony Robbins–style seminars worldwide.

Joshua is certainly not the only millionaire priest in Nigeria. Over the past 15 years, televangelism has taken over the country, and Pentecostalism — a Christian renewal movement that emphasizes a direct, personal experience of God — is booming across the entire African continent, as well as in Latin America.

His pastoral style is sui generis. Joshua, who didn’t respond to OZY’s requests for comment, doesn’t preach that much. Rather, for a few minutes, he screams into the microphone, often prophesying what is to come — wisdom garnered from the latest chat with God. (He claims he foresaw the September 11 terrorist attacks.) Then, he takes his powers away from the mic and toward the sick, praying over the bodies of the afflicted and asking God to release the object of his prayer from cancer, syphilis, whatever disease it may be.

Chimbiebere Stanley Okah, 42, one of Joshua’s followers, tells us that he found the preacher through TV and was convinced when he saw one of Joshua’s “miracles” — healing a man from baldness with a sip of water. “I’ve seen countless miracles,” Okah says. “His preaching is flawless.” As for Joshua’s critics? “I have nothing to say,” Okah tells us. “The Holy Book teaches us to love even our enemies.”

It would be churlish to paint all of Joshua’s followers as naive or wooden-headed. “It’s hard to believe you can run on empty claims for over 20 years,” Marshall says. Those who come to Joshua are, after all, seekers; many have prayed and dreamed for years on end. Like Paul Ighodaro, 37, a Nigerian living in Greece. A composer, singer and writer, Ighodaro tells us about a vision he had: A son of God would appear in Nigeria. Ighodaro himself began to spread this word, which brought him to Emmanuel TV and Joshua. “I know the signature of God when I see one,” he writes. Ighodaro doesn’t even need to go to Joshua’s church, he says — he never has attended. He’s seen himself in Joshua’s congregation in a dream, wearing the choir garment. But don’t think he’s just relying on visions to connect with Joshua. Ighodaro credits the internet most of all. 

Courtesy: Laura Secorun Palet,Ozy Sun, Sep 18 1:00 AM PDT .

93 Year-old Woman Denied Funeral Because She “Owed” Back Tithes.

In Texas, a 93-year-old woman (Olivia Blair) had been attending a church for about 50 years. She is now dead but her pastor refused to allow her funeral service in the church. Why so? The pastor said the old woman “owed” some back tithes!

According to the church’s pastor, the other “sins” committed by the deceased was that she “...had not paid her dues, and she had not attended the church in recent years.”

But when contacted by KRIV FOX 26, the dead woman’s daughter retorted that “For the last two years, my mother has been in either a nursing home or she’s been in a hospital. And the last few months, she was in a coma!”

Now, what manner of a shameless pastor would ignore a sick, old church member for so long and then turned around to condemn the poor woman for not paying tithes in her period of agony and anguish?

X                                                                                          X                                                                              X

And in a related incident, a pastor (in a different American church) has directed members of his church to stop practicing cremation because according to him, “When Jesus comes back, how do you expect him to be going around searching for the remains of your loved ones that have been cremated and whose ashes have been scattered all over the ocean and some other places?...”

And this guy is supposed to be a "Man of God"?

Blessings for Sale to the Highest Bidders.

 



What's going on in Nigerian-oriented churches in America? It's now the vogue to auction off blessings to the highest bidders under the guise of "sowing seeds".

These days, all a "man of God" has to do is read a section of the Bible and ask the congregation to pay certain amounts for blessings. The chapter and verses quoted will determine the amounts to pay for the blessings.

For example, if the section of the Bible quoted is Isaiah Chapter 7 verse 20, the amounts required will be $720. Yet, you'll see some members of the church (all otherwise educated and born-again Christians) scrambling to pay for the advertised "blessings".

Is salvation no longer free? And are blessings not supposed to be received from God by grace any more?

Glory be to God for His abundant patience!

 

 

 

Your Attitude Goes Before Your Religion.

Some years back, I used to work with a guy who was notorious for his negative attitudes to life. This guy would curse or swear like a rogue sailor over the smallest form of irritation or annoyance. One moment, he was smiling with a colleague and the next moment, he was “stabbing” the same colleague in the back without batting an eyelid.

This guy’s attitude to work was something else. If he was not being lazy, he was complacent. And the worst aspect of it all was that the guy was as prejudiced and racist as a stray, diseased dog was known for being rabid. There was really “nothing good to write home about him”.

Then, something happened one day at work. We were all talking about our weekend, and particularly the past Sunday. It soon came to the turn of this guy. He began by saying “I was in the church…and as a Sunday school teacher…”

“What?...” almost everyone in the office exclaimed and glared at him simultaneously.

“What is what?” the guy, embarrassed, turned around to gape at us.

Suddenly, the entire room was quiet!

I was the first person to speak. “Did you just say…you were a Sunday school teacher?”

It took him a few seconds to answer but he finally did, “Yes…and so?...”

Quietly, everyone began to leave the room, one after the other.

 

When Pastors Get Personal in Their Sermons.

There is a big moral danger in the manners by which some pastors, especially those in "Pentecostal" or new generation churches make it their business to get personal in what they say on the pulpits. These pastors personalized their "interpretations” of the Holy Bible to suit their vain, selfish purposes.                                                                                                                  Their usual excuse is to “blame” it all on “divine inspirations”.  By so doing however, these “men of God” inadvertently leave several doors open for lazy, negative speculations within the ranks and files of their congregants. Among the consequences of these speculations is the avalanche of gossips that sooner or later consume the entire church. The worst aspect of it all is the resort of the same church members to link every subject of sermons to certain individuals and their private affairs.

Churches and the Cheerful Givers.

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” – 2 Corinthians 9: 6-7 (New International Version).

It’s been thousands of years since Paul the Apostle wrote this epistle to "the church of God at Corinth", in Greece. It has however been subjected to numerous interpretations, abuses and exploitation by those whose ulterior motives get the better of them. 

It irks me whenever some “men of God”, especially the “prosperity preachers” resort to cheap blackmails by making “seed sowing” a mandatory affair. A pastor will insist that his/her church is the only place to “sow for blessings”. And the worst happens when the same pastor imposes certain minimum amounts as the only acceptable “seed money”.     

With the exception of the orthodox churches such as the Catholic, the Baptist and the protestant that employ “seed money” to care for the poor, the homeless and the sick, others only cater to the lavished lifestyles of their pastors and some vain pursuits. 

In Nigeria, for instance, new-generation churches are rich, one-man-business enterprises. The Article of Association and Memorandum of association of such a church is in the name of the founding pastor while the name of the church is merely an a.k.a.

Those "churches" do not pay taxes. Yet, they maintain fat interest-yielding bank deposits accounts, make huge revenues from mandatory "sowing of seed money", build schools where only the rich elites can afford to send kids, pay for their pastors’ extravagant lifestyles (including ownership of private jets) and serve as avenues for those with ill-gotten wealth to flaunt it.
    

On a personal note, I believe strongly in philanthropy. But my idea of charity is giving to the needy individuals and organizations. Whether sparingly or generously, I consider it necessary to “sow” voluntarily (not by compulsion) and only to my favorite charities that care for the hungry, the homeless and the sick children.

Any church that has problem accepting me for my beliefs and principles will have to leave me alone!