Excerpts from the book – Abstinence: Freedom From Sexual Bondage
I saw an interesting interview some time ago… A Nigerian pastor was on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) simply highlighting and praising himself. Then came the big question from his American interviewer (Sorry, host). “When we drive on the streets of Lagos, we see so much poverty – There is a wide gap between the haves and have nots, what is the Church in Nigeria doing to address this?”
This “big time” Nigerian Pastor of a “big Church” was obviously not expecting this sort of punchy question. He had no simple direct answer except some high fluting expressions about Joseph and Benjamin…and also about Ikechukwu an Igbo name. By the time you finished listening to him, you would wonder what Benjamin, Joseph and an Igbo name called Ikechukwu have to do with the ostentatious and lavish lifestyle of Nigerian pastors in the midst of glaring, stifling, poverty. What justification do these pastors have for living in stupendous wealth in the face of hungry- looking junior pastors, and wretched church members?
There is no church- funded ministry or department for sustainable poverty alleviation, no tangible scholarship or even bursary awards for indigent students who are regular church members; no form of financial assistance for rent, no free medical facilities like the old missionaries did in order to win souls, no free education and no effective community development. These are things that speak volumes for Christianity. No pastor needs to brag about it from the pulpit. When the catholic missionaries did it, even the blind saw it. There’s no need for churches to advertise or praise themselves.
Enough of boasting. When you get into a church with loads of issues for God to handle, you hear a pastor boasting about his wife, his house, his cars and how “this church cannot make me rich”. How come the pastor keeps marketing his books in church, selling tapes, receiving salaries and monetary gifts from members. “sow into my anointing, sow into this conference e.t.c” yet they keep telling others to use their faith to get what they want from God. Every conference that is highly promoted and widely attended becomes a money-spinning show, a big opportunity to raise millions and massage the ego of all the ministers. Each day’s programme is rounded off with financial altar calls in different categories.
It really chills my bones to see church members come out to give testimonies and it’s all about “if not for daddy (that is the pastor) and mummy (the wife) I would not be alive today. Oh… thank you mummy and daddy”. They use over five minutes praising the pastor and then use about three minutes for the real testimony. Every testifier praises pastor to high heavens and pastor does not feel any form of embarrassment at all. “oh to God be the glory”, he would eventually say “which God”. In most churches, pastor is the god. Everyone is focused on pleasing pastor. It’s like a spell, I tell you. People hardly notice the lack and poverty amongst church members. All the material gifts, money and attention belong to pastor or so everyone is meant to believe. Once I preached this message in a church and one rich church member confessed to me afterwards that he was saddened and humbled by what he heard. He told me that it was during the sermon his eyes opened and he realized that one particular man he had been seeing in church for years who always sits in front of him wears the same shirt and trouser every Sunday. He had to speak to the man after service and opted to change his wardrobe.
Most Pastors, generally speaking, love and adore money so much they are surrounded by 419ers (Fraudsters) (oh! they defend them) thieving politicians, smugglers, filthy police officers, society ladies- a euphemism for women of easy virtue- sycophants, rogue contractors, and celebrities- that is people who are notorious and famous for idiotic behavior. I really wonder why a man of God would crave so much attention and adulation of the church members. Is it inferiority complex? Is it a slave trade mentality? Greed, Ignorance? Or just meanness? They have become the altar we must bow at.
They keep preying on undiscerning Christians who have no time to read their Bible. Consider men like Ezekiel, Zephaniah, Nahum, Elijah, or even Apostle Saul. If we read our Bible very well we would never fall prey to the antics of fellow men who have elevated themselves from “MEN OF GOD” to “GOD OF MEN”.
They have turned God’s work into corporate empires. Husband and wife Plc. Their children are being trained abroad to come back and take over the family heirloom just as it is done in private Nigerian businesses. If Obafemi Awolowo could preach and actualize free education why can’t these “God of men” emulate him? Why build Schools and Universities that only upper class kids can afford. Any child who is brilliant but has poor parents is not qualified to school in Schools owned by Pentecostals! Only the children of rogue contractors, unscrupulous money bags and politicians of mean disposition are qualified to be in such schools. Why has the church decided to serve mammon when Jesus told us pointedly that we cannot serve God and mammon?
A pastor who has enough time to shop for trendy suits, shoes, cars and cosmetics, while counting cost of blocks for the mega church project, dating ladies in the church, watching pornography on the net, traveling the world, and keeping up with pop culture, what time does he really have to study the word, hear God, and minister to his flock? Why has the church compromised so badly? What really happened? You may say it’s end time signs and I will not argue however, there are still a few ministers who are not cash- inspired. They are quite few, sadly because “narrow is the way that leads to eternal life” and only few go therein and “broad is the way that leads to eternal damnation”, that’s where the crowd troops into.
These few dedicated men and women of God may not be on television, may not have big titles, remember Jesus never did, may not have a big congregation and the liquidity that comes with it, may not be fashionable or glamorous yet they are worthy ambassadors of the gospel. Of course, they are tempted daily to be like others, who doesn’t like to be validated, by the world. But they know that friendship with the world is enmity with Christ. They know that Godliness and Worldliness are staunch enemies. They don’t mix. They don’t belong together at all. Forget all this hype artistry in the body of Christ. Mark 10 vs. 44 says “whoever shall be the greatest among you shall be servant of all”. Pastors are called to serve the flock by ministering to them, not to snob poor members of the church or intimidate people, talk down on everyone, engage in self- exaltation, and exhibit all forms of tribalism, envy, enslavement of junior ministers in the name of “service to God” and then pay poor wages to staff while living in luxury. Their lifestyle is a study in the manifestation of selfishness at its most sophisticated form, arrogance, competitive spirit, greed and sheer wickedness. Those are not Godly virtues at all.
When our pastors started plastering their faces on billboards at strategic points on Lagos roads I felt a bit embarrassed for them. Why? They are not God? Do they really need bill board adverts of their faces to win souls? Imagine if the Lagos State Governor had not destroyed those billboards it would have been a case of Pastors not only trying to out do one another, but also trying so hard to out – do politicians and the entire Lagos roads would have been covered with billboards. What a pity!
The word of God says it all in Eccl. 4 vs. 4 “and I saw that all labour an all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbour. This too is vanity and a chasing after the wind.”
