NIGERIANS SPEAK ON THE NIGERIAN CHURCH

The state of the Nigerian Church has become a source of worry to so many people. An international preacher once said that the Nigerian Church is 20 miles wide but an inch deep, Implying that the Nigerian church is not deeply rooted. Shallow. Unfocussed. Elifeonline goes out to sample some Nigerians on their thoughts, highlighting the specific areas of spiritual sickness and proffer panacea. The Question is “If you were given an opportunity to speak to all Nigerian Church leaders, what will you speak on?  What ills have you seen in our churches, pastors, Christians that you want them to correct?
Here are excerpts from the responses of Nigerians.

Ninety per cent of pastors preach what they cannot practice. The love of money and adultery is rife. As for me, my heart is my own temple. I will not let any pastor lead me to hell because they know that is where many of them belong. I don’t believe in any pastor for now because what we see and hear is unbelievable. Only very few, true men of God are left to tell the truth which so many ‘Christians’ are not ready to listen to thus making their churches so empty. Many Christians believe more in the fake ones that will always preach about prosperity without reminding us where we are going after death.
Omoyemi Ajanaku Otitoola:
Ketu, Lagos

The only thing i know about the new era churches is that they use and dump their followers. Extortion of money is another thing. Church nowadays is business not worshiping place. Using people to build schools which they can’t afford to send their kids to.
However, there are Church leaders I have come to appreciate. They give their members chances to grow in all ramifications. There is a prominent pastor at Oregun in Lagos. He encourages people to live beautiful and fine.
I attended a Pentecostal church when i got married in 1993. I rose to become one of the Children teachers, a deaconess and women leader. You can see how i was so much involved in the Church activities as if the world was going to end that time. But something happened that I could not stomach. I had to leave for the Church I can trust in 2013. Today, I am not a religious person. I am not just a church goer. I go as spirit leads because i now have a personal relationship with my God.
if Christian leaders can be assisting less privileged, instead of blaming or putting everything on government, i think the world be more easy to live. But they are like politicians that are only thinking about themselves.
Let them invest in government schools instead of having their own and build schools in communities where poor people are. This is what i call evangelism.
Adebisi Aderinokun Fernandez,
Ministry of Education, Lagos.

If I happen to meet Nigerian church leaders, I will tell them they need to guide the flock to the pristine form of Christianity of serious evangelism.
In the late 70s and 80s when we were in secondary school, Scripture Union and evangelical churches preached morality that struck the fear of hell into people!
An extension of this is that church leaders should place less emphasis on prosperity preaching. The danger in this is that they may end up creating an “army of anything goes” or that “the end (of wealth) justifies the means (of getting it, either by fow means or foul).
Also related to this is the ostentatious life style of church leaders. Notwithstanding that many of them have plausible reasons to buy private jets (for missionary trips), this does not sit well with our sprawling poverty stricken populace. Apostle Paul said (fix the Bible passage) said something about expediency or necessity.
Many church leaders get too close to political figures so much that they cannot speak truth to power. We need a generation of Prophets Nathan, Samuel, Isaiah, Jonah, Elijah and Elisha among our church leaders.
Also, many church leaders circumvent government rules because they feel they are untouchable. They alter town planning laws, build structure that later collapse, killing people.
The worst of all the problems I want our church leaders to correct is this. They use contributions of church members to build universities which the members cannot afford to send their children. Many yet to be converted souls cannot reconcile this with the nature of churches which are regarded as charitable organizations. No wonder cynics now refer to church leaders as “pastorpreneurs”. Pastors should do something about this.
Lastly, they should emphasise the virtues of modesty in the way their members dress. Civilization does not mean one must come to church half clad.

Demola Adegbamigbe,
Journalist, Lagos.

 God bless you for this good work you are doing. My candid response is to liken our experience in our churches now a days to the Biblical Laodiceans church of Asia minor – the lukewarm attitude church, they are neither hot nor cold.. The church of Christ has gotten it wrong, they are treading the line of the Jews. Rom. 10:1-2 . 1. Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.
In the same vein, Christian of our time is already confused on how to do the will of Christ. What we have is unhealthy competition and rivalry, every church wants to have their own university, build a stadium type of auditorium, establish own big camp ground, occupying vast area of land e.t.c. All these at the expense of mass evangelism and soul winning business that Lord Jesus committed into our hands.
If the money that is used in putting all these structure on ground are converted to the business of soul winning alone, much grounds would have been covered for Christ.
CHURCH of Christ, think. Go back to your first love. The second coming of Christ is at hand.

Dr. Bamideleogo Kayode,
Lecturer, EPIC Theological Seminary and College,
Lagos.

I’ve got loads to tell them Bola, they should stop pursuing d riches of dis world, they should preach d gospel not riches, they should help d poor in d church, and most of them dat build skools with d masses money, yet d masses can’t afford to send their children to d skool. They should stop all dis jet and aeroplane madness and humble themselves as God want them to do. As a man of God they should have d love of less privilege at heart, and treat them equally as they do to d riches.

Adejoke Uthman,
London.

I have so much to say about our churches. Our churches being turned into an enterprise, churches being politicized, churches allowing corruption to fester within and without the walls of the churches; and Pastors? They are all partakers in the aforementioned ills and majorly, they don’t walk the talk! Do what I say and what I do kinda…. In a nutshell, the love of money and corruption that destroyed Nigeria is destroying the churches and the pastors. I’d find time to go into the website and see what’s there.
Funsho Akinmolayan,
Lagos.

Nigerian Church leaders are supposed to be the spiritual heads that people look up to for guidance in the area of life. When there are questions agitating the minds of both the people or government, they are expected to look up to the church for solutions. But alas, it is not the case.
Most of them have failed us. They have taken us for granted, knowing there is no where the congregation can run to. People are exploited cunningly by using selfish quotations to back up their points! Nigerians generally are a religious people. They would rather listen to their pastors than anybody, even their parents. But this is capitalized upon and used against them.
In the church, politics at its peak. If you are not rich, nobody listens to you. If you manage to have access to the microphone, people switch of because what will you tell a man from whom you borrowed money from the previous day!
It’s not about preachers alone. The congregations too are that bad. You will notice that so many people would leave substantial money and come to church with a token because they know all the church focus is on arbitrary demand for offering for this and that.
However, this is not saying the church does not have its merits. If it’s not for church, lots would have died of high blood pressure because of the challenges in the environment. The Church is now a platform where we run to when there is no hope! It is succour to a dying hope. It is also a house where you pour your hearts to when you are dazed with challenges!
Awaye Mojisola,
Surulere, Lagos.

I will speak to them that they should start preaching about corruption and other evil in Nigeria because if they start preaching about it Nigerians will change for good. If they start by telling them not to bring money that is not pure to church by making it a prayer point against such people they will stop doing evil and corrupt. That all the Nigerian church leaders should have fear of God and let it show in all they do so that people will start taking them serious. They should preach and act like Christ when he was in the earth.
Bunmi Bevlyn Ogunleyimu,
Lagos.

The church these days breed a lot of deformed children of God. The messages from the pulpits are shallow and too sweet coated to grow warriors. Too much paparazzi in church. Glamour and mammon instead of manifestations of the fruits and gifts of the spirit. The picture of a christian is no more a rugged warrior charging at hell to rescue sinners and fight sin and uphold righteousness, it is now that of a lazy dainty little princess in a castle, who gets whatever she wants whenever she wants it.
That lie has crippled the church.
We can’t wait on God, we can’t fight for righteousness, we can’t impact the society …
The total package of redemption has been reduced to mere material wealth. I got a lot on my mind to say to the church o. It hurts me every time I look at what we are fast becoming.
Shalom Olorunfemi,
Ibadan.

Events of the recent past have more than ever brought into focus the despicable and dwindling role of the church  and it’s leadership in the affairs of my nation Nigeria.

The church of old until the past twenty or so years was one that played a very significant role as an agent of change and acted as voice to the voiceless majority of the people. The church and it’s  leadership made utterances that made great impact on the followers as well as  impacted on the political leadership.

The sermons on the pulpit at those periods were highly respected  by the political leaders more because the priests, Reverend Fathers and all were people of credible character and integrity who  had gone through a highly disciplined training regimen at one of the christian theological seminaries and had imbibed the required culture to perform in Christian ministry. That is unlike modern day Christian leaders who were not called nor went through a  formal christian seminary training but just went  into ministry based on some “strange call” to ministry without any formal theological training.  Many of these so called “men of God” are in ministry for pecuniary motives due to their ability to prey and manipulate their followers psychological deficiencies and needs to personal advantage in a depressed economy like ours.

Many of the church leaders have abandoned their role as Shepherds to the lost sheep to become manipulators who use their large followership to negotiate for favours and undue advantage from political leaders especially in an election year.

I cannot write this piece without bringing to fore some specific instances of peculiarly damaging and embarrassing actions of church leadership that makes them not too different from the society that  it ordinarily should provide leadership and change to.

1. The spate of divorces by celebrated men of God which has brought  to ridicule the marriage institution.

2. The lavish lifestyle of some church leaders that seem incongruous with the economic  realities of the moment and the poor majority of their congregation.  The craze for jets and aeroplanes where majority of their followers can  hardly afford cars.

3. Ownership of churches by individual families as opposed to churches  being controlled and managed by a properly constituted Board Of Trustees with proper accountability in place.

4. Churches having purely commercial enterprises controlled by family ownership that pays no  tax to government hiding under the garb of charity and without any subsidised facilities for the  teeming majority of their members. For example, the universities owned by many pentecostal churches charging fees beyond what their members can afford.

5. Churches availing the use of their  altars to politicians for pecuniary and selfish gains and advantages.

There are many more instances that can be  mentioned but time may not permit me.

In conclusion, the church  has  failed generally in providing good leadership for her followers lest even been an agent of change in a decadent society as ours. The love for  filthy lucre has taken oven the heart of many of our religious leaders who are willing to sacrifice their pulpit at will for pecuniary motives.

There is  urgent need for  government and well meaning men of faith to intervene by  regulating the affairs and conduct of churches to protect the sanctity of not  only the Christian faith  with many tainted doctrines nowadays, but also to  instill sanity in society.

Tayo Popoola,
Omoobapopoola@yahoo.co.uk,
Lagos.

A song writer said sometimes ago: “Ẹ máṣe ṣiṣẹ́ ẹ̀mí bí iṣẹ́ ara.” Church leaders should not handle spiritual matters as secular. I observed that this is true of many church pastors. Therefore I want to plead with colleagues (church leaders) in the vineyard to stop:
1. Looking for powers that are not of God. There were reports of pastors burying cow in the church building in order to multiply their congregation. Or even obtaining powers to perform miracles of healing.
2. Bringing politics into the church of God by fighting for position.
3. Pastors need to teach their congregation on how to be more powerful in prayer on their own; so that the congregation will not be relying on the prayers that pastors will offer on their behalf at all time.
4. The pastors’ wives should always awake by meeting the sexual desires of their husbands; so that they do not involve in immoral acts. The Church members also need to:
1. Grow spiritually; especially in having faith in God and stop wanting to know their tomorrow. Thus, going from one pastor to the other.
2. Uphold their pastors in prayer for divine utterance and for consistent moral living.
3. Confront their pastor of any rumor that can tarnish the image of a man of God instead of backbiting or slandering against him. This is what we call a constructive criticism.
Rev. Jonathan Olaoye,
Idofin Ayekale, Kwara State.