And no, because if churches were run with the fear of God, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. If we have churches in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria preaching holiness and preparing the citizenry for the coming of their Maker, the country will, no doubt, rank among the greatest countries in the world. But what do we have instead?
We have a situation whereby people set up churches for commercial purpose, making merchandise of gullible worshippers. It is an open secret that joblessness has compelled a number of Nigerians to seek admission into Bible colleges with the sole aim of setting up churches to defraud unsuspecting worshippers. I want to reiterate for the umpteenth time that the essence of going to Bible College is not to establish a church but to acquire theological knowledge.
That you are in a Bible College does not mean you are automatically called into ministry. And that you are even called into ministry does not mean you should set up a church immediately. Being called into ministry and being led by the Spirit of God to start a church are two different things. I daresay that most of the ministers in Nigeria are actually not called. Greed and inordinate ambition to acquire wealth overnight called them into ministry; hence we have this tragedy on our hands today. It is not hyperbolical to say that the body of Christ as we have in the country today is not what the Lord Jesus Christ died for.
I told my church members in a recent Sunday message that the Church is supposed to be a body of transformed Christians. But the question is, how many Christians in Nigeria are transformed? Is the lifestyle of the ministers exemplary? Today, we have more crooks in the Church than elsewhere. Why? Our ministers have failed in their divinely ordained responsibility to preach the truth to members.
To be continued
Pastor Wilfred Jibril
pastorwilfredjibril@rocketmail.com
Tel: 08185640238
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