When the white man came to Africa to preach and spread the gospel, he was altruistic, truthful and selfless. He rendered selfless service to humanity. He left the comfort of Europe and risked his life in a land seen then as a dark continent full of evil spirits and peopled by beings that were living on top of trees.
He came into a land that was infested with mosquitoes that was a death sentence to the white race as at the time. Yet, in the name and love of Christ, they came.
These missionaries were taken to what many saw as evil forest to settle, with the hope that they will die on their own.
Yet again, in the name of Jesus Christ, they conquered every challenge thrown their way. They taught us the truth, showed us the light and the way. In the process of time, they set up schools which many attended without paying anything or just a token.
So we became educated, learnt the art of preaching and teaching the word of life like them. In the process of time, many left the early believers behind as old school, those born before. They got born again, the fire of revival spread through the continent and Nigeria.
Many pastors were raised. General overseers were in their numbers. The church saw prosperity, the born again knew the way to wealth. The message changed from salvation to prosperity.
The name of the Lord soon became the key and access to wealth. Many became attracted to the church.
Many who believed as well as those who did not but wanted a piece of the pie that was in the church, trooped into the church. In their quest for material possession, splitter groups began to emerge as a result of disagreement on managing the tithes and offerings coming into the church.
The slogan became how much you can make by being a man of God. Instead of using the money realised from offerings to serve God and charitable cause, men of God started buying expensive cars, houses in highbrow areas and now jet planes.
Nigerians will remember that in the 1960s, 70s and early part of 80s, magicians were in every major street in Lagos, Benin, Aba, Enugu, Kaduna etc.
These magicians who were performing magical acts in these cities got inspired by the fact that there was money to be made in the name of the Lord. So they abandoned their magical acts and went into church-planting. Since the Nigerian state is lax in its laws governing charity organisations, it was easy for these men to creep into the house of the Lord.
In some of these mushroom houses called churches, as soon as you enter, the so-called man of God starts prophesying to you; your mother or sibling is the one behind your travails.
The gullible accept this; the next thing you hear is that the Lord wants you to sow a seed. Sometimes in thousands of naira. These fake men of God have forgotten that the Bible say, freely have you received and freely shall you give.
These men in Nigerian churches are crucifying the Lord Jesus the second time. In every ministry today, it is all about money.
What car am I driving as a pastor? What kind of house am I living in? What part of the city is the man of God living in? Many pastors today if transferred from the city to a rural area, will quit that ministry.
It is no longer service to the Lord, but self service. In-fact, the poor, the needy that the church is supposed to cater for are neglected. Men of God in search of wealth and fame dine and wine with politicians. They, as their political associates have become corrupt.
They bear arms for these politicians, run errands for them and some to the point of money laundering. They cannot serve as the conscience of the society anymore.
They cannot look at these evil politicians, like Elisha did to King Ahab and said: ‘You and your father’s house are the problem of Israel.’ Nigerian gospel ministers have lost it.
They have shut God Almighty out of the Church, locked Him outside, and are now worshipping money. If today you enter into any Nigerian church with serious money, no one will ask you what work you are doing to make money. No, it is the Lord that has blessed us.
How can a true man of God openly endorse divorce? How can a true man of God use the church’s money to build an empire for himself and his family at the expense of his poor congregation? How can a true man of God establish schools that his members’ children may never be able to attend?
How can a true man of God be competing in worldly possession with his members? How can a true man of God rape teenage girl in his church? How can a true man of God commit adultery with his members’ wives?
These acts instead of drawing men to Christ in actual fact bring shame to the gospel. It makes unbelievers unwilling to accept the true gospel. Instead of many of Nigeria’s pastors being the light of the world, they show darkness, cover the true light in preference for money.
No responsible man of God will disobey the laws of the land, but what do you have, Nigerian pastors openly disregard the law and even threaten citizens who point out their wrong doing.
No responsible believer in Jesus Christ is happy about the presence of such social evils as racial hatred, a spiraling crime rate, the liquor and drug traffic, slums and violence. He realises that such conditions as these have the potential to destroy his society and therefore ought to be checked. If the Nigerian church had shown enough love, perhaps some of the problems facing the nation today would not have occurred.
If the Nigerian church leaders were not working hands in glove with the political class, if they had consistently denounced corruption and punished members found to be involved in stealing, the moral decadence in the society today may have been checked.
Where is the power of the Spirit-inspired testimony in the Nigerian Pentecostal/charismatic and even evangelical churches? It is only the effectual working of God’s power in a human heart that will allow a man to go outside of himself to share the gospel boldly and testify of Jesus.
A man with social and political stigma cannot boldly share the gospel. When a man of God is spiritually healthy and vibrant, it brings light into the local church and city. Precious are those who are on fire for Jesus especially in times of gross darkness and moral decline as we are in now.
In a time of spiritual declension in Great Britain in the 1800s, Catherine Booth, wife of Salvation Army founder, William Booth, went about the churches “looking for burning words.” She recognised that doctrine alone is not enough. Logically sounding phrases and great swelling words are not enough. Oratory skills are not enough.
We must have the Word on fire and the power and move of the Holy Spirit.
Nigerian churches need to get out of the twilight zone of cessation theology and post-modernism and craze for wealth and learn what it means to be filled with the mighty Holy Spirit and press on into all the fullness of God.
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