Archive for NaijaPositive.com Dedicated to providing you with POSITIVE news and updates about Nigeria.
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Most Pastors Go to America for Dollars, Not EvangelismMost Pastors Go to America for Dollars, Not Evangelism
Tunde Oyeleye
20th Nov. '05
"When the Lord told me to go and learn practical air-conditioning and refrigeration services after my masters (MBA) degree, I thought I was hearing from someone else. "After all, I have risen from a school certificate holding pastor in (Benin City, Nigeria) to become a first and second degree holder in Houston, Texas, United States. After much spiritual confirmation, I decided that this next step the Lord wants me to take is as usual, for the fulfillment of His purpose in my life."
Thus, Bishop Jerome Etinfoh found himself enrolled as an apprentice in a company that specializes in training people in the art and act of practical repairs of all forms of air cooling electrical and mechanical engines. "For about two years, I was working in the evenings and learning my new vocation in the mornings," disclosed Etinfoh, the presiding bishop of The Word of Hope Revival Church, based in Houston. According to the man of God, the import of the Lord’s directive to learn a trade dawned on him in a revelation at one of his devotional times.
"The church in Nigeria in particular has done much of crusading, thereby winning souls into the kingdom. However, the people are still hungry, helpless and lack the knowledge to better their lives. They know how to pray and fast. They read the scriptures but with little understanding; work is the only way to better one’s life, not wishes. Ministers should take active part in helping the people to realise the need to be engaged in one form of business or the other.
"The possession of a degree at any level is not necessarily a must for you to go looking for an office or other paid employment. Our members should be taught to seek how they can create wealth and employment for others. "With their degrees and higher national diplomas, born again Christians who, by reason of their new birth, possess the mind of Christ should not be roaming about the streets looking for employment anyhow.
"The youths who are still looking for admission and those who are out of school should not be allowed to be a menace to the society and a burden to their community. Let the churches open vocational training centres for them to learn one trade or the other just like our technical colleges of those days. There are so many trades you can learn within weeks or months that under proper management, you become a self-made man forever.
Let us sink our money into building and developing these centres for our youths, men and women instead of building structures and edifices to show that we have arrived. "Many of our adults, both male and female, have retired from several fields of studies and jobs. Those who are still physically and mentally fit enough could be made instructors at the vocational centres.
Others with money should be made to invest in these centres and set up graduands of the institute. Let us create skill, thereby employment, and wealth." It is this vision of skill transfer and economic empowerment that the man of God, who has spent over 15 years in America, is bringing into Nigeria via a centre at Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Lagos.
Pastoral background
“I started my pastoral life at the age of 17 under my uncle late, Archbishop Idahosa. I was with him for over 10 years before I left for America.
“During my pastoral years in Nigeria, I saw this needed addition to the gospel, but I was lost as to what to do and how to go about it. I initially thought salvation alone takes care of all areas of life, not knowing that we needed to add value to faith to make salvation meaningful.”
The Egbeda centre, which has reached advanced stage of construction, Etinfoh says, will feature skill transfer in areas like brick-making, mat and pillow construction, carpentry, tailoring and design, simple home economics, painting and a host of other crafts. “We shall train musicians and singers. Others will receive training in electrical and mechanical works."
The man of God from Ishan in Edo State disclosed further that great emphasis would be placed on training people in the use of local materials to meet their construction needs. "We shall work on the adaptation of machines and machinery to fit our environment and needs as well as tap knowledge to become inventors. Our people have the potentials, they only need the helping hand to wake them up.
"I wonder why Nigerian ministers rush to America and other European countries. Are they on mission for evangelism or for the hard currency? I think America as a single country has the largest number of churches in the whole world.
Almost all ethnic groups boast of one church of their own especially among non-American blacks. For anyone to face America as a mission field is not telling the whole truth. "I believe that it makes more sense for us Nigerian ministers to teach our people the act of self-sustenance than rushing to America to establish churches."
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Sorting the Wheat From the ChaffSorting the Wheat From the Chaff
| Bishop Jerome Etinfoh wrote: | | I wonder why Nigerian ministers rush to America and other European countries. Are they on mission for evangelism or for the hard currency? |
Coincidentally, I was again discussing the issue of people travelling abroad under the guise of evangelism, just yesterday. My concerns were that
1] Most of these so-called pastors are mocking Christianity by masquerading as true Christians, but they cannot mock God.
2] Too many fake Christians migrate abroad using Church ministries as their vehicle to get visas when the only true goal was to migrate for financial reasons and not evangelism.
3] Most of these fake Pastors are simply good orators with sufficient intelligence to learn or cram the word/Bible well enough to repeat it in convincing tones to fool their church audiences, whereas they do not practice the word.
4] Some simply came to exploit their congregation and enrich themselves, while improving their statuses. Examples are so-called pastors who came abroad as broke-ass pastors only to own expensive mansions and cars without proper employment in 2 - 3 years, whereas their congregation are stupefied into contributing to their pastors growing wealth, while they themselves remain poor.
5] These fake Christians aka pastors are the ones who condone or practice all kinds of atrocities such as adultery, fraud, and other shameful acts that bring disgrace to the same churches that sponsored them abroad.
6] These fake pastors usually lack proper Christian doctrines and some end up telling their congregation "Do as I say, not as I do."
7] These same pastors are the same ones who have no fear of God and thus abuse, seduce, molest and rape their congregation members.
8] These fake pastors are the ones who need to practice magic or elicit the use of charms to hypnotize or enslave their congregation, so they are fooled into believing they are miracle workers.
9] These fake pastors, who have amassed wealth at the expense of their congregation are usually arrogant and believe the are demi-gods.
10] These fake pastors contribute to the growing number of Christians who have quit attending churches because of their growing negative experiences at the hands of those supposed to be shepherding them.
Some solutions are that
1] [CAN] The Christian Association of Nigeria should separate the wheat from the chaff by properly identifying and separating true Christian churches from cults masquerading as churches. This way people will not be sucked into churches, and less Christians will be exploited spiritually, or abused by such cults. Also, it will reduce the incidences of Christians needing to be delivered after being exposed to spiritual abuse, manipulations and or torment.
1] Identified fake pastors or repeat offenders need to be relieved of any and all pastoral duties, and for those who are willing to repent and follow the true dictates and guidance of scripture, there is hope that they indeed might eventually turn out to true or born-again Christians despite their initial mistepping.
2] While it's good to try to convince these fake pastors to seek some type of true spiritual counselling based on scriptural doctrine and repentance, it is not guaranteed that all will be willing to change for the benefit of the Church body, as their self-absorbed nature is the reason why they are self-seeking to begin with. In such cases, such need to be exposed and banished from leading public congregations. Where offenses are severe, they also need to be reported to the authorities.
3] Church ministries should be careful to examine the character of their congregation or strangers amongst them, especially the sudden-converts, who present themselves as aspiring pastors, before they trust them to minister as their representatives on home of foreign missions.
4] Church ministries should not sacrifice quality in their quest for quick expansion.
5] Church ministries should properly train pastors-to-be according to the scripture and send them to seminary, making sure they are indeed qualified before trusting them to pastor their sheep, else they'll simply be grooming stops for foxes seeking to eat innocent unsuspecting sheep.
6] Church ministries should not simply manufacture prosperity-seeking pastors by should grow soul-saving pastors, as some of the problems stem not just from the pastors, but from the doctrines that were emphasized and instilled in them by the ministries they had their training, if any, at.
7] The habit of permitting anyone to just get up without proper scriptural training or seminary experience, renting a warehouse and congregating naive people under the guise of starting or running a church should be seriously discouraged. People who are not properly established under set structural guidance, feel no alliances or obligation to respect authority.
8] Pastors seeking to migrate abroad should be encouraged to sponsor themselves and if they are genuinely interested in being pastors after their migration, they should then apply and be evaluated. Thereafter they should be deemed qualified before being embraced or trusted as ministers or pastors capable of shepherding existing or new church ministries as true evangelists.
This process should help in weeding out the fake evangelists, as those who are in it only for visa-sponsor will quit because their intention was not genuine to begin with.
9] Church ministries should encourage their pastors to seek gainful employment, so they are not solely dependent on their congregation for their upkeep. This also will reduce the incidences of congregations being exploited for material wealth, or wealth accumulation.
10] Church ministries should periodically monitor the character of their pastors in addition to the monitoring of their evangelical work.
11] Congregation should not hesitate to report any unscriptural acts or atrocities committed by their pastors to their governing bodies.
12] Church ministries should take serious corrective steps if and when any of their pastors or representatives are accused of, or found flaunting any Christian doctrines, that can bring disrepute to their church ministries or Christianity as a whole.
13] The arm of the law should take reports of abuse in churches, or cults masquerading as churches more seriously.
14] Church ministries should cooperate with the arm of the law in addressing, exposing and eradicating issues of serious misconducts, especially those that involve abuse by their pastors instead of simply covering such acts and incidents up, by ignoring them or simply transferring the culprits, as did the Catholic church.
With prayers, wisdom, common sense and the genuine fear of God, hopefully more sincere pastors who genuinely seek evangelize to spread the word of God, will be cultivated, and instead of the fakes masquerading as Christians.
Cxsm
11th April '08
© Cxsm 2008 All Rights Reserved
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