Lib Thology Manual

Awakening The Church Author: Samson Onyi Ajufoh Copyright c 2013
Awakening The Church

Samson Onyi Ajufoh
ISBN:
Scriptural quotations are taken from King James Version of the Bible, except otherwise indicated.
No part or parts of this book may be stored in a retrieval system, produced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronics, mechanical, recording, photocopying, microfilming or otherwise except for criticism, research or review without the written permission of the publisher .
An Action for Community Development Publication
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AWAKENING THE CHURCH
Dedication
Acknowledgment
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Contents
Introduction
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EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS
of the Scripture talks about the Levite who is the New
Chapter 1
Exploitative Economic Relationships Among Christians And Christian Leaders
Testament revelation of the Pastor who goes to another church (Which is different from the one he pastors) to minister. Now Scripture instructs that he should be free to minister, that he should be given like portion, (an equal share) a befitting portion which is similar to that of the host Pastor. There have been cases where after a minister is through with his ministerial engagement in a church which may be a three days revival programme for example, he is not given enough money which will even take him home, the love offering given to him is not enough to meet immediate basic needs. As this trend continues over a period of time, discouragement sets in and it has created an unfortunate situation in which ministers put down certain financial criteria which must be met before they come to minister in a particular church. Now the disadvantage of this arrangement is that God may be sending a minister to a small church but because as a minister you have already laid down
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he economic relationship amongst Christians today is it mutually beneficial or exploitative?.
Our support scripture is Deuteronomy 18 v 6-
8 So if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel where he sojourned and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose. Then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites do which stand there before the Lord. They shall have like portion to eat beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony. This portion
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conditions which is the determining factor for where you minister, going to that small church will no longer be feasible, as the small church may not afford the laid down demand which may be that the 'Honorarium is N500,000, the visiting minister is to be lodged in a five star hotel, to be flown on a first class ticket on aeroplane' amongst others, all these criteria become wrong because as a minister, you are a servant of God, it's your responsibility to ask God if he is leading you to the said church whether he is giving approval for you to minister there rather than allowing your financial criteria to lead you. However it is rather unfortunate that because of the seeming neglect of visiting ministers many pastors started having offices as if they are footballers or musicians where someone has to pay upfront for them to come minister in their church. The correct trend according to scripture is that a pastor gets an invitation to minister in a church, then he goes to God to seek approval in prayer, once he gets the
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confirmation, he should accept the invitation and go to minister and not the other way where he seeks to know if the requesting Church can afford 'Him' whether money has been paid into his accounts, this is secondary but the challenge here is that in the past many ministers has been bruised, wounded, denied what would have been befitting to them as they ministered and it has led to this unpalatable state that we have in Churches today. There must be a change as pastors that seek sign up fees before they go to minister should revert to the right way which is seeking God's face before invitation to minister is accepted and on this side of the coin, Churches must ensure that they treat pastors well that what is provided for them is commensurate and befitting, and they should not fake a carnal view point of the minister who has come to preach which means the requesting church should not treat the minister that comes with a jeep differently from the minister who treks to the church in terms of love offering, honorarium, material
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or financial benefits. Churches with the mentality that the mister who trekked to the church doesn't have anything so he must make do with peanuts stuffed in an envelope are obviously in error and are not in line with redeemed economic relationship. The church should have a standard, they must adhere to in this respect without discriminating and in fairness to all, instead of looking at the physical possession of the minister before determining what would be the love offering. An economic relationship that Jesus said what you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done also to me and Paul also writing said. If we ministered to you spiritual things, then we are deserving of your carnal (physical) gifts. The wrong practice of Churches exploiting ministers or invited ministers declining opportunity to minister because of self imposed financial criterion thereby commercializing ministry must stop. In addition to this very obvious cause of
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exploitative economic relationship ,are other causes that will be enumerated, in many cases, the pastor of a local church is the very obvious instrument of exploitation for he will go and 'fish' for a minister that is a 'fund raiser' one who can raise money in his church that will bleed his members financially maybe because he wants to buy a new car or a new land, these 'money' ministers come to bleed the sheep of God, pastors who engage in this acts are unquestionably in large numbers and they show clearly that they are not shepherds but hirelings. Hirelings do not care about the sheep, they only care about what they stand to gain. They know that they sin deliberately against God and will never inherit the kingdom of God. Scripture clearly states that these people are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose god is their belly and they mind earthly things. Then we also have pastors who make use of the platforms of other ministers to raise money wrongfully, they come to raise money and they carry it away this is clearly banditry, it is
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not expected in Christendom, any pastor who indulges in this act should desist before it becomes too late. The story of Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli in 1 Sam 2 vs. 12-16 is also a clear picture of this subtle error in church today, it is apposite in this expose. 'Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord.' And the priest custom with the people was, that when any man offered sacrifice the priest's servant would come while the flesh was in seething, with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand and he struck it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, all that the flesh hook brought up, the priest took for himself so they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw. And if any man said unto him let them not fail to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul direct, then he would answer him nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I
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will take it by force. And they were taking the offering of the children of Israel by force and in the wrong pattern, we see in vs. 16b and vs. 14a of 1 Sam 2 and as a result of what happened in vs. 17b for men abhorred the offering of the Lord and this greatly offended God, God is not pleased when people give grudgingly or out of necessity and unfortunately when pastors increase the offering from one or two offering to 4 or 5 times, it causes people to grieve when they give and when people give grudgingly or out of necessity, the people are not blessed, the church gets more money and the members giving the money are not blessed. This is a clear case of economic exploitation, it is not the number of times people give, the work of the pastor is to teach the people and get them to love the work of God and then they will not need encouragement to give and once they give, they give well for they give out of love and in turn they are blessed. Increasing the number of times offerings are taken in a service will cause the members, to cut
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corners for example in a church where offering is taken 5 times. A man with N100 may be forced to change it into N20 ,thus giving out of necessity and thereby abhor the offering of the Lord. Another cause are internal church processes that end up being exploitative. Instances abound, for marriages to hold in some churches, the cost of the church process could be astronomical, you pay for form, there are some financial requirement you must meet before your wedding is approved by the church, but the church should not be a burden to people wanting to start life. In our community in the past, help is given to any couple with the intent to marry, the church is to be a flowing channel of love and not where peoples burdens are increased, so churches that have exorbitant financial requirement for marriage and burial ceremonies should review them, the church is meant to encourage and give hope in this dark and evil world. Some new generation churches put their members under
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compulsion to buy their monthly publication and one will see members buying 100 or more of the publication which end up being wasted. If you go to the new generation churches, you will see copies of these publications in corners, under the stairs and they are wasted while there are poor people amongst them, unemployed youths that are neglected. These churches heap financial obligations on their members so they are not able to do good to their neighbours or the needy in their surrounding. The benefits of the economy relationship in the church today is one sided. The relationship is between the church and the rich members it is seemingly unfortunate that the scripture 'do good to all men especially those that be of the household of faith' is disobeyed and ignored as a habit in the church today, what has given rise to this unfortunate trend is the wrong teaching that the pastor being more 'anointed' if you give to him, you will be more blessed ,from Isaiah 48:17 we see that it is the person, the Holy
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Spirit is leading you to give, to or meet at a particular point in time it is this giving that guarantees a blessing. When poor members are neglected forsaken, mocked instead of being supported, exploited instead of being encouraged financially, it is disheartening,cruel and ungodly. Paul writing in 2 Corinthians 8 vs. 14, 15 'But by an equality that now at this time, your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a supply for your want that there may be equality as it is written. He that had gathered much had nothing over and he that gather little had no lack' in God's mind, the church should be one family indeed. Another issue is where a church has only rich members as deacons and elders. Jesus Christ died to establish equality, preferential treatment by church leadership is deliberate rebellion against God's laid down pattern for the Church. The church must promote righteousness and shun inequality or competition for our nation to come out of her present mire she had found herself in.
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The righteous are vital tools for the guaranteed restoration of the dignity of the nation and pastors and church leadership have a non-negotiable responsibility to take the path of truth, fairness, equality and love by teaching and enforcing redeemed economic relationships.
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THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS
created, Bible says, he is not ashamed to call them
Chapter 2
The Right Economic Relationship For Christians
brethren. Again in John 12 vs. 6, we discover that Jesus Christ and his disciples had a common purse, Judas Iscariot was the treasurer, it was from here, the apostles will buy bread and meet basic needs. So Jesus did not eat any special food apart from the common food that he ate together with the apostles, then another picture was because Jesus did not raise his shoulders before his disciples, Judas was offered money to betray him, to reveal him in the dark, if he would not mix with his followers ,with his disciples there was no way he could be identified in the crowd. He emphasized equality. Again another picture we would paint of the founder of the church is found in 2 Corinthians 8 s. 9. 'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich'. Jesus brought himself down so we could be raised up, he became poor so we could be rich we see that the central work Jesus promoted was
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et us paint a picture of the founder of the church,
Jesus Christ as we begin on the journey of the right economic relationship for Christians.
'Jesus Christ is the creator of all things that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power, all things were created by him and for him' Collosians 1 vs. 16(paraphrased) interestingly in Hebrews 2 vs. 11 it is written that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren, the people he formed, the people he
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equality. In the book of Leviticus 25 vs. 9 end there is a record of the establishment of the year of Jubilee which as the year of liberty, the year of emancipation. God said in that year, all debts were to be cancelled and all lands which were taken as collateral for loan were to be returned to the owner. When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, the land was shared equitably amongst the twelve tribes, now due to the loss of a breadwinner or financial pressure, some families had to sell their land to feed, however God instituted a law that by the 50th year which was the year of Jubilee, all land were to be returned to their owners, the trumpet of jubilee was to be sounded on the day of atonement. Atonement is a complex word, it actually means the day we becomes one with God. Understanding the revelation of the New Testament, Jesus Christ is our atonement, he has atoned for our sins, when we are saved, we enter into our jubilee, so the life of redeemed economic relationship is what is true for Christians who are
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redeemed. In Leviticus 25 vs. 9 when the trumpet of Jubilee was sounded, all debts were to be cancelled, those who sold lands, their lands were to be redeemed or given back to the owners, in that chapter God emphasized twice directly, you shall not oppress one another and twice indirectly spoke against oppression by saying you shall not rule over him with rigor, (rigour means strictness or severity of a punishment) and God also said you should not say in your heart because that year approached you have an excuse why you will not give your brother the land. The question we must ask ourselves is why did God give Israel the statute of the year of Jubilee, It is simply that the God that you and I serve is a God that believes in equality. God does not support the widening gap between the haves and the have not, he takes effort to bridge and possibly eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor. The statute of liberty that God established in Leviticus 25 confirms the heart of God which is for economic equality so that
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when something comes in, you redistribute, so the gap between the haves and have is eradicated. In the New Testament in Acts. 4 vs. 32-35. 'And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul , neither did anyone say that any of the things he possese was his own but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of land or houses sold them and brought the prices of them that sold and laid them at the apostles feet'. So what we see is that when the day of Pentecost came, when the disciples received Christ, and became born again, it also meant a redeemed economic relationship, it also meant that all things that have become new included the economic and financial relationship amongst one another, so a situation where one will just get for himself and his family was no longer the order of the day, for we belonged to one family, the family of God, so when those who had land and houses sold it and laid the money at the apostles feet ,the
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apostles did not keep the money for themselves rather they distributed it among themselves as they had need. So we see that the early Christians promoted equality. In Acts 3, Peter said 'silver and gold have I not' which means he did not keep the money to himself he recognized the money was not his own but for the family of God, but for the people of God, to meet the needs of the people of God. By this expose, I want to make it very clear that the tithes and offering does not belong to the pastor, it is not the property of the pastor it is meant to be distributed to brethren according as they have need ,to deviate from this and to be using the tithes and offering for the pleasure off the pastor is to deviate from the new testament model of economic relationship. It is to go against God, it is to sin economically against the people of God ,in the New Testament the economic relationship is redeemed, there is no more exploitation, there is no more inequality. Resources are used to promote
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equality especially in the family of God ,2 Corinthians 8 vs. 12- 15 particularly verse 14 'But by an equality that now at this time, your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want that there may be equality.' It is obvious that God's intention is for an economic relationship , which promotes equality so any economic relationship that is not in line with the redemptive work of Christ is at variance with scriptures.. Jesus Christ came to reunite us with God so there will be no difference between Jews and Greek, Economic equality is given as a model for the church in in the book of Acts where there was famine in Jerusalem, the Christians in the Gentile nation sent food supplies to the church at Jerusalem that is how it is supposed to be. As Christians we are supposed at the global level to support one another, however unfortunately Christians in the developed world whose standard of living is far better that Christians in the developing world have not been able to support equality.
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A Christian is not expected to exploit or extort a fellow Christian or promote inequality amongst themselves. In economic equality, people are placed before things. This is different from what obtains in the church today. Resources come in and they go in two direction, first the pastor's need is met and to build the physical structure of the church, now when you do such a thing, you are using the wages of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the destitute to build the church, in Micah 3 vs. 7-10, it is referred to as building Zion with blood. It is an abomination. What is supposed to be done is that the poor are first empowered ,economic equality is promoted, the financial result from the empowerment is then used to build the church, but when the church leadership misplace priorities, by building the physical building first, it is unacceptable to God, for we serve a God who hates oppression ,he hates a situation in which a few enjoy comfort at the expense of the large majority and unfortunately that is the pyramid system which is
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used in the world today and unfortunately it is duplicated in the church today. It favours the few people at the top while the majority suffers. The person behind that system is Satan. Economic exploitation and oppression is a very serious sin in the sight of God. Most people think that it was only due to sexual perversion that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but the scriptures show that one of the main reasons God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was exploitation and economic inequality. We see this in Ezekiel 16 vs. 48-50 'As I live says the LORD GOD neither your sister Sodom nor her daughter have done as you and your daughters have done, look this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, she and her daughter had pride fullness of food and abundance of idleness, neither did she strenghten the hand of the poor and needy' so this was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah ,pride, fullness of bread but in spite of the abundance, they neglected the poor and needy. God was not pleased, this was mentioned before
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sin of sexual perversion; all this led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to Acts 4 vs. 32-35, Collective ownership of property, no more selfishness, no more preferring yourself above others, this is the right or redeemed economic relationship for Christians. It is not for Christians to sing 'if it is not me who else will God bless' The purpose of God is to bless you so you can be a blessing to others. When a Christian has abundance he releases to meet the needs of another and vice versa so there is a continuous flow of liberality. 2 Cor. 8 vs. 1215 is very clear about the right economic conduct amongst Christians, it is rather unfortunate that pastors are the one promoting inequality today by their ostentatious lifestyle that makes them seem to be better than others ,in Deuteronomy 15 vs. 7b, it is written, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. Love is not merely spoken, it is expressed by giving, how can you see your brother
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hungry and you close your eyes. The Church today is void of love. Even what God gives to you, you are a steward to sustain it and to distribute it to the needs of the poor, amongst you. The various levels where redeemed economic relationship must come into play are At the international level, Christians in the developed world are supposed to reach out to the needy brethren in the developing nation of the world. Richer churches must work to empower poorer churches so there is economic equality and competition is eliminated. It is written we should have the same care one to another, the care you show someone in your church should not be different from the care you show someone from another church. The money that comes to the pastor in form of tithe and offering should be redistributed to saints as they have need.
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THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH
are one body in Christ and individual members of
Chapter 3
The Right Ministry Model For The Church
another.' What this scripture tells us is that we belong to one another ,that is in your area of gifting maybe the gift of helps, every other member is supposed to support you, complement you, help you express your gifts. In the same way that the pastor is complemented in his ministry so the ministries go forward, it is not supposed to be a one sided. In Ephesians 4 vs. 10a, 'and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry'. It is the believers that do the work of ministry, their gifts are to be built up to do ministry, the work of the pastors is to help believers discover and harness their gifts. So the entire focus is not to be on one person the pastor for example it is only the pastor that can write books, or audio tapes as if only the pastor that can go on air. A church is a conglomeration of ministries complimenting each other,
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oday in many ministries in many churches we
see a situation where everything is built
around the pastor. Various efforts are put to
complement the gift of the pastor. In the New Testament model the pastor is like a coach, a trainer. Their responsibility is to raise other leaders, help people to discover their gifts and ministries and pursue it in the body of Christ. In the book of Romans 12 vs. 4, 5. 'For as we have many members in one body but all the members do not have same function. So we being many
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working together, but today we build church in such a way that only the ministry of a pastor is fulfilled. From Ephesians 4 vs. 9 we can draw up three key roles of the pastor or a Christian leader. The first role is to feed the flock, give them the word of God, help them to grow spiritually. The second role is help the flock discover God's purpose for their lives ,their ministry gifts and their calling. This is a question we need to ask pastors, how many ministry gifts have you developed. You have pastored a church for ten years, it is expected that you have raised up or trained other pastors, raised other evangelists, raised other ministry gift from the flock because the pastor is supposed to build the people to do the work of ministry. The third role of the pastor in Ephesians 4 vs. 10, 11 is that he should create a platform for the believer whose gifs have been discovered harnessed and built up to manifest it. For the purpose of the pastor is for the perfecting of the saints to do the work of ministry. So it is wrong for pastors to hold back
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the platform for ministry. Upon looking at this objectively, and instance would be somebody who schools at college of education after a while that person must undergo teaching practice that is the person is sent to a place where he can teach for teaching is not proven until practiced. What we see in a lot of church today is that people are fed with the word of God but they are not given the room to share what they have learnt and it is because of the current trend where the pulpit is tied to one person. If we build ministry this way, we are not building ministry the right way. It is written that he has made us able ministers of the new covenant, Yes! every bornagain Christian is a minister. Every Christian has a gift and a call and it is the responsibility of the Pastor to see that these gifts are discovered, nurtured and raised to a level where it can be a blessing to the body of Christ. We are not building properly when someone comes into the fold, becomes born again, and remains unproductive as
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gifts are not expressed. We see a situation where Pastors after pastoring for so many years cannot count leaders they have raised or people they have impacted and are now doing the work of ministry. It's important that as we build, we follow the laid down pattern in scripture. Paul writing in Romans said I know ye are filled with the spirit of God and you are able to instruct one another. Now we see doctrines tailored in manuals that are spread from January December. In some denominations instead of brethren to instruct one another, the cassette of the General overseer is played, church is not to be run like that, an atmosphere like this hinders the development and manifestation of other gifts in the church.. The situation and circumstance in different part of the country varies, the right thing is to empower brethren to minister to one another by the Holy Spirit. Using the shared experience of the locality to touch the specific need and situation of the people. But when messages are stereotyped as the General
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Overseer's tape being played on a weekday, the benefits of ministry may be missed. So we are calling on the church that there should be a deviation from such acts for it amounts to suppression of the God given gifts in the life of believers ,impoverishing spiritual lives of believers by hindering the manifestation of their gifts. The New Testament church is designed in such a way that every part must contribute something Ephesians 4 vs. 16 'From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love' this scripture with undeniable emphasis makes us know that every part of the body of Christ has something to supply to the body of Christ. So we must remodel the church so every part supplies something. What we see in the church is that Pastors are on top and members are beneath, the Pastors are supplying, the members cannot supply anything. It's a disjointed
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arrangement there are several gifts in church such as mercy, helps. We must build the church in such as way that every member or participant is not a bench warmer and we must begin to ensure that opportunities for diverse gifts are manifested. The church leader should seek God's face concerning the right model for participatory Christianity, for Ephesians 4 vs. 16 tells us that every part of the body supplies nourishment that the body grows. The church is supposed to move from the one man ministry to the body ministry. The role of the Pastor in the new millennium is to ensure hat the body of Christ grows to perfection as every part supplies nourishment to the body. The church must move from growth as it concerns numbers to growth as it concerns maturity and the only way the pastor can grow the church from the mould where she can be manipulated or deceived to the place of maturity is through participation. So the gifts of the members can be discovered, nurtured and perfected. Scripture says till
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we all come to the unity of faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. Every member of the body of Christ is supposed to move from babyhood to maturity. The emphasis now as we move to the very end of times is that we move from church growth to church maturity, if the status quo remains where the Pastor is the superstar as in a football game even though the pastor is likened to a coach in scriptures we can not achieve this. In our today's church, where the Pastor is the striker, defender and coach and this will not augur well for the church. If we do not remodel to bring in participatory approach diminishing returns sets in. we expects that this expose will provoke reforms in the church in line with Ephesians 4 vs. 16. It will be helpful for us to paint the participatory approach in scriptures, we see this in 1 Cor. 14 vs. 26 'How is it then Brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a revelation, has an interpretation, let all things be done for edification, then if you go to verse 31 'for you can all
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prophecy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged' we see there is no restriction, it is in air of love,' it is liberty in Christ, the word that follow 'that all may learn and be comforted , not the current system, where everything is spelt out where you have opening prayer, praise and worship, message, tithe and offering, denying opportunity for people to share, and again, for those who follow spiritual things as the message is being preached, they can receive inspiration that can bless people and they are denied opportunity to share it. People cannot be blessed in the church system where the Pastor preaches and that is all. Paul said we know in part and prophesy in part, it is when the part come together by sharing that we become whole, a pastor is a mentor, a coach, he should provide the air of liberty so the saints can grow. The reformation of the church and the educational system is vital for us to come out of the decay that our nation is in presently.
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FALSE PROPHETS UNCOVERED
undoubtedly expose them and I will treat them now,
Chapter 4
False Prophets Uncovered
whenever they do their meting or their programme you will observe this trend they will say, if you have N10,000 or N1,000 come and shake the hands of the man of God, if you have N500, drop the money on the altar, if you have N100, N200, ushers go and collect it. This act is totally at variance with scriptures when the impression given is that it is the amount of money that
means to prophecy and deceive people, the truth however is that according to scripture, false prophets are also those who have gone greedily after the error of Balaam for profit, they have turned the grace of God into licentiousness. These false prophets are the deadliest, for they are in the majority in the church and they are the hardest to detect, it is written by their fruits you shall know them. There are symptoms and signals that will
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hat comes to our mind immediately when false prophets are mentioned are those self styled pastors who used fetish
glorifies God, what God sees when you give is proportion and not amount. In scriptures, Jesus Christ observed people as they gave on a certain day in the temple, he saw Pharisee giving, the rich persons giving, he also saw the poor widow putting two mites in the offering box and she was the one Jesus said gave the most and Jesus gave as reason that she gave out of her want, her lack. The Bible clearly teaches that proportion is what matters to God, that means if someone has N10, 000, and gave N200, then another has N2000 and give N100, in the eyes of God, the one who had N2000 and gave N100 has
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given more than the person who had N10, 000 and gave N200. so I wonder how it has now been twisted and focus is now placed on amount, so if we go by Biblical injunction, it is the widow that gave the least that is supposed to touch the hand of the man of God, when the reverse is the case, these pastors clearly show that they are false prophets. How do we identify them? These fake prophets take advantage of the miraculous power of God to enrich themselves. God in his infinite mercies have anointed ministers to perform miracles to his glory but these ones use God miraculous power to enrich themselves whenever, there is a miraculous move of God at all, they begin to tax the people they begin to demand money, they begin to take different types of seed faith. They take advantage of every manifestation of the Holy Spirit as a word
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of knowledge, a prophecy, a miracle, they use it as an opportunity to start to extort the people, worse than that ,after a deep worship session because man is naturally selfish as he worships God, the nature of God rubs on him, self naturally gives way and he becomes vulnerable and he is willing to obey instructions, once these false prophets observe the state of the people, instead of encouraging the saints to surrender, they make use of this moment to exploit people. Anyone who takes advantage of the Spirit of God to exploit saints is clearly a false prophet. The error of Balaam needs to be known so we can know todays Balaam. Balaam attempted to curse Israel twice, he failed, when he saw the futility of his efforts because God had not beheld iniquity in Israel ,what he told Balaam was that he should introduce Midianitish women into the camp of Israel with the sole intent of provoking Israel to
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fornicate. Now more than two decades ago, Pastors have deliberately lowered standard of morality of dressing to increase the size of the congregation in order to have more money as a result of increase in offerings, they compromise standard of holiness for filthy lucre, this is the error of Balaam. These false prophets will pray for anybody to prosper without bothering to know the source of their income. Persons meets this pastors provided they bring money they will get prayers, they will ask them to bring pictures of their daughters abroad and pray for them, while many of these ladies are prostitutes, the pastor will not ask questions provided they bring the seed faith required for the prayers. Instances abound where anointing oil is sold for N1000,
Handkerchief is sold for N1000. To see the man of God you pay N1000. Scripture warns you should not bid such persons good speed, that is you should not encourage them in any way. So if you are expecting a miracle before and the pastor said if you have N1000, drop it in his hand ,if you have N500 drop it on altar, immediately the Pastor starts the manipulation you are not to take part in it by refusing to respond to his instructions, to drop money for him to pray for you, you become a partaker of the sin of the false prophet. Therefore God admonished not just the church leadership but the followers not to encourage in any way the activities of false prophets in our churches. It is written freely you have received, freely you give. When you sell prayers as a pastor, you are a false prophet, when you buy prayer you are encouraging the activities of false prophets. It is written. let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, it is written 'have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them'. It is only what God
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gives that endures if we must get anything from God, we must get it God's way. All those, who buy anointing oil for N1000, buy handkerchief from pastor for N1000, who buy prayers and indulge in like activities are charting the path to unavoidable doom. The pastors that promote these activities are false prophets whose God is their belly and they mind earthly things, it is a pattern in church that those who are caught in fornication should be suspended, however 1 Cor. 5 vs. 10 also recommended same sanction for person caught in other sins 'The two sins that the false prophet is guilty of which falls among those who have the sentence of being put out of the church is the sin of covetousness and extortion. A covetous person is a greedy person that keeps amassing wealth to himself, A covetous person is one whose eyes craves after what another has and is ready to get it by any means. Pastors who are covetous should be put out of the church. Pastors who extort are those who take advantage of the move of the Holy Spirit
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to extort people to bleed God's people they should be put out of the church, we are commanded in 1 Cor. 5 vs. 11 'But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetuous or an idolator or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner not even to eat with such a person'.not to even eat with such a person who is supposed to be a Christian who is a fornicator, covetous, greedy, an extortioner. The command in God's word is that they be put out of the church so the saints can worship God in spirit and in truth, we must arise and put a stop to the subtle manipulation and naked exploitation of false prophets for they are impoverishing the saints, promoting poverty and economic inequality. We are admonished in scriptures that we should no longer be babes tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, do no go after men, go after God.
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FLATTERING TITLES
Chapter 5
Flattering Titles
leadership have allowed themselves to fall for this trick whereby they arrogate to themselves titles that are beyond them and even titles that refer to God, for instance, the word Reverend is found only once in the Bible and it refers to God but today it is common to see ministers addressed as Revd. Dr, Revd Father, so I wonder why they want to drag the title with God, the only person that dragged little with God before was Satan and we know the outcome and for the leadership of the church to start to do this is disturbing ,scripture reveals that Jesus Christ is the Apostle of our calling so if Jesus Christ is our Apostle and you as a minister you are addressed as most senior Apostle, what will Jesus the owner, the founder of the church be addressed as if you as a minister drag such title with God, how can you be addressed as his servant, for it only portends rivalry or strife with your maker and it is a risk. Our opening scripture tells me that it l use flattery, God will soon take me away ,these things that are revered in the sight of
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oday in Christendom particularly in our part of
the word, it is common place to hear titles as
Bishops (Dr)Apostles (Dr), most Rev. (Dr)
,Archbishop ,high sounding titles these are also indicators of the pyramid system. One very striking scripture that talks about titles is found in Job 32 vs. 21, 22 'I will show partiality to no one nor will I flatter any man for if I were skilled in flattery my maker would soon take me away'. That verse or scripture says when I give flattering titles either to myself or to another, God is offended even to the point that he will soon take me away , it becomes a marvel that Christians and Christian
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FLATTERING TITLES
men is abhorred in God's sight ,assuming these titles is an abomination in the sight of God. We know from scripture that judgment will begin from the house of God in 1 Cor. 5 vs. 13 ,what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? And in Micah 3 vs. 8 'But as for me I am filled with power to declare Jacob his transgression and to Israel his iniquity'. God's mind is that his servant will declare to the church her sin so she turns away and is saved. So if things are going wrong and nobody speaks it is the fastest and surest way the church can be destroyed. The correction is coming on the hill of the mercy of God, so the church can repent. A good Bible student will know that the last day message is the message of restoration to the path of righteousness. One area the church walking in error is in the area of high sounding title that flatters the man of God and expose him to pride and deception. Let us look at symptoms that prove whether one is a victim of high
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sounding titles or not.The simplest indicator to know if one is ensnared into the deception of titles is that whether you are a pastor, you are called a Brother or Sister, if you are addressed by someone as brother or sister you become offended, you are entrapped ,even when Jesus was called good master, he said why do you call me good master,no one qualifies to be called good but God, in heaven nobody will be known as Archbishop, Apostle (Dr), we will all be referred to as brethren, as brothers and sisters, if you are offended that you are not called bishop,then you have a problem of pride a problem of deception, you have fallen victim of the deception of high sounding titles. In Nigeria,in Benue State particularly, there is a minister of God greatly used in the ministry of prayer and have made so much impact, he is still referred to as Bro. Gbile Akanni, until he died, Kenneth Hagin a father of the faith was regarded as Bro. Hagin. The deception is so subtle that if a man addressed as Bishop, sees a letter addressing him as pastor, he does
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FLATTERING TITLES
not acknowledge it. We need to understand that God is completely against the u se of flattering titles.The foundational way of addressing Christian is Brother John, Brother Andrew Sis. Jane. So anyone whether you are a Bishop, Apostle, Archbishop you should be addressed by your foundational identification and you should not be offended. The names Bishop, Apostle, Prophet were not meant originally to be titles but responsibilities to recognize the role somebody is playing in the body of Christ. Paul in his writing, to the churches emphasizes this, he would always begin this way 'I Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle', I Paul called to be an apostle to Christ Jesus by the will of God so you are Matthew, the pastor of whatever group of churches in Edo State. If for anything, any addition to your name should be brother or sister that is the instruction of Christ, it may be very hard for people to accept but it is the truth. Another thing is some appendages, some men of
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God put under their name, you could see prophet Dr Lolo and underneath the name you see restorer of hope or giver of light or demon destroyer, all these appendages are attribute of God, man cannot be a restorer of hope or a giver of light he can only be an instrument that God uses to restore hope or give light, when minister take these appendages ,they neglect to glorify God and rather turn attention from God to themselves and walk in deliberate error, they become victims of the subtlety of flattery. Once minister take these appendages to themselves, pride sets it and what goes with pride is a haughty spirit, contention and strife, esteeming yourself better than others, Jesus said the greatest among you, let him be your servant. These appendages clearly make the pastor, the Lord over the sheep over God's household, and thus become hireling that will be thrust out into outer darkness ,these titles stir up vanity and pride which guarantees destruction, it is written pride goes before destruction which minister no matter
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FLATTERING TITLES
how anointed was called by God with a title and God called Apostle Matthew, Apostle James thus saith the spirit of God, God doesn't address anyone with title. And God is the perfect example, it is written be ye followers of Christ. Jesus Christ as he appears to anyone calls you by your first name for example Sam, not Apostle Sam and he is our example, where did we copy it from. We are in the world, not of the world, the church was never intended to copy the world. Jesus Christ is coming for a church without wrinkle or spot. The disadvantages of high sounding titles are: i God detest it, we see this in Job 32 vs. 21, 22, the church is supposed to please God, to displease God is to walk on the path of destruction. ii When people are flattered through high sounding titles, they can be deceived. It is written in the last days, evil men shall wax worse, deceiving others and being deceived when men of God would not
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respond unless titles are attached to their names, they are in the traps of deception. iii The body of Christ because of these titles do not know the gifts of these ministers, for in the beginning what you call title were just responsibilities, so now with this titles, one is at a loss to know the call or assignment of some ministers. It makes it very difficult to identify the true gifting and calling in the body of Christ. We have countless Apostles, countless Bishop, Countless Archbishop iv It creates a division between the member and the leadership in the church. It is harder for the believer to come to the place of maturity. What should be right part, John the Baptist said to Jesus increase that I might decrease, the reverse is the trend today with these high sounding titles. This is
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FLATTERING TITLES
a call to ministers to decrease, so Jesus can increase, Paul said 'if meat will cause my brother offence, I will rather not eat meat. These high sounding titles is bringing offence to the body of Christ, Jesus Christ is our example, we have records of people that had encounters with God in scriptures, God never called anyone by title but by their first name examples abound Exodus 3 vs. 4 'God called to him from within the bush Moses! Moses!! 1 Samuel 3 vs. 10. The Lord came and stood there calling as other times 'Samuel! Samuel! Gen 15 vs. 1 After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision 'Do not be afraid Abram.' Acts 10 vs. 13. Get up Peter, kill and eat' when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and Saul asked who are you Lord, Jesus did not start giving himself titles he simply said 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting'. Anything outside the example of Christ
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exposes the church to vanity, to deception.
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DISADVANTAGES OF DENOMINATIONALISM
particular church and he was restricted in his role and
Chapter 6
Disadvantages Of Denominationalism
John said when he comes he will expose his evil deeds, even though Diotrephes was wrong, the point that is made here is that the church had free will to give or not to give to their head, their leader out of free volition, out of their free will. And that is how God wants the church to be and not the current trend when branch take tithe &offering to the headquarter. Churches even when the
n Philippians 4 vs. 15, Paul writing 'Moreover as you Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel when I set out from
branches are poor and the headquarter church is comfortable and wealthy, sometimes, the branch has to send up to 90% of the resource to the headquarter church under the system of denominationalism. 1 John 3 vs. 14 'We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren' The Christian is supposed to have the same kind of love for the brethren in the local church and Christians in other churches, love is to be without discrimination. One of the major disadvantages of denomination is that it puts restriction on the ability of a Christian to express love.
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Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only'. Paul founded many churches but from the context of this verse they were not under compulsion to send their tithes or offering or resources to him but only the Philippians church gave out of love to Apostle Paul to support the missionary work. Another example we will find is in third John where Diotrephes was the head of that
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Many times as a Christian from one denomination when it is discovered, you are from another denomination, they start treating you shabbily as denomination promotes discrimination and schism within the body of Christ. From the scripture in 1 John 3 we see that the proof that we have passed from death to life is that we have untainted, unfeigned love for the brethren and the brethren here refers to the entire body of Christ. Denominationalism obviously fights the fulfillment of last days prophecies, it is God's word in John, Jesus Christ prayed a prayer that the church will be one even as he and the father are one. Under denominationalism, doctrine have been built that is at variance with scripture and are at variance with other believer and people have held onto it and have refused to let go even when it is not correct and this dogmatic stance of denominationalism has caused so much division in the church where as the mind of God for the church is for unity, for oneness. And this has made it difficult for
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people to accept the love of Christ. Jesus said emphatically by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one for another. The lack of love amongst believers has now made it difficult for people to know who the true believers are. This deciding factor is so important yet so ignored, our love for one another, and not the miracles we perform is what convinces others that we belong to Christ. Economic exploitation is another evil work of denominationalism. In Phil. 4 vs. 13-15, we find Apostle Paul, a man who founded many churches and wrote twothird of the New Testament despite the fact that he founded many churches, these churches were not under compulsion to bring offerings and tithes to him, but under the denominational system, the Headquarter church receivers tithes and offerings and sometimes up to 90% of the resources of the branches and as a result there is a deprivation and lack at the branches, this has also made it difficult for the branch pastor to exemplify
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the love of Christ. Many times, issues arise in the branches where a widow is in dire need, there is an emergency financial challenge but because of the denominational laws and rule, the hands of the branch pastor are 'tied' he is unable to assist, to show love so that we have incidences where brethren will leave the church to seek help outside, the effect of denominationalism is the strongest opposition to the free flow of love amongst brethren amongst Christians today. Denominationalism has made many churches to become empires, exploiters of Christians because of the pressure to gather all the resources to the headquarter. Denominationalism promotes idolatry, many Pastors and founders of churches who are denominational leaders are idolized by their members. Virtually being worshipped, today it is common to say Papa says, Daddy says and not knowing what is in the scripture many of the church leaders are have become idols, Lords over the sheep of God and by so doing has
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made it difficult for people to know the true Lord Jesus Christ because they have taken his place it is as if they have overthrown their Lord because the normal picture is that the pastors decrease why Jesus increases, in the time of John the Baptist, he was fore-runner of Jesus he said something in John 3 vs. 30 Jesus must increase I must decrease but it is not so with many of this denominational leaders even if it is another branch another town, the founder is not there, but on the billboards, fliers it is his picture that is there so it is now as if he is the Lord over the sheep, it is as if he is the emperor of these churches, these play out of denominationalism hinders the church from promoting Christ which is ensuring that Christ increases instead of increase of self, or of denominational leader who in many cases have taken over the seat of Christ in their various denominations and God is not happy with them and God is saying they should repent of this. They should turn away from the wicked act of promoting self, instead
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of glorifying Christ. Denominationalism makes churches preach the doctrine of men rather than the doctrine of Christ, they replace the doctrine of Christ with the doctrine of men, in 1 Cor. 14 in pattern of worship shown when was the last time you prayed for a pastor who was not in your church, or for brethren in other minister meanwhile in 2 Cor. 11 vs. 28 'Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches:- A pastor, a big man of God should be humble enough to go to a small church, to visit them and help them where the need arises, it is only when we do such things that we can promote unity and love in the church, remember God's will is that we should come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto the measure of the stature of Christ but if we keep allowing denominational interest to deter the major interest of the body of Christ, this will never happen and people will keep fanning the fire of denominational empires to the detriment of the
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unity and love in the body of Christ. Another thing we discovered from the apostle Paul, despite the fact that he founded many Churches yet none of these churches were not under compulsion to send him tithe and offerings. He did not brand them, he just named them based on their location, as the church of God in Corinth because the church belongs to Christ but today we see different names of churches, people even telling lies that God gave them name. God can never give different names like that, he is not an author of confusion, in 1 Cor. 14 vs. 26 'what then shall we say brothers when you come together everyone has a hymn, a revelation, a tongue or a word of instruction, all these must be done for the edification of the church' God e n c o u ra g e s p a r t i c i p a to r y C h r i s t i a n i ty, b u t denominationalism keeps the pulpit only for the denominational pastor, if it is not the day assigned for people to ask questions, you can't ask question, so on Sundays, question cannot be asked even when you do
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not understand a message until perhaps on Wednesday or whatever is the day, that is the midweek service meanwhile Jesus Christ the founder of Christianity they were able to ask him questions anytime and he never tu r n e d a nyo n e a way. Un f o r tu n a t e ly u n de r denominational rules, they will tell you, questions are restricted to some days or they tell you, this is our Sunday school manual that is used in all the branches in the different location when people have different experience and unique challenge, they will not give room to the Holy Spirit to use the people there to edify the Church, rather they will insist you must use the Sunday school manual to address all issues so using denominationalism to put the church into a particular mould is idolatry it is witchcraft and the church involved in this practice are admonished to repent. By promoting your denomination above the body of Christ they have created division in the body of Christ. God cannot allow the church to be divided because he is the
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one that said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The churches were named after the towns within which they were domiciled. The names we see everywhere on churches is an offshoot of denominationalism what scripture is against is the variances in churches. In heaven there will be nothing like different names of churches. What matter is names written in the book of life. So if you must follow God, you must follow him the right way, a situation where people turn church into their property by giving special name, special doctrines. God is saying to those who practice these to repent. The picture we want to paint is the story of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, after the death of Solomon, the elders of Israel went to meet Rehoboam to lessen the burden put on them by Solomon, he refused and as a result ten tribes left his authority remaining ,the tribe of Judah and Benjamin and Jeroboam became king over the ten tribes of Israel with capital in Samaria, we see this in 2 Chronicles 10 vs. 2-19. So when Jeroboam
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saw that as it was commanded at a particular time all Israel was to gather at Jerusalem to worship & offer sacrifices to God, as the time was approaching ,Jeroboam initiated an alternative by choosing Samaria instead of Jerusalem as the place of worship and even made for himself priests 1 Kings 12 vs. 27-31, 2 Chronicles 13 vs. 9. In this way if some churches see that a popular man of God is coming to town, other churches in fear of losing members will organize programs that will organize programs that will clash with the program of the man of God that was coming to town. When we deliberately do these types of things, this is idolatry, it means we have made idols of our system. This Idolatrous practice is similar to what Jeroboam did when he set up his own idolatrous practice that people should not go to Jerusalem to worship for fear of losing his throne 1 Kings 12 vs. 27 when churches deliberately organize program to clash with other program, it shows we are promoting denominationalism instead of Christ, we all
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have different gifts and callings in the body of Christ, he gave some to be prophet, evangelist, Apostles, Teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry so we must allow these various organs in the body of Christ to minister to the local church so the church can grow to the full measure and stature of Christ. If we deliberately create a system that hinders the expression of these roles in the body of Christ we are clearly against God's will and instead of promoting God, we are promoting our selfish end and our denominations and systems. Another drawback of denominationalism is undue denominational control over the church. This happens as a result of the posting and re-posting of pastors who is not in good terms with the General Overseer, they end up being posted to the village where he may not have enough resources and begins to experience hardship, when this happens it takes away love, righteousness and the right way of doing things and what is replaced is the pyramid system a situation
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where as you climb in the denominational ladder, you begin to enjoy more benefit and get more privileges. Denominationalism promotes selfish ambition, carnality and oppression and many times this has further led to more break away and more denomination emerging, if you have a pastor that was transferred to the village after he has helped to build a big church, because he has fallen out of favour with the General Overseer, when God's face is not sought in the area of posting of pastors, just like the disciples sought God's face, God said separate ' Barnabas and Paul for the work I have called you into'. It becomes politics where manipulation thrive, denominationalism sets in that take people far from God when a church system is supposed to draw people close to God. So pastors now use manipulation tactics, worldly tactics to curry favour from the General Overseer buy special gifts, very expensive suits for their General Overseer when their members are suffering, as a pastor in a lucrative branch
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,you gather money to send to the G. O to consistently be in his favour. This pressure that denomination puts on pastors makes them move further away from righteousness and it is until we break the walls of denomination, the righteousness of God cannot be revealed in the church and that is what we must do for the church to move forward. Denominational leaders must give up control over the branches because God himself when he built the model for the church, it was the local church. The local church is autonomous that is why we see the example of Paul even though he founded many churches, he never put any of them under compulsion to send tithes and offerings to him, they all had free will, he did not have undue control over the branches and that is the New Testament model therefore the major sacrifice and denominational leaders and headquarter should dois to give up control of these branches, because the church is supposed to exist as independent autonomous churches, a small
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independent local assembly, this is God's mind. When Jesus died to form church. In Ephesians 5 vs. 27 'that he might present to himself a glorious church' the word there is a glorious church, not the glorious church also when we take our picture from Rev. 2 &3 where our LORD spoke to the seven churches he spoke to church by church telling you that the model of the new testament church is that of an autonomous independent local church. These churches in the New Testament are to be independent and enjoy autonomy and support the church that founded them of their own free will not out of compulsion, not for funds to go to the headquarter, it is at variance with scripture. These must be final stop to control over the branch church by the as is the model laid down in scriptures.
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THE INFLUENCE OF COLONIAL MENTALITY IN THE CHURCH
he tries to condition his tongue and intonation to sound
Chapter 7
The Influence Of Colonial Mentality In The Church
like a European, some even go to the extent of bleaching their skin and perming their hair, I wonder why there should be such identity crisis ,this kind of mentality erodes esteem and establishes inferiority. A central teaching of scripture is equality which means God wants equality of tribes, equality of tongues and equality of races. All over the world it is as if the black race is pinned to the ground, the church is supposed to work to see that this is corrected and not to promote the inequality of races consciously or unconsciously, so the intent of this expose is to expose areas in which church leadership is promoting colonial mentality and thereby instilling inferiority complex amongst people so it can be stopped and God's mind as revealed in Psalm 68 vs. 31, which means dignity of the Black race will be elevated in the last days. As part of efforts to promote equality cultural identity our Africanness, an example here will suffice.
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salm 68 vs. 31 'Princes shall come out of Egypt
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto
God ' and Revelation 5 vs. 9 'and hath
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation', it is the mind of God that every tongue tribe or Nation will give praise to God. So if we lose our cultural identity because we are Christians, it is clearly not the mind of God. This is very important because there are many churches in Nigeria today where the pastor behaves as if he is a white man,
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One of the fathers of faith, in fact one of the pioneers of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, Archbishop Benson Idahosa in most of his outreaches abroad or in Nigeria, he would always put on African attire because he understood the role African touch has to play in going with the gospel but today there are ministers who have never worn our African attire who change their intonation and even their physical composure to look European. The man of God, Idahosa who has traveled wider than any minister in Nigeria till date, never denied his African roots by the way he spoke or dressed because that is the only way we can be free form colonial mentality by maintaining our cultural identity for colonial mentality has eroded our esteem, enslaved us and impoverished us ,how does this happen? As a man of God, a Nigerian, in Nigeria using an instance, you dress in imported suits, it means you want to keep jobs for tailors abroad, deliberately you have denied indigenous tailors jobs at the same time but if you use traditional attire, you will be boosting the
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indigenous fashion industry in your country, it will undoubtedly put pride and confidence in ourselves and this is required for Africans to develop because for a people to develop sincere and strong self confidence is indispensable but when inferiority complex prevails because we prefer European's product to our own, as we deny our identify covertly it become impossible for Christians to develop the society they are supposed to be assets to, colonial mentality creates inferiority , complete and deep insecurity, which makes it an uphill task for scriptures to be interpreted appropriately when it comes to books people would rather choose books written by Europeans, even when books are even written by indigenous authors, question are asked as to what denomination , when the leadership of the church is to read the book and recommend it based on content quality rather than the skin color of the author. Another area where colonial mentality has prevailed is in the gospel music, it is just now trend is
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changing before now the songs of foreign Gospel artist were preferred to indigenous gospel artist so when church show strong preference for foreign books and gospel music to the detriment of local authors of musician it show a great prevailence of colonial mentality in the church some years ago, a great man of God Sam Adeyemi talked about a new Lagos a Lagos that will be clean, where there will be no traffic hold up when he was saying all the things, it was like the impossible but God used Fashola the Governor or Lagos state to actualize the dream, in the same way that is how God expects the church to work in the redesigning of our Educational system, in the mental emancipation of the black race. In our Educational system for example when they talk of Philosophy they trace it to the white people even up to the issue or discovering the sea route or river Niger, the discoverer was said to be Mungo Park. History had been
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written to the advantage of the white man and if we continue to allow this kind of Education to continue, it will keep Africa underdeveloped. The Church is supposed to effect a correction by rewriting African's History in the right perspective. For Africans to rise from a position of dependence on white people to a state of independence, we cannot afford to remain passive. We need to look inward in order to know where the church will be relevant and become a catalyst for development in Nigeria and Africa. It appears there is a deliberate strategy to keep the black race obscure. The church has the responsibility of frustrating it, pastors are supposed to look into scripture where equality is emphasized, they are to teach equality, promote industry, promote development, discourage inequality and promote re-orientation of the black race so our people will desist form the action of stealing money from Nigeria to go and develop the western world. Pastors should stop following rich politicians to buy
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houses or to go abroad for medical check-up. Pastor should discourage rather than promote the trend. This contributes to the enslavement of the Black race. Some example will suffice about the relevance of Nigerian in Europe. Most of i phone, i phone4, iphone5 have the algorithm by which they function developed by a Nigerian Philip Emegwali. A Nigerian by name Seni Hazzan, a graduate from the university of Maiduguri, is making so much waves in America that he is one of the 40 most outstanding Americans today, more than 2,500 Nigerians are specialist medical doctor. It is the same brain that God put in the European, the African and the Asian. All that is required is for us to change our perception and the message. Look into scripture and you see that the right message is proactive, provoking people to contribute to make society a better place and saviours shall begin to come out of Zion. The church has a pivotal assignment in this age and that is to promote the ascent of saviour that will correct and repair the
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decaying Nigerian society. Docility or indifference on the part of the church must end 'woe to him who is at ease in Zion' in the midst of the challenge of our time, the church can no longer afford to fold her hands. One way the church will make impact is to change the message, the message that God will bless you is half measure, God is not blessing you for nothing God is blessing you for a purpose, you are blessed to be a blessing and when you are a blessing it means, you are adding to your world, you are an asset to your world, not in words but in good works, actively involved in the development of your town state, community & nation. Pastor as shepherds are supposed to be examples to their flock, are they good examples by going abroad for medical check ups, or taking their wives abroad to put to bed? The answer is obviously no, for Pastors who behave in this manner portray the presence of strong colonial mentality and they cannot give vent to the need for reconstruction of an ideal and good life for Nigerians. There are ways as a
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church we can rid ourselves of colonial mentality and be development driven we see this in the sacrifice of Jesus in 2 Cor. 8 vs. 9. This is a call to Pastors to become 'poor' so their very poor members can live at all. Today you see Pastors buy aeroplane, recently a Pastor in Lagos dedicated his church building built at over four billion Naira. How many cottage industries can be established by funds wasted on vanity, ostentatious lifestyle that is proved by colonial mentality? In Ekpoma, a vital need are rice mills, there are parts of Edo state where cassava mill is a dire need. A very practical way, Pastors can contribute to community development is by cutting down on provocatively ostentatious lifestyle which is the product of colonial imitation. A car of one million Naira and a car of ten million Naira will perform same purpose. Colonial mentality have provoked ostentatious lifestyle among Pastors and the church and this has engendered competition and fans the embers of frustration in the body of Christ. We see the exemplary
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sacrifice of Christ in 2 Cor 8 v. 9, he became poor, so we might become rich, that means he made sacrifices. Jesus said to the rich man who asked him what he must do to have eternal life, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have eternal life and come and follow me. That is what God is saying to the Pastors who stand as examples to the flock Jesus is saying sell your plane, your hummer jeep, and empower the poor in your flock and your rich will take a cue from you and Nigeria will be better. What to do Change the message from God will bless you to the original message of righteousness and development (being a blessing to others) Pastors must take the pain to live like the masses ,scripture declare let your moderation be known to all men, the Lord is at hand. A Christian is to live a moderate and modest life. Statistics say 70% of
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Nigerian live on less than 2 dollars a day, then why would a Pastor in a bid to satisfy an ostentatious desire, buy an aeroplane? We should be careful because it is sin of neglect that took the rich man in the book of Matthew to hell fire. The rich man neglected Lazarus and today Pastors with their lifestyle are not only neglecting the poor, they teach and encourage the neglect of the poor. God says the church must turn form a life of selfishness and neglect to the life of true, untainted love, church leaders should not continue to play the role of colonial masters who saw Nigeria not as their home but as their farm where they gather money and take it abroad to spend.
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THE ROLE OFOF THE CHURCH MENTALITY IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT THE INFLUENCE COLONIAL IN THE CHURCH AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
Chapter 8
The Role Of The Church In Community Development And Conflict Transformation
with a position which helped in the support that came as a result of it. When we go to the more developed countries, most foundation and donor agencies in the world are Christian based and funded by churches in Europe, for instance in Finland, the fin church is the largest donor agency in Finland it is a conglomeration of churches working together to support the development of communities, we hope and believe God that as the church in Nigeria grows and develop, they will take similar initiatives to develop communities, to support people, to see that poverty is eradicated to the glory of God. It is imperative that churches work together to bring about community development and people empowerment and begin to be indeed the light of the world, taking bold and concrete steps in the area of community development to complement the efforts of the government. It is comforting news that churches are exempted from paying taxes however we expect the
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n many countries of the world the church has been seen to play a vital role in community development and conflict transformation, sometime ago in
South Africa and Tanzania, we had the protest of miners because of the need for increase in wages, during this period the church in South Africa set up a panel to investigate and search into the matter, they came up with their findings and this action played a vital role in resolving the conflict, also in Tanzania, a similar thing happened, the church waded in, researched came up
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church to go beyond and touch the lives of the poor and needy in their communities by organizing programmes to directly touch the less privileged and raise the standard of living of the less fortunate persons. We are very enthusiastic that as the churches begin to evolve more, she will be involved in good governance and development. The church has vital roles to play in community development in area as: Promoting Educational development.In Nigeria in recent times, there has been increase in Exam malpractice and fraud and falling standard of Education, how will the church be relevant in resolving the challenge? The church could come in by giving scholarships, organizing programmes that will help to promote Educational development as Essay competition, and
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rewarding excellence so people can be encouraged to do the right thing. In the health sector, churches can, make donations to equip hospitals, help to ensure hospital development, initiating a more effective approach to sustainable health care deliver. If we think to impact the larger society that the answer to solving our Educational challenge is to open new school & hospitals, these are stop gaps they do not provide solution to the main challenge. Which is that there is a falling standard and for it to be raised, positive stimulus must be injected into the system which will drive people to do the right things. Churches can organize programs to help young persons who are sport enthusiasts to develop
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their talents and grow. Church should not be reservoirs or vaults of blessing when God has designed the church to be a flowing channel of blessing to the world. Churches need to be proactive in the show of care and concern for their communities preaching, prayer is good but it a one sided approach from what we have seen over the years, it has not wholistically addressed the issue on ground. Scriptures declares ' be ye does of the word and not hearers only'. There should be physical effort to fight poverty in our world, we have developed community action plans for 10 communities to help them develop. In the same vein, we are ready to partner with churches who are willing to be positive impacts on their community but do not know how. Our strategy in this wise will be to encourage them, mentor them, so they begin to do good work for it
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is written in Ephesians 2 vs. 10. 'For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works'. A Christian should be one who is rich in good works, the primary responsibility of a believer is love and love as expressed by good works. Titus 2 vs. 14. 'To purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good' our drive is to re-awaken the church to her original responsibility of doing good works. In Acts 10 vs. 38 it is written 'How God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power and he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil'. Jesus said a Christian is the light if the world and the salt of the world. Light stand for direction, development ,progress and prosperity, so the church by the original design of God, is a pacesetter promoting qualitative and affordable
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health care. The church in these end times must be one that can address the challenges of her time. We are up against falling standard in Education and healthcare delivery apart from people having their personal challenge. The Pastor of the 21st century church should be able to wholistically address these issue in society. Currently there is a disconnect in the church in Nigeria, people go to church, they are blessed, they are happy ,needs are met but they come out of the church and it is a different world because there is the disconnect between the church and the world, for the church is unable to address some of these key challenge of our time. The church can give endowment to promote science and technology, we have various challenges now with varying climatic change environmental hazard poverty, violence against women, so the church needs to be more proactive,
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more positive and more energetic to meet the challenge we face today. The church should arise to good governance, to progress to righteousness and to true love. The low level of love in the church is contributing to the predominance of evil in our society ,today when love is cold, evil must increase. There must be enough love inside the church so it begin to flow outside, so people mind can be softened. The increase of crime in society is clear evidence of abject hatred in the society. Effective and justifiable evangelism is obviously the product of love we see this is Acts 2 vs. 44, 45, 47. 'All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions, and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved' Jesus said by this shall all men know ye are my disciples if ye have love one
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another! The issue of division in the church due to denomination is another reason why love is drained from the church. Awakening the church is encouraging Christians to show love within their local church and outside for a Christian in Assemblies is a Christian in St. Matthew Anglican church love should permeate to everyone, this is God's mind. In Awakening the church there is the global drive in this sense the church in Europe should express love practically to the needy in Nigeria, in Africa. In the book of Acts when there was famine in Jerusalem. Churches in Antioch & other town sent food provisions to Jerusalem. The second level of awakening the church is that the big church, the rich church in our state in our nation should be able to show more love to the
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poorer churches and society in general. A situation where the poor church is the one that sends provision to the headquarter is a misnormer The third level of awakening the church is the day to day church in the society. The church should be proactive promoting righteousness in the street to the glory of God, a situation where a church builds a school or university and it is not affordable is not acceptable. The missionaries who brought Education to Africa ensured that schooling was free so people could get an Education and it has contributed immensely to our nations development today.When you see a very big church on a deplorable road what message is being communicated, government cannot do everything, we cannot run church
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taking offerings without thinking of the welfare and livelihood of the members. We must recognize the poor, the neglected, the exploited , the church is a very fertile platform for youths and women to be empowered ,churches should be able to x-ray communities and its needs, women need micro credit facilities, churches cannot afford to be docile and indifferent any longer. Churches should be in the forefront of providing relief material in a situation of environment hazards, in the book of James 1 vs. 15-17. 'This is a clarion call to the church leadership and the church to rise to the primary responsibility of love, by supporting the poor, & complimenting government efforts and creating initiatives to empower youths.
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Awakening The Church Author: Samson Onyi Ajufoh Copyright c 2013

Awakening The Church

An Action for Community Development Publication

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

of the Scripture talks about the Levite who is the New

he economic relationship amongst Christians today is it mutually beneficial or exploitative?.

Our support scripture is Deuteronomy 18 v 6-

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

EXPLOITATIVE ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

created, Bible says, he is not ashamed to call them

et us paint a picture of the founder of the church,

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP FOR CHRISTIANS

THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH

are one body in Christ and individual members of

oday in many ministries in many churches we

see a situation where everything is built

around the pastor. Various efforts are put to

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

THE RIGHT MINISTRY MODEL FOR THE CHURCH

FALSE PROPHETS UNCOVERED

undoubtedly expose them and I will treat them now,

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

FALSE PROPHETS UNCOVERED

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

FALSE PROPHETS UNCOVERED

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

FALSE PROPHETS UNCOVERED

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

oday in Christendom particularly in our part of

the word, it is common place to hear titles as

Bishops (Dr)Apostles (Dr), most Rev. (Dr)

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH

AWAKENING THE CHURCH