BREAKING NEWS
Breaking

728x90

468x60

Why Pastors don’t go to Heaven - Femi Aribisala



I was having lunch at “Sweet Sensation,” a fast-food restaurant in Lagos, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked back to see a gentleman grinning at me from ear to ear. “Dr. Aribisala, how are you doing?” he asked expansively. It was one of my former pastors.


As a young believer, I was so hungry for God I juggled several church-memberships simultaneously. I grew up in the Anglican Communion. But when I finally had an encounter with Christ, I switched to the Baptist Church and then to Pentecostal Assembly. Even then, I also attended mid-week services at Zoe Ministries, before ditching both for several branches of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

When the Lord formally called me to a healing ministry, I decided to establish a Christian fellowship of my own with a handful of people in Lagos. Within five years, it metamorphosed into a full-fledged church.

A repentant pastor

My former Zoe pastor was genuinely glad to see me and I readily changed tables to sit with him. He told me he was no longer with his old church but was now coordinating a small prayer-group. He wanted to know what I was doing. When I told him my office was just five minutes away, he insisted on seeing it. So after finishing my lunch, I took him back to my office complex and showed him the different features of the building.

When we came to my office, I sat down behind my desk and he sat in front of me. He looked at me with a curious intensity. Then he said: “So you are now a pastor?” It was a question and yet not a question. I had shown him the church-hall, the Christian video and book libraries, the prayer-room, television room and the counselling cubicles. I had also come clean and acknowledged I was then a pastor. Nevertheless, he felt it necessary to ask the question again, as if he was trying to confirm it to himself.

He suddenly became very quiet. He seemed to crouch a little bit in his seat. He stared for an embarrassingly long time at his finger nails. Then, out of nowhere, he started to apologise to me. His apologies were all the more intriguing because we never had any noticeable differences in the past. But there in my office that afternoon, he just felt the need to apologise and I understood exactly why. In a rambling manner, he told me how sorry he was for “all the rubbish we were doing in those days.” Somehow, he just knew that by now I would have come to know they were rubbish, even if I might not have realised it at the time.

I remember one occasion when Zoe president, Patrick Anwuzia, was visiting the church, we were required to raise a “love offering” for him. But then the pastor insisted it had to be in either dollars or pounds sterling. He asked for public pledges but when nobody responded, he called people up at random and dictated pledges for them. He told them what they had to contribute irrespective of whether they were so disposed or not.

In those days, he often came up with imaginative ploys to extract money from us. No less than three offerings were collected every service; one for the Father, another for the Son and a third for the Holy Spirit.

Church business

When Jesus was only twelve years old, he went with his adoptive-parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. But on returning back home, they discovered he was missing. They spent an agonising three days searching for him and finally found him in the temple, engaged in discussion with the teachers of the law.

His mother chided him for his insensitivity. She said: “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.” (Luke 2:48). But Jesus was unapologetic. He said to them: “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).

A similar anomaly applies to pastors. Precisely what is the Father’s business and to what extent are pastors engaged in it? The Father’s business is supposed to be the preaching of the gospel in order to usher men into the kingdom of God. But make no mistake about it; today’s churches are far more interested in your money than in your soul. The single, most important, objective of today’s pastorate is the collection of money from church-goers.

House of merchandise

Folusho Aribisala told me about a banker colleague of his whose church applied for a loan from his bank. He was dismayed to find in the application projections about anticipated increases in the amount of tithes and offerings that would be collected over the next few years. The man was disgusted that his church was not only targeting his current income, it was already making plans about his future earnings.

Jesus’ gospel is addressed to the poor. (Luke 4:18). James insists it is the poor that God has chosen for his kingdom. (James 2:5). But the primary focus of today’s gospel is the rich. Pastors are ever reaching out to those better able to pay fat tithes and give big offerings. Some even give commissions to church-members who invite them to church. In some cases, special seats up-front are reserved for them.

Pastors have become get-rich-quick tipsters who offer keys, not of the kingdom, but of financial prosperity. We organise special programs for businessmen, promising to give them the power to get more wealth. Like Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas (U.S.A.), we offer our parishioners “your best life now;” an infinitely more appealing proposition than Jesus’ “take up your cross and follow me.”

Marketing Jesus

No wonder, many now see church-going in economic terms; deeming it invaluable for making business connections. Bankers come to church in search of depositors. Traders come to church in search of customers. That nice gentleman shouting “hallelujah” across the aisle from you is likely to button-hole you after the service, give you his complimentary card, and inform you that he services generators; just in case you are interested.

The “gospel” is now a product marketed with razzmatazz by mega-pastors and televangelists. Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potters House, Dallas, Texas organises a lavish annual religious jamboree called “MegaFest.” The 2005 edition in Atlanta, Georgia was sponsored by Coca-Cola; GlaxoSmithKline; American Airlines and Ford Motor Company, among others.

But how can the gospel of a kingdom not of this world be obligated, at the same time, to corporate America? Inevitably, there is conflict, as the message is punctuated by the obligatory “word from our sponsors.” It is not a surprise therefore that, according to Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer, during the kick-off of the 2005 MegaFest, T.D. Jakes mentioned his corporate sponsors more times than he mentioned God.

In effect, pastors are no longer engaged in the Father’s business. Mary and Joseph have been looking for us in all the right places, but to no avail. Someone needs to tell them we can be found in the supermarkets and flea-markets, putting Jesus up for sale. (Continued).
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday


Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
« PREV
NEXT »

20 comments

  1. True talk let's pray to God to show us the right way

    ReplyDelete
  2. May baba have mercy on us,u re 100% right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What is the way forward to stop this menace? May the Lord have mercy on today' s church. Little wonder the society is getting worse with unimaginable vices inspite of the seemingly increase in the number of churches. The gospel of "the belly" negates the true gospel which aims at making people saved, discipling them so that they can conform to the image of Christ and make heaven at the end of their lives' journey.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Femi your days shall be long. In fact God has endowed you with great wisdom.Like a prophet you have prophesied yet people have eyes yet they cannot see and ears but cannot hear

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really don't know where to place this writer. A pastor in the class of Bakare or a political rabble rouser like FFK. Good write up though

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love this article and agree with you perfectly but the one you wrote on Tithe sometimes i detest vehemently. KSF

    ReplyDelete
  7. God gave us all mature functioning brain to use common sense and logic. But because many religion bigots refuse to use their brains, they fall victim of fraudulent fake so-called men of God. C'mon peeps, u can't buy heaven with ur money offering to fake pastors.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 2ru talk.may almighty God 4gv each&everyone of us(follower&prechers)&show us the right ways

    ReplyDelete
  9. At least there is still a Lot in this Sodom and Gomorrah of new marketing Churches. May God continue to bless Fermi Aribisala and imbue him with more courage to tell the truth as it is.

    ReplyDelete
  10. When I read something like this I always feel like Elijah being told by God that they're still other prophets that have not bowed the knee. In this age, all most have to show they are born again is either that they sing in Church, hold a post or answered an altar call and repeated some words after a pastor. We have forgotten that passing the narrow gate of being born again is not enough but that we have to now keep walking on the narrow path of holiness. So you see someone whose lifestyle is totally of the world but he/she maintains they are born again because they once repeated some prayers after a preacher. We must wake up and go back to Jesus!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is a masterpiece. How I wish every Pastor will read this. The word of God is true and the scriptures cannot be faulted. These are meant to happen in the last days, which we are now. So let him that reads try to understand that there are fake and counterfeit even in the leadership of churches..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you sir. That's the craze. Everyboy wants to own a church and be the presiding pastor, the wife as the assistant pastor and the child as the third in command. It is purely a family business as the wife succeeds the man, in case of death. There is a family I know that the elder sister owns a church and her two younger brothers ( one a medical doctor) each with his own church. That is how bad it is but God will save us from the craze.

    ReplyDelete
  13. aribisala u are 100% correct.people say church members are fools thats why the succumb to pastors dictation.this notion is wrong because its never possible that you as a member of a church and begin to condem or criticise your pastor in his presence

    ReplyDelete
  14. aribisala u are 100% correct.people say church members are fools thats why the succumb to pastors dictation.this notion is wrong because its never possible that you as a member of a church and begin to condem or criticise your pastor in his presence

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why Waisting your time is Christianity Religion ?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Its high time the blind folding mask is removed from the peopes eyes so they can see clearly & not be misled in the name of religion.

    ReplyDelete
  17. For the 1st time I agree with this man.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Men! you are blessed with great wisdom. Men of this world fear God but they don't want to obey him

    ReplyDelete
  19. if God should count the sin of these world no one will stand. it is by the grace of God we will make the kingdom of God and not by might or by condemning others. some pastors will make the kingdom of God while some will not and 'not all pastor will not' Mr Aribisala.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Well, I am not a Pastor neither do I own a church but I think you should find other subjects to write on and leave churches and men of God alone. Any one of them that's fraudulent will answer to God and not you. If you study your bible you should know that touching God's annointed either with your mouth or pen is very dangerous as God's wrath will not spare you wether they are fraudulent or not. If you want to get to the peak of your career, my brother, don't talk about pastors and churches. Don't mind all the praises they are singing for you here cos when it strikes, you will face the music alone. A word is enough for the wise

    ReplyDelete

Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)

Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com