The church in the season of scarcity (2), By Ayo Akerele

Sadly, lots of the present management mannequin is groomed across the, “you’ll be able to’t query me” type of a mannequin. Additional, lots of our church buildings lack accountability and transparency. For probably the most half, even when trustees are appointed, the pinnacle of the ministry or the senior pastor remains to be answerable to nobody within the church, and may’t be questioned by the trustees. Being a charitable group, many church buildings in our clime hardly ever, if in any respect, make their monetary statements public to donors and givers, a lot much less to even their closest associates.

The one factor the individuals see and listen to are the tasks and spending of the church. This sums up why there was quite a lot of outcries towards the church as a result of lack of belief for the management of the church. Secrecy impedes belief. The persons are seeing the mammoth crowd within the church. They know that there’s a community of 5 thousand different branches sending in cash from twenty totally different international locations. They’ll see the community of faculties and different companies which might be owned by their church, all of which usher in cash into the church. But, their very own particular person lives are getting worse by the day. The end result of this sort of a system is the preponderance of doubts and distrust within the management of church buildings. They’re utilizing my cash to do these items and so they can’t assist me to unravel my very own private issues? And extra so when so many church buildings with huge assets don’t actually have a really efficient and resounding help system for members, a lot much less for Christians from different church buildings.

These crises stem from the dangerous church mannequin that we run. The, “it’s my ministry that I’ve labored for” mannequin. After I was fasting and praying, the place had been you? After I was a no person, the place had been you? All of it stems from the dangerous theologies and doctrines that underpin many ministry’s foundations. There are few remnants of mega church buildings which might be doing issues in a much more Biblical manner. However they’re actually within the minority. Nearly all of our mega church buildings principally function the identical mannequin. Most particularly, in a nation like Nigeria the place the political class has failed, the final hope of the individuals stays the church. A lot of them go to church buildings that additional destroy their religion in Christ by dangerous doctrines and forestall their mindsets from being productive to being overtly depending on prayers, vigils, deliverance, sacrificial giving, and fasting for each want and for every little thing. Thus, the mindset of lots of our persons are rendered unproductive and fallow.

Having recognized a few of these challenges within the church, you will need to wrap this instructing up by interesting to our church leaders to vary their church fashions. Any mannequin that solely prospers the chief, however excludes the individuals shouldn’t be from God. Reality is common for it to be fact. Any fact that solely works in Nigeria shouldn’t be fact. The gospel is common. If it really works in different nations, it should work in Nigeria, if it’s constructed on the reality of God’s phrase. In any other case, the individuals will all the time see us as their drawback, and would all the time ask us to do what the federal government is constitutionally elected to do. If we proceed to function with secret church fashions that lack accountability, transparency, love, integrity, and Bible based mostly compassionate management, the individuals will stay tied to our aprons, and would all the time see you as the answer to their issues. It’s time to reverse the order.

Let’s collect and use assets in a extra clear and accountable method. Let’s spend money on the religious progress of the individuals. Let’s prepare and train the individuals to know God and to develop into maturity. Let’s publish our accounts, following the precise channels and greatest practices to assist those that give to us to know the way a lot we make and what the cash is spent on. Let’s be deliberate with taking individuals out from poverty based mostly on our capability. Stop from vainness tasks that aren’t commissioned by God, however by the spirit of envy and competitors in order that assets might be freed up for constructing and grooming sound disciples. Over time, when the individuals begin to see our stage of affection and compassion, transparency and accountability, coupled with their religious progress and maturity, the aim of the church gained’t be confused with that of the federal government. The little we do to help the individuals’s welfare will probably be appreciated by the individuals, and collectively, all of us would stroll in higher unity of objective to elect good leaders that might play their roles nicely in constructing a fantastic and dealing society for all.

Ayo Akerele is the Senior Pastor of Rhema Meeting and the founding father of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He will be reached by ayoakerele2012@gmail.com