The “gospel” is now a product marketed with razzmatazz by mega-pastors and televangelists.
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.
I became the Pastor of Healing Wings, Chapel of Faith in 1998. But nine years later, I felt constrained to resign. My resignation came from the sudden realisation that even though God specifically called me to ministry, he never asked me to pastor a church. I have also come to realise that Jesus while Jesus calls prophets, wise men and inspired writers (Matthew 23:34); he calls no one to be a pastor for the simple reason that he is the only pastor of the Church of God.
One single pastor
In the Old Testament, when the bible speaks of pastors, it is often in condemnation. Ezekiel castigates them as self-centred and egocentric. (Ezekiel 34:2-4). Jeremiah says as a result of their incompetence, the sheep of God have gone astray. (Jeremiah 50:6). How does God intend to remedy the situation? The answer lies in Jesus Christ; the wisdom of God.
Solomon warns that we should be wary of a situation where God is said to lead his people through more than one pastor: “The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given by ONE PASTOR. My son, beware of anything beyond these.” (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12). Therefore, God decrees the summary dismissal of all pastors; to be replaced by one solitary true and faithful pastor: “I will establish ONE PASTOR over them, and he shall feed them- my servant David. He shall feed them and be their pastor. And I, the LORD, will be their God. (Ezekiel 34:23-24). “David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have ONE PASTOR.” (Ezekiel 37:24).
In asserting that “the Lord is my pastor,” David himself acknowledges that it is the Lord that must be the pastor of his people. (Psalm 23:1). Much later, Matthew confirms that the promised pastor is Jesus, the root and the offspring of David. (Revelation 22:16). He says: “Thus it is written by the prophet: But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a ruler who will pastor my people Israel. (Matthew 2:5-6). Indeed, Jesus is the only pastor since David who is also “the king of Israel.” (John 10:11; 19:14).
The good pastor
Jesus identifies himself as the promised pastor of the scriptures. He declares: “I am the good pastor; and I know my sheep, and am known by my own.” (John 10:14). In Jesus is fulfilled God’s promise to take care of his flock all by himself: “I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick.” (Ezekiel 34:15-16).
Since Jesus distinguishes himself as “the good pastor,” it follows that all other pastors are “bad pastors.” Indeed, Jesus declares: “All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” (John 10:8). He then maintains that, in the Church of God, there will be one congregation and one pastor: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and ONE PASTOR.” (John 10:16).
That means one church and one pastor. A man cannot have two pastors at the same time? That would just be confusing. The sheep cannot follow two shepherds going in different directions. God hates the double-minded. (Psalm 119:113). James is categorical: “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8). So we have to make a choice as to which church we belong and who exactly is our pastor.
Bad pastors
Accordingly, Jesus specifically prohibits his disciples from assuming ministerial positions of authority since they are reserved exclusively for him alone. He says: “Do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren” (Matthew 23:8). He says furthermore: “Do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.” (Matthew 23:9-10).
This means all those still calling themselves “Pastor Moses” and “Father Paul” today are charlatans; without exception. In the Church of God, the Father is the source of all authority and from him it flows to Jesus, the Son. (Matthew 28:18). Jesus does not transfer this authority to some pastor, bishop or pope. Neither does he delegate the authority given to him.
Instead, he warns us: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28).
This means in the New Testament church, all believers are equal in status. There is no guru; no head-honcho; no general overseer. Nobody should be designated pastor today because we are now, one and all, “a royal priesthood?” (1 Peter 2:9). There is no exclusive office of the priest today because Christ has now made all believers priests to God? (Revelation 1:6/5:10). The only power and authority Jesus gives to his disciples is over demons and diseases. (Luke 9:1).
Bible dishonesty
How then can we explain the proliferation of pastors in Christian churches today, in spite of Jesus’ clear-cut injunctions? The answer lays in Paul, a man who systematically undermines Jesus in the bible.
Paul twisted a verse in Psalm 68 to make it seem as if it is written in the scriptures that Jesus would establish ministerial positions. The psalmist says men gave gifts to the Lord: “When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you RECEIVED gifts from men. (Psalm 68:18). But Paul distorted this to say men received gifts from the Lord: “This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and GAVE gifts to men.’” (Ephesians 4:8). This then enabled him to say that pastors are God’s gift to men. (Ephesians 4:11-12). This is entirely bogus.
Bible translators conspire to hide Paul’s contradiction of Jesus by translating the same Greek word, “poimen” as “shepherd” (John 10:14); when it refers to Jesus’ injunctions, and as “pastor” (Ephesians 4:11), when it refers to the leadership of the contemporary Christian church. That way, the undiscerning remains unaware that Jesus’ radical injunctions are applicable to the thief-and-robber pastors of today.
What are we to conclude from this? All those who still call themselves pastors today are not disciples of Jesus. Their authority is not from heaven: their authority is from men. Pastors today are people flagrantly violating the will of God. Jesus warns: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21).
Leave a Reply