The flamboyance of the Church
Money preaching has changed belief and behavior in the Church. Pastors are now kings kid and the best of the best is only good for the sons of God.
Bishop David Oyedepo was gifted a brand new 2023 Rolls royce cullinan to celebrate his 70th birthday.
1Thess 4:11-12 "And that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands;
That ye walk honestly toward them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing".
The 70th birthday celebration (some call it birthday bash which is really the appropriate language of the word for it) offers an opportunity to assess again the state of the Church in Nigeria vis-a-vis the calling and disposition of the Church. Is the Nigerian Church still with its Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Honest assessment can never be positive. We have failed the Lord Jesus. Jesus our Lord said he did all things to please his father and command us also to obey his commandments in order to stay in his love. But are we especially in the Nigerian Church? One of those commandments is that we must study to be quiet. We must not be noisy.
Oyedepo's birthday bash was noisy. For those who watched the various segments on video especially the reception of "important dignitaries, the bash was ungodly and it represents what the Church is not called out to be. All the big and wealthy pastors came in their resplendent best you would think your are watching the video of an 'owambe' Yoruba party. One of the videos I watched, two governors featured, Babajide Sanwoolu of Lagos State and that of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori. They represent the crop of leaders who have been unleashing bad leadership in Nigeria and are almost leading the nation to a collapse.
Mathew Ashimolowo, the latest trillonaire in town who now finds more time selling plots of expensive land in Lekki, Lagos than win soul for Christ was present. He wore a brown coloured agbada. Watchers will remember him for his 'small house' whose light he can switch on from his house in London and which has an elevator that takes him from his car park to his bedroom. Ashimolowo is proud to advertise his 'small house' whose bedroom is the size of Ashimolowo's hostel in his bible school days. That hostel housed sixty students. That is today Ashimolowo's bedroom. Pastor Sam Adeyemi was there in his immaculate while outfit walking on majestically and smiling as he went. New comer to wealth and celebration was in a brown agbada chaperoned by two guards who held him as untouchable. Not yet fully adjusted to how billionaires carry themselves he walked carefully holding his shoulders up trying to ensure the flowing agbada does not fall off his tiny bony. That is Jerry Eze. That gave an impression of pride. David Ibiyeomi showcased South South. He was not in agbada, though that seem to be the uniform chosen.
The women, the wives of these great men of God, christened in Hoshea as "cows of Bashan," the wives of leaders of Israel who led the nation into ruin were not missing in their gorgeous attires. The wife of Archbishop Benson Idahosa led their pack as she came in a very majestic bus. Now old, she was held by two men as she made to climb down the bus. Not that she could not walk by herself but they held her to add colour to her majesty. David Oyedepo emerged in a blue agbada followed by a retinue of "cherethites and peletithes,' you know them. They are the bodyguards of King David. No sooner than Oyedepo emerged than Enoch Adeboye, the god at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, also emerged followed by his own retinue of officers led by his son, Deolu.
Oyedepo emerged to personally receive his spiritual father. Both of them embraced warmly. Why did Oyedepo not kneel for Adeboye as his own spiritual sons and daughters kneel and postrate for him? Our leaders are hypocrites. They demand worship from people but they don't give it even to the Lord. It is unscriptural to demand worship from any man. Only the Lord must be worshipped in his church. Peter did not allow Cornelius give him worship as the Lord Jesus teach his Church that they all bretheren. All in the Church are equals. But woe betide you if you don't kneel or bow or postrate. You will branded rebellious and that is the end of peace and joy for you except you know to seek your joy in Christ.
Adeboye won my heart. He shunned agbada. He rather wore a blue suit. He was making a statement. He meant every bit of it when he suspended David Iluyomade from his pastorate at the City of David parish in Lekki, Lagos. Adeboye has been like that for a long time. I was at the wedding of one of his children decades ago at the Later Rain Assembly. He begged Tunde Bakare, Pastor of that Church to let the whole ceremony go for a very short time. Bakare obeyed and as soon the service ended, Adeboye literally ran back to the Camp where he lived. He did not attend the reception which took place at Ladipo Oluwole Street, not too far from Latter Rain Assembly. Those were the days when the Lord Jesus was still feared. Why is it that Oyedepo has not learnt from his spiritual father?
Our leaders in the Church in Nigeria are hypocrites. They know how to manipulate the congregation to get what they want. Oyedepo told the Winners congregation that he didn't want any gift. He did not want cards or cake. He wants only souls. Nothing but souls. But it is doubtful if Oyedepo got a single soul. But he got a coaster bus which he gave to a school for the blind. That's splendid. He also got a Rolls Royce Cullinan whose estimate has been put to between 600 million naira and 1.5 billion naira.
Many decades ago, Ebenzer Obey the juju maestro gave brother William Kumuyi of Deeper Life a Mercedes Benz car. The only condition brother Kumuyi told Ebenezer Obey he will take the car, a Mercedes Benz was if Obey will agree for him to sell the car and put the money in the Church treasury. Living simple and quiet was more important to Kumuyi than riding around town in a Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz was the car of the nouveau rich who had access to government treasury and were stealing it. Obey agreed and that sealed the deal.
But that was then. The idol has graduated from Mercedes Benz to keep up with growing greed in Nigeria. The idol now appear in Rolls Royce which is very tempting and irresistible. What would Oyedepo do with the Rolls Royce? We are waiting to see. Money preaching has changed belief and behavior in the Church. Pastors are now kings kid and the best of the best is only good for the sons of God.
I did not see Pastor Tunde Bakare in the crowd of leaders that attended Oyedepo's bash. I'm not surprised. Bakare said he parted ways with Oyedepo when he began to preach oil as"God in a bottle." The error of anointing oil has been difficult to erase in the Church. Jeremiah Fufeyin, an apparent false prophet has upgraded the error selling keys, handkerchiefs, water, soap, mats. Oyedepo pioneered it. Oyedepo is today a billionaire well acknowledged for what his admirers call great business acumen. Jeremiah Fufeyin is also a billionaire today. And it has been left to blogger, Verydarkman, Vincent Martins Otse, an unbeliever to fight and disgrace Jeremiah Fufeyin. When God found nobody in the Church because we are all filthy, he located a fighter in the world.
It's not over yet. Tunde Bakare will soon be 70 also and I can promise it will be a competition with Oyedepo. It doesn't have to be healthy. Usually, such things are not supposed to be healthy. I was in their church when Bakare was 40. I knew what I did then in ignorance. I'm wiser now that birthday bashes are not the way of Christ. I'm aware my brothers and sisters are still there and I'm not sure they have come up to that wisdom. When Bakare was 50 I tried to fight going to town with heavy bash but I was overruled by a bigger pastor who had money. Whether I want or not they will do it big, that big pastor pointed in my face and shamed me. He contributed a whole cow. I contributed nothing. I was in the thick of the wilderness.
Whatever happens we must return to the time-tested value of self restraint and quiet life. Otherwise we will continue to be irrelevant and we may catch the wrath of the Lord Jesus.
Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos