I have tried my best to maintain absolute decorum and desist from adding serious thoughts to the issues making rounds currently. I always prefer to let my words and thoughts published publicly be information that is timeless and has value beyond events and personalities. I will try to stick within that context here, to address what I see as root causes, and present truth in a timeless way, so help me God!
Let me say ahead as well, that many people are likely to not impressed by my writing what you are about to read, well, what can I say, I don’t have to labour too hard not to be a men pleaser. Let God be true, and everyman a lier. I will rather please God than please man. I’m grateful that Jesus was called terrible names, that’s who I follow. I quite agree that many people can’t talk about this, because they are not perfect, as if perfection is the only requirement for stemming an evil, saying the right thing, and letting God be true and every man or “man of God” a lier! Well, I’m not perfect either, but I’m working hard towards it! When I err I ask for mercy and don’t cover my sin, when I err, I expect my brothers to chastise me privately, not cover me, if I continue erring I expect them to escalate to people I respect, and when I don’t stop, all HELL must break lose in exposing me to the world for what I am doing – according to the scripture a heathen and as good as a tax collector in Jesus’ days. (Matt 18:15-17).
This is not even about a particular pastor in question, Pastor’s are doing these, a number of pastors, and it’s becoming an epidemic. This is the type of epidemic that festers when we disobey scriptures as shown in 1Tim 5:19,20.”19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. 20 Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.” Leadership sin confirmed must not be confronted privately, it must be confronted publicly. When someone errs momentarily, then you can restore them privately and cautiously as shown in Gal 6:1. Once there is a track record of error however, the only cure is public reprimand, that’s the only way to cause fear and trepidation in the hearts and lives of others who would naturally emulate the errors. I am in this light, duty bound, as a child of God with divine revelation and instruction to speak to the body of Christ within my sphere of influence and make it clear, that the STANDARD has not changed, and no matter the composition of this generation, God still desires people who will not bow to false religion.
Don’t ask me if what the lady said is true or false, that’s not the issue. I am aware that the lady is under intense pressure currently to either leave things as they are, not respond to the pastor’s response, say that she stretched the truth a bit or outrightly change her testimony. Our culture is a funny one – A husband rapes (has consenting sex) with a 16 year old house girl, and the wife supports her husband and call the house girl the seducer! The price of truth is alienation from family and friends. They come at you, they are suddenly against you! Society is wicked, thinking about the celebrated man and his church rather than the souls possibly being destroyed! I am not only aware of a few things going on behind the scenes, I have a few facts. I will however not talk about them until I get a finger in my throat, let’s however focus on the larger issues. Let it be on record that I have not ascertained as true or false the issue on ground. I do not need to for now. Here is what the standard should be for our approach to leadership involvement in sin.
1. A love of righteousness must come with hatred for iniquity – “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”. Let’s not be holier than Jesus! You can’t say you love the lords work and condone any semblance or evil if found out to be factual. The hand that causes to sin, should be cut off! If there is an issue, that person should be separated and properly dealt with before being restored. No shortcuts! If it’s happening to you, or it’s happening in your church, or you know a friend it has happened to, you owe God and his finished work the debt of going to someone who is really a leader and voicing out.
2. We need to decide when our brothers or sisters are out of line! – 1 Corinthians 5:9-13. “I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behaviour. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.” – NIV says, expel the person from among you, get rid of them!!
Yes you heard it right, we are meant to Judge immorality in the Church, while leaving outsiders to God! It is our duty as believers to ensure we don’t make a mockery of God, by condoning what is clearly wrong.
3. Your Pastor will have a stricter Judgment from God than you. James 3:1. We cannot afford to be too lenient on Pastors, there role requires higher standards as they are leaders and provide a lot of people with direction. They are also custodians of the pools that people drink from, and if the head is sick, then body is infected. It doesn’t matter if your Pastor is working miracles by the second, and prophesying change to your life per minute. If there is a character whole in his armour, it’s a matter of time, you will soon be struggling with the same realities. Matt 10:25 “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?”. If your pastor is promiscuous, it will flow down in time! If it’s not happening to you yet, you are enjoying God’s grace. His grace will not sustain you for long, where he did not send you.
4. Nobody heard God when he called your Pastor! So let’s not make a myth out of God’s calling. The scripture outlines the qualifications for church leadership in 1Tim 3:1-7. If God calls you and you can’t live by those standards, it’s clear he didn’t call you. You will know people by their fruits, and there are two levels of fruit. Their behaviour, and the people who were born to God through them. So if God calls you and you find it difficult to be blameless, above reproach, committed to your wife, not money hungry, not pushy, handle your own affairs e.t.c, then you should “Uncall” yourself, and let people who should pastor, pastor.
5. Don’t sell your voice! This goes out to all the men of God out there, who know of the many cases of abused ladies, cheated guys and so many messy cases out there perpetrated by different people in the name of God. My charge to you is, don’t keep quiet, don’t cover it up. The wrong habits are growing, sin is getting power under our silent treatment and the generations of our children are being messed up. Don’t gloss over the issues, they are real and daunting. Place your wife in the same spot as some of these ladies, place your daughter? If your view or comment will change, then you are being hypocritical. Let’s speak strongly against evil, let’s stand up for integrity within our communities. Let’s dare to be a Noah, someone God can trust and depend on to preserve the earth. Like in the days of Noah, the world is very much like a sewer, with evil multiplying all over the place, let’s play our roles and shed our lights in our little places of influence. As a child, my mother told me, he who lies, will steal, and he who steals will be involved in fornication and adultery. I don’t know if your mother told you the same, I have however seen it life, that if you see stealing, then lying preceded it, if you see fornication and adultery, then you know what should have come ahead. Don’t sell your voice! Some of us have been paid already, we’ve been given platforms to speak in exchange for reward, and our tongues are forever tied in loyalty, our brotherhood was paid for, not by the blood of Jesus, but by the blood of commerce. My brothers, don’t sell your voice!
6. What do we do, if these types of things happen and they are true? The culprits must confess their sins and seek pardon. They must take a few years of ministry work, and find a lower place to serve and work, they must stay off limelight and serve God in humility and keep their hands off the till. If things go bad and still go on, then let it be clear that what we are running no matter how many times Jesus is called, is the Synagogue of Satan!
In closing for now, if you have any issues of this sort that you have lacked the confidence or the platform to share it, send it to me here at deoluakinyemi@gmail.com. People are hurting badly, and church leadership is disappointing them. I will weight he cases, and know if to keep you anonymous or discuss with you if you want to be known. I received a few mails already, from people complaining bitterly about their experiences in the hand of so called “Pastors”. We can’t continue to ignore! We can’t also continue in sin and expect grace to abound. It’s an epidemic, and we need to gather the evidences, find the virus and place the cure – the STANDARD of GOD against it!
I’m holding my direct comments on the issues on ground, in anticipation that it will be resolved properly without requiring external intervention. I am writing what I have divine permission to write, and for now, that’s all!
