Give And It Shall Be Given…

Just yesterday, I was discussing with a friend in the USA about a man in Virginia who has dedicated his life and ministry to the poor. This man is a pastor but not all over the place using the name of God to do spiritual 419. Then, I started thinking of this whole idea of Nigerians giving more to those who are comfortable and ignoring the less privileged among us.

I don’t expect the haters of truth to like this article, but I have chosen to go on saying the truth without minding whose ox is gored. I am not here to solicit for your likeness because you may never appreciate my work except you decide to change. The most important thing is that there are lives being touched through the columns.

Whenever we get to church, we are told to give and it shall be given back to us in good measure (you know the complete quote). Pastors have used this very verse differently to suit their own needs but having listened to different preachers and their explanation of the verse, I can authoritatively say that the verse has been abused for selfish reasons.

This very verse is always used when it is offering and fund-raising time in our churches. I am not against giving because I have been blessed through giving, but the problem is in people giving wrongly and for wrong reasons. On my Facebook group, Real Thoughts, a member asked a question about a woman who is in a church with her husband and who, before leaving home, saw the husband without money and did nothing about it. On getting to the church, she stood up to give N100,000 as pledge. I, without mincing words, called her a foolish woman.

I decided to write this article to stop people from playing fools to this generation of greedy preachers. How many of us have looked at that verse with a thought about the poor in our midst? How many of us have stopped to think about the little ones among us who may have no food to eat after service and must trek a long distance back home? Have you thought about the children who are in the same Sunday School class with your children looking miserable? Give and it shall be given unto you.

I would have said people should keep giving to pastors, but the issue here is that the pastors of our time are totally different from those in my father’s time. In those days, pastors and priests acquire wealth for their congregation; this is God’s standard for Christianity (Acts 4:32-35).

I remember seeing my mother cook for the family while having visiting church members in mind. I remember seeing my father building a two-bedroom apartment and dedicating it to any pastor that was posted to my village; denomination did not come in here. I remember having people live with us for months just because there was no shelter for them, but what we see today is people getting into the ministry for selfish reasons.

We have pastors buying helicopters and private jets when some members of the church, committed church workers, are homeless and hungry.

I see pastors using some members of their congregation to get others to give to the church. I recently heard of some pastors who have members as stakeholders in their churches. They come out and pledge N5 million and others foolishly pledge alongside them without knowing that they go back for their money.

My people, it is high time we stopped playing fools for these greedy set of people, who come to us in the way of intimidation, telling us not to touch the Lord’s anointed and leave the battle for the Lord.

They tell us that the more we give to them, the more blessed we are. I am not against giving, but I am against the money not being used for God. I am against people using me to enrich their generations unborn. I am tired of people using God’s name in vain.

What has happened to people giving to support missionaries who labour day and night and live in remote villages just to touch lives? We no longer remember them because we have been cajoled into giving to people who derive joy only in travelling to America and Europe for the gospel. What about the war-torn African countries?

I saw my father pay tithes to the church, I saw him make contributions during crusades and revival meetings, but our pastors of today even find it difficult giving offering because they are the owners of the business. They keep telling us to pay tithes so there will be food in the store house, whereas in those days, the store house was for the entire congregation. It is just that we have to go on obeying the Biblical injunction of tithe paying, but I don’t see it justified by today’s preachers.

The purpose of tithe in the store house is for people to fall back on it in times of lack as preachers are supposed to use it rightly for the body of Christ and themselves. I long for the day when our pastors actually take time to study tithe because the way it is preached today is totally wrong.

The people preaching the Old Testament tithe are not obeying the Old Testament law for tithing. When you have problems today, do you see your pastor? They are your friends only when the going is good, but once there is a little trial, they run far from you. May God have mercy.

The ideal style of church leadership and administration is to make it a communal thing. My father practise that till today. Churches have their council for accountability, but pastors now cajole us to give without asking questions on how the money is used. Isn’t this foolishness and deceit?

A girl recently told a story of how she was talked into sowing her jewellery set for the church only for her to see it on the pastor’s wife the following Sunday.

I keep wondering why, like the orthodox churches, the Pentecostal cannot come together under one umbrella for a better preaching of the gospel. But like a friend told me, they will never do that because that would mean bad business for them. Everyone is walking in greed. Pastors used to go through some kind of theological training, but now, they come up with the defence that the apostles of Jesus were not learned. They say this, forgetting that they received training under Jesus himself. Now, people sleep and wake up with one wonderful story about their call into the ministry and we go on listening to them.

Most times, I see people give foolishly in church, enriching those who are already billionaires. These people use our money for the upkeep of their girlfriends and concubines. Recently in Abuja, I met a lady who has a child for a well known tele-vangelist. My cousin also told me a story of this popular pastor who has five different women in Abuja with children for him. There was a time they gathered against him to embarrass him publicly and on that day, he gave each of them N2 million.

You know the easiest way to raise money now is through ministry. All they need do is come up with one programme with captivating name and that does it for them.

We keep giving to these General Overseers forgetting there are junior pastors who cannot even feed their children. They wear rags to church services and we leave them as we continue to give to the greedy GOs. We have widows and the poor in our midst and we reprove them each time they run to us for help while we go before the GOs and kneel as we give.

Remember what Jesus said: “I was hungry, you did not feed me…whatever you do unto the little ones, you do unto me.” Think about this and begin to give rightly and with some discernment.

I have since ceased giving to impress anyone because there are better ways to give and get blessed than helping people steal in God’s name.

I told someone a story about a Catholic priest who came to me for a relationship. When I asked why he should go against his oath of celibacy, he replied: “Amara, I have a daughter in the USA and so many of us do.” Who is fooling who?

I was impressed during one of my trips to Abuja when I saw the General Overseer of Family Worship Centre give out a plot of land to a poor church worker as wedding gift. This is what Christianity should be. We have people set up hospitals and schools with church money, but those committed church workers and assistant pastors cannot afford to use those facilities.

Churches are known to affect communities where they are located. It is not about too much preaching, it is about love. People are hungry and homeless and we see nothing wrong with that. We even cajole them into foolishly giving the little they have to the greedy pastors. How many community development projects are your church involved in? I have seen a pastor’s wife seize goods sold by a poor woman in front of her church. Is this the gospel?

I tell you, fellow Nigerians, forget about our priests and what they tell you because they are all filled with greed and their bellies have suddenly become their god. Just fix your eyes on God and try to develop a personal relationship with your maker because our preachers have all failed.