Pentecostal churches in Lagos Nigeria
Pentecostal Churches in LagosNigeria: what’s your take on them?
Pentecostal churches are a denomination within Christianity that preaches or professes the spirit filled, or spirit led theology mostly emphasizing that believers upon becoming born again are baptized by the Holy Spirit and as a result have gifts that accompany such conversion such as speaking in tongues, the gift of healing as well as prophesy among others. At the present time there are more Pentecostal churches in LagosNigeria than there are other denominations owing to their antics and the convenience gospel which they offer.
My take on the way Pentecostal churches are springing left and right is that it is a very unfortunate event indeed. I say this because these churches constitute more of a nuisance than a support base for spiritual growth and progress and here are my reasons.
The growth and spread of vanity and materialism
Most Pentecostal churches are glorified centers of mammon worship and apostacy. My point comes from the theme of most of their sermons which revolves around making money, success, prosperity and other forms of earthly gratification that has no bearing on the spirituality of the faithful Christian. In the olden days actually even during the days of Christ, the worship of God meant love for your neighbor, sacrifice and goodwill to all men. When Jesus Christ used the parable of the good Samaritan, he was illustrating the essence of keeping God’s commandments which he summarized as love your neighbor as yourself. However most Pentecostal churches in LagosNigeria have relegated this most important message to a position where it has become obscure.
Despite widespread presence there is widespread indiscipline and corruption
Most Pentecostal churches are silent on the role of Christians in society especially with regard to their civic duties. Rather they emphasis paying tithes and being more committed to church. There is nothing wrong with being a devoted Christian however neglecting your civic duties in the name of being a devoted Christian is hypocrisy which sadly is the reality on ground. People pay tithes but not tax they respect the house of God but not their environments they volunteer for church work but not for charitable works outside the church and so on.
Injustice with regard to how church funds are used
From time in memorial church funds are used for two different purposes which are; to look after the clergy and to provide for needy members of the church and larger society. Instead these days church funds are exclusively used for maintenance of church facilities which is a small chunk of the whole amount and definitely most of it for administrative expenses especially salaries and allowances for the pastors. The poor and needy members of society are not included. Don’t be surprised to hear of pastors who own more cars and houses than they need or who have private jets or charter flights when travelling because it is the norm among many of them. This brazen misappropriation of church funds to fund the lavish lifestyle of pastors many of whom have questionable characters is an injustice, no wonder People hardly speak up against corrupt leaders in government, the church isn’t faring better.
Obvious brainwashing of the faithful
Many Christians are made to believe in superficial and vain things than spiritual and enterprising things. The culture of having more than you need in the name of being prosperous encourages many to be greedy and selfish. Prosperity is never defined as fulfillment rather it is defined in terms of wealth, material abundance and earthly success. Hence you are not successful if you do not have a large bank account to your name or financial abundance even if you are fulfilled as a person in your chosen career, marriage or other pursuits. Christianity is now portrayed as a movement for wealth creation, for instance it is often said that Christ became poor so that we might be rich, this verse often quoted out of context actually means Christ took up the sinful state of man that way becoming poor in order that man might become justified in God’s sight and so be rich (in the things of God).
Pests and irritants
Until recently, most churches in Lagos Nigeria could practically do as they please with the way and manner they carried on with church services, revivals and so on. As a matter of fact, their use of loud speakers and presence in practically any place including uninhabitable buildings and environments such as abandoned or uncompleted buildings, former dumpsites and even schools just goes to show the extent many of these churches are willing to descend to in order to fleece gullible Christians. I don’t blame them anyway because ultimately the fault lies with the godless Christian who wouldn’t ask questions but will rather be led astray. Good thing the Lagos state government is making concrete efforts at sanitizing the environment.