If Jesus Christ does not tarry till the End Time but comes any of these days and sneaks incognito into many of the rural churches of Nigeria, he will, surely, be shocked by many of the things he will see and hear. In fact, he will, in no time, be turned aghast by some of the heresies he will hear from the altar. Here are some of the unholy things he shall behold and will be moved by holy anger to send many of the believers and church-goers home as he did in his first coming when he drove away from the temple in Jerusalem the many money changers he saw doing brisk business there:
He is going to see in some places, especially in Southern Nigeria, some men dressed casually in short knickers for the evening and morning prayer sessions. He will also see some women and girls in see-through transparent skirts and gowns or very tight-fitting, body kissing garments that leave nothing to the imagination that is ever present in the hearts of many unregenerate minds of men. He will also see church premises littered with waste of all kind: biscuit wraps, groundnut peelings, suya and fried yam and akara wraps, cellophane wraps of all colours and designs. These, and much worse, he will see during church services and activities on days other than the well known Holy Day of Sunday when the Sanctuary Service group of the church have not had time usually on the preceding Saturday to clean and make the church sparkling clean for Sunday service. The rural believers, it does appear, do not seem to be mindful of the fact, or appear not to have the consciousness, that the church is a sacred place where the presence of God dwells so it ought to be clean at all times and not only on Sundays.
The Lord Jesus is also likely to witness believers conversing among themselves during services as if they are in their age group and family meeting venues. He will witness the casualness among believers and what looks clearly as undermining God.
When the services commence, he is likely to behold the usually female singers turn out in their Sunday best with body clinging dresses with things written on them such as ‘’Naked Flight’’ or dresses that are so body hogging that holy men such as yours truly are forced to avert their eyes in order not to commit a secret sin in our hearts!
The Lord will, in due course, hear complaints and arguments about some church officials who use church money to invest in some financial savings schemes in order to reap profit and return the money to God’s House again and for the officials to be able to pay handsome tithes and offerings. He will see some church officials who count the offerings and tithes and in full but inattentive view of church worshippers still hide some of the day’s money for themselves.
As I repaired to my village in my retirement, I took a decision to go round the village worshipping most Sundays in the different churches that are in my place. This gave me an opportunity to see the many unChirst-like things that are happening in the rural setting. I found that instead of the church doctrines impacting the people, it is the peoples’ ways of life that is impacting the church. There is a pastor of a church of the living Christ where the pastor is well known for taking the toxic brew called ogogoro. He is known village wide as ogogoro pastor. There is another pastor in my village who is known as a practitioner, preacher and teacher of the Betnaija betting game. It is said that this man of God preaches to and teaches his congregation that betting is Godly and that his congregation should go out and engage in betting to win big and bring their gains to help the work of God! He came to the village with a brand-new jeep. He now rides a motor bike as he obviously lost his jeep in a bet!
I went to another church one Sunday where the pastor mounted the pulpit and was teaching his congregation about the ‘’importance of family planning’’ in order for them to be successful in their lives. After the service, I called the pastor aside and expressed my bewilderment about the subject of his teaching. He told me it was in the outline of teaching he got from his church’s headquarters and the apostle over his commission. He promised to send me a duplicate of the outline and scriptures to back his teaching. That was nine months ago. Till now I am yet to get what he promised!
The goal of this piece is to draw the attention of all the General Overseers s to pay attention to what is going on in the branches of their rural churches. Many of them, including their pastors and worshippers, are not a beacon of light. They have been compromised into the very way of life the church of Christ should be preaching and teaching about. They are doing things that one of our federal legislators once described as ‘’unbiblical, unkoranical, unAfrican, unreasonable, null and void and of no effect whatsoever’’.
The only church that I do not see some of these unchurch-like things in the rural churches is Deeper Life Bible Church which seems to have set a standard for Pentecostal churches in rural Nigeria. Deeper Life seems to have become the brand name for all Pentecostal churches or for Christians who appear holy or who refrain from unholy things. When the people say some Christian is a Deeper Life person they are saying that he does not drink alcohol and he will not give it to anyone else. That is a commendation.
