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| Pastor it Just doesn't add up! |
People claim churches milk the poor and live big on them. What’s your take on this?
It is cheap to criticise; even to criticise what you don’t understand. Let me put it this way, in every good thing, you would always find some bad people. The church is the greatest institution that has made the country today. If you look back, you would find out that the church brought education to Nigeria. The
church brought hospital to Nigeria. I think the church should be given credit for that. People don’t understand what they say about the church milking the poor. Can a poor man have money to pay tithe? A man who has no job, can he pay tithe? No, he won’t be able to pay. So how do you milk a man who has no milk? In a church, you have both the poor and the rich. It is generally not the poor that finance the church.
It is those with the means. A man, for example, who earns N10,000, how much is his tithe? His tithe is N1,000. A man who earns N500,000, how much is his tithe? His tithe is 10 per cent which is N50,000. How much would you milk from a man who pays a tithe of N1000? We won’t say things like this usually because the church is a level-playing ground. Whether you are poor or you are rich, God sees everybody as equal. It is because of a question like this that sometimes, we have to take time to analyse things. I even hear people say that the poor give money to start schools, but their children cannot go to the schools.
How will they give this money when they are poor? The truth is that, the people who actually give this money are those who have the means to do so. Those people make it possible for churches to start schools. Now again, why do churches charge high fees in school? You didn’t ask me that, but I’m just throwing that in free.
People must understand that there is a standard. The church wants to maintain the standard. In those days, some people will say that when missionaries started school, it was free. Don’t forget that those missionaries were being financed from different places. Who is financing us today? We are financing ourselves. If I got free financing, why won’t we make education free? You must also understand that at the time, the cost of living was not the way it is today.
The educational system of Nigeria is in serious trouble, so we need to up the standards. And to do that, you should be able to hire the best hands. If you hire the best, how do you pay them? Where do you get the money to pay them? How do you put the right infrastructure in place? How do you do many of the things that need to be done? How do you run the generators? Why do you think we have so many poor people in the church and many rich pastors? Remember that the pastors are pasturing both the poor and the rich. They are all in the same assembly. Both the poor and the rich, those who have the means in the church take time to be kind to their pastors. That is something most people don’t realise. They give their pastors money, food and different things.
For example, a member of the church goes to his pastor and says, ‘I feel led to give you a car. Take this car.’ Now the pastor has a car. Did he steal it? As I sit here talking to you now, I can tell you that I am training almost 100 people in institutions of higher learning. Nobody is going to broadcast that. On every 26th of December, I organise what I call poverty alleviation. I have been doing it now for about eight years. -
So basically the pastor is saying N1,000 is nothing..how many rich men come to church?In any gathering there will always be more poor men than rich men,so if you have a church of 2,000 people,50 men might be the rich ones,and that is pushing it..Now if the other 1,950 people contribute their 1,000 Naira's,how much does that come to? How can he dismiss the contribution made by the poor man? Anyone who buys into that theory is surely blind.Go to those conventions where sometimes a million attend..if 900,000 poor people contribute 1,000 as the pastor says,do you know how much that amounts to?Millions and Millions,so i'm afraid the mathematics and logic of President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor ,just does not add up.
Those secondary schools Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor talks about,the churches make enough money to ensure that enough less privileged children go to those schools.It will be more pleasing if at the end of the year they parade all these less privileged kids a dn say this is what we do with your money..this is Chukwudi whose mother sells plantain down the road..he has passed out with a distinction.Now he and his family can have a better life..But no..thats not the case..it all recycles withing the rich kids..but as the pastor says,their parents built the schools...how about those one Million people who trooped to conventions and wewre asked to contribute towards the university? Where did their money go?
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor then talks about how its the rich men in Churches who bless the pastors and not from the poor man's money..ok lets assume that is true,must you always accept what you are given? Can't you say no thanks? I had many friends when we were at school,and so many married men or older guys will try to give us money..some accepted and some said No thank you..you can say no,you don't always have to take take and take.Also if you are gonna take at all,why can't you donate those gifts to the church,poor people etc? Why must you have 6 cars in your compound just because a rich man gave them to you.?Is that what the gospel is all about? Didn't the bible say man shall not live by bread alone? Didn't it preach against vanity? But heres is a man who rides a private jet allegedly given to him by the Church...because he travels a lot and can't be seen hanging around in airports. Do you know how many hospitals and schools that private jet can build?
I'm afraid Pastor Ayo sounds like a salesman to me..and what he is selling,i ain't buying!