By Ninyo Omidiji
“Running” a church, I mean the church of Christ is not supposed to be expensive. We are the ones copying the wrong model.
Until the American church seduced the Nigerian church which eventually seduced other parts of Africa, running a church in Africa was not expensive. Currently, we have evolved a different version of church that runs basically on money.
In spite of the socioeconomic challenges in Africa, we seem to be stuck in this expensive and burdensome version of what we call ministry. We even have a proverb that says, in colloquial parlance, that “money is the wheel of the gospel”. In other words, we have admitted that our own version of the gospel runs on the wheel of money and not on the wheel of Holy Spirit and Grace.
In order to vehemently support this erroneous view, a brother cited the fact that Jesus was so rich he had to “keep a purse” for his ministry from which Judas stole. He also rightfully added that Jesus had women who supported his ministry with resources. But in my view, he was only being economical with the truth. Our grandmas in the villages have purses. How does having a purse mean that someone was rich?
The question is how “fat” was this so-called purse that Jesus kept? A deeper look will reveal the fact that from start to finish, everything that Jesus used was borrowed and they were not expensive.
The womb that carried him to this world was borrowed and it was the womb of a virgin from a humble background. Her family was not known. His place of birth was borrowed. He was born in a manger which naturally belonged to animals. He borrowed their space.
When He needed to preach to a crowd of people, He borrowed Peter’s boat. During his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, he didn’t ride on a horse, which would have been a much more prestigious ride, but he rode a donkey. And the donkey was also borrowed.
How about when he was going to feed the 5,000? He had no money in the so-called purse to foot the bill. He borrowed 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes from a young lad. And at his death, the tomb that he slept in for 3 days and 3 nights was borrowed.
If Jesus truly had a fat purse to justify an expensive version of ministry, he should have borrowed nothing!
The good news is that Jesus fulfilled His ministry and purpose and He owed no one. Everything that He borrowed, He fully returned, including the tomb. He is risen ! Glory!
Jesus’ ministry did not bankrupt anyone. He said to the people: “my yoke is easy and my burden is light….”
And when Jesus was leaving, He didn’t tell His disciples to wait for money to come. He asked them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The gospel that they preached ran upon the wheel of the Holy Spirit and not the wheel of money.
Friends, I know some people haven’t known a time when ministry was never expensive or financially burdensome, so to them, I might be sounding like a broken record.
Ministry was not expensive when believers used to have what we call “fellowship of the brethren” and It is this fellowship that caused believers to grow in grace in leaps and bounds. Ministry became expensive when they started “running services”. Church services have led to organisational growth and not personal growth in faith.
When fellowship of the brethren was the practice, money was raised mainly to help the needy and support ministers in their missionary endeavours. But when church started running services, continuous branding became a big thing and branding is a huge money guzzler. The expensive monuments and the cathedrals that we now boast of, the expensive trips and hotel bills, the expensive services and all are parts of company branding.
Therefore, different means had to be invented to raise money to fund them even if it means twisting scriptures with false promises to the people who erroneously think they are supporting the work of God but what they are enabling are personal brands that have deviated from the path of truth.
Friends, I write to provoke genuine truth-seekers and not those who are comfortable in the current rot. One day, some of you will wake up to realise that your resources have not been going to support God’s work but to support personal businesses that masquerade as church of God.