The more I try to avoid commenting on Pastor Chris Okafor, founder of Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministry, the more I am confronted with images and stories that make it compelling for me to speak.
​Indeed, addressing the issue of church leaders accused of moral laxity is a tricky assignment. This is not because they are superhuman beings who should not be touched, but because it is often uncertain if their accusers are playing the “Shimei-David” game or are sincere in their outbursts.
Shimei was that strange fellow in the Bible who poured invectives on King David for no reason. History shows that those at the top attract all kinds of accusations, and it is often difficult to situate the truth within the plethora of stories bandied around them.
​And then, their followers are often agitated when they see their “papas” scrutinized in the public glare. They find it difficult to believe that the people they look up to could be in the mud.
However, for those who get uncomfortable when church leaders are put under the spotlight, please be informed: this is not a verdict thesis.
​That, however, does not invalidate the truth that those who bear the name of God and sit in the driver’s seat of the church must eschew all forms of evil.
They are the moral compass for the people; they should be seen as above board. If they are not living according to their calling, the most noble thing to do is to quit their leadership role and take a back seat.
​But that is usually not the case in Africa. There is no record of church leaders bowing to pressure when their integrity is questioned. Rather, they wriggle around it. When they do repent, it is usually with a candor that leaves many wondering if their repentance is genuine or that they are merely grandstanding.
​For Okafor, the allegations are grave. His purported public repentance opens a “can of worms” and makes him a pitiable sight. If the video clips on the internet are anything to go by, one should feel for him rather than “drag” him, lest he be driven into a hole of perdition.
​Did you listen to him say he was becoming suicidal? Did you hear him say it was only when “fathers of faith” came into his life that he had a rethink and made amends? Those two sentences informed this piece. I think it would be great if we, for once, look at the issue from the point of view of a man in the “pit of pity.”
​I won’t bore you with the details of the scandal; they are all over the internet. The long and short of it is that he lived a reckless life despite being a pastor. It is too messy. But it is not surprising, for that is what happens when a church is driven by crowds and charisma.
Many churches in Nigeria have that tendency. We are talking about Okafor today because the lid has been blown off, but there are too many other cases hidden under the assumed “integrity cloak” of other leaders.
​In some churches, atrocities go unmentioned because they have been so branded and packaged that evil has assumed an official status. However, that should not worry any believer sure of their calling. It is good to note that there are a thousand and one churches doing great work.
​The church is a reformation ground. It is a place where lives are turned around. The reason there is such a hue and cry about these leaders is that they are supposed to carry out the cleansing, yet they are enmeshed in the very mess they are meant to clean.
The Corinthian Church
​The case of Pastor Okafor and his followers brings to mind the Corinthian Church. Apostle Paul was so disturbed by the immorality there that he took a hardline position.
He told the believers to avoid anyone who called himself a “brother” but was a fornicator (1 Corinthians 5). He scolded the church for their arrogance and lack of grief, noting that even unbelievers found such behavior repulsive.
Paul’s goal was not cruelty, but to allow the individual to face the consequences of his actions so that his spirit might eventually be saved. He warned that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” indicating that if a church allows one person to live openly in sin, the infection spreads.
Navigating the moral bend
​But how should the situation be handled when the man meant to disciple others is found in the mess he is meant to correct? This is what makes the Okafor issue complicated. As it stands, both the laity and the pulpit of that church are in deep moral trouble.
​How will Okafor navigate this bend? His repentance is a starting point, but the words he employed are still steeped in self-conceitedness. True repentance does not consider suicide; that is the Judas alternative. True repentance is ready to face shame irrespective of who is watching.
​He stated he was not ready to “join issues” with his traducers, yet he went ahead to claim not all allegations were true. While he was humble enough to go on his knees, he then called out his daughter to ask if he had ever “touched” her as alleged.
Her one-word response to absolve him of the crime threw up more questions than answers. It was unnecessary. Since he agreed he made mistakes, he should have rested his case. By saying “not all allegations are true,” he only makes people want to know which ones are true.
​A good follow-up would be to relinquish his position as the overseer for now and seek God afresh. The trouble he finds himself in is not peculiar; many have grappled with this. Some were consumed by it, while others “bulldozed” their way through.
​Pastor Okafor has started on a path of repentance that is quite unprecedented for an African church leader, but he needs to be bold enough to embrace it fully. The crowd in his church may be silent for now, but it is only a matter of time. When the chips are down, he may be left alone to sulk.
​The “Chris-gate” scandal is a template of how not to be a church leader. The Bible is clear: the man in the driver’s seat must be above board (1 Timothy 3:1–7, Titus 1:5–9). He must be a model of self-discipline, a “one-woman man,” and well-respected by those outside the church so that his conduct doesn’t bring shame to the faith.
​While the church is a place for transformation, those at the vanguard cannot afford a compromised moral life. It is like a sick doctor attending to sick patients. The outcome is rarely palatable.
2 comments
Thank you very much for taking up this godly responsibility. As, perhaps, the oldest and most credible church-focused medium in Nigeria, silence in this controversy would have been acquiescence and dereliction of professional duty and religious conviction based on your vision and mandate. As a professional journalist, your duty is rounded – report, comment, and guide.
However, I find this comment necessary to address some of the underlying issues, as this scandal is not isolated. His is immorality but that’s not the only canker in the fruit.
Most Church leaders in Nigeria, and Africa, are a disgrace to the Body of Christ; they are not focused on God for the soul of people but just using His name for personal business enterprise. If we don’t say it, how would change come? Like the Corinthian church you mentioned, did Apostle Paul keep quiet like most Pentecostal leaders do here? He unequivocally condemned the act without, of course, destroying the individual. That’s what the Bible recommends: rebuke any form or appearance of evil and compromise. But here, we condone and romanticize sin in the name of grace. Paul said, “shall we continue in sin because grace abound,” we say yes, instead of “God forbid,” as he he answered.
I agree largely with you on some of the theatrics of Mr. Chris Okafor, but you left the most important thing unsaid. As you rightly pointed out, being sorry is not repentance. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul makes a clear between being sorry as worldly or fleshly sorrow, and repentance, which is godly sorrow that produces change.
Again, you’re right to suggest that godly sorrow demands that he steps down for awhile to seek God; he can’t preside over the congregation with such huge moral burden unrepented. How would he face the congregation? What would he have done if a worker or minister in the church had been the culprit? Allow him to continue?
I was shocked after listening to his first wife whom he divorced 14 years ago, mention names of married women in the church he fathered their children. It’s a scandal of unimaginable proportions. Nobody is beyond redemption but this needs serious separation and prayers for him to genuinely repent.
Those church leaders who dissuaded him from committing suicide are hypocrites and birds of the same feathers; why didn’t they asked him to step aside to pray and subject himself to discipline and discipling? Because the church is his piggy-bag no other person should know how much comes in and where it goes, and every Pentecostal leader is guilty of it. If he’s truly born again, why would he ever consider and contemplate suicide, or the”Judas option” as you coined it.
I watched his so-called apology and laughed; did you hear him right? His denial that not every allegation is true is not the real issue and what should concern any serious Christian about his behavior. The real satanic deception of his action is to call what he did “mistakes”. It’s an affront to God and the church. Mistakes? Sleeping with several women – married and unmarried – is a mistake. Come on, this guy has gone beyond reason with his “conscience seared with hot iron,” and only total repentance by staying away from ministry for a long time can salvage him. It’s a SIN he committed, pure and simple.
The world has witnessed such indiscretions in the past and the only way it was deal with. We know of Jim Barker and Jimmy Swaggart, who passed on recently. They left ministry for proper rehabilitation. But not here; money-lover leaders like Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, who conducted the evil-marriage, and Bishop David Abioye, who legitimized his iniquity by going to preach for him, as well as others, should hide their faces in shame. They claim to be “men of God”, but didn’t know the evil Okafor represented to the church for so long. They are drive by Gheghazi spirit, and leprosy is the outcome.
In 2018, a U.S. based friend, who stayed with me, was asked to visit Okafor’s church by his High court Judge-brother to verify his authenticity, as his wife was pressuring him to attend the church because the man “sees”. He came
back to my house that Sunday and confessed that the place was not a church. If someone, though a pastor, could say this after just a visit, how come Ashimolowo and Abioye didn’t know this all these years of his atrocities.
At their level, what should they do when a church/pastor you don’t know very well invites you to preach. Leaders I know would first pray, then, if possible, send a pastor or Deacon incognito to the church to worship and report back. Did they do anything of such? No! The important thing is honorarium – money. These are not poor preachers; they’re millionaires in dollars, flying private jets and founding university. The name of the game now is network – the friend of my friends. No, test all spirits, the Bible warns.
Who did this to us that truth and righteousness have been abandoned? Please, don’t be afraid to publish this, I have already called out Ashimolowo on Social media by joining my voice to others for the wedding he conducted. I am only trying to control my anger over this matter: they have all failed the church.
Thanks for this detailed and thought-provoking response. Your observations are well noted my brother. May the Lord continue to guide His church and keep us all in check.