I want us to look at you today, you who was raised in those deplorable and backward places where nothing worked, but who later, due to education, position, or profit relocated to the big city.
I especially
want to speak to you who was raised in that humdrum church in those places who
has finally found your ‘rest’ in a mega church and completely forgotten where
he came from because it even appears shameful to be associated with such small
beginnings.
I do not know
whether you realise that that offering you give in that city mega church can
comfortably and sufficiently support a pastor of that small church you now
despise. That the small offering the big church does not really appreciate can
make a huge difference in that church that made you who you are spiritually.
That the church that raised you has stagnated because you have decided to
effectively forget her existence, at least in your giving.
I do not know
whether you realise that probably the reason the church is still backward is
because you renounced it when you ‘made it’ in life.
I do not know
whether you know that nothing is working in that village church because you
have concentrated all your effort, experience and resources on a church that
needs you for the money and expertise you give than the person you are.
And to be as
crude as many are, do you realise that when you die it is that neglected
village church that will carry the bulk of the burden of burying you?
Why am I writing
this?
Tithe peddlers
always remind the ones they are fleecing to take their money where they are
fed, meaning where they are entertained or pampered.
But why do they
not speak about remembering where they were breastfed?
That is the
purpose of this message.
You are who you
are because someone nurtured you from birth.
And it is not
much different in the spiritual.
That Sunday
school that taught you songs you did not understand has had a much greater
influence on your spirituality than that comedic pastor who commands you to
possess and claim.
The clearest you
will find this is in one’s understanding of sin and the holy place.
That is why some
are blatant sinners while others are very ashamed if they are caught. That is
why you see some who do not have issues stealing or misusing church resources
even as others would rather that their resources are swallowed up instead of
touching church things.
The building
blocks of your spiritual foundations are the reason you are the way you are.
That is the
foundation I want us to remember.
Allow me to
demonstrate the truth that the megachurch is only interested in what it can get
from you, very simply.
How does it deal
with sin?
Do you realise
that most of these stinky and corrupt politicians that are morally decadent
even if we used secular standards are members of these megachurches? The simple
reason is those fat envelopes they give.
But I suspect
you fled the village church because you know they will not be scared of your
money and be scared of rebuking your sin. They would rather ‘starve’ than
compromise their revelation.
But not many
fled the village church because of sin.
Many did it
because they got scared of giving, thinking that the village church is composed
of beggars.
They therefore
fled to the city where they are being milked dry by the educated smooth
talkers.
They are giving
much more in churches that use their money badly because they are scared of
giving it to a church where they can trace the last coin.
They are giving
their money to take their smooth-talking fraudsters for cruises and holidays
when the same money could have sorted the roofing of their village church.
They are giving
so that those comedic ‘pastors’ can buy houses and fuel guzzlers that they will
still have to give to maintain when the same money could have installed
electricity in that village church.
They are giving
their money for mission trips that are mostly holidays when the same money
could have bought instruments for that village church.
Do I hate the
megachurch?
Of course not.
But I have been
in megachurches, even been in leadership and know that for the most part the
megachurch is a monster of a structure where spiritual accountability is very
difficult to be found.
Ministers who
are walking in their calling are too busy doing what they have been called to to
think of taking leadership. Meaning that leadership is mostly taken by the
wheeler-dealers, spiritual fraudsters, brokers or immature believers.
This means that
chances of your giving going to where you intended it rarely, if ever, happens.
Incidentally,
even if you get into leadership, you will discover that there are some who have
more mouth than others. This means that your input will only be useful if it is
in line with them. Otherwise, you may as well go hang.
But the village
church is small, just as the village. This means that everybody’s opinion
matters, even the ones of those not in leadership.
The other
megachurch dynamic you will notice is ministry.
If you are not
known, especially if your money is not visible, you may as well forget ministry
from the church.
Many people who
are not well off who go to a megachurch do so for the purposes of rubbing
shoulders with the movers and shakers of society and not ministry. They think
that standing side by side with a millionaire in church will somehow transfer
the millionaire anointing to them.
It is when a
crisis occurs that you realise the superficial nature of the megachurch
fellowship. And I have seen enough of those heartbreaks.
But the village
church does not operate that way, simply because everybody knows everybody
else. And they will do all things together.
Though sin can
thrive in a megachurch, it will find it very difficult to do so in a village
church unless the same village has wicked foundations that the church is scared
to confront. Or the said church was built on a corrupt foundation.
You see, normal
is the operating spiritual system a child found.
A child who
found obscenity thinks it is the norm and is even surprised to go to a place
that lacks it.
The same goes
for a child who found deference for the holy place and things, amongst other
realities.
There is this
person who views not going to church on Sunday the unpardonable sin because
that is how he was brought up even as another thinks going to church is enough
to bribe God.
I do not know whether
we are getting anywhere.
What I am saying
is that the village church has contributed more to your spiritual development
than that surge of adrenaline you are being fed by that superstar you are
calling pastor, bishop, prophet, apostle or any other title.
This means that
as part of our appreciation for where God has taken us, we should honour those
spiritual foundations with our resources.
Most, probably
all megachurches do not know you apart from what they can get from you, from
money to the deference your position attracts.
But the village
church will treat you as you are without any deference to what you have since
it raised you without them anyway. Or you do not remember Jesus in Nazareth?
Yet Jesus did
not desert Nazareth, even dying with the name on His epitaph.
That is what I
believe we should do with our Nazareth, wherever it is.
Allow me to add
another aspect as a footnote to this.
Do you know
those ministers who remain hidden most of the time yet are the ones you will
always run to when you have a crisis?
Those are the
other people you are sinning against God by neglecting in your giving and other
support.
You should ask
yourself why you will not run to your superstar pastor when you have a crisis
yet will always run to him with an envelope when you are celebrating something.
You should ask yourself why he never comes to your mind when you get that
promotion, job or travel documents to your Canaan. Yet he is the only shoulder
you will cry on when your life is a mess. Yet he is the only one you run to
when you need counsel. Yet he is the only one you will run to when you need
prayers because you know that he will pray.
Let the
elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who
labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle
the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. (1Timothy 5: 17, 18)
Second to your
village church is therefore the minister who does not remind you to support him
or remind you of the many ways he has ministered to you.
Forgetting him
is ingratitude of the highest order.
I will also
mention the husband.
Many wives will
treat their husbands as trash when it comes to spiritual things.
Yet it is this
same husband who allows you to not only attend those meetings belittling him,
but also funds you to do it, at the very least by reducing his expectation of
what you should have done had you not attended those ‘enriching’ sessions.
Wives will leave
their homes for days without as much as informing their husbands where they are
going yet call him a demon when he takes responsibility for his house by
demanding an explanation. Yet the same wives will call him weak if he doesn’t
demand it.
Allow me to
leave this here as I do not intend to build on it, at least in this post.
It is an
addendum to what I am sharing.
I know I have
made enough enemies by writing this post. But I would rather be right with God
than be relevant to worldly expectations.
In any way,
would you please show me where I have gone against scripture?
