MONEY-MAKING MACHINE

My knowledge of the church is as small as a baby’s knowledge of math. In fact, I do not have the range nor do I have the intellect to discuss church and its politics in any capacity. However, I am a very inquisitive and opinionated individual who always feels the need to add butter to the bread by sharing my two cents on issues that have my interest. 

Lately, I have been particularly fixated on the church, the modern church to be specific. I have deliberately left out religion from this piece and focused mainly on the church. As we live in a world of the haves and the have nots, the church has single-handedly become a case study for this. The divide between the wealthy and the extremely poor is evident in a place where you would not expect to witness such. This compromises the church and further exacerbates the notion that the church has turned, for some, into a money-making machine. 

The extravagant lifestyle promoted by leaders in the church has stuck out like a sore thumb when you realise that most of congregates barely know what they’ll be eating for supper. You find pastors with 10 cars and unwilling to sacrifice one to at least set up a soup kitchen. Deacons draped in suits that cost an amount you have never even held. 

Of course some churches only give pastors incentives but some compensate every leader on the board. Don’t get me started on the lavish lifestyle portrayed by the new age prophets and prophetesses. Just the other day I was going through an instagram account of one popular prophetess who hails from Zimbabwe; after going through each picture and being blinded by all the bling I decided to watch one of her sermons, because maybe I was jumping into unnecessary conclusions about her without getting a feel of what she has to offer. 

Believed

Boy was I in for a surprise, her sermons not only lacked biblical reference, character, but you could tell she barely believed what she was saying as well. She was quick to move on from speaking about Jesus to highlighting how success was inevitable if one gave more than usual, a typical prosperity sermon. This is common with most preachers by the way, moving away from the true gospel of urging people to repent and be born again to mostly focusing on preaching about ‘getting through dry seasons’, ‘tithing in order to bring blessings’. It’s confusing, really, when one of the last few things Jesus said before he ascended was that the apostles should be fisher of men and preach of the return of Christ. 

However, that is not what most churches speak of now, instead they hand out holy oil samples with the hope that congregates will come back to ‘buy’ the oil the next time. Or they fixate their eyes on the offering basket during offering and make snark comments about how they don’t appreciate people giving anything but paper money to the Lord. I mean, what? I don’t remember anything in the scripture about that. But then again, I did say my knowledge of the Bible is as small as a mustard seed, therefore I stand to be corrected. A friend of mine also highlighted something peculiar about the church today. Which was how there were pastors featured on lists of wealthy people, with net worths that would bring Bill Gates and his fellow colleagues to their knees. 

Question

The question now was; is it biblical for a man of God to be that wealthy? Don’t get me wrong, God never said we should remain poor, in fact He wishes us well and wants nothing but good things for us. However, He also said the greatest commandment was to love thy neighbour as you love thyself. Therefore how do you get to be that wealthy when your neighbour has nothing to eat? 

I also do not want to hear any justification of ‘so why should this apply to the church only, what about others’? This is because that is what the church is for. The church ought to be helping more than it is gaining. You can sugar-coat it and twist it however you like but truth is, the church nowadays is not following the true principles of Christ. There ought to be no ‘self’ in Christ or in the church. It is the one place where true sacrifice has to be witnessed. There needs to be a deviation from interpreting biblical text to mean attaining wealth and prosperity and the focus should be on the true Gospel. 

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