In my church, we don’t accept heavy donations, except we know the source
By CLEMENT ADEYI
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Corruption, incessant roobery attacks, prostitution, all kinds of crime that have bedeviled the nation over the years have been attributed to indiscipline among the perpetrators as well as the entire citizenry. Pastor Jide Aderiboye, a prophetic and deliverance minister, who stated this in an interview with Daily Sun, noted that the church had a lot of roles to play in order to bring sanity to the political, economic and social life of the nation.

According to him, this could be achieved by preachings and teachings on discipline, purity and fear of God right from the church which members constitute a larger percentage of the nation’s population.

"The first step to using Christian organisations and churches to advance the cause of the nation is discipline in the church and families. Churches have to teach and preach discipline. Christians constitute a great percentage of Nigerian population. So, if churches instil discipline right from that level, it goes a long way to affect the families and the nation at large and it will become very easy to institute sanity into the fabrics of the nation," the pastor in charge of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Agbado Crossing, Lagos, stated.

Tackling crime rate
The church has significant roles to play in the area of peace and security. There is a saying that charity begins at home. The greater percentage of Nigerian population are Christians. The best approach to tackling crime rate is for the church to preach against crime to their members. Through that, those who are involved would develop the fear of God and make a U-turn from their evil trade. Preachers of the gospel have to package their messages on peace, security and the fear of God.

Corruption at all levels
At every segment of the society, corruption has become very glaring. And this is mainly due to selfish interest, greed and inordinate ambition. Consequently, the church has a very big task in the effort to tackle corruption headlong.

There should be messages against corruption, especially by the people in authority. Church leaders and pastors should not compromise their standard. Rather, they should emphasise discipline, honesty, sincerity, pride, inordinate ambition and other vices. Some of them accept huge donations from members whose sources of income they don’t know and never bother to confirm. In other words, they are also parts of the corruption we are talking about.

In my church, we don’t accept tithe and heavy donations from any member without first of all confirming the source of his income. If all the churches join hands to preach focused messages on morality and general godly conduct, then Nigeria would soon become a better place. If our leaders demonstrate faithfulness in their operations, then they will be able to execute laudable projects during their tenure.

Some churches are fake
It is a fact that not all ministers or pastors are called by God. Some of them are self-called, just to make fast money and enrich themselves from the church, especially if they don’t have a job or viable business to do. That is why you see so many fake churches emerging by the day. Consequently, they lack in-depth knowledge of the Bible to preach the gospel truth. Because they are fake, God does not use them. He does not share his glory with anybody.

That is why some churches cannot make reasonable impact on the lives of the members and the society. God can never be happy with those kinds of quack pastors. Such churches need to be sanitised by CAN before everything goes out of hand.

Stage-managed miracle in churches
Yes, it’s true that miracles are stage-managed in some so-called churches today, purposely to pull crowds. We refer to this as fake miracles by fake men of God. Miracles should not be done by force. For instance, if I lay my hands on a blind person and pray and the eye fails to open, I have to drop my hand. It means it is not yet God’s will for the eye to open.
In any case, there are genuine ministers whom God uses to perform genuine miracles. These are the people God has blessed with signs and wonders to propagate the true gospel of Christ.

The role of CAC in nation building
Christ Apostolic Church has been in the vanguard of the crusade to bring about purity, sanity and discipline for national development through conferences and seminars in collaboration with other church and christian organisations, not only in the urban areas but also in the rural areas. By the year 2010, there will be a significant result of the campaign.