The primary mission of the church on earth according to Mathew 28 19 20a, was “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Today, we will examine together if this great commission is being fulfilled or not by the church.
The number of Churches, Assemblies, Congregations, Ministries, etc or whatever they may want to label themselves that are involved in evangelism today are simply alarming. They keep multiplying themselves on a regular basis like rabbits. This they do by breaking away from a “parent” body due mainly to doctrinal differences, leadership positions, control of finances and other related socio/political issues.
Thus, they become splinter groups claiming that by such unbiblical actions, the work of evangelism will spread faster to all parts of the world. Another great deception of Satan. One would have thought that with the multiplicity of churches world wide, the positive impact of the good news of kingdom of heaven, would be reflected in the spiritual, social, economic and political lives of Believers world wide. But alas, that is not the case.
Taking Nigeria where I live as a case in point, let us look retrospectively to the forties and the fifties. The number of churches, mostly orthodox, from whence the new generation churches broke away, were relatively few. The Clergy, very modest in outlook was more dedicated and selfless. The laity too, with the adulterated truth they were feed with, had the fear of the Almighty Creator and to a large extend devoted. Not so these days when virtually every street in our urban and sub urban centers are adorned with more than one house of worship holding different programes in the week but whose impact is not being felt in the society. Otherwise, Nigeria would not be rated as one of the most corrupt five countries in the world.
Every Saturday and mostly on Sundays a lot of people especially the youths troop in their thousands and millions, to their various houses of worship apparently with the primary objective of going to worsh Yahweh Elohim. All they are fed with from the pulpit, is a load of spiritually bankrupt stories and fantasies that cannot rejuvenate, uplift or transform anybody. So the youths return home spiritually blank as they went. The routine is repeated every Saturday and Sunday all the year round. What a pity!
The easiest way to measure the ineffectiveness of the church (all churches put together), is to look at the high crime rate and moral decadence world wide. Take a close look at the number of youths (the so called leaders of tomorrow) that are involved in gangsterism, drug peddling, drug taking, fashion craze, alcoholism, quick bucks, sexual abuse, mysticism etc what do your see, a bright future? Take another look at the statistics of school drop outs, some due to early pregnancies and poor academic performance and you will be amazed.
In the face of all these, one is tempted to ask, where is the church? Of course, the Church is very much around and doing well materially Instead of moulding the character of the youths and others by teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Yahoshua the Messiah has taught, the now commercialized church is very busy making money, fighting one another in the courts, splitting into factions, engaging in grandiose financial projects, competing with one another, condemning one another, chasing the abstract by politicizing the system, deluding itself in several ways and literally confused. They are more or less fulfilling Rev. 3: 17b that says, “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Ungodliness is in the church today because Satan has flooded it with mammon, the deity that controls money. They are falling over one another to grab as much as they can and proclaim with glee that their god is not a poor god to the detriment of the youths and other members of their congregation. Today, we can say that the youths world wide are bad. The fact is that the elders as parents are worse. A good tree cannot produce bad fruits.
Today, the church measures its success not by the quality of members she has but by the quantity, the number of branches, number of foreign trips and countries visited by the Founder and General Overseer, media exposure of the ministries’ activities and of course by the value of fixed assets which are made possible by the huge donations raised every Sunday or Saturday.
Tell me, why will some Pastors not look like Pop Stars? Why blame the youth for looking like his Pastor in appearance and general life style? Go to any of the new breed Pentecostal churches pastured by some well dressed young guys and you will wonder if their so called praise singing sessions are not indeed disco sessions. If you have watched the film “The Blues Brothers” where Papa James Brown featured as the Pastor, then you will understand better what I mean. Girls under so called spiritual anointing, sing, dance and gyrate with fried jerry curled uncovered hair, painted faces and some with tight fitting transparent dresses all to the “glory” to God. The boys are not left out. Some with faded jeans trousers also join in the sessions jumping like frightened monkeys all in the name of worshipping the Creator. It is indeed a sad affair.
Once moral sensibilities are gone from a people, The result will be spiritual insanity. And that is the situation that we have before us today. The church, I must say, has failed in it’s primary mission otherwise with the number of churches every where some with huge populations, a lot more people would have repented from their evil ways and surrender to the Messiah. Satan, it appears, is a full member of the churches of the world founded and headed by men. Churches that have set aside the commandments, laws, statutes and ordinances of Almighty Yahweh and have established their own commandments, laws etc. It is certain that Lucifer has rendered the churches of the world powerless through the instrumentality of money, greed dance and lust, even though the church claims to bind Satan and the demons each time she prays. It is actually the other round. The Church must of necessity repent today and awaken from her slumber otherwise the Leadership have questions to answer on the day of judgment.
What I am saying can be better illustrated this way. Years ago when hospitals and clinics were very few, people lived healthier and longer lives because they obeyed natural and spiritual laws. Today, because of gross violation of some laws, life expectancy has dropped drastically spite of hi tech medical facilities dotting our cities, towns and even villages world wide. It appears the more hospitals we have, the more diseases, some of them unheard of in the old time.
The church should decide today to either be committed to it’s primary mission and be seem to be selfless with results manifesting in the lives of our youths or she should just continue in her money making venture and stop calling herself church but limited liability companies. I am really afraid for the future because of the youths we are breeding today. I postulate that the youths are not to blame but the church whose leadership is made up of mostly elders is to blame. And that is the truth!
Many of the youths of today are anti Messiah that does not mean that they are disinterested in what worshipping the Creator or antagonistic to the good news. Many of the young people I have contacted with the Word of the heavenly Father actually have been excited about Him and the truth, but they are less interested about the church that has not really offered them a better alternative than the rituals they witness every time they congregate. And I ask once again, where was the church when the youths exploded. MZ
