ON THE SACKED 40 PASTORS BY BISHOP OYEDEPO – OMOKRI AND OTHERS IN SUPPORT OF THE SACK HAVE GOT IT ALL WRONG
July 20, 2021 | News
With regard to the subject matter, in which recently, Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the sack of some pastors by Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church, saying that the said church was right to have sacked the pastors because they failed in evangelism; I beg to disagree on this.
-By Zik Gbemre
ON THE SACKED 40 PASTORS BY BISHOP OYEDEPO – OMOKRI AND OTHERS IN SUPPORT OF THE SACK HAVE GOT IT ALL WRONG
Agreed that Bishop Oyedepo has the right to sack any of his pastors, but the grounds for the sack is not justifiable… If the reason for the sack of the said Pastors is on grounds of not being able to generate enough income for the Church, then it is wrong and unjust to say the least…
If the reason is on evangelism and Church growth, they should be reminded that the charge given by the Lord in the scripture quoted by Omokri is to ‘ALL’ Christians, and not only Pastors…
The salaries of the sacked 40 pastors are a "chicken change" for Bishop Oyedepo, when it comes to maintaining them… the salaries are not up to the salary of one of his aircraft pilots flying his fleet of private aircrafts, and his helicopter…
With regard to the subject matter, in which recently, Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the sack of some pastors by Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church, saying that the said church was right to have sacked the pastors because they failed in evangelism; I beg to disagree on this.
Agreed that Bishop Oyedepo has the right to sack any of his pastors who has committed a grievous crime, but I will disagree with Omokri on the reasons used to justify and support the sack.
In a tweet, Omokri wrote: “I read the letter from Winners Chapel. It did not mention anything about money. Rather, it used the word “church growth”. Christ called us to engage in evangelism-Matthew 28:18-20. A pastor who fails at that should be sacked-Matthew 25:29. Winners Chapel is in order.”
However, a pastor of Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel), Peter Godwin had recently decried his sack by the church for allegedly not generating enough income from his branch. The pastor in a video that has now gone viral, accused Bishop Oyedepo of relieving him of his duty through the management of his church because the income generated from his branch was poor.
According to the Pastor in the video which had Nigerians lashing out on Oyedepo, he was invited by the state pastor and on getting there, he met other pastors about 40 of them, who were also sacked for the same purpose.
Now, if this is the reason for the sack of the said Pastors, then it is wrong and unjust to say the least. Like I said earlier, yes, Bishop has the right to sack any of his Pastors, but it should be on the grounds of gross misconduct, and not something that has to do with not being able to raise/ generate enough funds for the Church. Oyedepo should only sack his Pastors that are caught doing wrong, and not because they can't raise money in their churches.
No one forced Oyedepo to open more branches to spread the gospel. Even though the many branches and churches being opened here and there, has not really changed and transformed the character and conduct of supposed Christians. If anything, the evil in the land has continued to spread like a wild fire. Then again, the said appointed and ordained Pastors cannot force money from their members, neither can they print money for the Church. And it is not encouraged for the sacked pastors to lie and to deceive their members just to obtain money in the name of generating funds for the church.
Even on the issue of evangelism, the charge given by the Lord in the scripture quoted by Omokri (Matthew 28:18-20), is to ‘ALL’ Christians in the body of Christianity. It is not given to only Pastors. And most importantly, it does say there will be penalties and consequences if one does not do evangelism. It is just a command of the Lord, which every Christian who says he serves Him, is expected to obey. But I do not think any Pastor, should be sacked on the grounds of not being able to guarantee Church growth.
Putting such conditions in place as a Church, will only make Pastors to now want to use all kinds of tricks, deception and unhealthy strategies in trying to ensure growth of their Church branches. Thereby, polluting and corrupting the whole essence of what Christianity should be. It is simply a bad standard that should be set by any Church in the name of growth. Church growth can only best be propelled and driven by the Holy Spirit, through men and women that have given their whole life to the service of God. It is not something that should be carried out with the logics and reasonings of men. Doing so will only give you results that are not acceptable in the sight of God. That is why we have Churches today that are full, but there are more sins being committed.
Again, the salaries of the sacked 40 pastors are a "chicken change" for Bishop Oyedepo, when it comes to maintaining them. In fact, the salaries of these pastors are not up to the salary of one of his pilots flying his fleet of private aircrafts, and his helicopter, which he recently said was not acquired with Church money, but with his money. Not to mention the cost of maintaining these private jets and helicopter. A pastor that is that wealthy, should have no business sacking his Pastors over unjustifiable reasons. If the said Pastors were not performing as they should, according to the standard of Living Faith Church, shouldn’t they have found ways to improve the Pastors either through re-training and grooming, so as to get them to the desired standard for greater performance. Rather than sacking them outrightly just like that. It simply does not make sense, neither does it paint a good picture about the Church and Christianity as a whole.
Zik Gbemre.
July 20, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
-By Zik Gbemre
ON THE SACKED 40 PASTORS BY BISHOP OYEDEPO – OMOKRI AND OTHERS IN SUPPORT OF THE SACK HAVE GOT IT ALL WRONG
Agreed that Bishop Oyedepo has the right to sack any of his pastors, but the grounds for the sack is not justifiable… If the reason for the sack of the said Pastors is on grounds of not being able to generate enough income for the Church, then it is wrong and unjust to say the least…
If the reason is on evangelism and Church growth, they should be reminded that the charge given by the Lord in the scripture quoted by Omokri is to ‘ALL’ Christians, and not only Pastors…
The salaries of the sacked 40 pastors are a "chicken change" for Bishop Oyedepo, when it comes to maintaining them… the salaries are not up to the salary of one of his aircraft pilots flying his fleet of private aircrafts, and his helicopter…
With regard to the subject matter, in which recently, Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the sack of some pastors by Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church, saying that the said church was right to have sacked the pastors because they failed in evangelism; I beg to disagree on this.
Agreed that Bishop Oyedepo has the right to sack any of his pastors who has committed a grievous crime, but I will disagree with Omokri on the reasons used to justify and support the sack.
In a tweet, Omokri wrote: “I read the letter from Winners Chapel. It did not mention anything about money. Rather, it used the word “church growth”. Christ called us to engage in evangelism-Matthew 28:18-20. A pastor who fails at that should be sacked-Matthew 25:29. Winners Chapel is in order.”
However, a pastor of Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel), Peter Godwin had recently decried his sack by the church for allegedly not generating enough income from his branch. The pastor in a video that has now gone viral, accused Bishop Oyedepo of relieving him of his duty through the management of his church because the income generated from his branch was poor.
According to the Pastor in the video which had Nigerians lashing out on Oyedepo, he was invited by the state pastor and on getting there, he met other pastors about 40 of them, who were also sacked for the same purpose.
Now, if this is the reason for the sack of the said Pastors, then it is wrong and unjust to say the least. Like I said earlier, yes, Bishop has the right to sack any of his Pastors, but it should be on the grounds of gross misconduct, and not something that has to do with not being able to raise/ generate enough funds for the Church. Oyedepo should only sack his Pastors that are caught doing wrong, and not because they can't raise money in their churches.
No one forced Oyedepo to open more branches to spread the gospel. Even though the many branches and churches being opened here and there, has not really changed and transformed the character and conduct of supposed Christians. If anything, the evil in the land has continued to spread like a wild fire. Then again, the said appointed and ordained Pastors cannot force money from their members, neither can they print money for the Church. And it is not encouraged for the sacked pastors to lie and to deceive their members just to obtain money in the name of generating funds for the church.
Even on the issue of evangelism, the charge given by the Lord in the scripture quoted by Omokri (Matthew 28:18-20), is to ‘ALL’ Christians in the body of Christianity. It is not given to only Pastors. And most importantly, it does say there will be penalties and consequences if one does not do evangelism. It is just a command of the Lord, which every Christian who says he serves Him, is expected to obey. But I do not think any Pastor, should be sacked on the grounds of not being able to guarantee Church growth.
Putting such conditions in place as a Church, will only make Pastors to now want to use all kinds of tricks, deception and unhealthy strategies in trying to ensure growth of their Church branches. Thereby, polluting and corrupting the whole essence of what Christianity should be. It is simply a bad standard that should be set by any Church in the name of growth. Church growth can only best be propelled and driven by the Holy Spirit, through men and women that have given their whole life to the service of God. It is not something that should be carried out with the logics and reasonings of men. Doing so will only give you results that are not acceptable in the sight of God. That is why we have Churches today that are full, but there are more sins being committed.
Again, the salaries of the sacked 40 pastors are a "chicken change" for Bishop Oyedepo, when it comes to maintaining them. In fact, the salaries of these pastors are not up to the salary of one of his pilots flying his fleet of private aircrafts, and his helicopter, which he recently said was not acquired with Church money, but with his money. Not to mention the cost of maintaining these private jets and helicopter. A pastor that is that wealthy, should have no business sacking his Pastors over unjustifiable reasons. If the said Pastors were not performing as they should, according to the standard of Living Faith Church, shouldn’t they have found ways to improve the Pastors either through re-training and grooming, so as to get them to the desired standard for greater performance. Rather than sacking them outrightly just like that. It simply does not make sense, neither does it paint a good picture about the Church and Christianity as a whole.
Zik Gbemre.
July 20, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes