Marvelous Kalu, pastor of Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN), Ikotun Parish, Lagos, tells Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, the challenges facing the Christian community.
Call to ministry
The idea of being a pastor cannot be an issue of coincidence for anyone who is called to be a pastor. Like every other growing child, I had my dream, perhaps to make a career in the secular field. With such enthusiasm, I thought I could be a lawyer or even a mass communicator; but somewhere along the line, I discovered that these dreams were not actually the call of God upon my life. Looking back, I now remember that the Lord called me for a specific assignment, to serve Him in the area of holy vocation. The inspiration came strongly, and even when I wanted to get involved in a secular career, God made it impossible, as He showed me the Christian ministry as an area I can make a career from. So, the more I tried to get myself involved in secular engagements, the more the Lord tried to hinder me from succeeding, until I accepted the call in His ministry. I have not done any secular job since I was born. My being in the ministry is a divine call, just like in the days of Jeremiah. I think the Lord called me when I was still in the womb and I am happy and excited that I harkened to His voice.
Pastors wanting to be addressed as ‘man of God’ rather than ‘servant of God’
It could be an issue of nomenclature, but more to that, it can equally be an issue of service, understanding the right thing to do. Those who answer “Man of God” for some reasons may want to move with the acronym to distinguish themselves from people whom they consider secular. But I think if you want to go by what is proper, servant of God should be the better phrase to classify anybody in the service of God because the ministry is all about service. You can even find a women being addressed as “woman of God”; I do not think it is biblically rooted. You either become a prophet or you are a priest by your office and calling. In the days of Moses, Elijah, Elisha and so on, the idea of the use of the phrase was not there. The phrase is modern-day coinage. There is big honour in service, and if you ask me, it is better to answer servant of God.
Challenge in the church which bothers you most
The church is in a very serious phase of corruption now. The issue of corruption is very endemic in the church. I was addressing a group of Christians recently, and I told them that what is happening in the church is becoming worrisome because if you go into the secular society, you still see people who have the fear of God in them more than some in the church. Some in the church practise corruption with impunity, under the covering of Christianity. So the idea of monetary corruption, what I consider as financial immorality as well as sexual immorality, is a problem.
Another serious problem facing the church now is the issue of homosexuality. This is a big issue in the sense that some pastors in recent times have been caught practising it. This is terrible and evil. We should all condemn it with all amount of seriousness. The animal act whittles down the glory of God in the church.
We also have the problem of most people who claim to be servants of God meddling with fetish practices, just because they want to have power for miracles.
Most people don’t settle down to pray again, following biblical principles as it was in the days of Moses and Jesus. The way and manner we expect things to happen in the church now was not the way and manner it happened in time past. When Jesus Christ was ministering on earth, miracles took place, but we have not taken time to understand the context of those miracles. Who and who were the recipients of such miracles? And what was the response of those who received the miracles? Where were they when the miracles happened? What was their mindset?
People are now running after miracles without considering the power that is behind such miracles. Most of the miracles we see are diabolically oriented. You begin to wonder if we are still serving a living God. I think the bible is still the base, the foundation. The fundamental thing about the Christian faith is not miracles, but the salvation of the believer, the soul. So we should try and be careful the way we pursue miracles.
Another challenge for the church is that the gospel is diluted and dissected each passing day; people are now preaching the gospel for the purpose of making money. People are now preaching the gospel because they want to be rich overnight, for their stomach, and they now employ dubious means of obtaining money from their clients, their victims who are perhaps ignorant. I don’t see a situation where a person that wants to see a pastor for counselling should fill a form with money, sometimes up to N1,000 and above. But the Bible says freely you have received and freely we shall give.
Some of the so-called men of God now have series of anointing oils with different prices and different volume of miracles. People are now meant to believe that they can buy the gift of God with money. Any miracle that takes place outside the context of the scripture must be questioned.
You must be born againn; the Holy Spirit dwells in a pure heart. There is great abuse in Christian faith; so we must be very careful. Someone who dropped out of school, someone who lost their job, someone who was a criminal, out of one misfortune or another, the next place the person will find succour is to hire a hall and start a ministry, and start duping people. I do not want to generalise, but we must shine our eyes. Religion is a strong weapon; hence you even see a professor falling victim to an illiterate street pastor. Nigerians and the society keep falling victims. If you enter into the office of a man of God or into a church that is a living church, the aura of heaven should be there.
