I would like to say this first, I am a Christian and I believe in giving. The bible encourages us to take out the log in our eyes before proceeding to speak about the speck in the others eye. So it might be worthy of note that although I am a Christian I am not perfect. Now I shall proceed to my rant!
A friend called my attention to his experience at a church he attended recently in Abuja, Nigeria. This church is one of the very prominent churches in Nigeria; the interesting part is the fact that members of this church had to purchase offering envelopes. You heard me, offering envelopes were sold to people, ignorant ones at that.
I was stunned and couldn't make sense of the whole situation; what is wrong with Christianity I wondered. At a time it was soliciting members to 'sow a seed' in a manner comparable to extortion, then it became 'prophet offering' but selling offering envelopes? That's a new low. Just when you think some Christians cannot sink lower they surprise you and show you a whole new world called 'low'
I am Christian and I believe in Giving, what I do not believe in is extortion. People should give because they want to right by God and their conscience or because there is a genuine need in the Christian community in which they belong not because someone said so; I also believe that it's wrong for a church to merchandise offering envelopes, is that even legal? I remember in the bible, after the triumphant entry, Jesus went into the temple and chased out every one making his father's house a market place reminding them in case they forgot that it was a house of prayer, I feel that Christians need to be reminded that all the building, clothing, jewellery, envelopes, chairs, tables etc do not matter the house of God is a place of worship, a heart to heart communication of children of god with their father.
The words of Jesus Christ in John 4; 23-24 He asked that true believers who will worship him must do it in spirit and in truth. He didn't ask for believers who wore the best clothing's and had the deepest purses/pockets. The craze for money in Christendom is seriously disturbing and I think we need to start talking about it, it's not normal to sell offering envelopes in church. Provide those envelopes for free or scrap the idea all together. Quick question, do we even need envelopes to give offerings? Will the monies disappear if they are not put in envelopes?
We need to start asking ourselves, what exactly is Christianity, what does it mean to be a follower, friend of Christ, we need to go back to basics and evaluate the basis of our faith. This issue is way more than the sales of offering envelopes in church, it's a deep rooted love of money and worldly possessions which has become a pandemic eating deep into the roots of the Christian faith and has deterred people from remembering the real reasons why we are Christians; it has blinded so many eyes and shaken so many people's focus.
Today I speak out against the monetization of Christianity, its decadence and I'm sure that was not the plan at creation.
Blessings
Misslara.
