TOP PASTOR CHARGES

…Drug dealers offer cars to pastors

The General Overseer of the Awakeners Chapel International, Dr. Pastor Peter Kayode, has revealed that some Pastors are recipients of very juicy and lucrative largesse from drug dealers, the Advanced Fee Fraudsters, otherwise known as 419, Sakawa boys and girls, human traffickers, prostitutes and occultist.

He noted that some of his colleague Pastors do not care to investigate the source or the background of people who make huge financial and other lucrative material donations to their churches they cannot resist the temptation of such juicy gifts, although the disposition of such donors easily give them up even to the most uninitiated minds as crooks and fraudsters.

“Unfortunately, some of us cannot overcome the juicy temptation of huge millions of Cedis donated. We don't really care about the source of these wealth and donations. Some leaders have received numerous four wheel vehicles and palatial mansions as gifts at the expense of their biblical obligation”, Pastor Kayode revealed.

He buttressed his assertion with a case that occurred in his native country, Nigeria some years ago: “A popular man of God was arrested about 12 years ago by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Nigeria on the allegation of drug business. Facts which were made available later exonerated the Pastor, but the fact of the matter is that this Man of God had compromised his faith by praying for people suspected to be drug dealers who in return donated cars and money to him”.

Pastor Kayode narrated a similar episode to underscore the fact that some Pastors patronize such fraudsters because of the material gains that they receive from them.

“There was a scandal which engulfed another prominent church. A bank manager who was a member of the church donated huge amount pf money stolen from the bank for the purpose of television broadcast sponsorship. When this illegal deal was detected, and the bank manager was arrested by the police, he confessed donating an amount of GH25, 000 being part of the stolen money to his church”, Pastor Kayode recounted.

He also shared his personal experience with one of such fraudsters: “A gentleman walked straight to my office three years ago; looked straight into my eyes and said “Man of God, I know the church needs a lot of money to carry out the evangelical and other development projects. I am ready to donate $100,000 to the church out of the $300,000 that I am expecting from abroad. But Sir, could you please give me your bank account so that my business partner could remit the money into the account from USA”.

He however said with the gift of discernment and the discipline God has imparted on to him, he managed to read through the man's mindset to realise that his gesture was ill motivated.

“Thank God for the gift of discernment and the discipline imparted into my life. My response and countenance towards this man was not pleasing to him and knowing well that I have realized he is a man that could not be trusted, he stopped worshiping with us. To years later, I read in a newspaper that he was arrested for 419 deals with his passport photograph posted on the front page of a newspaper”, Pastor Kayode explained, and asked Christians to learn some lessons from his and the other experiences that he has narrated.

Although Pastor Kayode conceded that the Ministry needs financial support to execute developmental projects, he advised that “we should not be fascinated by ill-gotten wealth and not to compromise our Christian principles of Honesty, Righteousness and Holiness”.

He rather advised his fellow Christians to believe in their hearts that God who established the Ministry would adequately provide all that is required to promote his work through legitimate means.

He quoted the scriptures (1 Timothy 6 verse 6-10) to buttress this point: “But Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”.

He however noted that there are men of God who would not condone or encourage criminal activities among members, stressing that there are also true Christians who always support and donate generousness towards the promotion of the Gospel and other church projects as they have been admonished in the Holy Book.

These sets of people, Pastor Kayode believed have always received great reward from God for their services and their lives have reflected the Christ like attitude in their various endeavours in the society.

He believed the lust for money and quest for quick wealth through dubious means could be stopped through appropriate admonition, counseling, exposure, and rejection of ill-gotten wealth which are being lavished on the church as donations.

In the opinion of Pastor Kayode, men of God are expected to be endured with the gift of discernment which would enable them identify criminals and corrupt church members.

He asked the church to collaborate with the police authorities in checking crimes in the society, stressing that “we should not consider the material gains accruable to us through these suspected evil doers but should think about the common good of the nation for peaceful and crime free regime”

In his opinion it was through such collaboration that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana in collaboration with Interpol arrested a man who had defrauded his employers several millions of Naira in Nigeria at a church and wondered how much of the stolen money had been donated to the said church.

He admonished his fellow workers in the vineyard to portray humility and simplicity in every area of their lives and advised them to avoid flamboyant lifestyle and ostentatious living because “we are the mirror of life. If our members cannot read the bible and understand it, they should be able to see Jesus Christ lifestyle in us and they would emulate us. We are supposed to be a good shepherd who cares about the spiritual growth and physical needs of their members”.