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By Adewale Banjo
Founder and Shepherd of the Locust Army International Church, Chris Christian, has blamed the travails of the Nigerian Church on the penchant for materialism by gospel preachers.
Addressing newsmen during the church annual Global Minister’s Convention with the theme: ‘The Crown’, at the church premises in Ajah, Lagos, Christian said the Church has lost its respect in the society, because preachers now preach to please politicians for what they would gain from them.
According to him, the Church today had abandoned its first love, as it now emphasises prosperity over and above the salvation message.
“Pastors should make reasonable contributions to advance the country rather than use their platforms to extort people.
“The message of prosperity is good but sometimes, it is overflogged and this leads to subtilty, greed and the purpose is misunderstood and when there is love of money and greed, the end result is corruption.
“I believe you don’t need to be extremely rich to be a child of God. Due to greed, many pastors are part of the corrupt system because some of the people damaging Nigeria go to churches and the system that is devouring Nigeria is also making use of church platforms.
“I am not saying the church is completely the problem of this country, what I mean is sometimes, the message of prosperity is not properly understood because sometimes, it is overflogged and this may bring greed, thereby defeating the essence of prosperity,” he said.
The cleric cautioned the body of Christ to find solace in Almighty God rather than groups and associations that are political in their dealings, “Christians should not rely on certain bodies or groups as the solution to the nation’s problems. What Nigeria needs is a genuine process, because Christian Association of Nigeria, is somehow political,” he said.
The cleric, who has authored over 400 books, also described prayer as a formidable weapon that can solve many challenges confronting the nation in a better and faster way: “The way out of our challenges in Nigeria is prayer for other things to follow. Although prayer may not have immediate answers, we must genuinely commit everything to God in prayers,” he said.
On the theme of the convention, he said: “We are looking at advancing the destiny of the people. Crown is a symbol of glory, it is an ordination service to persuade God to prosper the people and our nation, Nigeria.
“Nigeria has to move forward and we cannot advance with the way we are. The wicked people have hijacked the nation and there are limited opportunities for God to release His blessings upon the nation.”
