adminFredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa Successful Solutions
Recently I heard a story that parishioners of an Orthodox church in one of Bulawayo’s high density areas were told that belonging to that church was all about membership which can expire. So those people who were not coming to church regularly and were not tithing would have their membership cancelled and they would not get the church benefits like burial. Since when has the church had benefits?
Do we go to church to benefit or we go to church to worship our God and ask the good Lord to forgive our sins? I am not preaching because I am not a preacher, but the Scriptures do say when things like this begin to happen, the son of Man is around the corner.
Honestly “membership” in church? Is the church of God now a burial society where membership lapses, is there membership in God’s Kingdom?
I won’t say much about this but a certain young man who is an up-and-coming preacher in our church when faced with such issues in his sermons would just normally say in Shona “Dai Mwari vatiyitira zvakanaka/ iNkosi isifumanele umusa…” (Just a wish for blessings from the good Lord under the circumstances).
The extent to which money is being solicited from poor parishioners in some of these churches is indeed a cause for concern, shocking and unGodly.
Mission schools have not been spared by some greedy men of the cloth. Fees that come into the school, meant for school development are not spared. The clergy pounce on the school fees and convert the money to church and personal use. They would take school fees and buy themselves top of the range vehicles and all the luxury.
Yes, the school is in the church not the other way round but I would really want to appeal to the clergy to leave school fees alone and let the heads of the schools run the schools in the manner they best know because they are qualified for these jobs. I was recently impressed by a young bishop in Bulawayo who when one of his mission schools was having problems from the church, he didn’t mince his words, he simply told the church to leave the school alone.
This is one of the top schools in the country which was being persecuted by the church. Some mission schools are blessed with farms and livestock.
But what is happening, some of the clergy are stealing goats and cattle from there and selling and enriching themselves. I once arrived at a certain mission school and found them slaughtering an ox for their boarders and when they had finished slaughtering and all the health checks done by the health inspector, the ox-head, all the offals and even the hooves were loaded into a truck and taken to the priest’s house… I was speechless. That is gluttony man of God!
As for the sexual sins I really don’t know what has become of some of our men of the cloth. Honestly I would understand relationships, not that I condone them but what I really don’t understand is the rape. Why is there so much rape in church and within our clergy? Women are victims left, right and centre and some have not even reported because of fear of victimisation.
A woman goes to see their pastor for counselling because they have domestic problems and they are raped. So where should they go then, now that our clergy are “lions?” Priests have children with women parishioners, married women for that matter. Some of these women wear uniforms; they are members of the Mother’s Union.
What is really happening? We have gay priests and bishops; they are sodomising men in their churches. Cry the beloved Church of God.
The truth is we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3 v.23) but when someone is called to be pastor/priest; they are the servant of the people. There is need to walk one’s sermons, there is need to lead an exemplary life.
The office of the pastor/priest is not an easy office and it’s not for the thin hearted, it’s not for opportunists. You have to be “called”. How many of our clergy have received a “calling”. Passing a degree in Theology does not make one a Pastor/Priest. It is a “calling” and it is your heart that qualifies you.
Do you have that heart to lead the children of God or you are just looking for money? If you are looking for money in church, thus the wrong place to look for money, you are better off gold panning than steal money from the poor in church.
I was inspired to write this article by the increasing number of stories of the men of cloth being found on the wrong side of their calling. I want to say not all priests/pastors are doing things contrary to their calling.
We have a lot of them doing excellent work in leading Christ’s flock to the Kingdom of God and we urge them to continue with the good work. It is some of their colleagues, black sheep that are now a cause of concern.
Dai Mwari vatiyitira zvakanaka/iNkosi isifumanele umusa…
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