Of private jets and the great commission

Serving God is not synonymous with poverty. It is not the plan of God that those who serve him should be miserable. Not at all, for, the bible at different points talks about prosperity as God’s will for us. But then, when the focus of serving God shifts from what God wants us to do to the pursuit of prosperity, there is definitely a problem. That is when pastors begin to select certain verses of the Bible to manipulate members to 'give'. You begin to see different names for different types of offerings. Emphasis on tithe and seed-sowing becomes the norm. Church members will then begin to give-not cheerfully- but because the pastor says that they are unlikely to progress without obeying. It becomes a religious ritual.

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? The priest and the Levite didn’t help a person in need because they were being religious. It will not be surprising today for Christians to ignore somebody in dire need because the money they have is for tithe-they have to obey religion. They have to give to the Lord. And who is the Lord? Matthew 25: 40 answers it: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Make no mistake about it, it is good to give. There is a fulfilment and joy that comes with giving, especially when it is for the true work of God. Tithing is good, seed-sowing is equally good and God will bless you whenever you do them-just as He will bless those who ignore these terminologies and give all-cheerfully- like the early Christians.  In the early church, they all gave-not through manipulations by Peter, Philip, Stephen or Paul. They gave all and shared together. There was no big man/ordinary man dichotomy (when the Hellenists complained of the marginalisation of their widows by Hebrews, it was immediately dealt with through the appointment of the deacons). Barnabas gave all freely and he was called ‘son of encouragement’.

But why did the early church give freely? Obviously, they saw that whatever they gave was being well utilised for the purpose of God’s work and to the glory of God. They saw that the less privileged were not dying of hunger but were being blessed through what they gave. They saw that their leaders, in truth and in spirit, were serving the Lord. Without a doubt, if Peter and other apostles were living flamboyantly ostentatious lifestyles with the money given to the Lord, the laity of the early church would have expressed concern.

I find it difficult to understand why people sometimes argue that Christians should not bother about what the pastor does with the Lord’s money. Why not? If we have huge welfare fund in my church and I see poverty around me in the church why shouldn’t I be concerned? Many will defend such by telling us that the Bible says in Luke 6: 37 that we should not judge. But the bible also says ‘You shall know them by their fruits’ (Mathew 7:16) and that we should ‘test the spirits to see whether they are from God’ (1 John 4:1). In other words we can indeed know whether what any of us, including pastors, is doing the right thing or not.

When a full time pastor starts living as if he is in competition with fellow pastors, there is a problem. That is when we begin to have ‘my church-is-bigger-than-yours’ mentality. At that time, going outside the church to seek the lost souls will no longer be important. Of course, our churches should be conducive and comfortable for worship. But my point is that we shouldn’t be flaunting its size or beauty. The church building is not as important as bringing the lost souls into His fold. Today, there are huge cathedrals across the World (especially Europe and America) that barely have worshipers. The great commission is not for us to remain in the church and talk about how big our church is. It is for us to look for people of all creeds and races and tell them about the gospel of Jesus.

And we do not even need a private jet for this. You can start from your school, your workplace or even at the gym. The argument that we need a private jet for evangelism is untenable. It is, in fact, a ruse; blatant ego-tripping. But if those whose pastors are into ‘private jetting’ are happy with it, so be it. But saying that it is for evangelism is wide of the mark, for, most, if not all the times, members of the evangelism units of these churches-who indeed do the evangelism-do not get to have the private jet experience. Today we are glorifying God for the good works of Mary Slessor in Eastern Nigeria. But for her, we probably would have continued killing our twins. She did not come with private jet to Nigeria. She came with the gospel and love via a passenger boat. And she indeed made huge impact.