Tag: Churches

Bold and daring, Rev. Yinka Ojo is the senior pastor of Grace Family Church Lagos. He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on issues affecting the church and the nation. Excerpts:

What is your definition of ministerial success?

A minister of the gospel is not a celebrity, a corporate entity or a superstar but a called person. So, the yardsticks for measuring his success would be different. It can’t be about material acquisition. The definition of success for a minister then is finding out what God has called you to do and progressively achieving it. Success is progressive achievement of God-given goals.

This means each minister of the gospel has been given different roles and so there can’t be a universal parameter for measurement of success. So, in essence, only Jesus knows who is truly successful in the ministry because He is the one that calls people in the first place to do works of the ministry.

So, it is not necessarily about having a mega church?

Not at all. Mega churches could be wonderful but are they producing disciples? Large, visible ministries could be good but are they really visible in the eyes of the Lord? So, we have to really be careful. I wonder sometimes if some of these mega churches can survive the testing of their works by fire. I say it that the bigger the churches, the bigger the ashes for founders of mega churches in the last days, if they are not doing what God really called them to do.

I think that we have to be careful really because a lot of secular, humanistic, secular teachings have found their ways to the church. We now measure our success by our cars, sizes of congregation and financial muscles.

We are celebrating these things more than the teachings of Christ. I heard one preacher say ‘go only where you are celebrated’. I said to myself had Jesus gone only where he was celebrated, nobody would have been saved. His own people rejected him but he kept at it and he fulfilled the goals of God. We really have to balance our teachings. The will of God could be enjoyable sometimes but could also be unpalatable. Remember Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted.

So, we should stop telling people success is about fame, wealth and comfort.

Don’t you think it is just an innocent attempt to make the gospel man-friendly?

Well but at what cost? How related to that is to the message of Christ? Had Jesus been living today, many would have said his messages are not user-friendly. He said things like brood of vipers. He confronted the powers of his days and said ‘your father, the devil…’’ These are not motivational or positive thinking but hard core messages. He didn’t preach that all of the times but he did sometimes. So, I don’t buy that school of thought that is after man-friendly messages. I would rather preach the whole, balanced gospel. If you are obedient to the master, He would bring people in.

Those who will be strong spiritually must be fed on balanced diet. If you feed a child only on cakes, he won’t be strong and will have bad dentition. You have got to introduce stuff like vegetables, proteins and others with occasional cakes.

But is anything wrong in baiting in before feeding them on real stuff?

The question is: Has that worked? In the last 25 years, what kind of Christians has that produced? If you check the quality of most Christians, it is nothing to write home about. We should just go back to the way the gospel was preached by Christ and the early church. It was not popular but it produced great results. We need to be secure that people might not like our messages but must hear what God has to say. God did not call us to be popular; only Jesus should be popular.

If you preach the correct gospel, you might not have much people but God will take care of you. The fact is that most pastoring today were called to be teachers, prophets and evangelists. The lure of tithes and offerings has enslaved many. If you are where God wants you to be, He could send a raven like He did to Elijah to take care of you. The raven was not a member of Elijah’s church. At a point, he had just a member, a widow, who took good care of him.

You just spoke about Elijah. How come we don’t have such radical, outspoken prophet in the land again? How come most of our preachers just want to romance the powers-that-be?

I think the more political you are as a pastor, the farther you are from your true calling. Two, the roles of Old Testament prophets are different from what we should have now. The old prophets spoke to kings and the nation. In the New Testament, the primary assignment of prophets is for the church, not for the political class. They could speak occasionally to the nation but they are primarily for the church. They strengthen the church and disciple people to take over the business, political and other arms of life. The more of such trained people we have, the more we see changes in the society. They are above corruption and pollution because they have been dead to the flesh.

The president has said he would be worshipping in different churches from now till 2015. Would you be happy to receive him?

Oh, sure because there is no gate fee in the church. Anybody that wants to come is most welcome. If the president chooses to worship with us, we would allow him. I don’t know him too well to allow him speak but if I know him a little bit and I have an idea of what he wants to say, he would speak to the church. He won’t preach but because of his office, I would allow him to speak for a brief moment, if he asks for it.

Would you allow him canvass for votes?

Capital NO.

Why?

Every political persuasion is represented in my church. If he canvasses for votes, I must then look for other political leaders to allow speak. I believe the church should be careful not to be used to push any political agenda. Jesus did not say ‘go to the world and preach politics’. He said we must only preach the gospel because it is sacred. I feel every church and pastor should be politically neutral or else we would hinder people from hearing the gospel.

Is that not being politically naïve and inactive?

It is not at all. I will vote during elections but I will never tell my members to vote for one candidate. But I will teach them enough to know how to identify good candidates, without endorsing any.

Is anything bad in endorsing candidates as a Christian leader?

Everything is bad. I will never endorse any candidate. It could get you into troubles. If you endorse a candidate in the US, you could lose your non-profit status. They endorse but they do it in a subtle way. But I will never endorse. I will just tell members to vote for someone their conscience tells them to.

You mention the US but pastors endorse candidate there. Even Billy Graham does that a lot, especially during presidential elections?

Yes but Graham has got his fingers burnt many times. There was a particular candidate he endorsed who happened to be a member of the Mormon Church. He got into troubles and had to change his website. He lost his non-profit status. But I have found nobody goes to Joel Osteen’s church, which is the largest in America today. I think he got it right on endorsement. He said his father told him to allow people support whoever they want to sustain neutrality.

So, what would be your advice to that pastor in the remotest part of Nigeria, feeling shortchanged for being in the ministry?

I will just say who called you? What did he call you to do? If you are doing it, you are successful. Don’t look at others. Just hang on to God and you will glad

Pastor Seyi Oladimeji is a church management expert and trainer. The Chief Responsibility Officer of Church Management Consult spoke with Sunday Oguntola on why churches need administrators and sundry issue. Excerpts:   

How did church management and administration find you and vice versa?

It happened that I have been finding myself in the position of administrator in all the churches I attended either by default or accident. This has been happening for over 20 years. So, when in 2007 we were stepping out of Daystar Christian Centre to be on our own, I prayed and God said I should begin to communicate what I have learnt over the years to churches so that we can strengthen their hands for the end time harvest.

I have been part of a church that was not growing and also witnessed a growing church. I have been able to see that the difference is not always the devil as we like to see it but order, because order brings progress.

What kind of order are we talking about here?

If you read Genesis, you will find that the earth was void and formless; there was chaos. There was a world that existed between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The first was a perfect world but the second had chaos. God had to go to work and rearrange the earth, which is order. Order brings increase automatically. That, to me, was a lesson. God will not bless disorderliness. You will find out there is so much waste in the church because of lack of order. I think it is because most of our resources come without us really working for it unlike in the business environment. One man even noted that no organisation runs like the church. If they try to, they will close down. In the miracle of multiplication, Jesus fed 5000 men with five loaves and two fishes. You know there were about 12,000 people that were fed because women and children will always be more than men.

Jesus was not thrilled by the miracle but more interested in preventing waste. They gathered 12 basketfuls. Imagine that! If Jesus had not paid attention to that, they would have been waste and they would have moved on. Jesus wanted them to start from the 12 baskets whenever they needed bread the next time. So, the church has many resources that must be well-managed for greater impact.

What are the components of church administration?

There are three functional areas of church administration, namely: management of human resources, management of human resources and management of physical resources. When those areas are taken care of, you will be able to do much more with the little resources in place.

Some people say that the establishment of order in churches will impede the move of the Spirit. Is that true?

Well, structure enhances growth and the move of the Spirit. I will take you back to the miracle of multiplication. You’d find that the first miracle was the carpeting of the venue with grasses. Then, Jesus said they should make the people sit in groups of fifties. Having them in fifties is order, structure and administration.  By the time the miracle happened they would have mobbed the disciples holding the bread. If you have to share food among hungry thousands, there would have been colossal waste resulting from stampeding.

So, structure enhances grace and anointing. If there is no structure, there will be dissipation of anointing. So, it enhances and magnifies the move of the Spirit among God’s people.

Does it mean having structures in place automatically guarantees church growth?

Structure brings order as I said and whenever God sees order, there will be increase. If you have a box and you just throw your clothes inside it, it will not take many. But when you iron and fold each cloth, the box suddenly has the capacity to take more clothes. Where there is structure and order, there is maximum utilisation of resources.

Many church leaders complain that most administrators always compete with them for authority and attention…

…That is why those administrators have to be trained because there is a slight difference between a church administrator and a business manager. A church administrator must see his position as a calling into help ministry. God has called you to help the set man. You are supposed to hold his hands up. You are supposed to help manage the church’s resources and not compete in any way with him.

If they are not trained, they will begin to compete with church leaders. So, it is a function of training and knowledge that in the church, it is not democracy but theocracy that exists. God can give an instruction to the set man that will go against business rules that you are coming with. So, they must acknowledge the place of the Holy Spirit in the administration of the church of God.

Isn’t it possible that administrative bureaucracy will also creep up among churches that use administrators?

You see if you are trained, you know that administration should enhance operations of churches. You don’t mount bottlenecks to hinder the work of God. You put in place structures that will make decision-making faster and easier. You eliminate bureaucracy with the structure you put in place and empower people you put in authority to make decisions with little supervision.

The general notion is that only charismatic pentecostal churches need administrators because the orthodox ones have perfected the art of administration. What do you say to that?

There is no church that does not need a good administrator. The charismatic churches may seem the ones that need them most because they don’t have recognised, acceptable theological institutions. Everybody does their own thing but most orthodox churches have theological schools where they learn administration and order.

But in pentecostal churches, most of the pastors don’t have that training. They just responded to the call and took off. So, they will need administrators to put things in perspectives.

How do you react to the argument that your trainings appear to be too elitist?

I think it is just perception. I feel that one of the assignments I have from God is to give people a shift in their minds. There is nothing elitist in what we do. I feel if its godly, it must be beautiful. One of the things that God told me is that all management principles are from the Bible. He said most of what multi-nationals use to make profits of billions every year is from the Bible but we the original owners do not know.

There is a mindset in the church that tells us anything from God must be cheap and free. We hold our meetings in churches and hotels because we want to capture the spirit of excellence. Excellence is the nature of God. I have also heard it with people confronting me on it. I just believe there is nothing expensive. Everything is a matter of the mind.

We now hold open seminars for churches where we charge only N2, 500 for a foretaste of what we do. This covers materials, feeding and training for two days. If somebody still thinks it is much, then it is too bad. I am going to attend a 3-day training in the US next month and I know how much I have paid without flight tickets. We should not portray God as poor because he is not.

How about the cost implication of hiring a church administrator?

You don’t have to hire one if you are just starting. But as the church grows, there is no way you won’t need one. People can volunteer when you are small but you will need a full-time administrator because you will need to take decisions on an hourly basis. If it is full-time, you have to pay for sure because that person will not work elsewhere.

What will you say to pastors that refuse to use administrators because of the fear that they will become too powerful for them to handle?

I will advise such pastors to be secure in their calling. Only those who are not secured will talk like that. Ministry is a team work. There is no assignment that is meant for only one man. You need vision helpers and an administrator is just one of them. If you don’t have an administrator, it will show because there are some things that shouldn’t distract you that will always be taking you away from your core work.

You noticed the disciples had such a challenge too with administration. They had to appoint deacons to help out. If they didn’t, that would have been the end of the Christian movement.

What is the idea behind Church Administrators Society of Nigeria (CASON)?

We just want to professionalise the practice of church administration in Nigeria. We don’t want it to be an all-comer’s affairs. Only those who have gone through the mill should get hired. We want to standardise the practices and put ethics in place that practitioners must follow.