Selfish lifestyles can no longer lead the way for tomorrow’s church. Leaders of the Church must model themselves into the right example for their members to follow, says Sam Adeyemi, Senior Pastor, Daystar Christian Centre.
Adeyemi made the statement in Lagos Wednesday September 25 as lead speaker at the 2019 Conference of Church Administrators Society of Nigeria (CASON) tagged “Future of the Church and Church of the Future.”
Leading a triad of speakers, Adeyemi emphasised: “True and Christ-like leadership is the way forward for the Church and there is no better time than today to create the future we all want.
“If a pastor thinks and acts as though all the money of the church belongs to him and that he is better than everyone else in his church that is exactly how his members will think and behave in government and in other positions of influence.
“Prosperity promise without hard work is empty. As pastors, we must model and teach the right New Testament principles to our followers and Nigerians at large” Adeyemi said.
Author, Founder and Development Director of West Africa Theological Seminary, Dr. Gary S. Maxey who also spoke at the CASON Conference traced the growth of Christianity in Nigeria and concluded that Christians have made all Nigerians more prayerful and evangelistic, across all faiths.
He said that since the ‘Seduction of the Nigerian Church’ – an allusion to his latest book – it behoves the leadership of churches in Nigeria across all denominations to rid itself of corruption and empty prosperity preaching that has no basis in Christian theology.
“However, I believe strongly that the Nigerian Church is capable and must lead the charge to rid Nigeria of corruption” Maxey said.
One of Nigeria’s leading brand strategists and CEO, Alder Consulting, Mr. Leke Alder, also a guest speaker, said “The time is now for Christians to stop being lazy. If we all take our faith seriously, we must all become theologians and take New Testament Christianity as the only model for the future of the Church.
“God has since moved beyond picking only Levite priests to lead the Church. There is a reason Jesus recruited seafood entrepreneurs (and not priests of old) as His disciples. Therefore tomorrow’s Church must marry theology with commonsense and science. People will no longer leave their brains at home to listen to sermons in church.”
In his address, CASON President, Pastor Seyi Oladimeji, said: “The Church in Nigeria must chart a new path for the whole country in order to reverse this dangerous trend of youth restiveness, insecurity, infrastructural decay, unstable economy, ethnic and religious distrust, ambiguity in our educational system, unprecedented unemployment, increase in suicide rate and so on.”
Signed by
KUNLE HAMILTON
Media Director, CASON
