President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo
Oritsejafor recently bared his mind concerning the controversies
surrounding churches and their flamboyant pastors.
On why there are so many poor people in churches yet rich pastors,
Oritsejafor who recently completed an ultra modern 40,000 capacity
church auditorium in Warri, Delta State, said
“Remember
that the
pastors are pasturing both the poor and the rich. They are all in the
same assembly. Both the poor and the rich, those who have the means in
the church take time to be kind to their pastors. That is something most
people don’t realize.
They give their pastors money, food and different
things. For example, a member of the church goes to his pastor and
says, ‘I feel led to give you a car. Take this car.’ Now the pastor has a
car. Did he steal it? As I sit here talking to you now, I can tell you
that I am training almost 100 people in institutions of higher learning.
Nobody is going to broadcast that.
On every 26th of December, I
organize what I call poverty alleviation. I have been doing it now for
about eight years.”
When asked to explain why churches milk the poor, the CAN president
and Senior pastor of Word of Life Bible Church, said:
“People
don’t understand what they say about the church milking the poor. Can a
poor man have money to pay tithe? A man who has no job, can he pay
tithe? No, he won’t be able to pay. So how do you milk a man who has no
milk? In a church, you have both the poor and the rich. It is generally
not the poor that finance the church.
It is those with the means. A man,
for example, who earns N10,000, how much is his tithe? His tithe is
N1,000. A man who earns N500,000, how much is his tithe? His tithe is 10
per cent which is N50,000. How much would you milk from a man who pays a
tithe of N1000?
“We won’t say things like this usually because the church is a
level-playing ground. Whether you are poor or you are rich, God sees
everybody as equal. It is because of a question like this that
sometimes, we have to take time to analyse things.
I even hear people
say that the poor give money to start schools, but their children cannot
go to the schools. How will they give this money when they are poor?
The truth is that, the people who actually give this money are those who
have the means to do so. Those people make it possible for churches to
start schools. Now again, why do churches charge high fees in school?
You didn’t ask me that, but I’m just throwing that in free. People must
understand that there is a standard.” he told PUNCH.
