Stella Dimoko Korkus.com: Cardinal Okojie Says There is No Godliness In Planting Churches Everywhere

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Sunday, October 08, 2017

Cardinal Okojie Says There is No Godliness In Planting Churches Everywhere

The Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, has said that there is no Godliness in the decision by some churches in the country to have as many branches as possible.



Churches in going after as many branches as possible, do so in an effort to bring the gospel of the Lord closer to the people. But condemning such multiplicity of branches, the patriarch of the Lagos Catholics described such branches as “mere business centres,” insisting that there is indeed no godliness in planting churches in close proximity.

The Cardinal noted that the mushrooming of such churches has not elicited commensurate level of godliness across the land. His words: “In order to bring us together and to get sanity back into this country, the fear of God must be number one. Nigerians of today don’t care a hoot about God.

For example, I heard that one of my colleagues, (Pastor Enoch) Adeboye, said that he would love to build churches everywhere so as to make it easy for worshipers to walk to them. But for me, that is a useless statement. How can you say you will build churches everywhere?

What kind of churches are you talking about? “Look at traffic in Lagos for example, and those who are pastors are traders and a good number of them are business men. Such churches in most cases are more like business houses! “Look at the number of churches springing up in Lagos. If the Muslims start building mosques like that, does it show that Nigeria is a religious country?

Every day we hear of killings and other things that we were not hearing before. “We can’t even walk on the streets freely. You have to be watching yourself left, right and centre to know who the man coming behind you is. It wasn’t like that before. Churches must ensure that there is fear of God. “And I’m just telling you that those churches that he is talking about are just business centres.

edited from New Telegraph

31 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Loud it His eminence. Some house of prayer are becoming nuisance in its self. For me there are not churches, a church is the mystical body of Christ. Oh! How I love my catholic faith.

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    2. So irresponsible to come from a clergy. Catholics will always see something bad on what others do.

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    3. The Catholic Church still has more parishes than any Protestant church, oga priest take a seat in the hypocrites’ corner

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  2. Nicely said... But what pastor adeboye said if he truly said that up there might just be a misunderstood by him

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  3. I am a Christian and has been so for more than two decades.
    I was there when the Nigerian "prosperity message" was at it's peak. I put it in "quote" because, that is not the prosperity that God taught in his word.
    What the churches do these days is the glorification of materialism and elevation of greed above righteousness.
    I have since quit going to "church" and resorted to studying my bible and house fellowship. Again I put church in "quote" because these buildings you see erupting everywhere isn't the church of Jesus Christ.
    I have known the Lord the more and have so much peace instead of the usual discouragement I have known while attending "churches".
    The scripture is clear; where two or more are gathered in his name; Jesus, he is there in their midst.

    Are today's meeting places gathering in the name of the Lord Jesus?
    2 Tim. 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

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  4. I think its high time the Christian community came together to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ instead of fighting and condemning one another!

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    1. Sexy Daddy you just spoke my mind, if the cardinal had issues with Adeboyes method of planting churches he should have told him in private and not come out and call his ministry a business center.

      The bible says "wisdom is profitable to direct" as Christians we should not bring a divide with our tongues when we should be preaching unity and salvation to unbelievers.


      LEP😛

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    2. Thank you for this. Why bring our matters to the press. I don't go to redeem though but every man of God with his God giv n vision. Why not leave him with his vision

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  5. What the man is saying is painfully true and same goes for his former church. I do not belong to any but to the Lord.

    I do like to enter the church in my city to pray during the day; especially on the days that I am off duty. Each time I entered the catholic church (I am not a catholic; I am without denomination), not only do I pray well without "harassment" but sometimes, I will be there for 2 hours and by the time I am about to leave, some of the people I met there are not in any way preparing to leave. I am usually challenged by these people. Several time, I had stopped by the "mega churches" (Redeemed for e.g.) to pray, they looked at me like I've come to steal, most of their parishes are under lock and key. is it only the orthodox churches that are "house of prayer"?
    Really I have learnt to do house fellowships to learn the scriptures with other like minded Christians and have not gone or needed any of these churches in the last 5 years. I grow very well in the Lord and we do go online (social media)/prisons for evangelism. If you are a Christian who do not pray and fast and study your bible, very soon, every wind of doctrine will ferry you!
    Again, why is every girl (especially fair ones) that go to these "mega churches" put on "deliverance for 21 days"? Did Christ or his disciples do that. One of the teenage girls on my street after being put through such "deliverance' was also "put in the family way". The worst is that she does not know the father of her child because multiple "deliverance ministers" had her. Thank God she got saved during her pregnancy and delivered a healthy baby boy. Or should I talk about the "Rev. Fathers" that browse the girls in their congregations.
    For those of you who would "rattle" about tithing; I pay it very well to strangers (prisoners and street kids rehabilitation), widows, orphans, and some missionaries (who of course have no other means of livelihood); if you care to, you can read the scriptures; Deut. 14:28, 26:12, practiced in the NT; Acts 6:1-6, 1 Tim. 5:9, James 1:27. A lot of you will be surprised that I did not start my quotation from Malachi 3. the point is that "God's house has become as spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5-9). By God's grace, I've taken many kids off the street, enabled widows begin small scale businesses, helped missionaries out of poverty etc. and I am not lacking in the blessings" from the Lord. I feel more fulfilled.

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    1. You mentioned something that always cross my mind everytime I think about Nigerian churches
      WHY ARE THE ALWAYS LOCKED

      As a child the church was a place where u can stroll in and pray, fellowship and even sleep as a kid.

      Now churches have body guards, Armed security men and are always locked.

      If they cannot trust God to secure his own house but have to employ security men then I beg to ask "Is there really God in that church".

      LEP😛

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    2. Matthew 21:12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13“It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’e but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’f ”

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    3. Who does not lock up his business before leaving?

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    4. You said business. Are you agreeing that churches are now businesses then?

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    5. Why should a "place of prayer" be locked up?
      If it is not a business, why the lock up?
      Shouldn't people be able to stroll in and pray?

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  6. Nigeria is a nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

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  7. Max Romeo - Stealing In The Name Of The Lord

    Stealing, stealing, stealing,
    Stealing, stealing.
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    My father's house of worship,
    Has become a den of thieves;
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    They fed our mothers with sour grapes,
    And set our teeth on edge;
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    Strike the hammer of justice,
    And set my people free,
    Strike the hammer of justice,
    Or let my people be.

    They tell us of a heaven,
    Where milk and honey flow;
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    They said this place called heaven;
    The rich man cannot go.
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    Yet the reverend drives a fancy car,
    Buys everything tax-free,
    The people have to sacrifice;
    To give in charity.

    My father's house of worship,
    Has become a den of thieves;
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    (..)

    Stealing, stealing, stealing,
    Stealing, stealing.
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

    Stealing, stealing, stealing,
    Stealing, stealing.
    Stealing in the name of the Lord.

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  8. God is not interested in the number of churches/building but the number of souls won for him.

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  9. He sounds very envious. You shouldn't speak about another man of God like that. I'm just glad I have a Redeem very close to my house. When my car is faulty I just walk to church and have no excuse not to go to church. It's well with the body of Christ. Happy Sunday SDK just back from church and ready to eat sunday rice lol

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  10. This Reverend Father has just said the absolute truth. Nothing in churches again just business kind of gathering. No anointing from the so called pastors. You'll go to church with massive problem on your shoulders and a pastor will tell you to go sow a seed and your problem will be gone??? These pastors cannot pray out a demon, they cant pray for a sick to be healed because they all lack anointing. In their bid to chase after material wealth they lose the power of the holy spirit. A pastor is a trader or a business man after going to his shop and business their's no time to focus on God, study the bible or even pray, and these are the things that increase anointing. Now they tell you it is a do it yourself ministry. Ok then if it is a do it myself ministry i have to pray myself out so why should i bother to come to church? Just to come and give you tithes and offering meanwhile i have a problem you cant help pray me out of it as my pastor? In the early 20th century we all read about the men of God like Smith wigglesworth, Dowie, madam Ether, John G Lake, Kenneth Hagin to mention just a few, these men gave themselves to the work of God and things really happened through them. They will lay hand on the sick no matter the kind of sickness and these people will get well amd i mean absolutely well. Christianity is with power! There's no christianity without power. What we have now is money christianity. People worshippling their pastors and all. A whole lot of people are following the so called pastors blindly because they are lazy to read and study the word of God. There's a lot of fraud in churches these days perpetrated by these so called men of God.

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  11. Today is sunday, I can't argue over denomination.

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  12. Redeem and their rented spaces in benin. The more we build churches the more our values are eroded. In the days when there were few churches our society was much better than it is today. The level of immorality was very low. What's the point of building mushroom churches in every street

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  13. Free the sheeple!! Where is my daddy freeze?

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  14. Romans 14:17-19 NIV "17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."

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  15. I love that daddy Freeze of a guy biko.people are always against truth tellers.

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  16. God bless you, your exalted Eminence for having both the wisdom and courage to say this... We have more churches than there are companies, factories, and businesses put together, yet our level of righteousness keeps diminishing.
    These gods of men are simply business men feeding on the government's​ failure to provide us with basic amenities... If there are industries creating jobs for the youths, have excellent health care and security systems, very few of us would be sowing seeds in church looking for a miracle in getting a job, or seeking remedy in a health challenge, or even seeking a partner.
    The early churches came preaching salvation whilst providing the societies​ with schools and healthcare centers...but now, it's the people that serve the church, Building schools and enriching the GOs and CEOs, making them billionaires while they preach only one thing... prosperity.

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    Replies
    1. My friend my friend! Mavor?

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  17. The Cardinal said nothing but the bitter truth!

    I remembered back then, a five story building in Ajah that was with five different denomination. What was most annoying was the noise pollution and the way the ushers went out every Sunday morning dragging for church ⛪ goers. Some even went as far as advertising their churches to people instead of preaching about God.

    I prefer a personal relationship with God. I'm no church fanatic.

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  18. What happened to building factories everywhere .

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