THE CHURCH IN A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY (30)

When the Church Becomes a Personal Heritage

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.”

Acts 20:28

When I was growing up as a school child, it was very common to see company signboards with inscriptions such as Ade & Sons Ltd or Bola & Sons Enterprises. The simple interpretation was that such companies or business enterprises belonged exclusively to the person and family indicated. The business was the sole property and right of the named family.

As I grew older, this idea gradually gave way to public liability companies, where many people became responsible for the running of a business through the purchase of shares. However, the idea of sole proprietorship has taken a new and troubling dimension within the Church, where leadership and executive control are treated as the exclusive right of the founder and his progeny.

The claim to Levitical priesthood has now become the theory used to scripturally establish this practice. Spiritual conviction no longer seems to matter, even when the conduct of the progeny tends toward the path of the sons of Eli. The founder becomes determined to make succession to church leadership the exclusive inheritance of his family.

Today, I know of brothers from the same parents who were anointed as pastors in their father’s church without recourse to spiritual guidelines or discernment. The father became deaf to the outcry of church members and reclined to the outrageous behaviour of his children, assuming that they were making the ministry more popular and giving it wider publicity.

This is a dangerous position in which we now find ourselves as the Church.

Leadership in the Church is no longer determined by the choice of the Spirit or the maturity of believers; it is now treated strictly as inheritance by birth. Once the sons of Eli assumed that the priesthood belonged to them by right, they began to treat the sacrifices of the Lord with contempt and ministered with impunity.

While it is gratifying to see our children serving God alongside us, it is dangerous to compel them into ministry and make them view church appointments as hereditary rights.

The danger facing these children is enormous. Even more troubling is the plight of the congregants, who are being fed with Ephraim’s cake—half-baked and unfit (Hosea 7:8–10).

When churches are manned by untutored and untrained individuals, the outcome will inevitably resemble the decision of Rehoboam:

“My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 1 Kings 12:14

It is time we became our brother’s keeper. We must speak to those who have ears to hear.

Stay blessed.

Peter Abdul-Razaq OLAYINKA

A Serving Missionary with Living Grace Christian Missions, Ilara

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