Many people in Christendom call their religious leaders Fathers-in-the-Lord, some call them Daddy, Papa, etc, depending on the church.

According to an anonymous member of one of the churches, he said the name is a sign of respect especially for those who cannot afford to call their pastors by their names.

However, many Men of God or Fathers in the Lord as the case may be, are abusing that privilege of being honoured by members. We have heard cases of some of them walking on their members who prostrated to welcome them (not in Nigeria).

Some of them talk down on their members while boasting of their achievements. The fact that they are holding a microphone and people respect them as God’s servant does not mean they should disrespect or treat their members as senseless people. Also, some of them do comparison of members hence making others to feel bad or inferior.

Talking about castigation. A man became committed when his pastor caught him smoking weeks after being born again and instead of the pastor to castigate him, he encouraged him and that was the last time the young man smoked but some would have used him to preach on the altar.

Some spiritual leaders go the extra miles to get power by all means. Some of them are being accused of doing rituals just to get members, money and fame by all means. We have heard or watched in movies how members became sacrificial lambs when there are no family members to sacrifice, so be careful where you go to worship or who your spiritual father is.

Some pastors broke away from their spiritual fathers so that they can also bear the name general overseer or papa even at their tender ages. They claimed to have been called by God. The ones God did not call, called themselves and started a ministry because they want to be collecting tithes and offerings.

Some had disagreement with their spiritual headw and believe they are not being rewarded properly in commensurate to their efforts while some actually started theirs because they were being posted out of their “juicy” places of assignments, where they were enjoying members’ acceptance and benefits hence they start theirs and try to lure members to their newly-planted church.

Another observation is that some of them are not humble. They get carried away and allow pride to set in and their members are not bold enough to call their attention to it. The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye said God told him that if he thinks he is the best, he is deceiving himself and that he can be replaced because there are more than 1,000 capable hands out there that He can use hence he humbled himself and always kneeling down to hallow God before preaching.

Forgiveness is another challenge of our Fathers-in-the-Lord. Some of them don’t have forgiving spirit hence they judge with the power of the flesh using sentiment. They suspend members or arrest them and during service, they still make altar call for people who want to repent of their sins including the type that they suspended a member for and lead them to Christ after confession is made.

Another bad decision of theirs is the way they handle issues. They use sentiment in judging matters especially if the person is influential or wealthy or from the same tribe with the church authority handling the issue.
If brother A commits an attrocity or sin, he is relieved of his position and suspended but if brother B who is wealthy or influential and commits a sin that is more grievous than brother A, they set aside the punishment and tell him to go and sin no more. The annoying aspect is that they will go ahead and use brother A to preach on the altar.

Meanwhile, some Fathers in the Lord are difficult to see despite telling the congregation that their offices are open to people everyday and time. They are hardly in office and when they are in, the secretary denies people access while those who eventually succeed have to go through rigorous screening from the hands of protocol officers as if you want to see the president of a nation.

Security or body guards
Many Pastors have heavily armed bodyguards to shield or protect them even from members. Although it is understandable because they could be mobbed or even attacked. Many people will also argue that Jesus had disciples who were performing such functions but they were not armed to the teeth like our Pastors today and the disciples were not harsh to followers of Jesus.

The only time they had altercation with anybody was when the blind man was shouting on top of his voice for Jesus to help him and the disciples only told him to shut up. Security men of some Pastors today will beat and manhandle anybody that dares to come close as if they are protecting politicians but to some extent it is understandable because of the security situations in some countries especially Nigeria.

Luxury life
Our Fathers-in-the-Lord like flattering their wealth and living flamboyant lifestyles while their members live in abject poverty. They claimed that, “The earth is the Lord’s and the goodness thereof.” They also quote, “The gold is mine, the silver is mine, says the Lord.” Of course gone are the days when church was described as church rats, today, it is the opposite but such wealth or affluence should also reflect in the lives of members otherwise it will be seen as wickedness and this is one of the reasons why some people don’t go to church because it seems pastors are becoming wealthy while members are getting poor. Some of them are motivational speakers. They don’t empower their members financially so that they can continue to come back and ask for alms.

Some of the Fathers in the Lord also do not practice what they preach. Some have been caught in adulterous acts severally in the name of praying for members. However, it is not until a man touches a woman before adultery or fornication is committed but mere looking at a woman lustfully is a sin if what is written in the Bible is anything to go by.

Use of drugs
Use of drugs is another doctrine that is causing argument in some quarters. Some pastors preach against the use of drugs and tell their members to have faith when people are sick but whenever they have a little health challenge, they get drugs to use secretly. Some even visit hospitals while they tell members to believe God for healing. Some of them are also on hard drugs hence they can jump up and down for hours, they can manifest, somersault and do all manners because of the strength they get from the drugs.

Some of them also believe they know it all hence they don’t take advice from members especially if the member is considered a nobody in the society.

Welfare
Some churches are very good at this, they don’t allow their members to go home hungry however, some of them announce welfare packages but the moment the members show up, they are deceived while those who give, offer them peanuts because some leaders who can afford them use their influence and take them to their homes. They will preach that they are givers and cannot afford to see people hungry but they displace the opposite as soon as they drop the microphone.

The worrisome aspect is when members have challenges, they abandon them and tell them to have faith. Somebody gave an account of how he takes care of his Father-in-the-Lord, prepare good meal for him whenever he visits, gave prophet offerings but when he ran into problems, he was promised severally and while waiting, the problem expanded beyond expected. The Father-in-the-Lord did not show up let alone call to know the outcome of the problem till date, whether the problem has consumed the member or not, he doesn’t care since there are many new people out there that can be gotten through evangelism.

They have the mentality that as long as new members are coming, there won’t be any need to waste resources and time for old members that have problems. It is better for the members to go with their problems while they deal with new ones that are ready to shower them with prophet offerings.

This is definitely not what Jesus preached and practiced. He was a lover of everybody, both rich and poor hence he fed 5,000 whether rich or hopeless, as long as they were all hungry at that particular time.

If one cannot handle members’ problems, it is better to tell them rather than promise them and keep them in the dark while their problems expand.

The funniest thing is that they go for evangelism to bring more people into the church when they have not taken care of the ones in church.

Another angle is that some of them don’t pay tithe neither do they fast. They eat in secret so that members don’t know and they will emphasize on them as if that is what will be considered before anybody can enter heaven.

However, God will not ask which church you attended while on earth and no church is superior to the other, it all depends on what the individual believes in. I have seen a devoted, dedicated and spirit filled Catholic, of course Charismatic who eschews or hates sins and serves God better than their counterparts in pentecostal churches.

In as much as we don’t want to judge, there are more hypocrites in pentecostal churches than others. Many of them are hiding under the pretence of being born again especially the spiritual leaders.

A brother once told us that a pentecostal church pastor threw him out into the street while it was raining. He was forced to keep his bag inside a roadside plantain plantation and slept in the club (outside). It was a Catholic that gave a helping hand, gave him shelter, job and even money to feed until he stabilized.

Lastly, many women kneel down, some lie on the ground to greet their Fathers in the Lord out of respect but they hardly use Sir or My Lord as Sarah used to call Abraham in the Bible. Some Men of God know this but never see anything wrong with it.

However, this is is a clarion call not castigation hence the need for our Fathers in the Lord to start correcting some of the things noted above. If it means going to read through the books of Matthew to John, just to be reminded of how Jesus operated, it will be nice. It will be a thing of joy after labouring on earth, we all go to heaven and not hell. Just like it is said in faith, it is well…

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