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Jesus Christ commanded the preaching of the gospel to make disciples of all nations. As a result, churches shepherded by pastors have been established in all the continents of the world. Some of the believers are educated and rich, others are uneducated and poor.
Though Christ Jesus instructed pastors to teach His commands for people to know and grow in Him, many have chosen to teach about money or wealth creation to make people rich. These pastors often tell stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Job and other biblical characters.
However, many do not teach about deep things of God and the Christianity to arm their members with the deep knowledge they can use to answer believers and unbelievers who ask probing questions about their faith.
From the discussions, so far, we can point out two groups of believers. They are the rich and the inquisitors. Inquisitors are people who ask many difficult, probing questions. There is no doubt that most pastors in Africa cannot effectively shepherd these people, considering the kinds of teachings we have been hearing, over the years.
The rich
As I indicated earlier, most pastors in Africa preach and teach about material prosperity influenced by the high rate of poverty in the continent. Thus, many preach transactional gospel in which they convince believers to give money to God to motivate Him to bless them hundredfold financially.
These pastors often quote 2 Corinthians 8:9 which reads: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
With this verse, they erroneously teach that Jesus became poor so that all Christians might become rich. This teaching cannot appeal to people who are wealthy, because it is meaningless and irrelevant to them.
The truth is that the rich already know the secret to making money. It is about hard work, savings and investments. It is about attitudes and practical financial management skills that make money work for them to increase in wealth. Therefore, they do not need to believe in Jesus before they can become rich.
An honest teacher of the Bible will rightly divide 2 Corinthians 8:9 by stating that the verse does not talk about Christ being financially rich at all. Rather, it talks about Jesus being rich in grace by which believers are made rich in terms of their divine election, redemption, adoption, consecration or sanctification and inheritance (Ephesians 1:3-11).
In the book of Ephesians, Paul refers to these things as spiritual blessings freely given to true believers in Christ. If indeed, rich Jesus Christ, became poor for the sake of poor believers to become rich, then, no Christian in Africa should be poor. And if the teaching is true, then, just as we have received eternal salvation as a free gift by faith, we should also have received money as a free gift by faith in Christ.
However, we know that most Christians in Africa continue to wallow in poverty even after sowing all kinds of special financial seeds and regular offerings. This exposes most pastors in Africa as false ministers who cannot effectively shepherd rich people they way Christ wants it.
The inquisitors
The second group of people most ministers in Africa will find it difficult to pastor are the inquisitors. Most of them are educated or literate people who seek to add knowledge to their faith, grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, grow up spiritually, avoid being deceived or led astray. They seek clarifications of teachings so that they can answer critics and doubters of the Christian Faith.
For these reasons, they search the scriptures themselves to confirm or disconfirm teachings they have received from their pastors. An example of this group of Christians are the Bereans mentioned in Acts 17:11.
Beside reading, studying and researching, this group of Christians also boldly ask difficult questions. For instance, they may ask questions such as: why should God send Jesus to die to atone for man’s sin when He could have forgiven man and restored relationship with him after the fall? Why did God destroy humans and spare Satan during the floods in the days of Noah?
Other questions may include: what reasons could God possibly have in allowing Satan to bring pain, misery, destruction, and affliction in the world? Why do Christians continue to sin when they have been saved from sin?
Certainly, the above are questions which many pastors in Africa may not be able to answer satisfactorily. And if they cannot answer probing questions like these, then, it will be difficult for them to shepherd believers who are inquisitors.
By James Quansah
