Rev. Wale Adefarasin, the former Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Lagos State, and the Senior Pastor of Guiding Light Assembly, Ikoyi, Lagos, was a guest on the renewed Media Chat on Zoom with the Network of African Christian Journalists (NACJOURN) on Saturday, June 8, 2024.
Pastor Wale Adefarasin discussing State of the Nation and the State of the Charismatic Church, took a swipe at the state of the Charismatic movement in the church and called on his fellow ministers of God to go back to the simplicity of the gospel.
He recalled that what attracted him to pentecostal movement was the simplicity as against names and titles from where he was coming.
He said, “I can’t say I was born a Christian, nobody was born a Christian. But my parents were Anglicans. What attracted me to Pentecostalism was the fact that there was no emphasis on titles. Pentecostal pastors were just pastors. No Bishop, no Archbishop. We were encouraged to read the Bible for ourselves. We were encouraged to pray by ourselves.
“The simplicity was there. Now I have come into Pentecostalism, we have gone back to the titles we condemned. We now do all the things we ran away from in the Orthodox churches. We have so complicated the gospel. The solution is for us to go back to the simplicity of the gospel.”
The former National Secretary of PFN also expressed his dissatisfaction with the many excesses of the modern pastors and church leaders who claim to have some extra-biblical experiences, recommending some measures of internal or external controls.
He explained, “Many pastors are coming up with all kinds of gimmicks. When I was the chairman of PFN, my position was that the government was responsible for protecting the citizens from exploitation. We need a situation where a regulatory body can audit our corporate finances. We will get there. I believe people can’t run a church if they don’t comply with the legal requirement.”
Making a strong case for the regulation of the church, the former National Secretary of PFN leader noted that “the Company and Allied Matters Act have enough provisions to regulate the church. But they are not being enforced. We have enough laws to be able to practise our faith transparently. It is just we need to comply with the laws. As long as the laws are not being enforced, we will keep having pastors who put church money in the boots of their cars.”
The messages on our pulpits have to change
He also condemned a situation where many Christians are being fed with the wrong spiritual diet saying “the messages on our pulpits have to change. We hardly hear messages about holiness, purity, and righteousness again, and this has to change.”
Also speaking on the issue of how leaders handle money in the Church, Rev. Adefarasin explained that, “Money was a big issue when I was asked to be the chairman of the fellowship many years ago. The first thing I did was to stop pastors from asking for money. I also made a law for all the members of the exco never to collect money from politicians to campaign for them. Anybody who flouted such law would be removed.”
Other area touched by Rev. Adefarasin in his interaction with members of NACJOURN was the renewed old Nigeria’s National Anthem.
New Old National Anthem
As an advocate and a supporter of the move, the Senior Pastor of Guiding Light Assembly has this to say, “I was so convinced about the need to go back to the old anthem because I felt Nigerians needed a sense of patriotism and reorientation.”
He said, “As a young boy I attended a school where we sang the British National Anthem every Friday until our independence in October 1960. At that time, when I was 8 years old, we were taught all three verses Nigeria we hail thee. Until this day I still remember all the verses.
“Later in 1978, it was changed. It was not changed through a democratic process. Not even a decree. It was changed through a pronouncement. But that is not an issue. The two anthems are nice. But to me, Nigeria we hail thee inspires patriotism. It made me proud to be a Nigerian and I think at this particular point in time, we need to get our sense of national pride back in our nation. That is what it means for me.”
Nigerians should be patient
On Nigeria, he said, “Our value system is deteriorating. Things have been so bad and nobody can come and change the situation overnight. It is going to take a lot of sacrifice to get us to where we should be.”
He said many of the hard steps of the present government are necessary; He added however that “more thoughts could have gone into the removal of the fuel subsidy. I also think the government should cut the cost of governance and stop unnecessary spending”
The cleric expressed the belief that the issue of minimum wage has to be handled with caution. “The NLC is right to demand a minimum wage. But they need to know we are in a dire straight and the government may not be able to pay the wage being demanded by labour.”
He condemned the huge amount for the support of 2024 Hajj pilgrimage by the federal government, advising the Christian community not to get into such frivolous spending on pilgrimage as a way of showing patriotism to Nigeria
Pastor Adefarasin however expressed great optimism about Nigeria, urging Nigerians not to despair. “We should keep hope alive. I believe this nation will be great again. I believe God has a vested interest in making this nation great. We should not lose hope in Nigeria. I believe Nigeria will change.” he said.
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