The Church Loses Her Control and Authority on A Daily Basis – Pastor Julius Tokede

Pastor Julius Olukayode Tokede, FCA is a renowned chartered accountant and Chartered Tax Practitioner both in Nigeria and UK . He is the Managing Partner of Laketos & Co (Nigeria) and Lukatos & Co Ltd (uk) also the Presiding Pastor, The Christ Power Pentecostal Assembly (CPPA), Iju-Ishaga, Lagos. During the church annual convention and retreat held at their prayer camp in Ogun State, he spoke with Providence News on issues affecting the church today. Excerpt:

What is the major missing link in today’s church?

People come to church for a different purpose; many come to trade, some for ritual, others for identity sake, few come to gossip and they’re not coming to worship in spirit. Because people have been made to believe that Christianity is easy whereas, it’s not.

We come to church to study and to learn about God. Also for eternal values and gains. Jesus didn’t make anyone a millionaire and it’s not in the Bible that anyone is qualified to make someone a millionaire. The disciples did not make anyone a millionaire and none of them became one. 

If you want to be a billionaire you would have to go and study accounting, finance, agriculture and other careers to make money. God has given everyone the opportunity to make money with their skills, talents and gifts. Then you come to church to study, understand the teachings of Christ, His principles and the purpose of why He came.

Either you are rich or poor, you come to the church and study to be approved for one another not to be ashamed. So it is not your billions that have value, if your soul does not have value.

Has the church inculcated enough value into our society? 

The church has not played enough role in this dispensation to inculcate godly values in our lifestyles. A believer must know that he is in pursuit of eternal value according to the plan of God and it’s a different thing to be pursuing riches at the expense of our soul .

As we have in the church today, the world has crept into the church and the world already in the church. There is no church you go to today, that the world has not entered there and politicians as ministers have taken over the leadership of some church for financial purposes. 

Many we are seeing as fathers and leaders of faith are not, they don’t speak the word of truth and righteousness. They are the people that need to hear the word and are supposed to do it, but they are not.

What is your advice to church leaders on the value system? 

Charity begins at home, in our churches and ministries; church leaders, pastors and ministers have a role to play. To teach what we believe is true and righteous to compliment people’s faith. It is not the crowd or large congregation of a church that determines its righteousness. We as church leaders, pastors and ministers just have to do the right thing and play our role and allow God to perfect the rest. 

In the old days, when someone was crossing from one church to another, he would be asked to go and collect our recommendation. But today, that is gone and no more there. Anyone can jump from anywhere to anywhere as he likes without recommendation, because there is no truth, truth has been perverted everywhere and every church is now membership driven and the crowd pulling without discipleship and discipline.

With this, the church has been turned into an absurd theater and a hall of entertainment where people go and have fun then go back home.

In our church, we are not looking for just church members, we are looking for Christ disciples and heavenly minded members. Whoever is not able to stay and ready to abide with our goals are free to go elsewhere and be just a church goer member. 

A lot of fetish things and abracadabra with deception are going on in some churches today, using their God gifts in a wrong way and for a wrong purpose. But Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gate of hell shall not prevail against it”. Unfortunately today, the gate of hell is taking over some churches and we need to continue praying for God’s intervention. 

What should be the solution to our society’s moral descendance of broken homes and divorce rate?

The problem of the general society is in the church and the solution is the church going back to God, teaching the unadulterated word of God and obedience to the word of God. Under our watch, there are lots of evil, atrocities, wickedness and lawlessness that are being glamorized and promoted in our society, even in the church where no one is talking about it. The Christian parent bodies and organizations are also not helping issues with provisions independent platforms without regulation and coverage for wrong acts. It is therefore difficult to condemn these wrong acts and discipline the perpetrators. There are too many independent churches, ministers, pastors and ministries without leadership regulation and authority they submit to. They freely go against the principle of faith, furnicate, commit adultery and commit other evil vices in the name of church, yet they wrongly quote the Bible to back up their evil deeds and no one or body condemned and calls them to order. The church is building estates, houses, stadium size auditoriums and different kinds of cathedral and synagogue. Instead of building people, more schools, hospitals etc. It is only God that will intervene in the situation of our society and the church. Look at the countries where Paul preached the gospel, Muslims have taken over the country. Most of the churches in the UK have become something else. The church is losing her control, power and authority on a daily basis.

What is your opinion on current Nigeria leadership?

The Nigerian situation is about every citizen and not only the leaders. Even as followers, we are the most blind. We are only blaming those that are on top, those that are below are the worst. If someone constructs a road, they are supposed to use a lath and they are using ordinary clay. If all the agencies of government, they can change their attitude, behavior, say no to corruption and we enforce it. The leader cannot do anything. Look at the People’s Bank saga in the days of Gen. Sanni Abacha administration, where the government gave out money to citizens on interest free to run their businesses, people refused to refund the money, they embezzled it. These are some of the problems.