There Are No Longer Spiritual Fathers; We Only Have Notable Spiritual Feasters – Pastor Canny Canice

Pastor Canny O. Canice, the Senior Pastor of the House of His Praise Ministry in Pedro, Gbagada, Lagos, recently spoke to Gracious Akintayo about the August annual Spoken Word International Conference (SWIC). He candidly expressed his displeasure over the situation within the church and among faith leaders in Nigeria.

Briefly tell us about your ministry and how far God has brought you. 

God has brought us this far. He has been able to fight many battles for us. Because as one wakes up in the morning, you encounter battle. It’s a battle to wake up, it’s a battle to stand on your feet, it’s a battle to wash your mouth, it’s a battle to bathe, and even it’s a battle to leave your house because, at each of these stages, somebody has fallen and died. Some couldn’t wake up from bed, some just woke up, tried to stand up, and collapsed. Some were bathing, and they slipped and hit their head on the WC and died. At each stage in life, there are battles. But God has been fighting this battle for us as individuals, as a church, and as a family. We are here today by the grace of God; we cannot give credit to anyone but only to God. His role in our journey is inspiring and reassuring, reminding us that we are not alone in our struggles. 

What is your opinion on the present state of the ministry and the church today?

Today, the Church is in a critical state, overrun by charlatans. To urgently address this, our upcoming Bible school matriculation lecture topic is “Bridging the Gap Between the Pulpit and the Pew” -Theological Perspective. This topic is of utmost importance in our current situation and requires immediate attention.

There is a gap between the pulpit and the pew, and the church needs to bridge it. The lambs are in the pew because wolves and charlatans have taken over the pulpits. Jesus warns that the wolves, the rambling wolves, might take over the sheep. We need someone who can come down between the pew and the pulpit and bridge the gap. Otherwise, there is the scenario of David telling Saul that a tiger came, took over the lamb, pursued it, and rescued it. And the lion came, took over the lamb. That is the pulpit and the pew. Where was David when the lion came to take over the lamb? There was a gap, and today, God is looking for people who will fill that gap. So that the wolves cannot reach the lamb, that charlatans have taken over the pulpits, the lambs are in trouble. We need to unite as a church and fill this gap, for it is our shared responsibility to protect the lambs from the wolves.

What should be the primary solution? 

The solution is training and retraining. We have half-baked ministers everywhere in Nigeria, half-baked ministers bearing all manners of title. Half-baked apostles, half-baked pastors, half-baked bishops, half-baked archbishops, half-baked evangelists, half-baked prophets. Some still need to be baked, yet they are looking for what they can eat; how they devour the lamb differs from their business. Their concern is that the wolf wants to eat the lamb; what can they get from their pockets? They are not looking for the lamb to reproduce, grow, and have another lamb. Wolves are always looking forward to eating the lamb and letting life be terminated. We are looking for people who are willing to undergo training, theological and ministerial training. Who can learn the characteristics of God? Who can understand God and how He works? When Jesus said, to go into the world and preach the gospel, He didn’t stop there, He said that teaching them; we lack Bible teachers, and the teachers must come and use horsewhip to flush away the motivational speakers at the pulpit. We have points A, B, and C of prosperity, S, Q, A, and Y of healing, steps to miracles, and prophecy. We must raise teachers who use horsewhip to flush them out of the pulpit and take over it to bridge the gap between the lamb. We no longer have spiritual fathers in Nigeria. We have notable precursors and spiritual feasters who herald wolves but would not tell them the truth that they are wolves.

Anyone who loves the gospel truth, especially in the Pentecostal circle, would understand that we don’t have fathers anymore. And because there are no fathers, there are no sons, but rascals, miscreants, and vagabonds. If there are fathers, there will be sons. Since there are no fathers, there are no sons to be rebuked, disciplined, and chastised for misdeeds or wrongdoings. Nobody questioned anyone for gross indiscipline, even when it is glaring, because there are no fathers, so there are wolves as vagabonds, miscreants, slots, and louts in the ministry, parading as sons, doing things they like, without being checked.

The wolves will invite the notable spiritual feaster in the likeness of a spiritual father, because of the honorarium and self-honour they will receive, they will go to the ‘son’ and promote him, knowing well that the ‘son’ is a wolf with a lousy identity. Still, they would refuse to condemn, criticize, and chastise the ‘son’ because of the inducement.

Since the 2023 general election, what has been happening in Nigeria’s Christendom is nothing to write about, especially in the Pentecostal. There are no fathers, and we know that there are no fathers, no leaders, and no voice in Nigeria’s Christianity. No one to speak for us, no one to caution us, no one to guide us, no one to lead us, no one to say, my children rise, and we rise, go this way, and we go, don’t do this, and we stopped. Everyone is on their own, chasing clout and doing what they like. When you strike the shepherd, the sheep runs helter-skelter; in today’s Nigerian Christianity, the truth is everyone is moving like sheep without a shepherd. I have spoken the truth of my mind, let our Pentecostal fathers rethink and rejig, what examples are they showing us, and what legacy are they leaving behind?

Could this be the reason Christianity has lost its standard in recent times?

Home, where there is no father, the home is in shambles. When there’s no father in the house, the house is in trouble. Because the father’s presence and authority as head prevent the body. The head is where you have the arms, the ear, the nose, and the mouth. The organs of the body are centered on the head, and when you cut off the head, the body becomes lifeless. So because there is no father, there is no head. The church is just swimming in the tides of where the ocean carries it. There is no control and no caution because there are no fathers. As the Bible says, a time came when everybody did what was right in their own eyes.

We see a lot of manipulations and fake miracles every day on social media. But no father is saying, stop this nonsense. No one is condemning any wrongdoings on social media or have you heard any father coming out openly to say, Pastor ABC, what you are doing is wrong, or to caution the person? It is because there are no fathers, and there are no sons to be corrected.

How can the younger generation of ministers bridge the gap between father’s mistakes?

It will be challenging because prosperity and breakthrough messages have taken over the pulpit without a discipleship process. Today, the younger generation of pastors wants to move on the fast lane; they want to drive the latest G-Wagon car, fly first-class flights, own private jets, and build a 28,000-capacity auditorium. They want to be popular, have security escorts and sirens blaring in their motorcade, with people cheering, hero-worshiping, and hailing them (Baba o), without due process of discipleship, mentoring, and training. They are desperate because they only see the older ones and the fathers living big, so they are copying their lifestyle and following their footsteps, without the right attitude for the gospel. Today, many young ministers imitate the older generations’ lifestyles. 

When someone starts a ministry, within three months, he is already boasting about 10,000 people as members and followers. Fact check, there is voodoo involved. Jesus, son of God and our saviour, at the end of three and a half years, had 120 members. But today, an ordinary man will open a church and in the next six months, he expects it to be popular throughout Lagos with a crowd of followers that come to church, and buy tickets before entering the church. Something is wrong somewhere; nobody is questioning some of our actions. Everyone wants what they can grab from gullible people through manipulation and deceit. 

The wave of Christianity in the 1980s, from Aja to Eric Moore to Unilag and other places. Who hears about those hypes again? Today, it’s happening in Okota, and everyone wants to go for what they can get. We are now living in the day of miracle palliatives.

God doesn’t intend miracles for His people but blessings. His blessing makes him rich; miracles don’t make him rich. The miracle is God’s intervention after missing the blessing. But today, everyone is looking for a miracle, not the blessings. People seek where it is happening, not where to encounter God; they go after miracles when miracles are supposed to be pursuing them. God will help us raise teachers who will flush away the ministers of miracles and iniquities. 

Briefly tell us about your upcoming programme.

Spoken Word International Conference (SWIC) is our annual global event, and by the grace of God, this is the 16th edition.

And it has been building up. Members of the church, including friends, know that August is SWIC, and we have a slogan: SWIC is August, August is SWIC. The vision is clear, and we have been consistent without confusing people about the date.

This year’s theme is “Beholding the Glory of God.” As we live in a world filled with challenges, we dwell more on the challenges. We see difficulties, problems, and inflations, and the more we see those things, the more we lose hope, lose our peace, and the more our joy is taken away.

Amidst all these, I asked God, what do we do? He said, tell my people to stop looking at the challenges. They should begin to see my glory. When they see my glory, all these things will melt.

All we see and look at in the world is destruction. When God made the first heaven and the earth, it was good. What happened next? Destruction, the devil, Lucifer, destroyed it. 

God would have said, Lucifer, it will not be better for you. But, He didn’t complain, He wasn’t seeing darkness, but seeing light. In our perception, whatever is happening today is destruction, but God is telling us there is a way out, behold My glory. You might be looking at something, but your mind is not there. God is saying, we should focus on His glory, then we will begin to see things melting. 

It will be a five-day programme, starting in the evening of Wednesday, 21st August, with morning and evening sessions on Thursday and Friday. Also, there will be Leadership training, the Bible school maiden matriculation, and Thanksgiving on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Great men of God scheduled as guest speakers include Pastor Olushola Olutayo, Rev. Sunkanmi Obisesan, and Rev. Athan Nwogbe, with gospel music minstrel Bose Sax and the host choir, House of His Power Voices.

The leadership training will prove that there’s something about servants, and servants of the Lord are the real leaders, and we are going to look at servanthood during the two days of training. I will be teaching and personally handle the topic, because I’m passionate about training leaders to bridge that gap.