THE LAGOSILIAZATION OF CHRISTIANITY: LETTER TO BELIEVERS
FEMI A. Falade
Let me bring you to a place you can relax and be blessed by this articulations through a warm welcome to the world of Lagos culture (and lifestyle) as a force in the current affairs of men who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal Savior. They say, there is a Logos way of doing things. And as a Lagosian, I cannot do this or do that.
The audiences of this message are not Christians in Lagos per se. Of course, there are many believers in Lagos who do not lagosied their faith in the Lord. Yet, the believers who have lagosculturised their faith all in the name of modernisation as they call it are the ones God is speaking to. Majority of these believers are Lagos-based and more than 90 percent lived in Lagos and Ogun states of Nigeria. It is among these set of believers, that, I first heard that there are classical Christians. I am soon surprised with the emergence of lagosied pastors who lifted the choice of the people than scriptural instruction. These pastors are the kind that Paul the Apostle warned Timothy about. The lagosied believers, heap up these pastors for themselves because of their hitching ears.
THE CHARACTER OF LAGOSIED CHRISTIANS
Let dichotomize it into two- LAGOSIED PASTORS AND LAGOSIED BELIEVERS.
LAGOSIED PASTORS
The characters of Lagosied Christians are not farfetched. The problem starts with their pastors. The gospel of salvation which is a goodnews was presented as a goody-goody news. The practice such like, “Do you need a multi-million investment?, then accept Jesus”, Are you barren? Jesus have children for you”, No matter how you are you can be born again and still live your life”, “Jesus is not interested in the way you dress, it is your heart that matters”, and other heresies which found no route from scriptures. Sirs/Mas, these are deceptive to our generation.
The problem did not stop at salvation but also cross down to the sermons preached by these pastors. They have seen the gospel as a business and bring the people to transact business with God with the popular word, “if you give to God, God will give to you”. Well, I found in my bible that, God first loved me (LOVED is a past tense) before I think of loving Him at all, (see 1Jn. 4:19). Whatever you will give God must be part of what He has given you. What can a mere dust give to the immortality?
It is spiritually insane to tell you to come to church “naked” like these pastors tell their converts, members and invited guest. God’s church is not a club where you can wear anything and come. It is a sacred place where believers’ hearts are set on heavenly will not a place to seduce people of innocent souls or birth competition.
The introduction of comedy, Fuji, Hip Hop, Raps and all kinds of fashion shows and competition are not also part of the faith you inherited oh lagosied pastor! How did this enter into your life and the church of God in your care? All these praise and worship format, offering collection format and tithing format, please, are they also biblical? Are all the fund raising and launching following scriptural patterns? Where do we locate these bodyguards and long entourage with sirens which call the attention of the earthly-host and leave heavenly-host in doubt of God’s call over your life?
LAGOSIED BELIEVERS
The lagosied believers too are not better than their shepherds. Why is it only Sunday service you attend and every Sunday service preparation make you wonder what you will wear? The lagosied believer use all week to do business with men and go to church on Sunday to do business with God for few hours. Their bible is on duty once a week. The popular term goes every time, “you know Lagos is a busy place, I am always busy”.
The Lagosied believer dress anyhow; use slangs and words not graceful in church and outside saying “it is the slangs we speak here”. They brought the busy culture of their environment to church. All that pastors do is motivation. There is no time for teaching. No wonder there is no general growth among these people.
These believers have no regards again for the word of God in hard copy. Some of them do not have one. The distractive agent hidden in their electronic devises too will not let them settle for God’s word to behold and to meditate. I might not be able to mention everything. You can easily know if this life style is found in a church. Just check the circular environment and check the church.
DELIVERANCE FOR LAGOSILIAZATION OF CHRISTIANITY
God detested this life style and calls for restoration; restoration of zeal and passion for God. God first priority in all you do and go back to biblical way of living rather than the lagosied way of doing things. So, the solution is simply go back to the scripture for the correct life style. Your lagosied pastor might not preach it but you can go back to the bible and see how we ought to conduct ourselves.
Let appreciate you for your time to read and welcome you to the beginning of a new season after some time of break from writing.
Thanks for reading,
FEMI A. Falade
(Author, SPIRITUAL FORMULA FOR A PRODUCTIVE LIFE)
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