Dag Heward-Mills, the presiding bishop of Lighthouse Chapel International says, preaching about prosperity is NONSENSE.

According to him:  “Today Christians are into happiness preaching – everything to make you happy – Christ did not come to make us happy – Christ came to save us from our sins – and to put happiness and prosperity as the reason for Christianity is a false religion – that is not Christianity. Let us not follow comfort – to be a good Christian you cannot be comfortable – to be a good Christian you cannot always try to be happy – this prosperity, money gospel is a nonsense gospel that is not why Jesus came to this world…”

I don’t know if he chose to preach this message because it was Easter – where every sin is washed away by drinking Ribena (blood of Jesus) and eating bread (body of Jesus) so he’s repented or…but whatever the reason for this preaching –  coming from a man of God is a surprise. His message may be true but he forgot some salient points which make his message ‘nonsense’ to the ‘pastoral and Christendom’:

• Remember it’s God’s will for us to be prosperous (materially) so saying it’s nonsense means telling your employer (God) that what he said is nonsense because if you don’t pass on the message to the congregants, you’re being disobedient. Our minds should be prepared for the heavenly food, mansions and wealth we’re going to enjoy one day so hold your peace Osofo.

• Talking about false religion – pastoring these days is not about calling. It’s a profession and every professional must make a way of keeping body and soul together. If you tell your congregants they are sinners, they’ll check out into the next available church where they can hear and see what they want to hear.

• His own ‘clique ‘of pastors who are preaching the prosperity message. It is on this ground they’re building their wealth. If Heward-Mills is condemning their acts, he shouldn’t expect any invitation to their ‘fanfare’ programmes or expect any ‘lorry fare’ when he’s invited to preach in these churches. He just made enough enemies for himself as well as reducing his preaching appointments.

• The sad truth is we are not ready to learn. We can see a pastor stealing but we have to believe otherwise so stating the obvious is not going to change anything. We don’t believe that ‘those who cannot change their mind cannot change anything’. Whatever we hear sticks in our mind. If it’s the prosperity message that will make us happy and feel good about ourselves that one day, we’re also going to own a private jet and limousines like our daddy in the Lord, so be it.

• As Christians we feed on prosperity messages; it’s our hope of salvation. Our understanding of seed time and harvest time is to give money and expect the money to quadruple if not in our pockets, reap it when we get to heaven. We love the thought of it so much so that the moment these prosperity messages stop coming – it will feel like taking the fish off our kenkey.

• You don’t really expect someone to leave home on an empty tummy on Sunday morning to come and listen to salvation sermons and hell sermons. Some of your colleagues who are very good in drama and artistry can paint a picture of hell as if they have ever been there. They send you on a visual journey of how fire and brimstones are raining and burning people – sincerely who really wants to hear such messages?

• Finally, he’s spoiling the market for the upcoming prophets and pastors. Love your neighbour as yourself. Not all the upcoming ones are coming from an advantaged background like him so they have to share their rags to riches stories to make it to make people fork out more money.

To the critical mind and critical eye, it’s a very good and profound message but to the pastoral and Christianity world, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills is playing Judas Iscariot. The problem I have realised now is not with the pastors – the problem is actually their followers.  Feed people on what they want to be fed on and not what is good for them.