The Head Pastor of Divine Favour Prayer Assembly Ministries, Mowe, Ogun State, Dr Tayo Popoola, has advised journalists to handle the issues concerning the sacking of 41 ministers by the Living Faith Bible Church (Winners Chapel) with utmost caution and robust professionalism.
Fielding questions from media professionals who sought his views on the matter, Popoola stated that having read the sack letter issued to one of the affected pastors, he came to the conclusion that “it would amount to distortion and misinformation for the media to interpret church growth to mean generation of money”.
According to Popoola, the media are already having enormous problems to contend with and could, therefore, not afford to venture into anything that could fetch them the wrath of God. If proper investigation was carried out by media before publication, they would have published an entirely different story.
Said he: “I teach church Growth in the Seminary. Jesus Christ gave a three-fold command to Simon Peter saying ” feed my sheep”( John 21:15-17). Feeding the sheep means taking full responsibility of the spiritual needs of the people, especially those in despicable conditions.
Jesus Christ, the owner of the work himself said ” man shall not live by bread alone,but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God ( Mt. 4:4). The instrument of church growth therefore is the word of God. In every church of God, the Bible study and school are channels of impartion and spiritual growth. No man or woman can grow without the word of God. The word of God is, therefore, the fertiliser of church growth.
Pastor Popoola stated that “just as it is often said in Economics that growth will engender development, the story is almost the same in the ministry that church growth will bring about the development of the church”.
Popoola stated that rather than the media jumping at the story and sensationalizing it, it would have been better to speak directly to the appropriate authorities in the Winners Chapel and demand for copies of the letters of appointment of the pastors in a bid to establish certain vital truths about the whole story .
The Man of God stated further that the press before publication should have sought for explanation from the church what is meant by church growth index.
He stressed that it is against ministerial ethics to portray the church of God by anyone, especially workers, in bad light adding that ” you know God searches the heart of all of us. Therefore, if their motive is to bring the church of God into disrepute, God will surely not take it kindly with them. To avoid His wrath, he advised the affected pastors to beg for God’s forgiveness.
Responding to another question, Popoola said it would have been better for the affected pastors to quietly disengage and float their own ministries instead of the raging media hype.
