Uniting a disunited church (2), By Ayo Akerele

In the year 2022, I was privileged to counsel a dear daughter of God who was going through a hell of a time in her marriage. In fact, the marriage had broken down irreconcilably. She wept and cried like a baby, a new mother for that matter. She had just been blessed by God with a twins when this tragedy struck. ​The man she gave her love to, the father of the twins had ruined her completely, defrauded people in her name, and had vanished from her reach. She lost everything. The Police were on her trail. She was suicide prone. God brought her into our fold through one of her friends at the right time. Myself and my wife have for many years been a strong source of support for countless people in similar and in not too similar conditions. It’s been many years of sacrificial service for people within and outside of our ministerial jurisdiction.

All the glory to God for the great things He has done through us. However, all through my years of counselling people with marital crises, I had never seen the kind of trouble this evil man had brought into the life of someone who gave him everything. The woman, a wealthy women for that matter, was practically reduced to nothing. We did what we could to support her and also requested for support from another very dear daughter of God. But it got to a point that we all got stretched to our limits. There were so many other people to attend to. That was when we advised her to walk into any church in her community for additional supports and help.

Thankfully, she had served at one of the most prominent churches in Nigeria while she was back home. She had supported her pastor in that particular branch, funding conferences and conventions. It was her days of glory. Money was not an issue at that time. Now that her back was on the floor in another country, it was advisable for her to walk into any branch of the same church and ask for help. I assumed that all churches and all pastors were kingdom-minded. I was proved wrong. She found this other branch of her former church in Nigeria, and with her twins in her hands, and with tears in her eyes, she narrated her ordeal to the serving pastor. She told the pastor that she was a faithful member of Papa’s church in Nigeria. Please help me sir. I can’t feed. I can’t take care of my twins. I can’t pay my rent.

That was when reality dawned on her. The pastor sympathised with her, but shocked her with the following words, “Sister, we can’t help. You are not a member of this church.” She walked out of the church, found a private place, and wept bitterly. I was called and informed that the body of Christ that’s represented by one of our local churches had turned their back on our sister in her lowest moment. Then the cry of the kingdom hit me again like a thunderstorm. Where is the kingdom of God in the church? ​

Kingdom mindedness is not about living your life to please yourself, your career or your calling or ministry alone, but, first, about pleasing God and extending this love beyond yourself to your neighbour, to other pastors, to other churches, and to every other son and daughter of God in the kingdom to the best of your ability. A kingdom man lives to serve the body of Christ. Conversely, the body of Christ lives to serve a selfish man. As we speak, Satan has successfully divided us into various cliques in the body of Christ, cliques that would have buried the influence and impact of the early church, had they followed a similar path.

Yes, it is true that there are some entities in the body of Christ who are sold out to full blown falsehoods with whom it is impossible and unrealistic to attain the position of unity. Agreed. But how united has been the remaining section of the church who truly shares very robust levels of doctrinal unity? In what we teach and practice as a church, how have we shown the virtues and values of unity? How many of our church leaders consider the plight of pastors in other churches prior to establishing branches of their churches in the same locations where struggling churches presently exist? How many struggling members and pastors can freely walk into other churches to seek for assistance?

Apostle Paul has done the church a lot of favor in his detailed teachings around how the body of Christ should function. In his analogy, Paul used the typology of the human body to explain the level of strategic dependence that we all share with one another. In this typology, Paul alludes to the fact that every member of the body of Christ, the true church, functions interdependently like the physical body functions where the eye, the hand, the head, the ​feet, and other parts of the body compliment each others.

“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

In other words, God has arranged the church in a way that the prosperity or failure of a member should actually be the prosperity or failure of the rest of the members of the body. This kind of mindset promotes deep love and compassion in the church and erodes greed, egocentrism, and competition from our midst. What then should be the dominant and overarching focus of every believer, pastor, Bishop, Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, and Evangelist? To promote the kingdom of God and it’s values of love, selflessness, mutual support, collaboration, and harmony in a manner that glorifies God and draws souls to the light of the gospel.

Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com