Bishop Dr. Chidi Anthony, President of Pentecostal Ministers Forum (PFM) has expressed concerns about the poor conditions of the less privileged ministers of God in Nigeria. He said the primary concern of the Pentecostal Ministers Forum founded about six years ago was to provide good welfare for servants of God in order for them to be able to serve the Lord well in their ministries.
In his interview with the media, Anthony, who is also the Presiding Bishop of Kings In Christ Power Ministries, Okota, Lagos, said the Pentecostal Ministers Forum (PMF) was founded in order to address the lapses of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in the area of provision of adequate welfare for members. He indicted the two leading Christian bodies in Nigeria of not living up to the expectations of their member churches/ministers.
His words: “I belong to both CAN and PFN. We formed PMF in order to help the less privileged pastors in Nigeria because CAN and PFN are not living up to our expectations. They do not carry their members along. If any member has a challenge they will abandon that member to suffer alone. So, we resolved to form PMF to help ourselves since CAN and PFN cannot help us. They (CAN and PFN) are mere pressure groups, which cannot affect the lives of the individual ministers. If you look at their set up, particularly PFN, it is aimed to get patronages from the government. PMF is different. PMF is not a parallel group,” Antony explained.
The PMF leader stressed that both the CAN and PFN leadership do not intervene in the problems of pastors. He also accused the fathers of faith of disregarding the invitations by unpopular pastors as guest preachers in their meetings. “In fact, the so-called fathers of faith have failed us. If any member invites them they will not come, unless you hold a position or your church is big. They will want to know the strength of your church. They will demand from you flight tickets, expensive accommodation for them and their entourage and their feeding. With this kind of demands you find out that there is no need to invite them, especially if your church is not rich enough to meet their demands. But in PMF, it is compulsory for all its members to honour the invitations of one another to preach in their respective meetings,” he bishop pointed.
Anthony further expressed his reservations about CAN and PFN leaders for what he called their hypocritical living. “You can see that many of them have three private jets. Do they think their private jets can prevent the rapture from taking place? They build schools that their associate pastors and the less privileged cannot afford their high tuition fees for their children, yet they claim they are born again. It is so bad that if you do not belong to their caucus you are not of God. In fact, it is frustrating and unfortunate that the church is fighting itselt. Have you ever seen Imams fighting one another on the pages of newspapers?
“Imagine a pastor who played a secular music for many years before he came into ministry and cannot fulfill his destiny called the late Prophet T.B Joshua, who lived Christ-like, a wizard! Here is a pastor with a string of divorces and who engages in all sorts of unholy acts including sleeping the other people’s wives called the T.B Joshua, a wizard. Tell me, how many of the so-called fathers of faith are affecting the lives of the less privileged like the late Prophet T.B. Joshua? Have they done any crusade that affected lives of the people? How many countries know them? How many presidents have visited their churches and bowed down? If the president of any country visits your church and bows, it is the entire country that the president bows to” the PMF boss remarked.
Anthony said though he respects all the fathers in faith, he regards none of them as his religious father. His words: “I am a spiritual person. I do not have any religious father and I do not care to have one. They claim to be fathers, but cannot give anyone feathers to fly. What is happening among CAN and PFN members is uncalled for. Their systems are not working. Their members are not getting the desired results. I believe it was not like this in the past. At what point did things get so bad in the Christendom? The absence and the non- participation of the PFN leadership at the funeral service for the late Prophet T.B Joshua is condemnable. They did not show up or felt concerned about the passage of their fellow pastor. How would one explain that kind of attitude towards someone they should see as their brother? It is so bad and condemnable,” he blasted.
Bishop Anthony considered the late Prophet T.B Joshua as a saint in his life times. “People can say whatever they like about the late Prophet T.B Joshua, for me he was a saint in his life times. If am given the opportunity to write about him, that is what I will write. If one wants to know about the life of Jesus Christ, the person should look at T.B. Joshua. He lived Christ-like life. I do not want to know where his power came from and whether he served a living God or not, but based on what we saw, he lived like Christ. Now, let me shock you, most pastors said he was a wizard, right? Find out, you will see that many of those who said so have married three wives, and will complete it four very soon.
“But T. B. Joshua who they labeled a wizard had one wife and lived with her till death. They have mansions and estates, but T.B. Joshua they called a wizard did not have a house in his home town. He had no mansion in Lagos. Was it not in his church in Lagos that he was buried? He showed love to everyone? He never discriminated whether one is a Christian, Muslim or traditionalist. He carried everybody along and saw all people as one. That was the real spirit of a true man of God. He lived a life of selflessness, generosity and practical example of Christ. He touched lives in many ways, which those who called him names have not done. If T.B. Joshua was a wizard, I wish to know the source of his wizardry so that I can join. People are still crying because of his death. Among those who despised him till death, we will see how many people that will cry when they die. I pray that God crown him. Even if he was a sinner God will look at his charity works and have mercy on him. Those pastors who despised and condemned T.B Joshua were envious of him,” Anthony concluded.
