Christians all over the world have been advised to focus on Jesus Christ and His message rather than resting on the tradition of men.
This was the outcome at the end of a two-day conference hosted in Lagos by Dr. Sam Oyemade led Bearers of Light Mission World Outreach.
The eminent panel of discussants of pastors, theologians, and Christian journalists at the conference were of the view that tradition and culture remain important in the life of every one, people and community, but the place of Jesus Christ and His message remains supreme, sacrosanct and could not be substituted by any other thing.
They advised that the Nigerian Church and by extension Churches in Africa, should toe the line of Christ likeness and shift away from the tradition of men.
Using different quotes of the bible with contemporary examples, it was agreed that no other message should stand against or ahead of the message of the gospel of Christ and soul winning. They also frowned at different ungodly practices that were smuggled into the gospel message, which include strange practices introduced by men who prefer to take care of themselves and their ego rather than the spiritual welfare of their followers.
They noted that the Christian tradition should be Christ and Christ alone, and any other thing is deviation and distraction. It was also revealed that the only message the devil is fighting is the message of Christ and every believer should know what it means to embrace a crucified life.
“The word of God must be key in preaching the message of the gospel. Lack of emphasis on the word of God allows smart people to bring strange traditions to the Church,” they agreed.
The conference which was the 6th in the series was held at the premises of the mission’s complex in Igando area of Lagos State, and attracted eminent and distinguished anointed men and women of God. The conference Tradition Versus Christ, ….Yesterday, & Tomorrow, drawn from Colossians 2.8 and Matthew 15.19, as its theme.
The faculties and the discussants at the end of the two day conference discussed various issues that have to do with tradition and the gospel, understanding and interpretation of the message of the gospel, the place of culture in the message of the gospel, the African nature and culture in Christianity, and various salient issues that have to do with the message of Christ.
Holding forth as members of the erudite panels were Rev. Dr. Emiko Amotsuka of The Koinonia Ministries, Bishop Abraham Olaleye who was part of it online from his US base, Pastor Joe Jesmiel-Ogbe of Young Disciples International, as well as young, dynamic and fire brand ministers like Dr. Ademola Adedipe, a human resource personnel, who stood in for his father, Bishop Moses Adedipe, Dr. Olukayode Oyedepo, a medical practitioner and a pastor of the Miners Place Church, and Dr. Dele Ajayi, the Chaplain in charge of Chapel of Christ The Light Church, sharing thoughts with some top Christian journalists and publishers like Gbenga Osinaike of Church Times Nigeria, Wole Olarinde of Christian Benefits and Julius Adegunna of PTL News.
Standing at the centre as the anchor of the enlightening discourse was the host himself, Dr. Sam Oyemade, the President of the Mission.
Setting the tone of the discussion, the host was quick to indicate the essence of the conference, which according to him was “to discuss and find a solution to the defiance of tradition (both cultural and doctrinal) to the emergence of a glorious Church.”
After settling the matter of definition, which was well handled by Dr. Dele Ajayi who defined tradition as a concept of handing over matters like information, culture and beliefs from one generation to another, the next emphasis was on the message of the gospel as preached by African preachers.
He explained further that the transition of the gospel has taken many turns in receiving several levels of instructions, traditions and culture from the Pentecostal experience till the modern times.
Dr. Ajayi cited examples of divine liturgy, Lent, Ephyphany, clerical wears, altar cloths as part of the tradition handed over to Christians of the orthodox and modern church, noting that the tradition of the Church started from the Pentecostal experience.
It was stressed that the message of the gospel needed more emphasis in the Church, noting that the message of the gospel is about the people and not the building, and the people must be taught the word of God, and be encouraged to read bible.
Several other areas that have to do with African tradition and the message of Christ were eloquently discussed by the panel of discussants.
In the words of Rev. Emiko Amotsuka who has been in the works of the ministry for over 50 years, whatever the pressure, preachers and Christians at large must comport themselves to the true message of the gospel. According to him, the bible is the original standard of the message of the gospel. Anytime a Christian substitutes the message of Christ with another thing amounts to bringing in idols, and preachers must not be allowed to take the bible away from the church.
“Christianity is to return people to their original state in life. If you are not in Christ you are not a Christian. If you want to know you are preaching Christ, go and listen to your message,” he explained, as he condemned those people who claim to be Christians but their hearts are not submitted for total control by God.
In his own contribution, Pastor Kayode Oyedepo cautioned preachers to check and watch what they say or do that could not be authenticated by the bible, noting that human tradition would persist in the Church as long as the pulpit preaches other gospel.
Various aspects of people’s lives, tradition and culture came under discussion.
Another area that drew the attention of the panel of discussants was the Tradition of men, as they asked, “Where do we put the tradition of God in the order of men?” with a quick answer that “Mixture of tradition and culture with the message of the gospel could bring confusion to the congregation and such traditions bring confusion, which is why the congregation is confused and distracted when the tradition of men creeps in,” explained Dr. Ademola Adedipe.
Church leaders and ministers of God turning the attention of members to themselves rather than God also came under serious mention.
Christians were advised to focus on God rather than the men God uses because “many of those we celebrate on earth may be stoned in heaven if there were stones there,” said Dr. Amotsuka as Dr. Oyedepo noted that “many of those we are celebrating in the Church are shenanigans in the gospel.”
They also pointed out that “there are some of the things Christians celebrate on earth that are not in the gospel, and most of those things are programmed by pastors who have made themselves god over men and that remains paganism,” as they drew attention to Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost, affirming that there is no one that is greater than the other in the realm of the spirit.
Spiritual Invocation
Another area that came under strong mention was the use of the God of Church Leaders and Ministers, living or dead to pray. It was explained that calling on God of another person shows spiritual shallowness and ordinary religious exercise, saying “While we project to be spiritual all we are doing is simply being religious.
“Calling on the God of somebody else is an appeasement and a practice of idolatry, and it has become a major issue among Christians. It is the practice of religion that put us into religious mess,” explained Dr. Adedipe.
This was however corrected by Dr. Oyedepo who quickly interjected that it was not the God of the leader that are being called but the God in the leader.
Use of physical materials as points of contact
The Panelists also noted that many churches are now engrossed in the use of physical materials as points of contacts when praying. Some hold photographs, some clothing materials, while others hold fruits and elements like water and ‘anointing oil’. The discussants agreed that the materials were not the problem but “when it is used as something indispensable.”
They warned Christian leaders and the followers to be careful with the use of physical materials. They pointed out that Christianity has to do with spiritual things but not physical materials.
Referring to the use of water by Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola and the Christ Apostolic Church, it was agreed that Babalola was inspired to use water, which he recommended to members of his Church and the church authority accepted it.
They warned that if a minister was inspired to use water does not mean that all other churches must use water for healing if they don’t believe in the use and message of the man of God.
“Originally, it was a spiritual instruction but we have almost made it an idol and by such practice it would not always work,” warning that it could take their faith from the word of God.
“All the blessings of this world have been bought for us by the name of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit,” emphasized Dr. Oyedepo.
Dressing, Fashion and Imported Culture.
The panel also discussed about dressing as one area of African culture that cannot be waved aside, but this has also come under serious abuse in the modern church with men and women dressing anyhow and females, especially young and girls dressing provocatively. They pointed out that Nigerians mostly dress based on their culture.
“There are certain things the bible does not mention specifically but the spirit of God will tell a Christian what to do and what not to do. It is the world that comes up with fashion with women exposing their cleavages, those that design that know what they want by using it to arouse sensitivity in men, but a Christian woman whose life is governed by the spirit of God knows she should not expose her body, but we still find those things in the Church,” observed Rev. Amotsuka.
They quickly warned those wearing provocative dresses, that when their heart “craves for attention to show what you are wearing is the problem, you should agree with the spirit of God and do what is right, and not to display wealth provocatively,” adding that, “in the spirit of the gospel we don’t display wealth.”
Excesses and Carnality
The discussants also looked into the area of carnality which has eaten deep into the fabric of the modern church, they pointed out that Pentecostals have exported carnality into orthodox churches.
“Some churches are trying to rewrite their constitution to reflect the way of the Pentecostals,” accusing them that “There is much corruption in many of the Pentecostal churches.”
It is believed that most of the excesses found in the gospel are condoned because there are no acceptable standards and platforms where errors can be corrected in the modern church, and that is why syncretism and strange beliefs are getting into Church service.
Tradition, Culture and Varieties
Asking how our tradition is interfering with our bible, they maintained that hardly can we separate tradition from culture and how it affects our faith.
“Our culture is our faith, Culture and Religion are inseparable. God is not interested in uniformity but He sends us a uniform message. God did not leave this world for Satan but Jesus came to deal with the root of the problem, and tradition should not be linked to historical perspectives,” affirmed Dr. Oyedepo.
The Culture of the Kingdom of God
It was explained that the kingdom of God has its own culture. They pointed out that the tradition of Britain makes it what it is. “We as Africans have our own way of doing things. They come from our background and environment. It prepares us for our own way of life. The big challenge for us in the Church is that the kingdom of God has its own culture. The Culture must be supreme in the life of every believer. As believers we must respect the culture of the kingdom. The spirit of God must mould our culture.
“If there is anything in our culture that conflicts with the word of God as believers we must do what the bible says despite persecution and any intimidation. We cannot completely take away our culture from the practice of our faith. If we jettison our culture we may have to go to ask for it or it becomes extinct,” they mutually explained.
Our Culture, Our Identity
The panel noted that “our culture is our identity,” emphasising that “We think more in our culture than in foreign culture.” They further explained that “a good side of our culture aligns with the bible culture, but Africans sheepishly took after their own colonial masters. We cannot totally do away with our culture and tradition in preaching the message of the gospel.”
Our culture and interpretation of the Bible
Another area discussed was the impact of understanding to the interpretation of the Bible. They asked if there is any way to interpret the bible in African way. In response they agreed that the Bible is a way to transformation.
“The bible remains one, so is its interpretation everywhere. It is our interpretation and individual differences that create the proper interpretation of the bible. If God speaks to us in a language, we can interpret it differently because we have different understanding. Our message can be affected by our mode of communication.”
Discipleship
The panel also harped on Discipleship in the Church, urging Church members to be prepared to be discipled as many converts come to the church without preparing for discipleship. They expressed the belief that if young converts and believers were prepared for discipleship, the contentious issues in Christendom might have been minimised. They pointed out that Christianity started from the knowledge of the person of Christ with individuals doing things like Christ.
To Pastor Jesmiel-Ogbe, who joined the discussion on the second day, the greatest challenge we have today both in the church and the nation is that of leadership, advising that if the leaders get things right the society would also get it right.
Church leaders were also warned to take as very important the place of discipleship in Church growth and administration.
“If we are not careful we pray that what is happening to the church in Britain and America today will not happen in Nigeria. We should also talk more about the successor generation, and what will happen to the Church of Jesus Christ after this generation.”
Rounding off, the panel looked into tradition and the practice of Christianity in the African setting and submitted that there is no way believers could do away with tradition in their service to God, but what could be done is to hold Christ ahead of any traditional belief or culture.
In summary, the issue of Tradition and Culture versus Christ Message was carefully looked into and the conclusion was what aptly put by Dr. Oyedepo in the following words.
“In most cases what changes satanic influence of the world is the message of the gospel.
Tradition is neither good nor bad. If we don’t rightly transfer tradition, it may not stand. We must contend with the faith. We must ask ourselves if our faith today is the same as that of the old biblical patriarchs? Is our passion as strong as what we received from our fore fathers of faith? The fathers made some errors that need to be corrected. We should be able to know what to continue and what should be discontinued. We should be able to know and understand what legacies were handed over to us.”
It was noted that the Christian tradition started from the day of Pentecost, and therefore the word of God must govern every Christian life and thinking rather than practising a kind of ‘pick and choose’ message of the gospel, and a Christian must understand the place of the cross in the gospel.”
The conference which ended on Saturday October 1, 2022 was rounded off with father’s prayers from Bishop Moses Adedipe, Founder and President of The Universal Christian Missions International, Ejigbo, Lagos. Bishop Adedipe in his remarks called on ministers of God to be careful when they are in public space.
Other areas touched by the panel were areas of ordination of immature Christians as pastors and evangelists, giving of titles to unmerited persons with no spiritual capacity, ministers assuming celebrity status, attachment of physical blessings to faith and beliefs, and some abuses on the pulpit.
In his own remarks the chairman of Alimosho Province of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Apostle James Iyanda commended the organisers for a fruitful and thought provoking conference.
Reacting to the issue of discipline among ministers of the gospel, the PFN leader regretted that most pastors don’t submit their churches to PFN, and so many of them were not under the control of neither PFN nor CAN. This he said might make things difficult for religious bodies to regulate spiritual things, but fellow ministers we must be encouraged to regulate themselves for more sanity in the church and among ministers of God.
The conference which drew applause from most participants was described as one of the ways by which the church could be sanitised, and the participants were encouraged to make it a regular affair.
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