Nigerian Churches and the Impoverished

This writing stems from viewing the status of things, not concluding on anything upfront. I'm not against any church or any clergy — this is a personal view, not an attack on anybody. Nigeria is a country blessed with an abundance of resources, both human and natural, yet it's riddled with issues from tribalism to religion. I wonder why we're ranked as a nation with one of the highest concentrations of churches globally, some of the wealthiest clergymen in the world, and some of the poorest citizens. I wonder why in Nigeria we pray for the basics.So here's what I'd like to understand:<ul><li>Is it wrong, or materialistic, for pastors to be excessively wealthy?</li><li>Are churches supposed to alleviate poverty in their environment, like a form of community service?</li><li>And why are so many pastors turning into motivational speakers rather than focusing on saving souls — or is motivational speaking simply an angle toward saving souls?</li></ul> A lot of pastors nowadays preach more prosperity and less salvation. Salvation is still spoken about, yes, but the drive to win souls seems geared more toward capacity expansion than the actual saving of souls. I was in church once, and for some reason the preaching started sounding like a marketing campaign. That bothered me — I wasn't expecting to feel that way in church, and I'm sure a lot of people have had similar thoughts while sitting in the "presence of God." Another thing I've observed, aside from the prosperity gospel, is a form of coercion toward giving to the institution of the church. Before I'm attacked for the word — coercion is a form of persuasion, a way of convincing someone to do what they ordinarily wouldn't. We see certain sermons built specifically to stir up feeling and move people to give: the widow's mite, prophet's offerings, foundation offerings, tithing. If I recall, Paul spoke about giving to the church as something that should be done freely, not forced. I wonder why that part isn't spoken about as often. Poverty makes people seek a higher being for rescue. I once heard someone say that if most Nigerians' basic problems were solved, the numbers seeking miracles from churches would drop. I wonder how true that is. But my own view is that more poor people go to church for the miracle than for the motivation — the rest go for the motivation alone. And maybe that's the real answer to my own question. The marketing-campaign feeling I couldn't shake that day wasn't an accident — it's what you get when an institution's growth depends on people who are desperate enough to give what they don't have, in hope of receiving what they've been promised. Whether that's wrong is still the question I opened with. I don't know that I've earned the right to answer it. But I know that a church built to expand will always sound like it's selling something to the people who can least afford to buy.

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