Who Will Pastor Your Children?

By: Deji Yesufu

A few days ago I pasted the above question to my Facebook wall. The responses I got has elicited this article. The near unanimous responses from friends on my wall was that they would pastor their own children themselves. One of my friends, who I called up to discuss the matter, said that the reason everyone ought to be concerned about pastoring their own children was the basic scripture admonition that says to train a child in the way that he/she should go and when they are grown they would not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). I told her that I understood that point but that this response totally misunderstands my question. Therefore to make my point abundantly clear, I needed to explain how I came up with this question.

I was at the wake keep for a friend’s mother. The minister leading the program was an Anglican Priest. At first I was impressed with the timeliness of the program and the fact that quite a number of priests came out for the program. Obviously, my friend’s mother was very committed in church before her passing. I would however become alarmed when, during the sermon, the Priest made a remark that implied that Christians and Muslims worship the same God and thus are going to the same place in eternity. I was taken aback. I had expected an evangelical message and the opportunity to press the gospel message on the myriads of people who had come to bid this woman goodbye. Instead, what I saw was an ecumenical appeal and a call for people to do good so that they may be well spoken of when they pass. I was disappointed and right there at the burial service I pasted the question to Facebook to warn against poorly trained pastors in the days to come.

The question regarding who would pastor our children became important to me when I began to listen to Christ Arzen’s “Iron Sharpens Iron” radio program. One of his guests had raised the question to draw attention to the need for pastors in the future. When we ask “who will pastor your children”, we are not necessarily concerned with the biological children of each person. Rather our concern is regarding what would be the state of religion in our nation in another, say, one hundred years from now. At such a time, even our own children would be dead and so the question has regards to what would be the state of religion in the lives of our descendants.

One of the things that studying historical Christianity would bring out to one is how orthodox Christians were usually very concerned with what their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren would believe. On the other hand, false Christianity was only concerned with now and now alone. It is even worse today: there is a kind of Christianity we practice now that does not envision the future. These Christians have a warped eschatological perspective that Jesus is coming so very soon so there is no reason to prepare for the religion of the future. In fact some of these Christians have an aversion for death and cannot fathom the fact that a day would come when they would no longer be alive and yet there would be a religion that their children would be practicing.

The need to discuss who pastors our children in the future is even more urgent in the light of rising false religion in our day. I have mentioned the ecumenism that sees Islam and Christianity worshipping the same God. There are hundreds of others. Perhaps the greater challenge of our time is not even those of religion but the fact that that there may be no religion in the future. We must be concerned that the doctrine of the LGBTQ is making such pervasive inroad into churches and leading many astray. Recently a leading Christian writing and pastor, Josh Harris, came out on Instagram to renounce his faith. He had also earlier announced that his twenty-year marriage to his wife had ended. In the post he made about renouncing Christianity, he apologized to the LGBTQ community and renounced whatever ill statements he may have spoken about them. While he did not say this, I would not be surprised if this once fine Christian pastor comes out tomorrow to announce that he is gay. This is the future of religion in the days to come and Christians ought to be prepared for it. We ought to have pastors who are sound enough to contend against these anti-Christian philosophies in the future.

The question “who will pastor your children” is important because the pastoral ministry is a Christian calling and a professional duty. While we all as parents ought to teach our children the ways of God, a true pastor is trained to uphold God’s word in a changing society: a pastor speaks God’s eternal truths to a world bound by sin. The state of religion tomorrow is wholly based on the minds of our pastors today. Most people that I know are not raising their children for the ministry. Many of the sound Christian assemblies that I know do not have the kind of resources to sustain a pastor in full time ministry. What this portends is that in the days to come, we would have less and less people going into Christian ministry and we would have less financial support for it. This is a very grave situation indeed. As it stands, there are less and less churches committed to preaching sound doctrine. I do not know what tomorrow would hold.

If we would have people who would pastor our children tomorrow, the following things must be done:

First, the Christian churches today must be committed to an orthodox statement of faith. The greatest immunity against deviation is for Christians to realize that along with their Bibles there is the need to subscribe to an official statement of faith. For me it is the 1689 London Baptist Confessions. Other Christians have confessions they subscribe to. But what these confession do is that they give the church what we would bequeath to generations to come; a guideline as to what our fathers believe. If the children are committed to historic statements of faith and do not deviate from them, the possibility of falling into heresies would be reduced.

Second is the need to train pastors NOW! In Nigeria, Christianity was done a great disservice forty years ago when certain men thought they were too anointed to go to seminaries. They abandoned their seminary training and branched into ministry. Their sons and daughters are the leading purveyors of false doctrine in the nation today. Pastors must be trained. Every man that would go into ministry must have an institution that trained him. A trained man, like any trained professional, is equipped with tools to do his job. If there is one thing that seminary trains men to do is to read and it also teaches them what to read. This way our future pastors can bequeath to our children an orthodox gospel. It would be the collective failure of all of us Christians if we succeed in raising doctors, lawyers, engineers and accountants but we do not have trained pastors in our churches.

Third. There is the need to pay pastors and to pay them well. The reason why those propagating the false gospel of health and wealth are doing very well in the business is because they have succeeded in hoodwinking people’s resources through tithes and offering. Those of us who do not believe that Christians should tithe today have the double duty of bringing God’s people to appreciate the importance of gospel ministry and help them to understand why they ought to commit much resources to supporting it. While Christians may not tithe today, there is the need for genuine Christians to give generously and constantly to whatever local assembly they belong to. Every kobo committed to church life is helping to elongate it some more. And those of us who appreciate sound doctrine must give more to support it. No one would take up the job of a pastor when he realizes that he would either be paid a pittance or nothing at all. And if we would have men commit their time to prayer and study so that they may bring forth the word of life that would do our souls great good, somebody would have to pay for it. And part-time ministry would not do this; the job of a pastor, if it is going to be done well, must be full-time.

These are just a few ways we can sustain the ministry of pastors today and make them thrive tomorrow. Let us realize the fact that none of us would be around in another 100 years but what we sow as seeds today would determine whether it would be the gospel that would be preached in the days of our children or the proliferation of a false message. In fact there may not be any gospel at all or another gospel may have overrun our cities and our nation. We should remember that once upon a time most of the Middle East were Christian nations. Today much of what exists in those places is Islam. I am made to understand that in 1910 25% of the Middle East were Christians. In one hundred years, that statics has reduced to less than one percent.

We all must be concerned about the state of religion in our nation not just in our day but in the days to come. We all must be concerned about those who would pastor our children.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/who-will-pastor-your-children/

VBCampaign:
We must be concerned that the doctrine of the LGBTQ is making such pervasive inroad into churches and leading many astray. Recently a leading Christian writing and pastor, Josh Harris, came out on Instagram to renounce his faith. He had also earlier announced that his twenty-year marriage to his wife had ended. In the post he made about renouncing Christianity, he apologized to the LGBTQ community and renounced whatever ill statements he may have spoken about them. While he did not say this, I would not be surprised if this once fine Christian pastor comes out tomorrow to announce that he is gay. This is the future of religion in the days to come and Christians ought to be prepared for it. We ought to have pastors who are sound enough to contend against these anti-Christian philosophies in the future.

"Hmmm. This one that his apology to the LGBT community coincided with the end of his marriage, could he be insinuating what i think?"
- A Pastor Of Bestselling Relationship Book Says He Is No Longer Christian by jesusjnr(m): 6:21pm On Jul 29

"He is not insinuating anything that you think. The guy has woke but I guess, his now ex-missus is still shackled to heavy indoctrination(s), so it split them

It's the similar thing with the Oyaks, only that its was the reverse, it is his ex-missus, in their case, that woke and hence their inevitable split too."
- Re: A Pastor Of Bestselling Relationship Book Says He Is No Longer Christian by MuttleyLaff: 9:27pm On Jul 30

Parents, in their own right, are given the gift of pastors, to shepherd their kid(s)

Always a delight to read MuttleyLaff

Unfortunately that's the inevitable. Looking at the American Society today despite their rigid Christian background is now the capital of "Babylon". To think the majority of Nigerians (including Christians) swallow the American lifestyle undiluted, it's just inevitable that that's where the church in Nigeria is headed.
But it shouldn't stop the few genuine Christians who value Biblical Truths from preaching the right gospel to their wards and congregations.