EFB must rein in its membership
Richard Moleofe | Thursday April 17, 2014 11:55
Government has indicated that indeed it is equally concerned over the uncontrolled proliferation of these churches. The advice to government is that they must involve the churches in the effort of weeding out the unwanted elements in our society. Deportations on their own as a government measure will not solve the existing problem as it is far more rooted than it appears on the surface.
But most part of the solution to the problems lies within the EFB churches because the latest evidence indicates that their membership are part of the problem. Members of EFB particularly those from the Assemblies of God and the Apostolic Faith Mission are currently part of the problem and their organisation needs to put a strategy in place to make their membership part of the solution. It is reported that Nigeria is inundated with a growing number of visitors from Botswana.
This information can be corroborated by the different travel agencies in this country. According to them, there are more travellers to Nigeria than to Europe and America combined.
In 2005 when T.B Joshua visited Botswana, the EFB issued a stern statement disassociating itself from the Nigerian prophet and warning its members to avoid being part of the National Stadium meeting. Surprisingly, the stadium was packed to capacity and lo and behold, most present were EFB members. Not only was the membership present at this event, even the pastors were curiously watching from the stands albeit as private spectators.
As I was present at this event as a religious observer, I came to realise that T.B Joshua was indeed a crowd puller as those present at the event were a good representation of the cross section of our society.
Military generals, industrial class workers, permanent secretaries, blue colour workers, chiefs from the neighbouring villages and many more were present at the National Stadium. After this incident, the evangelical church body did nothing to reprimand its membership on their weekend misdemeanours.
It is amazing at this point in time that pastors from these churches are also regularly making a pilgrimage to Nigeria and their leadership is completely silent on the matter. Some people in the congregations have turned themselves into sales persons for the Nigerian products such as “holy” water, anointing oil and motor vehicle stickers. Besides being distributors of such merchandise, they have also gotten into the business of being travel agents for the West African business.
Dr John Phillip, Principal of Botswana Bible Training Institute had this to say on this matter; “we have to be sorry to ourselves as the EFB community because we are part of the problem and not the solution.” According to his personal view, EFB must issue a Statement of Faith outlining the specific guidelines that the broader membership has to follow. He further goes on to say that such guidelines will enhance a sense of discipline among the broader membership.
In my interview him, he pleads with pastors to stick to what they believe in and be open to share any revelation that they may have on a particular matter rather than just deviate without warning.
He calls on all umbrella bodies for churches such as EFB, BCC and OAIC (Organisation of African Instituted Churches) to begin dialogue within their scope of membership in order to address this cascading issue.
*Rev. Richard Moleofe is a pastor with Assemblies of God