Financial Impropriety, Sexual Immorality Now Rife in Churches, CAN President Laments
‡ Says Lord’s name being maligned for Christian misbehaviour
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),
Rev. Samson Ayokunle yesterday lamented that financial impropriety and sexual immorality were rife in the church of Christ nationwide.
Ayokunle, also the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, chastised Christian leaders for not leaving up to expectation, lamenting that the name of the Lord “is being maligned because of their indiscipline and misbehaviour.
Ayokunle attacked them at a virtual Baptist Convention where he also expressed concern that the moral decadence in churches had got to a stage where Christians could no longer be entrusted with noble assignments.
He lamented that the church “is now in a state where lack of discipline has led to many instances of sexual immorality, gluttony, financial impropriety, laziness, court cases.
“The name of the Lord is being maligned in our society today because of the way Christians are behaving. Obscene dressing and all forms of impurity are happening in our midst. Some Christians cannot be trusted for any noble assignment.”
He also said some church leaders had become too attracted to money and worldly things that there appeared to be no difference between them and the unbelievers.
He observed that money in particular “has become the god of some (if not many) Christians, including church leaders! What a shame to the church!
“The Lord of the church is sad concerning the state of the church. We are robbed of our powers and molested by the children of Satan because of our careless living.”
Speaking on the theme of the 2020 Baptist Convention, “Moving Forward: Becoming a More Disciplined Church,” Ayokunle said churches must continue to emphasise discipline in the house of God.
He said that the theme was crucial to the state of the present-day church.
He said: “It is through discipline that we would remain holy and enter the kingdom of God! Hence this year’s convention is a call to self-examination as individuals, family, church, convention.
“It is a clarion call to be more disciplined in areas where we have shown discipline and exercise discipline in areas where we lack such.
“It is my prayer that none of us would leave this place without experiencing the touch of God and the determination to go out there and make a positive difference for Christ in this corrupt world, in the name of Jesus Christ,” he added.