If one walks on the main streets of Addis especially when a main Christian holiday is around the corner, one cannot escape the rather chaotic view of colorful posters that are posted on poles, and on constructions site fences. The ‘pastors’, ‘prophets’, ‘apostles’ and the ‘anointed’ ones announce their upcoming ‘conferences’ or ‘miracle-filled’ services. Photographs will be posted as well.
I read a poem by one of the budding poets in Addis about Pastors and Posters. It was in Amharic and the message was in short ‘being a pastor has become equivalent to being a poster’. Yes, the folly that surrounds the whole affair of evangelical (self) appointments and positions is too great. I’m aware that there are genuine servants of the Gospel, who I believe are the majority, and who serve quietly. And the ones who make the noises are in the minority; nonetheless, they still make enough noise for us to think seriously about them. In this country where titles are assumed at liberty (Engineer so-and so, Artist so-and-so, Journalist so-and-so, etc), these so-called servants of the Gospel rush to confer on themselves titles such as Pastor, Prophet, Apostle, etc. I mean what makes a Pastor a Pastor? Or what kind of religious/academic qualifications are needed? Or what kind of quality? The questions are numerous and nobody dares to ask the questions in public as such kind of questions are considered taboos.(These self appointed ‘Men of God’ have made sure that nobody dares to question them by saying nobody should lay his/her hand on the ‘anointed’ which shows their inept understanding of the Gospel and their lack of theological qualification.)
But what worries more than this whole affair of self appointments is the fact that nobody dares to question the financial accountability part. These self appointed people lead or ‘own’ congregations whose members are encouraged to give and give….. Where does all the money go? The people who collect the money – do they give proper account of the incomes and expenses to the people whose money they collected? Is there anything such as monthly financial report? Quarterly? Annual? My worry grows especially when I see these people drive Mercedes, BMW or the latest Toyota cars. I mean, should a pastor earn considerably more than the average income of the congregation he leads or ‘owns’?
I think these people should learn to use posters to post the financial report! If not on Bole Road, at least in the Church compound!
its good to raise those Questions and i was always ask , yes its a taboo issue but so hard and i m so scared this problems engaging the system in the future. Always an professionalism is not good to practice in every area of profession, idea, and organizations.
“Always an professionalism is not good to practice in every area of profession, idea, and organizations” What do you mean by this?
what i mean is dear, every time we would like to do something in a positive way but it might not right … that means promoting urslef , or doing you event , organizing your events we need to follow not only our heart , we need to follow rules, regulations and we need to focus on community. When we do something it might relate to the other persons rights or people. So God need excellence in every direction, sometimes it doesn’t havtn’t to post so many papers to call peoples. There r ways to promote events not only just posting banners and flayers and posters, we need to think about teh beauty of the City. So when i mention thi sword i just like to say about doing in a professional ways and derejawen tebeko , higen akebero , ye lalochin mebet tebeko meseraten lemalet new… your right , when i read my post back , yeah hard to understand even for me lol so thank you so much if i m wrong , sorry , God bless u
Thanks for the clarification. What do you think about the money collected by these ‘ministers’? How about their expensive lifestyle?