Africanews
Many Churches suffer from hypocrisy. In Ghana, many analysts believe churches are worshiping wealth instead of God. It seems to have ignored its mission of winning souls to winning material wealth.Only rich people are being elected to Church councils. Today, if most ghanains were to express their feelings, they would certainly say that the church has abandoned them and is charting an ungodly course. |
Mr. Paul McCarthy, a civil servant is so embittered and thinks it is not even worth going to church anymore. "Most churches have become materialistic and inward-looking that they are losing grip of their members."
Suspected drug dealers are offered the highest positions in the church because of their riches whilst the poor are despised, he further contends. Mr Samuel Obeng, a farmer says that, "churches whether orthodox or charismatic, look forward to having rich members whose material contributions enhance the image of the church. They now fall short of winning souls."
Indeed so much has eaten into the operations of Ghanian churches that some members seem to be wary of their leaders these days. In the churches, only rich persons sit on the high table with the priest and elders. They are often made to chair functions because such occasions demand monies to be dished out. Some well to do members of churches who gained the status of elders because of their riches, have been seen to have questionable characters.
A pastor recently returned a Mercedez Benz donated to him by a rich member of his church who was arrested for dealing in narcotic drugs. The pastor, however, maintained his innocence, claiming that he accepted the car without the knowledge that his church member was into drug trafficking.
But one particular issue that seems to be confronting many people today is the excessive demands being made by the churches on their members. The tendency now is to use subtle means to coerce members to contribute to the many projects that the churches are engaged in.
A typical Sunday worship in the church today revolves round a prayer, announcements and songs the climax - money matters. First, there will be silver collection for the day, a special collection will also be organised to mark an occasion, then probably there will be another collection for a building fund: to top this, there will be a special birthday collection, that is to say all those who were born on Monday will give out something, the Tuesday borns follow in like manner. Aside from this, there is tithe to be paid and membership dues of various church groups like youth, men, and women's fellowship.
But one aspect which the church has presumably closed its eyes to is the welfare of its members. Although it demands a lot from its members, it has not developed any system to assist its majority poor who remain vulnerable because of the country's harsh International Monetary Fund inflicted economic policies.
"How can I afford to pay for all these dues out of my meagre income," queries Mary Mensah, a mother of four. "You see, if you don't fulfill your financial obligations your membership is withdrawn from the church. Strange to relate, church officials do not even care to find out your financial standing before levying you," she says.
Indeed, the fear of losing their membership is what is keeping some members still in the church. But others unable to withstand recent startling revelations of misappropriation of funds by some churches and certain ungodly acts by some priests have left church.
Rt. Rev. Dr. Paul Fynn, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana could not hide his disappointment at the turn of events when he recently told his colleagues at a seminar on "The future of the church in Ghana" that they have not done much to win souls. Rather, he said their concentration has been to acquire ill gotten wealth and look out for members who could assist them with money.
He further contends that the church has a long way to go if it wants to make the necessary impact. "Our churches have become institutions with routine services to be conducted, meetings to held , building and programmes to be maintained and followed, schools to be run and salaries to be paid and have abandoned their mission of winning souls." Nothing perhaps better befits the comments expressed by the reverend Minister.
It, however, remains to be seen how and when real pragmatic programmes with a human face could be evolved for church members in the country. Anything short of that might spell doom for the church in Ghana.
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