Today, it is a sad fact that the Church has largely replaced God's mission with some pursuits of no eternal value. One of such unfortunate trend is the Replacement of Missions with Monuments. The churches seem to be in competition of who would own the largest sitting capacity building, not who will raise the largest number of rapture-ready disciples. But one of the lessons of the COVID-19 Pandemic (may be not fully learnt by many) is how useless these edifices can be. They were all abandoned and Church once again assumed its true biblical meaning; "where two or three are gathered in His name".
The insensitivity created by the Replacement
of Missions with Monuments has so much stratified the Church; while a part of
the Church languishes in abject financial poverty, without a place and basic
instruments of worship, another part of the Church is wallowing in financial
mismanagement, misappropriation and squalor. The infightings in some
denominations for leadership position is not unconnected with the unguarded selfish
desire to control money. Many churches have become like the Church in Laodicea
which was remarked for her poverty of riches (Rev. 3:14ff). Yet with all the
resources amassed by some churches, Jesus will still lament over this
generation that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few (Matt.
9:36-38).
There are vast ripe mission fields but
instead of investing in missions, the Church is consolidating in the world that
will pass away. What if the COVID-19 experience had been rapture, what would
have become of the thousands upon thousands capacity-sitting church buildings?
A decent place of worship is by no means a luxury, but certainly not at the
expense of the heartbeat and priority of God. The Great Commission remains the
central mission of the Church.
Rt. Rev’d Kingsley C. Obuh is the Bishop, Diocese of Asaba (Anglican Communion)
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