A few seasons ago, in one of our His House Review church stops, I sat into this church service where one of the ministers had the dubious nickname, ‘The Prophet of Prosperity’.
In his ‘sermon’ he described the quality of his elegant red suit and black high-heeled pointed shoes, along with an elaborate explanation of the importance of a thousand dollar diamond tie pin, and then he spent the rest of the message talking about his car.
You know, one of those luxury cars that the Queen of England pulls out for special occasions. After detailing the burlwood dash and aluminum body panels he made this outlandish statement,
“Where do you think a design for a car like this comes… the pit of hell?” he said quizzically, probably suggesting of course that anything so beautiful could have only come from heaven.
His quotation was 1 John 4:17 “…as He is, so are we in this world.”
His contention was that because Jesus would drive a Rolls Royce or some flashy car in heaven. Accordingly, Christians or more particularly pastors and preachers should do likewise on earth. Though a priceless Rolls-Royce Phantom may be the coolest car ever, it was built in Belgium, not heaven.
After hearing him speak I was certain they had misspelled ‘prophet’ and they meant to use the more apt alternative ‘profit’.
For one, the cleric absolutely butchered the hermeneutic of the manuscript and used the verse completely out of context. John is specifically and definitively talking about love, not cars or things. To wit, as Christ loves us, we should love one another, because as He is, so are we in this world. Not complicated stuff.
Anyhow, after the homily, I was substantially aggravated and ready to spit, gag or maybe even throw up.
This is the order of the normal in so many mega-churches today. Several pastors have made headlines recently for showing off their flashy lifestyle while most of their pews are languishing in squalor.
I’m so glad that I’m not the one feeling this way. South African actor and musician Kabomo Vilakazi shares the same sentiment too.
The Colour Of You maker stated that God could be telling pastors so many things, but he doesn’t buy in the idea that he would ever command a pastor to buy a flashy car or a private jet when his congregation’s struggling.
Kabomo who is evidently gatvol of pastors ripping off their congregants recently took to his Instagram to share his thoughts on the matter.
Kabomo’s post was shared by several of his followers who echoed his sentiments.
The musician has always been outspoken on the subject and also tweeted that pastors splurging on flashy things cannot be God’s work.
“No! It’s not cool that your pastor is rolling in a private jet and a Rolls Royce when his congregation can barely make rent. That’s not God.”
If you made it to the end of this blog post, congratulations. This is a thick and heavy subject. And well, is there any way for us to even imagine the earthbound Jesus driving a Rolls, flying a private jet or living in a palatial mansion? Let’s converse around it.
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