Source: Mission Network News, October 4, 2018<\/p>\n
A recent article by [German new source] Deutsche Welle<\/a> (DW) said megachurches in Nigeria are making money off believers and exploiting their faith by doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the Christian community, the Pentecostal denomination has really gotten a lot of traction\u2026 in some cases, that\u2019s a great thing, and in other cases, some of their doctrines that are being taught\u2026 particularly about prosperity, is quite honestly, hindering the Church,\u201d World Mission\u2019s Greg Kelley says.<\/p>\n An article by [Nigerian news source] Punch<\/a> in July reported that out of the 193.3 million people in the country, 152 million live off less than $2 a day. As people have become desperate to rise out of poverty, many have looked to churches and seen their ticket to prosperity.<\/p>\n Kelley says he believes God does bless his people financially and in every area of their lives, but \u201cwhen the emphasis is upon materialism, we have a real problem, and unfortunately, that\u2019s what\u2019s going on in a segment within the Church in Nigeria. This emphasis on wealth and materialism is really debilitating the ability of the Church to gain the kind of momentum it needs and the kind of depth it needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of putting the focus on worshiping Jesus, Kelley says, the focus of these churches has turned to how a person can get wealthy. This shift in focus is not only affecting believers and the Church, but it\u2019s tainting opportunities for ministry to others, specifically to Muslims.<\/p>\n \u00bb Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb Listen to Conrad Mbewe: Combating Prosperity Teaching in Africa<\/a> (The Missions Podcast, ABWE International). Jump to the 10-minute mark to hear the conversation about Africa. From The Africa Report, see also Spiritual Awakenings<\/a> (how young, hip, and educated Africans are finding new meaning in the teachings of traditional religions).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Mission Network News, October 4, 2018 A recent article by [German new source] Deutsche Welle (DW) said megachurches in Nigeria are making money off believers and exploiting their faith by doing so. \u201cWithin the Christian community, the Pentecostal denomination has really gotten a lot of traction\u2026 in some cases, that\u2019s a great thing, and … Continue reading NIGERIA: Churches Claim Jesus as Path to Prosperity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8143,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8142\/revisions\/8143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}