Prominent pastors in the country and readers of P.M.NEWS have slammed Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his Christ Embassy Church for imposing a N1,000 toll fee on worshippers who attended New Year’s Eve service at the Christ Embassy Headquarters in Lagos, South-West Nigeria.
P.M.NEWS had reported in its 5 January 2011 edition how Christ Embassy pastors sold tickets valued at N1,000 each to worshippers who wanted to attend the crossover service in their church.
Indigent worshippers who could not afford the money were denied access and sent back by security men at the gate. The church explained that it collected gate fees from worshippers to control the huge crowd that always besieges Christ Embassy on New Year’s Eve service.
This development has outraged many Nigerians, including prominent pastors, at home and abroad.
The pastors who spoke with P.M.NEWS yesterday and readers, who reacted on www.pmnewsnigeria.com, described the imposition of toll fee by Christ Embassy as a sacrilege.
The Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Ola Makinde, described Oyakhilome’s action as anathema and abuse of Christianity.
“It is a sacrilege and commercialisation of religion. It is an abuse of Christianity,” he lamented.
Founder, Soul Winning Chapel, Rev. Moses Illoh, said that such an act “is sacrilegious,” adding that the gospel of Christ is supposed to be free and not to be paid for.
“There is no excuse for this. The church of God is for everybody, both for the poor and the rich. The church where they collect money before you can go in to worship is not a church.”
According to Primate Elijah Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, such pastors who collect money from worshippers should be stoned to death or be crucified.
“Is this possible? Such church should be destroyed and such pastors should be stoned to death. Pay N1,000 to enter a church? Is the church in heaven? It is never done.
“If it is possible, let the government intervene. These pastors are for Satan and such pastors should be crucified. It is embarrassing,” he lamented.
lso reacting to the incident, General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Prophet Samuel Kayode Abiara, said collection of money as gate fee for church service is unbiblical.
“Collecting money as gate fee before a church service is unbiblical because there is nowhere in the Bible where it was recorded that Jesus collected money from the multitude who listened to His sermon and benefited from His miracles.
“Salvation is free. You receive it free and you give it free,” he said.
Abiara added that he cannot judge Pastor Oyakhilome because he doesn’t understand the circumstances under which money was collected.
“It’s not impossible that they must have used the event to raise money,” he said.
To Rev. Oladapo Daramola, Media and Public Relations Officer, Methodist Church Nigeria, it is not right to collect money from worshippers before allowing them inside the church.
“This is not right because despite the number of people that came to worship at the feet of Jesus Christ, there was no barrier for them to come closer. Anything that will bar people from receiving the good news should not be allowed. It is not Christ-like,” he stated.
Also, Rev. Akintoye Braimoh, Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Christian Religious Matters, frowned at Oyakhilome’s act, saying it was very wrong.
“A place of worship is a place for all, even for a Muslim. PFN has already rejected Oyakhilome and he is not recognised by the body; he is on his own,” she added.
Dr. Sam Ogedengbe, Special Assistant to the Governor on Christian Religious Matters also stated that it was not right for any pastor to act that way.
“Why should you collect money before one can be allowed to enter a church? Is the place really a church? It is wrong to do that,” he said.
Some readers who reacted on our website, www.pmnewsnigeria.com, condemned Oyakhilome’s act, saying that it unscriptural.
Mike said: “Church has become big business in Nigeria. Now, they have introduced gate fee to church, very soon, they will introduce gate fee to heaven before someone dies. May God have mercy on them.”
According to Kayode, “the church should have thought of a bigger venue for this service. The National Stadium for instance would have accommodated a lot of people. The church should know that a special service like this will attract a lot of people, sinners and the saved, the rich and the poor, the genuine and the fake, but give an opportunity for all to meet with Christ. It was a rash strategy to control the crowd.”
Gloria said: “This news should have been best tagged ‘Pastor Oyakhilome deprives the poor of the gospel’. He’s unbelievable. Jesus Christ welcomed the crowd even when the apostles wanted to stop them. He went as far as feeding them with five loaves of bread and two fishes. We should learn from the bible, this is not crowd control, but daylight robbery.”
According to Jedidiah, “when the church becomes over crowded and the senior pastors don’t have a seat for themselves on such occasions, it becomes a good problem and for this reason, the church should pray to God to provide a bigger church for them. Such services are not for the so-called ‘true members’ to be comfortable but for the unsaved to be shown love, thereby winning them over to the winning church.”
Olo said: “it still beats my imagination to hear that such a thing actually happened in Christ Embassy, and at the headquarters for that matter. What’s money turning man of God into?”
Temmy reacted this way: “slowpoke, idiots and stupid people will always continue to follow a stupid pastor. When Jesus referred to his people (including me) as sheep, He did not mean idiot sheep like most Nigerians who are following those money worshipping and 419 pastors of nowadays.”
Thousands of readers, who reacted in various websites and blogs, including social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, also expressed shock and disappointment.

— Simon Ateba & Kazeem Ugbodaga
Source: PM News – pmnewsnigeria.com

Read more: http://www.informationnigeria.org/2011/01/church-gate-fee-pastors-condemn-oyakhilome.html#ixzz1AckBIuy2
Source: Information Nigeria

I hope the Tax Authorities tax the gate takings.
Afterall it is no longer religious activity.

[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]The man wan import cosmetics for his hair,dats why the gate fee was planned and imposed, some so called men of god sef, that's just the beginning of the end for his reign

its really sad and i like his teachings.

Birds of a feather, 99 percent of them are corrupt, except my Pastor though. I pity Nigeria as a Nation. Na God Hand we deooooooooo

[s]Abiara added that he cannot judge Pastor Oyakhilome because he doesn’t understand the circumstances under which money was collected.
“It’s not impossible that they must have used the event to raise money,” he said[/s]

This Pastor called Abiara Can do the same thing, there is no place in the bible thats says that, when no be say i dey go musical show or Alibaba Night of a thousand laugh

Although am nt in support of the collection of gate fees in churches,the way some of the pastors responded was rather harsh.One of the pastors even said he shd be crucified nd stoned 2 death and thesame bible they're interpreting 2 us says "thou shall nt judge".

It implies that, if he is to be at the gate in Heaven, he will also ask us to pay Gate fee before entering into Heaven.

 *****sighs***** Corrupt pastors.

That one don turn to Oniru beach be dat o,cos u have to pay 1000 naira before u go enta Oniru beach

operating under religion as 419. . .

mschew

See their big mouths (i.e. the other pastors crucifying Pastor Chris). As if they are any better. They'll all the same as long as they directly or indirectly coerce worshippers to part with their money in order to sustain the pastors' sinfully luxurious lifestyles. Whether such 'coerced' money comes in the form of tithes, offerings, 'seed' or gate-fees - its all the same idea. Thieving, greedy, worldly, materialistic pastors. The Hindu and Buddist priests certainly inspire me more.

Wait O, this thread is not generating zillions of responses already. HMM, I wonder why?

maclatunji:

Wait O, this thread is not generating zillions of responses already. HMM, I wonder why?

what are expecting?

These private jet flying, designer suit wearing, mega-miracles churning, celebrity wannabe new generation pastors are FAKE. I know most of you follow them and will defend them even if they find themselves in jail like the bearded pastor in kirikiri  but someday the truth will come out. Oyakilohme has been scaming poor Nigerians for ages. Producing 'miracles' at a frequency that will make saints jealous. But lets keep watching. Breeze go blow and we go see fowl nyansh one day,

Wether we like it or not, 80% of the Pastors extortionost looking for the best way to attach her congregation. If every boby go be like my humble self Pastors for don go find jobcos i no go give them one kobo.

WONDERFULLLLLL,

this is niaja,
ok,wen are they employin, since na biz now

ITEM 7:

[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]The man wan import cosmetics for his hair,dats why the gate fee was planned and imposed, some so called men of god sef, that's just the beginning of the end for his reign

Lmao at your post but u i give it to him his got style
as for the church fee imposed that so unumm someone quote me and use a word that would decribe this sort of thing

I really don't know why he did what he did but to be honest, this kind of thing will make the poor shy away from the church
In everything we do we should always consider the poor

Here are some of the stories

http://naijan.com/nigerian-clerics-slam-pastor-chris-oyakhilome/

http://naijan.com/christ-embassy-church-charges-n1000-per-seat-to-control-crowd/

Anybody who knows anything about God and about Jesus can easily draw
the right conclusion about this matter.

''It is more blessed to give than to receive''
(source: BIBLE  )

These guys do more than receive. They take!
I'm not a member of the said church, but if I was, the new year would've seen
me in another church!

But where I dey run go nko?  

pro01:

See their big mouths (i.e. the other pastors crucifying Pastor Chris). As if they are any better. They'll all the same as long as they directly or indirectly coerce worshippers to part with their money in order to sustain the pastors' sinfully luxurious lifestyles. Whether such 'coerced' money comes in the form of tithes, offerings, 'seed' or gate-fees - its all the same idea. Thieving, greedy, worldly, materialistic pastors. The Hindu and Buddist priests certainly inspire me more.

They are probably angry that they didnt think of it 1st. Wait n C next time U'll c an increase in churches collecting gate fees.

The guy also launched his own version of face-book during the event. I learnt 25,000 people were at the venue, times am by N1000. Nna meen; That guy (pastor Chris) don hammer.

tuk az:

I hope the Tax Authorities tax the gate takings.
Afterall it is no longer religious activity.

lolol so true

but on the real, its preposterous.

to me he suppose to be band and close his ministry 4 atleast one year. and he supposed to be charge 4 theft 4 using the god work 2 collect money 4rm people. let something tangible be done on dis matter.

Guyman02:

The guy also launched his own version of face-book during the event. I learnt 25,000 people were at the venue, times am by N1000. Nna meen; That guy (pastor Chris) don hammer.

Tweeting Away the Cash Hahaha

I bet u, some members might nt even ve up to dat amount n' their pocket @ dat moment, wat then become their option? Lord have Mercy!

It's unbelievable!

I have been following this discussion and think at the moment that there is need for some clarifications. I was once a Christ embassy member in Lagos and was also a member in PH before events took me out.

I must categorically state that there are things going on in Christ embassy that Pastor Chris himself is not aware off. I don't know if it is his pastors or other church workers that are architects of these things in Christ embassy. I might not be too sure that Pastor Chris is not aware of the N1,000.00 gate fee but my mind keeps telling me he might not be aware but once it has happened, he tries bearing the brunt while seeking his own way of correcting these anomalies in his congregation.

A case in Point is the annual IPPC, I remember that while in lagos, Pastor "valee" as we call him, of Aguda church will do all his best to mobilize people for this conference. His target was always to make sure everybody attends to get the word of God direct from the man of God but PH is a different story. It was there I leanrt that one needs to pay money to attend IPPC. This is apart from your Tfare and perhaps lodging. I tried reconciling the Lagos Christ embassy and that of PH and I came to the conclusion that so many things happen that Pastor Chris is not aware off. Don't be surprised he might be reading this same news on the pages of a newspaper ( if he has the time)

I am a management officer where I work and I have grown to understand by experience that sometimes the people below you do more than you ask them to do and sometimes even below. Its pretty frustrating but what can one do except to manage the situation. Like Someone rightly puts it, the hardest thing to manage is Humans.

I remember there was another issue that he got to hear from the newspapers too which made him angry with his pastors that he did somethings himself for a while but how much can one man do considering the congregation's size.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, may God have mercy

waiting for JoAgbaje to come explain this one away as usual

thanks be to allah for making me to be muslim inwhich their is no payment for entring the moque, or payment for worshiping

What ’s money turning man of
God into? Pls don't blame business man, meny people call Man of God.