In today's world, the pursuit of wealth has reached a point where it seems to overshadow many other aspects of life. The influence of money has seeped into various spheres, including religious institutions, shaping the way they operate and communicate their messages. It raises concerns about the true focus and purpose of these centres. Join me as we delve into the impact of the commercialization of spirituality and its implications on the fundamental values of faith and community.
Sadly, the love of money has gotten to the point where our young ones, even teens, would do anything to get money today. They've been conditioned to think they are beyond collecting pocket money.
Even most of our religious (business) centres have become the public announcers of "get rich by all means" schemes, with a pinch of spirituality sprinkled in to make their exploitative messages sound transcendent.
I implore you to look at your local assembly and tell me it is not running like a business centre. You take stock of new and existing customers. You competitively open your stores beside one another simply to sell your brand and not the Lord's. You no longer advertise to win lost souls but to win the patronage of other centres' customers. You no longer tell us about the personality of the Lord and His mission to SEEK and SAVE the lost; instead, you make the ambience of your shop the selling point with your air conditioning, choice speakers, comfy seats, huge domes, etc. Your customers argue relentlessly on media platforms to defend your brand against the antagonism of other brands while you all claim to sell the same product.
Every Sunday, worshippers traverse the major junctions in droves to hear their favourite speakers say something that will elevate their sense of connection to the divine simply because they've come to get a sense of acceptance from the Divine irrespective of their previous week's misdeeds. Some have been battered and shattered through the week by life's struggles, others have been oppressed due to lack and need, and need a touch of encouragement. Some others are seeking feeble knees and hands that hang low to be a source of inspiration to them. What a noble cause!
But alas! The self-appointed custodians of the celestial mysteries have made that a time to carry out their perfected strategies on how to extract honey from a rock. They do this in several ways, but all depend on the kind of congregation the centre has. If they're lacking financially, the strategy leans towards fiendish scare tactics about ancestral curses and donations to appease the gods. For a wealthier congregation, hiring spiritual comedians commercialized professional worship singers, and organizing and hosting business leaders' summits, all with a hint of seed sowing, bread casting, and a host of other gimmicks, would certainly do the trick.
However, when a customer discovers something is not being done according to the manual of the product, apart from the tantrums thrown by your devoted fans, you threaten them with being witches or warlocks. After all, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. If your words are weighed day after day, we discover the product is mentioned less and less, while money, wealth, prosperity, increase, and their synonyms become the catchphrases of the day.
You dress like a business tycoon in your suits and ties, and your workers must dress accordingly. We all know this is about the business image, not the product's outlook. You constantly need the affirmation of progress and would do anything to get that promotion, even if it means opening a business branch beside an existing branch. It doesn't matter if this new branch has just two workers in the location; all who dare venture into it at that moment become workers too. Some go as far as to grant sacred titles to newbies; after all, the labourers are few, you say.
In conclusion, it's disheartening to witness the perversion of faith into a business venture, where spirituality is exploited for financial gain. The manipulation and commercialization of religious centres have obscured the true essence of worship and service. As we reflect on the state of our local assemblies, the question lingers: will the pursuit of material wealth overshadow the core principles of faith? The imminent collapse of this flawed business model seems inevitable, leaving us to ponder whether genuine faith will endure amidst the pursuit of profit.
I'll leave you with no new catchphrase but what the Lord Himself said in one of His speeches: "…but when I return, will I find faith on Earth?"
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