TheNewsGuru

Tag: Church

  • BREAKING: Seven killed as herdsmen attack another church in Benue

    BREAKING: Seven killed as herdsmen attack another church in Benue

    At least, seven persons were in the early hours of Thursday killed after suspected herdsmen entered a church in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State.

    According to raports reaching TheNewsGuru.com the herdsmen were said to have stormed Mbamondo clan around 12.20am and attacked some displaced persons who had taken refuge at an African Church in the area and killed seven of them.

    Richard Nyajo, Chairman to the council told newsmen that many houses were also said to have been burnt down during the attack.

    Details soon…

  • Several injured as masquerades attack church in Anambra

    The Anambra Police Command says it has arrested three masqueraders for allegedly disrupting a church programme on Friday night at Uke, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state

    The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs Nkeiruka Nwode, told newsmen on Saturday in Awka that the suspects attacked worshipers at the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke.

    “Three masqueraders have been arrested in connection with the church attack. We have commenced investigation into the cause of the incident and would notify you when concluded,” Nwode said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the masqueraders were celebrating a festival known as “Uzo Iyi” festival.

    Nwode, however, denied that the masqueraders attacked the police officers from Special Anti Robbery Squad, who responded to calls on the breach of peace.

    NAN further gathered that about 10 masqueraders invaded the church, assaulted the worshipers and attempted to whisk away the spiritual director of the centre, Rev. Fr Emmanuel Obinna, but for the quick response of the police.

    A witness said the leadership of the church called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the police to help their internal security to protect worshipers.

    “On arrival, the operatives arrested three masqueraders, who were involved in the attack, but their colleagues attempted to stop them from taking the arrested masqueraders away, prompting SARS operatives to shoot sporadically into the air before taking them away,” the source said

    The Personal Assistant to the spiritual director of the centre, Mr Francis Okoye, told journalists that a Catholic Priest, Rev Fr. Henry Nnajiofor, a seminarian and 28 others were injured during the attack on the worshipers.

    “The normal masquerade activities in Uke, to the best of my knowledge, ends by 6 p.m but as at 8 p.m on Friday, the masqueraders were still parading at the entrance route of Uke Adoration ground, extorting money from our members and robbing others in the guise of masquerade festival.

    “As at 8.30 p.m, we started receiving information that some masqueraders were attacking our members, flogging them and inflicting injuries.

    “They flogged some of them, stabbed some with their weapons including machetes, while others were robbed of their mobile phones and other valuables.

    “We quickly contacted the SARS office to assist our Adoration security team, who could not handle the situation at that point in time.

    “When SARS arrived an hour later, they arrested two masqueraders but on their way back, the youths blocked the road and insisted that the masqueraders must be released; that was when SARS officials fired shots in the air to disperse them.

    “When SARS left, they re-grouped and this time came in their numbers to the Adoration premises, beating everybody including the elderly, the sick and pregnant women.

    “Our Adoration youths, in defence, pursued them and arrested one other masquerader, who stayed in the Adoration ground with us until this morning when we handed him over to the officials of the Nigerian Army, who came to our rescue.”

  • Once you see a large church, know the attraction cannot be the gospel – Femi Aribisala

    I was standing in the parking lot of the building where I lived in Lagos, talking to Bimbo Dada, now Director of Library, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, when a man walked through the gate and came to talk to me. He said he worked for an oil-company but had recently been posted out of town. There was a lunch-hour fellowship meeting every week in his house and he was at a loss what to do about it now he was leaving. So he had been asking the Lord for guidance.

    On that particular day, the Lord told him to stop praying. He told him to go out of the house and walk down the road. When he got to our gate, the Lord told him to go in. Then he said to him: “You are to hand over the lunch-hour fellowship to that man talking to the lady over there.” So the man said to me: “The Lord said I should hand over the lunch-hour fellowship meeting in my house to you.”

    I told him the Lord himself would have to speak to me directly. After getting the confirmation I required, I agreed to take over the fellowship. That was how I inherited a 20-man lunch-hour fellowship in 1994.

    Rapid church growth

    In my zeal, I took three quick decisions. I moved the fellowship from my living-room to the parking-lot of our building. I bought one-hundred plastic chairs and paid for a weekly supply of meat-pies and soft-drinks. The membership of the fellowship grew by leaps and bounds. Soon, all the one-hundred chairs I bought were filled.

    In 1997, I moved the fellowship to a new rented location which seated 120. That capacity was also soon exceeded. I knocked down some walls and extended the seating-space to 180. That capacity was also quickly exceeded. I then decided to hold the fellowship twice a week. For the next six years, I preached to some 200 people in Victoria Island, Lagos every lunch-hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I gave them all meat-pies and soft-drinks out of my own pocket, as I had done the previous three years.

    Revised strategy

    Certain things prompted me to review this strategy in 2003. It dawned on me that most people came just for the meat-pies. I noticed that some even came as late as five minutes to the end of the fellowship, just in time for the snacks. So I changed the rules. If you were not in the hall before thirty minutes after the start of the fellowship, you were not allowed to enter. This caused a problem because some late-comers would create a scene by banging loudly on the glass doors; disturbing the proceedings.

    I recalled that Jesus fed 5,000 people by multiplying loaves of bread and fish. But when the multitude followed him across the water the next day wanting to be fed yet again, he refused to oblige. He only fed them with the word of God. Therefore, I decided to suspend temporarily the meat-pies and the soft drinks.

    I could not believe what happened. Exactly as in the case of Jesus, within a few weeks, the crowds shrank from the roughly two hundred people who attended each fellowship to only about twenty.

    I was then confronted with a dilemma. Do I go back to the meat-pies and the two-hundred crowds; or do without the meat-pies and have only twenty people? I decided the two hundred meat-pie crowd was a waste of time. As Jesus observes, they were only labourers for perishable food. (John 6:27). Only the twenty were really interested in Christ. So I stopped giving meat-pies permanently.

    Few are chosen

    Reinhard Bonnke set a new world record at an epic crusade in Lagos, Nigeria; over one million and one hundred thousand people publicly accepted Jesus into their lives. Reinhard made each person fill a form. He then had those forms carefully tabulated. In Pentecostal circles, that means all those people are “born again,” and are appointed for heaven. (Romans 10:9-10). Thereafter, they are regarded as Christians.

    But are all those “new converts” going to end up in heaven?

    I live in Lagos. It is a city of over ten million people. If in one day, a tenth of all Lagosians become Christians, Reinhard should not have to come all the way from Germany to tell me. I should know about it. Only one hundred and twenty new converts revolutionised Jerusalem at the Pentecost. They could not be missed. When Paul and a handful of believers visited Thessalonica, there was uproar. Some were up in arms because, according to them: “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” (Acts 17:6).

    If we go by the criteria the Lord himself established, instead of relying on Reinhard’s statistics, there must have been very few people who received Christ at Reinhard Bonnke’s crusade in Lagos. Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them.” There were no discernible fruits from over one million new believers in Lagos after Reinhard’s crusade, not even for one day.

    Jesus says: “Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit produced. Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:20-21).

    Reinhard’s one million new converts in Lagos were remarkably invisible. Beyond their data records at his Christ for All Nations, I dare say nobody in Lagos could recognise them. Christians are supposed to carry in themselves, the perfume of Christ: “As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us.” (2 Corinthians 2:15).

    However, unlike the woman with the alabaster box, the new-converts in Lagos singularly failed to change the atmosphere in the city. Lagos drivers, noted for their selfishness on the road, continued driving as before. The level of criminality remained the same. The state of ungodliness did not abate. Surely, if as many as one million people were converted, there would be discernible change.

    Little flock

    In the kingdom of God, good things come in small congregations. God says: “The more my people multiplied, the more they sinned against me” (Hosea 4:7). Therefore, he says: “I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3:14).

    Jesus promises to be where two or three are gathered together in his name. (Matthew 18:20). Elsewhere, he points out that the kingdom of God is specifically for a small fellowship: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32).

    The true gospel message is not attractive to the crowd. It requires us to we forsake all, lay down our lives and follow Jesus. It is a hard way through a narrow gate that few are able to find. (Matthew 7:14).

    So, once you see a large church, know the attraction cannot be the gospel.

  • Pope Francis prays by Bello’s grave, urges Church must help the poor

    The main concern of the Catholic Church must be to help the poor, Pope Francis said on a Friday pilgrimage to southern Italy in honour of a local bishop who is a candidate for sainthood.

    Francis was paying a half-day visit to Alessano and Molfetta in Puglia, the region that forms the heel of Italy’s boot, where the late Bishop Tonino Bello had his diocese.

    “The poor are really the wealth of the Church. Remind us of that again, Father Tonino, as we face the recurring temptation of tagging along with the powerful of the day,” the pontiff said.

    “A Church that has the poor at heart remains always tuned to the channel of God, it never loses the frequency of the Gospel,” he added.

    After flying in by helicopter, Francis prayed by Bello’s grave, met a crowd of about 20,000 people in Alessano, and was due to celebrate Mass in nearby Molfetta before returning to the Vatican.

    His pilgrimage marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Bello, a bishop who liked to travel by bicycle or bus, ran several charity groups and headed an international Catholic peace movement.

    Bello, an Italian Roman Catholic prelate, died of stomach cancer in April 1993.

     

  • Video: Banks, churches more corrupt: Femi Falana

    Renowned human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN) has hit hard on the banks and churches as being nests of corruption, more than government institutions.

    Falana made the remark at the 2018 edition of the Vanguard Economic Discourse, themed: “Economy in Recession: Pitfalls, Trajectories and Resetting”

  • Delta church in trouble as man slumps, dies during deliverance session

    A mentally challenged man and former member of the Ogor vigilance group, Monday Edejere, has died in a church in Evwreni community, in the Ughelli North council area of Delta State.

    The church’s founder, Prophet Moses Uregbu, was reportedly praying for him when he slumped and died on Monday.

    A source said the victim, who was taken to the prophet for spiritual healing by his relatives, was allegedly flogged during the prayers.

    The prophet and some members of the church reportedly battled to revive him, but failed.

    The President-General of Evwerni community, Chief Victor Ohare, said the case was reported at the Police ‘A’ Division, Ughelli.

    “We don’t know if he was flogged by the prophet,” he added.

    The state Police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Aniamaka, said the prophet had been arrested.

    He said, “One Micheal Edejere reported that on February 25, 2018, he took his sick brother, Monday Edejere, to Pastor Moses Uregbu for healing, but that on April 2, information got to the family that Monday had died. The family is claiming that the young man died because of the injuries on his body. Investigation is ongoing.”

  • Falz turns billionaire in American television series

    Falz, real name Folarin Babalola, will star as William Randolph Church, an alluring Nigerian billionaire.

    The popular rapper and comic actor has inked a multi-season deal with BLK PRIME to play a Nigerian billionaire in a drama series called ‘Church’.

     

    BLK PRIME is an American entertainment corporation funded by the Silicon Valley EFC Investment Group.

     

     

    “I am so excited to introduce my character, Church, to audiences around the world and to be a part of BLK PRIME’s mission of offering diverse streaming entertainment worldwide,” the Nigerian rapper said.

     

    Scott Scherer, Senior vice-president BLK PRIME, said Falz will, in the series, take on the role of a character that’s nothing close to his past efforts.

     

    “We’re thrilled to be working with Falz. With millions of fans around the world and nearly 3 million Instagram followers, Falz has proven to be a gifted performer with the ability to captivate an audience,” he said.

     

    “Church is a complex character that will showcase Falz in a way audiences have never seen him before,”

     

    The show will premiere on BLK PRIME worldwide before the end of June 2018.

     

    In time past, Falz has starred in TV series like Jenifa’s Diaries which was instrumental to him clinching “Best Actor in a Comedy” award at the 2016 edition of AMVCA

     

    The Falz Experience will gulp 300m?

  • Mike Tyson’s mansion becomes a ‘Holy Home’ after Church possession

    The Living Word Sanctuary Church has taken a mansion which once belong to former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson after previous owner was convicted of money laundering.

    Paul Monea was imprisoned in 2007, eight years after he bought the property from Tyson for $1.3m. The Ohio building, which covers 25,000 square feet, was donated to Living Word Sanctuary Church.

    The swimming pool room had been turned into the main auditorium while the basketball court turned into a youth centre.

    Speaking to the Warren Tribune-Chronicle, church pastor Nicholas DeJacimo said: “Us getting this is a miracle.

    “It was basically donated to us because the former owner needed to write it off. I tell the congregation God literally gave us this.”

    “He literally gave us a free campus to do whatever we want. We will use it to glorify him.”

    Work is continuing on the renovation. Once completed church members will move from the local YMCA where they’ve recently been meeting.

  • Municipality insists Churches must pay off $187m tax debts

    The Jerusalem Municipality intends to recover 650 million shekels (almost 187 million dollars) from Christian denominations as taxes for their real estate located in the city, Mayor Nir Barkat has said.

    “The debts for commercial space owned by churches exceed 650 million shekels.

    “We will no longer demand that the citizens of Jerusalem bear this burden and subsidise this colossal debt,” Barkat said in a statement, by the mayor’s office press service.

    The municipal authorities demand that Christian denominations pay municipal taxes for all real estate, except for churches themselves, and have already started arresting bank accounts, demanding a penalty for previous years.

    “In Jerusalem, everyone is equal before the law – Christians, Muslims and Jews.

    “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, like all the churches of Jerusalem, synagogues and mosques, is exempt from municipal tax.

    “There are no changes in this respect,” Barkat said.

    The mayor noted, however, that commercial buildings such as hotels, retail and office space were subject to municipal tax, regardless of who owned them.

    In response, Church leaders accused the city authorities of violating the long-standing status quo and closed the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher for pilgrims and tourists in protest.

     

  • How 15 Rivers residents returning from church were killed in New Year’s day attack

    New Year celebration turned tragic in Rivers State as gunmen opened fire indiscriminately at people returning from the church in the early hours of Monday where they had gone to usher in the New Year.

    The incident occurred at Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni (ONELGA) Local Government Area of the state.

    The police spokesperson in the state, Omoni Nnamdi, who confirmed the incident to newsmen, said it was difficult for the police to give the exact number of people killed in the shooting.

    The rampaging gunmen were suspected to be militants working for a man the military described as “a notorious kidnapper, militant, cultist, ardent illegal oil bunkerer”, Mr. Igwedibia Johnson, aka Don Waney, who is on the run, following the raid of his camp and shrines on November 20, last year, as part of 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt’s continued efforts to rid the Niger Delta of criminals.

    Crude oil and gas-rich Omoku hosts the Federal College of Education (FCE) Technical, many multinational oil firms, oil servicing companies and other establishments, but most of the commercial banks in the ancient town have been closed for months, in view of insecurity, without the hope of the bankers returning to the city.

    According to a report in The Nation, an indigene of Omoku, gave details of how the 15 worshippers were gunned down but would not want his name in print, to avoid his being trailed by the criminals, said as the Christians were leaving their various churches on January 1, the gunmen were spraying them with bullets at close range.

    The source said: “Since 2014, when the crisis started in Omoku and its environs, over 500, mostly innocent people, have been killed.

    “I am calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nyesom Wike to take immediate action to secure the lives and property of residents of Omoku and its environs, especially with the forthcoming primaries of political parties and general elections.