The Jesus and hope: Are they all God’s people?

The calling of God is personal. Nobody needs to know and nobody can argue about it. If one chooses to make it universal, as in many of the so-called God's people, then the only way is for us mere mortals to examine the quality of life and pronouncements of these chosen few.

The old adage ‘many are called but few are chosen’ speaks to the conundrum of whether being called and being chosen are one and the same or are two ends of the same rod. Many speak of being called, but are they chosen? The latter of course will always be God's prerogative.

Asante Mampong is an average town in the Asante Region of Ghana and there are many towns like that in Asante and the rest of the country. An average count five years ago had 59 churches in the town and its environs. Even if each has only one pastor or priest, and this includes charismatic and non charismatic, orthodox and non orthodox, there will be 59 God's people in my hometown. In the same town are four doctors, two lawyers chambers in the community, one electrical engineer with the Electricity Company of Ghana and one civil engineer with Ghana Water Company, one accountant at the University of Education, Winneba, Mampong campus, and one pharmacist, a total of nine old school professionals. Juxtapose this scenario with all the 216 capitals of all the metropolises, municipalilies and districts and you may begin to appreciate my issue. There are more pastors, priests, evangelists, prophets, bishops, archbishops and their female counterparts than there are professionals such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, surveyors, pharmacists and planners in Ghana and many more in training to be God's people than are in study in all the other professional groupings put together.

Whereas the task of the latter professionals is to change individual and national situations and in most instances the benefits are direct, that of God's people is to provide hope for their clients but the instant benefit is to them. There is a common saying that whereas God's people will pray to God to help you, you will be expected to pay direct contributions to the church and for them. Hope is futuristic, and an act of faith, if you believe it, may just happen depending on whether your God person is called or chosen.

Ghana is in the throes of social upheavals: indiscipline, corruption, rape and defilement, teenage pregnancies, murders, armed robbery and petty thieving are all on the rise and yet the church and mosque have taken centre stages in the lives of the country and people. Prosperity, rather than moral assuaging, is the raison d'être of most of the latter-day churches. The persons of God have made money because Ghanaians give instinctively only to their churches and they flaunt their new found wealth and even compete among themselves overtly and covertly while poverty increases among their flock for the prosperity they preach never comes, or is it that the faith of the congregation is not strong enough?

Church  business

Easter has just been with us again; convention time and the billboards are still up with banner headlines reading "Miracle convention", "Blood that gives Life," etc. It has been a meeting opportunity for the many faithful and have returned with holy water and anointed oils some of which cost a fortune. It is all meant to increase their faith towards a greater glory.  The pastors on the other hand will have daily single or double and in some cases triple collections all for the glory of God.

It used to be Sunday church service with a single collection when we were growing up. The choristers met for singing practice and the various church groups probably met once a week. Now there are church functions such as everyday of the week and at each function, money is collected. Some pastors are bold enough to say that they do not want coins and of course the red and yellow notes of GH¢1.00 and 2.00. Does it matter to them whether members of the congregation are employed or unemployed? As for the tithes, there are several parts of the gospel quoted to justify the 10 per cent  of all earnings and there are testimonies as to what has happened to people who have been religious in giving. Many others are yet to get the miracles and transformations.

The church is a business for many of God's people. It is indeed the Jesus or Hope industry and the rewards are instant and immediate. Many of them start by renting a music piece and loud speaker and standing on street corners to preach the word and then begin to congregate on a park, use basic school premises and then graduate to an incomplete or yet to be habited abode. Throughout, it will be God's wish that they build God's house which they will eventually build through the sweat of the congregation. Invariably, no one will be bold enough to ask for the ownership status of the land and who has title to the buildings. The man and wife team up and take charge of everything in Jesus' mighty name.

The invasion into the industry by the once upon a time fetishes is obvious. Even the names used are akin to what we used to know before and the murmurings that many of them go to seek and use demonic powers for their activities usually go uncontested.

Creating feuds for benefit

In a land of many ignorant persons whose lives are based on superstition, the words of the playwright and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in the Trials of Brother Jero spring to mind. You can tell by classifying people into four groups; young women without husbands and children, women with husbands but no children. Elderly women with children and men with no jobs or problems at work. You need to keep them in the church by binding their very future to the church. The role of witchcraft and family members acting as such must be invoked. It is incomprehensible for God's people to create family feuds in the name of Jesus, but that is a strategy.

The many institutions that bring all the God's people together such as the Christian Council and others must work very hard to either rid themselves of the many charlatans or help educate the Ghanaian public to be aware of their type. So far the actions of the institutions have not been heard or seen in the many cases of rapes, swindling and many unnamable activities of so-called pastors, evangelists and prophets.

Ghana needs deliverance and try as hard as groups such as Aglow would in their monthly prayers for the nation, there must be a concerted effort by genuine men and women of God to intercede on behalf of the nation and the people, but it is not prayers that will develop the country. The words of Marcus Garvey ring true:
"We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had intended for that, then he would not have given us a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up your mind to do it for yourself."

It is the collective hard work of the people that will develop the country. Spending more hours in prayer than at work will not bring the prosperity to the individual or the nation, whether your faith is strong or not.

The author is  FGA, CoV