Nigerian cleric T.B. Joshua has made yet another controversial statement, admitting that he is afraid to collect money from congregants in the form of offerings.
“People like me are scared when it comes to collecting thanksgiving because I don't know where you are coming from with your money,” Joshua candidly stated in a sermon on Sunday 9th April 2017, subsequently released on his popular YouTube channel Emmanuel TV.
“Many can come with blood-money,” he acknowledged. “They will just enter church and when it is time for offering, they will raise their offering whereas it's blood-money. What can a man of God use that kind of blood-money for? Are they going to bless the man?”
According to Joshua, this issue has been the bane of many ministries. “What we receive from our members as offering and thanksgiving is killing us,” he warned fellow pastors.
The cleric went further to proffer a way out, suggesting that ministers of God are also to blame for the way they praise and give attention to those who drop the largest offerings.
“Wicked people like the pastor to ask. If the pastor does not ask, praise and recognise them, they cannot give. They like praise and recognition,” he explained.
“If you want to avoid these people and stop them from putting money - don't praise them. Let them know it's God they give to, not you.”
Revealing another clue, Joshua called on pastors to stop receiving offerings ‘directly’ from congregants. “If you don't receive something directly from a killer, he will not give you - because he wants to be recognised. They like praise; that is their reward because they have no reward from God.”
Joshua stressed that offerings in the church are between the worshipper and God. “What comes from God goes to God. If what you have is from God, it will go to God - you don't need to have any recognition from the pastor. Whatever you want to give God, you give it,” he surmised.
The pastor then impressed on people the need to consider the force behind any action, not merely the action itself. "The force behind your action determines where the action comes from... It's not what you see but the force behind what you see that matters,” he stated.
This is not the first time T.B. Joshua’s statements about tithes and offerings have come to the fore. Last year, news surfaced of an elderly woman whom Joshua returned a tithe of N500,000 to, adding that God would not approve of him collecting a tithe from such an elderly person in need of his support.
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