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Pastor urges sinful colleagues to confess and leave ministry
BY TK WHYTE Observer correspondent
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
LINSTEAD, St Catherine - Ministers of religion with tarnished reputations and who have miserably failed God, are being urged to confess their sins before a truth and reconciliation committee and immediately leave the ministry.
The call came on Sunday from the outspoken founder of the Love and Faith World Outreach Ministries, Pastor Neville Owens, as he delivered a message at the Bread of Life Ministries (BOLM) Church in Vanity Fair in Linstead, St Catherine, during an appreciation service to honour Reverend Sophia Azan, BOLM minister and Custos Rotulorum for St Catherine.
Pastor Owens on Sunday bundled some of his colleagues with politicians, describing them as being greedy, corrupt, covetous, envious and divisive.
"I am calling on my colleagues (that) if you are not really in the ministry to reflect holiness and righteousness and to lift up a higher standard of the word of God to people, then get out of the ministry and let others who are willing to do so come and make their mark in the ministry," he said, and urged "guilty ministers" to leave the church immediately.
Many ministers of the gospel, he argued, had miserably failed the Kingdom of God and he lambasted them for being hypocritical in their stance for righteousness.
"Ministers have failed in the areas of integrity, setting positive role models for this generation... in many instances the churches are as guilty as the politicians in terms of the lacklustre approach we have laid down in Jamaica," he said.
"This is why we are at this level of moral decadence. And I think it is very hypocritical (that) in some instances when we should stand for righteousness as a church and lead people into a whole new level of moral ethics and dignity that we have let the nation down... most importantly, we have let down this generation by how we have fallen from the principles of Jesus Christ," Owens told the Observer following the sermon.
The church, he said, has a moral responsibility and a spiritual obligation to help rebuild the nation, as ministers of the gospel had let down God and the nation.
He said he was using his ministry to appeal to his colleagues to confess and surrender so persons can know what to expect "from those of us who call ourselves ministers, that we are not in it (ministry) for money".
"We are not in it for personal gains or the greed of it, but we are in it to meet the needs of the needy - both temporal and spiritual," Pastor Owens added.
But to rid the church of this evil, he suggested that ministers who are living righteously demonstrate and exhibit what members should expect from them, that is, good leadership.
Emphasising that churches knew of ministers who were not behaving as they should, the senior pastor said he was making a general call to all churchmen and women who occupy high offices but who have let down the cause of Christ, to confess and surrender.
"There is a call for a truth and reconciliation commission from the church, but I believe the church needs to start with itself first as it relates to truth and reconciliation. I honestly think (that) we as ministers of the gospel would do God a favour and we would do the nation a favour if we confess and surrender as we seek to rebuild and put the nation back in a positive pathway," Owens said.
BY TK WHYTE Observer correspondent
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
LINSTEAD, St Catherine - Ministers of religion with tarnished reputations and who have miserably failed God, are being urged to confess their sins before a truth and reconciliation committee and immediately leave the ministry.
The call came on Sunday from the outspoken founder of the Love and Faith World Outreach Ministries, Pastor Neville Owens, as he delivered a message at the Bread of Life Ministries (BOLM) Church in Vanity Fair in Linstead, St Catherine, during an appreciation service to honour Reverend Sophia Azan, BOLM minister and Custos Rotulorum for St Catherine.
Pastor Owens on Sunday bundled some of his colleagues with politicians, describing them as being greedy, corrupt, covetous, envious and divisive.
"I am calling on my colleagues (that) if you are not really in the ministry to reflect holiness and righteousness and to lift up a higher standard of the word of God to people, then get out of the ministry and let others who are willing to do so come and make their mark in the ministry," he said, and urged "guilty ministers" to leave the church immediately.
Many ministers of the gospel, he argued, had miserably failed the Kingdom of God and he lambasted them for being hypocritical in their stance for righteousness.
"Ministers have failed in the areas of integrity, setting positive role models for this generation... in many instances the churches are as guilty as the politicians in terms of the lacklustre approach we have laid down in Jamaica," he said.
"This is why we are at this level of moral decadence. And I think it is very hypocritical (that) in some instances when we should stand for righteousness as a church and lead people into a whole new level of moral ethics and dignity that we have let the nation down... most importantly, we have let down this generation by how we have fallen from the principles of Jesus Christ," Owens told the Observer following the sermon.
The church, he said, has a moral responsibility and a spiritual obligation to help rebuild the nation, as ministers of the gospel had let down God and the nation.
He said he was using his ministry to appeal to his colleagues to confess and surrender so persons can know what to expect "from those of us who call ourselves ministers, that we are not in it (ministry) for money".
"We are not in it for personal gains or the greed of it, but we are in it to meet the needs of the needy - both temporal and spiritual," Pastor Owens added.
But to rid the church of this evil, he suggested that ministers who are living righteously demonstrate and exhibit what members should expect from them, that is, good leadership.
Emphasising that churches knew of ministers who were not behaving as they should, the senior pastor said he was making a general call to all churchmen and women who occupy high offices but who have let down the cause of Christ, to confess and surrender.
"There is a call for a truth and reconciliation commission from the church, but I believe the church needs to start with itself first as it relates to truth and reconciliation. I honestly think (that) we as ministers of the gospel would do God a favour and we would do the nation a favour if we confess and surrender as we seek to rebuild and put the nation back in a positive pathway," Owens said.
Damn di Pastor dem a get ready fi lef church wid-hout dem leadership...and dat a di nedda Pastor dem?!
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