The founder and senior pastor of the Grace Nation Church International, Dr Chris Okafor, has urged Christians to run away from pastors who convert church offerings to personal use.

Okafor said this in his sermon at a recent Sunday service in the church in Lagos State.

The cleric said some pastors spent church monies without having a care about the consequences of such brazen indiscretions.

He stated: “Run away from churches where pastors ‘eat’ the offering because it is a dangerous place to be in.

“Converting church monies to personal use is actually inviting death. Death in the sense that church money is God’s money held in trust that is being breached when a pastor who is supposed to be accountable as a servant in His vineyard dips his hands in the till. And God does not take kindly to persons who take things they are not permitted to take.

“In more than 20 years in ministry, I have never taken, asked to be taken or spent money that belongs to our church, Grace Nation. As a matter of fact, the church’s cheque book is not in my hands. I don’t touch church money, and I don’t ask the church to pay me salary as well.

Pastor Okafor: How I survived over 50 days of captivity in kidnappers’ den

“This is the standard I have stuck within more than two decades of active work and walk with God. And to tell you the truth, I have been better for it because God pays my bills.

“So, am telling Christians everywhere not to tarry a second longer in any church where the pastor or the general overseer spends the church money as if he owns it. The scripture cannot be broken. Jesus Christ, we are told, is the head of the church. We who serve Him as ministers are accountable to Him. The money people bring as offering to God in His church is for Him and not any pastor, apostle, evangelist or prophet. It is solely for God.”

Pastor Okafor also mocked some pastors who he said have continued to publicly discredit the practice of tithing in order to seek human validation, stressing that they lack understanding.

Okafor added: “Some pastors have continued to undermine the practice of tithing that God expressly commanded in His word, the Bible. They have continued to advance all kinds of reasons why it is not necessary to pay tithe.

“But I want to ask, what happened to the tithe they earlier received from members of their various congregations before their newfound discovery? I am yet to see any one of them giving back the tithes they collected before they happened on the new discovery that made tithing obsolete.

‘Jesus was called false prophet’: Pastor Okafor speaks on fake miracle claims

“So, my warning to Christians who attend churches where the pastor does not pay tithe is to flee because they will end up just as stagnated as the pastor is. Every boss has a boss. This means a pastor must have a father who mentored him. My advice to believers in Christ Jesus is to avoid having anything to do with any pastor who does not have anyone he proves sonship to.

“Then, again, I will say this. Like the priest, like the people. Any church that people don’t willingly give, check it very well. It is the problem of the priest who either does not practise covenant principles or arbitrarily spends church money on his personal desires, than on God’s.”

The Star