Following
reports that some churches promoted the popular ponzi scheme, MMM
Nigeria, a popular pastor has listed the effects of the scheme on the
churches, should it collapse.
Pastor Sunday Adelaja
Popular Nigerian Pastor, Dr. Sunday Adelaja, who is based in
Ukraine has lambasted men of God and churches that encouraged their
members to invest in Mavrodi Mondial Movement, MMM.
In an article he wrote, Adelaja said it was unfortunate that some
clerics took the scheme to the church without doing adequate research.
He said now that MMM seems to have crashed, reputation of those who openly and secretly promoted the scheme was at stake.
Part of the article reads: “Let me give you a list of
consequences that I believe will be detrimental to any church that
allows the activities of MMM in their church or among their members."
1. When, not if, this scheme collapses, the first ripple effect
is that a large amount of money has been withdrawn from church members.
As a result, the churches will become poorer.
2. The people who participate in these schemes are actually
taking either their extra money out to these platforms or they are using
their tithe and offerings which equals to fleecing the church one way
or another.
3. After the collapse of MMM, pastors will discover that church
members would rather use their money to clean up the mess of paying
their debt or returning money to their creditors, etc. rather than
paying their tithe and offering to the church and this could go on for a
long time.
4. There is going to be a lot of strife among church members.
People will begin to point accusing fingers at each other for getting
them involved in the business which will lead to a lot of conflict
within the church.
5. If the network was sanctioned by the leadership of any
church even though not directly, the church will still be blamed while
all the previous good works of the church will be quickly forgotten.
6. A lot of the culprits will suddenly disappear only to
resurface in places like London and Paris, but the churches will have
nowhere to run to. They will have to remain to clean up the mess. It
could get to the point where the church might have to empty its coffers
just to help members put food on their table.
7. Some faint hearted church members who don’t have anywhere to
run to could end up committing suicide. Believe me, the media and the
unbelieving world will jump on that and try to crucify the church for
it.
8. Church members will begin to doubt the authority and
validity of the church leadership. Some will even say if the General
overseer or pastor is a true man of God, why didn’t he see it coming?
Why didn’t God reveal to him that this business was going to collapse?
9. I know this is unlikely to happen in Nigeria but in Europe
here, what I had to face is that since I am the senior pastor of the
church, a law suit was raised against me, accusing me of being the
mastermind of the so called scheme. I doubt this will happen in Nigeria
because of the respect for our religious institutions and leaders, but
you must still know that the danger is there.
10. Due to the loss of the church’s credibility, it will be
followed by the mass loss in church members, which would be exploited by
the enemies of Christ and His church.
“Due to all the above mentioned points, I therefore wish to
appeal to my fellow pastors and colleagues in ministry to do all they
can to begin a campaign that will stop the continuous propaganda and
infiltration of MMM and other such groups into their congregations.”
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