Founder and Senior Pastor of Agape House New Testament Church in Ghana, Rev. Dr. Richard Whitcomb, has chastised men of God in the country for being more interested in their own success rather than preaching salvation to the lost souls.
He said, “Sadly there are thousands of men of God and tens of thousands of churches that are making this very mistake. In the church today, we have become more interested in our success than in the people we pretend to serve.”
"We’ve lost our way, we are more interested in buildings, programmes, political power and financial empires, and we are more interested in our reputation, than in the kingdom of God. A passion for the lost has become a lost passion. We began with the heart of worship and its turned into a heart of wealth and God’s word speak to our church and to every church today as Jesus himself addresses us today, in Rev. 3: 14-19,” he added.
Delivering a sermon on the theme, “All In – All The Way”, Sunday October 7, 2018, he bemoaned how churches of today do not care about the lost souls as they have lost the thirst for Jesus.
Rev. Whitcomb is, however, calling on all pastors to become responsible and be like Jesus who forsook all the worldly things, such as focusing on the number of businesses they own, the kind of cars they drive and the most expensive dresses they wear and rather reach out to the needy and the helpless.
“This is the scourge of churches in Ghana and around the world today, we’ve become indifferent and apathetic to what really counts. We boast of our wealth, we boast of our influence, we boast of the banks we run and the companies we control and the cars we drive and the way we dress but we’ve lost the passion for souls,” he mentioned. “We’ve lost the passion for Jesus, where the men of God who take up their cross and deny themselves and follow Jesus. Where are the people in the house of God who are devoted to Him and nothing else but Him. We need to return to our fervour.”
“Success tests you, you can get comfortable when you’re successful. And how churches today are comfortable in our success. And there’s a danger for us, we can become comfortable here when the seats are full, when the bills are paid, when the applause is loud, we tend to lose our fervor,” he added.
His sermon comes at a time when some Ghanaian pastors, including Rev. Obofour and Bishop Obinim have made headlines for flaunting their assets.
