The National Vice President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Southwest, Bishop Francis Oke, has asked those criticising pastors for owning private jets to stop attacking the pastors concerned, as the men of God would procure many more while doing their jobs.
He stated this through an article published in a national daily hitting back at those who have been criticising the acquisition of private jets by men of God lately.
According to him, what these critics have seen would be nothing compared to the many more jets that would be procured in the nearest future.
“They have seen a few jets. They ain’t seen nothing yet! More of us will still buy and maintain our jets because, by the mercy of God, we have been given the wisdom to do so.
“And we are willing to teach the nation, if they will listen to us, rather than throw stones.
“More Pentecostal jets are on the way, and we owe no apology about that.
“Come along with us, and you too will soon become a solution, a job provider, a pioneer, and no more a part of our national rot, corruption and inefficiency,” the Bishop told critics.
He recalled that while the Pentecostalism was just growing in the country, people called them various derogatory names including ‘poor church rats,’ and ‘mushroom churches,’ but these same people have taken to criticising the pastors now that they are reaping from their labour.
“Our critics do not understand the way of God, that when someone sows, he or she must reap; that those who sow in tears shall reap with joy,” he said, adding that he was sure their critics would have denied them the joy of reaping from their labour if such critics had the powers.
He said rather than engage in criticisms the nation should have turned to the church for wisdom.
“How have you (the church) been able to provide electricity for your massive organisations and campsites and we have not been able to power the nation?
“How have you (the church) been able to maintain your jets for years, and we don’t even have a national carrier?
“How do you make your schools, colleges and universities such first-class institutions and ours are dilapidated, riddled with cultism and violence in spite of so much money we are pumping into them again and again?
“Rather than blind, and sometimes irreverent, criticisms that flow out of a mixture of ignorance and envy, the Pentecostals should have been asked, how did you move from a people despised and rejected to becoming the jet owners, institution pioneers and nation-builders that you are today?” He said.
He, however, said the jets meant nothing to them more than for use to propagate the teachings of God which he said has now gone global and technical.
“They (the jets) are just tools to do the work that God has given us in a more effective manner.
“How can Enoch Adeboye who has churches in over 160 nations of the earth cope with his pastoral and apostolic responsibilities without some private jets!
“He does not need just one. He needs some!
“How can an Ayo Oritsejafor, who has to minister around the globe, pastor a very large congregation in Warri, and still attend to critical national matters in Abuja cope if he has to keep waiting at the airports, in a system where nothing is predictable?
“Our critics should please note that more of us are following the trail of the likes of Adeboye, whose wealth and affluence has never stopped him from being a true shepherd of the poor and downtrodden, in true humility, simplicity and godly sincerity, a shinning example of true Pentecostalism and charismatic wisdom.
