Popular Nigerian cleric, Sign Fireman, has expressed concern that churches are, today, growing by transfer, and not by conversion.
He said God has called him to bring more people to add to his church, and he wants to reignite church growth by conversion.
He also said that it is wrong for a man of God to appoint his wife as ‘Mummy G.O’ of the church, stressing that as a pastor, you have the grace of a spiritual parent, if your wife doesn’t have that call, that grace will not be there.
The popular cleric stated this at a Press Conference on Wednesday in Lagos, on the forthcoming Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Sangotedo, Lagos, crossover night mega carnival 2023, which will hold on Sunday, December 31, at Echo Event Centre, Sangotedo, Lagos.
“I am interested in winning souls into the house of God because right now churches are growing by transfer, not by conversion. In other words, that this church is growing is because another church lost members.
“I want to reignite church growth by conversion. I believe in pulling people into the kingdom of God. I want people in the kingdom of God. The pastors can church them. The problems of people inside the churches, God has called me to solve them. And he has called me to bring more people to add to his church. I want to use it to grow the kingdom of God,” he said.
He further stated that a lot of people whose wives are assistant pastors, he does not believe that their wives should be because “pastoring is a call and not a marital position. The pastoral call brings tolerance. What a pastor tolerates, an evangelist may not. As a pastor, you have the grace of a spiritual parent, if your wife doesn’t have that call, that grace will not be there. If you expose someone that doesn’t have the grace for something to that thing, it will bring disgrace.”
Also speaking at the conference, the chairman, PFN, Sango-Tedo chapter, Olatoye Raphael, said the carnival tagged “Mega Carnival Sandotedo: A Big Night of Miracles and Gifts of Money” is insopired by the need for all the churches to come together as the body of Christ and commit the New Year in the hands of the Almighty.
“We have been having crossover programmes every year, as the PFN chairman, I felt we needed to do it in another dimension. I told my exco that we need to rub mind together that before now everybody was doing their crossover differently in their various churches. I then asked, why can’t we come together as a body of Christ. With all the situation in Nigeria, what is happening here and there with all the hardship, if we can come together as the body of Christ and commit the New Year in the hands of the Almighty, it’s going to be another dimension.
“I thank God that all my excos agreed with me that it was a good idea,” he said.
On the choice of Sign Fireman as the one that’ll minister, he said: “I told my excos that we should look for a dynamic man of God. Truly all of us are called, I have been in the ministry for 34 years now. And I have pastored a lot of churches. I have worked under a lot of ministries close to almost 14 denominations. With my experience in the ministry, we cannot just bring anybody in anyhow.
“We need somebody that carry the Grace, so that we can tap the Grace from the person. That was how I mentioned the name of our Great Man of God, Sign Fireman. I told them if this Man of God can come to our programme, its not only our members that will be blessed, even we Ministers, our lives will not remain the same, because when you are talking about the Grace of God, the Grace of God is upon him. And his own ministry and calling is so unique from other men of God.
“Another thing is that the way God is using him is mysterious. And if you are not closer to him, you won’t even understand. Having studied him for some time, I felt that we needed him in PFN. If you look inside the flier, you will see boldly written that the man of God will give people money. Not that he wants to collect money from their hands. Any programme he wants to organize, he gives out money for the people that will come for the programme. So, it is not peculiar to only this particular programme.”
According to Olatoye, the programme is not only for people in Sango-Tedo but everybody in the axis of Lekki, Ajah and all over Lagos.
