As the body of pentecostal pastors receive knocks over claims by Evangelist Benny Hinn that his four million dollars developed wings in Nigeria, some men of God argued at the weekend that the American preacher, having got his strategies all mixed up, should not complain for the poor turn out at the Lagos crusade.

From the length and breadth of the country, the response by the church ministers dismissed the comments credited to Hinn alleging that he lost $4million in the three-day crusade. For them, his comments were, to say the least, uncomplimentary and suggestive that he was swindled by Nigerian pastors. To crown it all, they said he should have himself to blame.

Pastor Agbo said that from various reports and what he heard from notable men of God, “there are conflicting reports”.

He corroborated the story by Iwulale that Hinn spent $3million in the U.S. for equipment and other logistics and merely gave Bishop Obembe $1million.

Said he: “I tend to believe that, but what I suggest is that it should be probed. It is not that I am supporting anybody doing ‘419’ in God’s name. All I am saying is that we have legitimate bodies like PFN and CAN. They should investigate these claims and get to the root of it.

“I still want to say that there are people who claim they are pastors that are not pastors. God did not call them but they have other motives and their goals to achieve”.

According to Pastor Agbo, if anybody steals or embezzles God’s money, “don’t worry yourself. God is not a man. God is not somebody you can do something and go and hide. At the appropriate time, he will fish you out and disgrace you.”

Reverend Yakubu Pam, the CAN chairman in Plateau State said if it is true that that kind of amount was released for the crusade, then it must have been mismanaged by the persons who collected it.

“What we spent here in Plateau State to organize the Reinhard Bonnke crusade was not one-quarter of that and we really pulled crowd. The lesson from the Lagos experience is that they should not be using individuals to organize crusade but through church activities where they are sure of checks and balances.
Reverend Nathan Nwachukwu, Pastor of the United Baptist Church, Jos was more concerned about the effect that Hinn’s claims would have on the country’s image.

That goes to confirm what we have been saying about one-man cChurches; which are not responsible to anybody and do not give account to anybody. When it comes to public fund too, they would not want to give account to anybody. It questions the genuineness of these church leaders and founders of such cChurches.
And in Benin, a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu described as “unfortunate” the controversy trailing the crusade.

According to Ize-Iyamu,“Benny Hinn did not mean that his money went down the drain. He said the crusade was the most expensive he had organised.” He, however, pointed out that Hinn’s comments were a “subtle indictment of those who organised the crusade in terms of crowd mobilisation. He expected a crowd of about six million but what he saw was a far cry from that.”

Even as the report of the panel of inquiry set up to probe the allegations made by Hinn, Abuja Catholic Archbishop, Rev. John Onaiyekan said to be out of the country, speaking through his director of communication , Rev. Father Patrick Alumuku, said that the catholic church could not comment on the matter since it was not involved in the crusade.

Chairman of the Abuja Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Bishop John Praise also declined comments on the Benny Hinn episode until the panel concludes its findings. Rev. Praise who spoke through an aide said that the national PFN passed an instruction barring members from commenting on the inflammatory issue until the investigations were concluded.

The Benny Hinn Lagos healing crusade which held in the Redemption camp of the Redeemed Christian Church of God on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, fell far below the expectation of the international tel-evangelist who expected a mammoth crowd.

Far less than one million people reportedly attended the three day crusade .
Disappointed that the event was a flop, Pastor Hinn reportedly left the country alleging that the money committed to the venture would have been spent on a better thing.

Pastor Michael Adedeji, Chairman, International Clergy Association of Nigeria said “the whole thing shows that we Christians need to examine ourselves about our characters and stewardship. We must be transparent in all we do because we would render an account to God of our stewardship.

Culled from Daily Sun

PFN committee fails deadline on fraud allegation
LAGOS -FOLLOWING the inconclusive findings of the fact-finding committee set up three weeks ago to unearth the mystery  surrounding allegations of financial impropriety levelled against some senior clerics, the National Advisory Council of Pentecostal  Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, yesterday gave them another three weeks within which to conclude their investigation.