28 Mar 2017

The Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) president, Mr Tebogo Motlhagodi has urged church leaders to be accountable on all matters of the church.
He said this in a consultative meeting at Tonota recently where he met with all the African Instituted Churches (AICs), telling them that they were the pillars of churches and disciples of God, therefore they should lead without fear or favour.
Mr Motlhagodi added that cases such as misuse of church funds splits churches and dragged the reputation of the African churches through the mud.
“Such things destroy the dignity of the African church, which will go a long way in making people lose trust of our churches because of the behaviour we display as leaders,” he said.
He further encouraged them to change their behaviour and attitude if they want to lead God’s children through a good path.
Mr Motlhagodi said churches were supposed to build a better nation and not to break the nation and cause hatred and anger in societies.
He noted that many churches nowadays were registered and when looking at the reasons why churches were registered at an alarming rate, the reasons takes them back to poor administration by leaders.
“If every leader could take his or her position seriously, grow their spiritual knowledge and their duties, then we can build a strong faith for the children of God,” he said.
He further said it breaks his heart to see leaders being the reasons why churches split when they should be spreading the word of God and having many followers.
“You have powers to lead your congregations, but I am asking you brethrens, let us not use them to hurt our followers by making ruthless decisions because we have power, that is not the way God wants us to look after his sheep,” he added.
He encouraged leaders to have good reception at their churches because different people come to church for different reasons, saying that others come to praise while others come to seek help.
In addition, Mr Motlhagodi expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor usage of the land by the churches, saying littering concerns by the public reaches his office at a high rate.
He encouraged them to comply with environmental laws by ensure that they leave the environment clean after doing their spiritual rituals. 
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Tonota Ministries Fraternal, Pastor Oratile Gaonabeng raised concerns that they were faced with, not that they were not being allocated plots to build churches, which pushed them to host them in their residential plots.
She said it makes their lives difficult as it disturbs them to practice their faith in peace as they would be sharing space with neighbours.
Pastor Gaonabeng added that they were faced with church splits, which were growing mainly because of poor administration and greedy church leaders.
She further noted that African churches drag their feet to take part in official events, and further encouraged leaders who take churches as a family business to change their attitude and build unshakeable congregations. ENDS