Uprooting sexual immorality from the church, By Ayo Akerele

The leaders, the fathers, have the first responsibility before God to raise the banner of righteousness – no sexual pervert must be covered and laundered. Money must not be traded for value and for virtue. Sexual perverts must be identified, disciplined, restored in love, and where possible, exposed to save the souls of their innocent preys. Our younger ones must be protected from sexual predators. Single ladies must be protected. Our teenage girls must not be afraid to visit their pastors for counselling.

The past days have been very tough for me, as I have had to deal with the unwholesome news and reports of scandalous sexual escapades of some brethren in the church. In fact, in one of those days, I had to take a prescribed pain reliever to alleviate the headache that came on me on account of one of these terrible incidences. Given the sensitive nature of this subject, I am going to be as discrete as possible in framing the truth that the Lord has commissioned me to speak on this matter. At the same time, I am not going to shy away from the burden to lean on my rod — the writing mandate — that the Lord has given me to sound a note of warning to the church on the dangers that lie ahead of us, if we refuse to clean up our ways before Him.

“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18).

The days of Noah have actually come upon our generation. Years ago, the Lord led me to write a book on the same subject. One core attribute of the days of Noah was the widespread apathy of people in the face of a looming divine judgement. Our generation is not just apathetic, but completely numbed and blinded by the passing euphoria of the material, financial, and numerical growths that our churches and ministries have experienced, while Satan is quietly using the weapon of sexual immorality to destroy the fabrics of our integrity. Our losses are not just that of integrity, but also of the move of God, which to me has been practically crippled and stalled. Sexual immorality kills the move of God and shuts the heavens, whether for individuals or for churches or nations.

How would a church that is infiltrated and pastored by a sexual pervert be spiritually and morally capable of addressing the moral failures of the larger society? To give you a little picture of why my head ached in the past week, one of us, a sexual pervert, mounted the podium to minister at a conference, just immediately after defiling multiple ladies at the same time. Of course, he “performed” very well on the altar of God, to the ignorance of the multitude of people he was ministering to. What kind of a spirit do think he must have transferred to the innocent people under his ministration?

Brethren, there is fire on the mountain. The rank and file of some sections of the church in Nigeria is infiltrated with sexual perverts, believers, branch pastors, and even some church leaders, who are now being trailed by a thick cloud of scandals. This does not refer to genuine believers who fall into sin out of the weakness of the flesh, and have since repented.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Brethren, there is fire on the mountain. The rank and file of some sections of the church in Nigeria is infiltrated with sexual perverts, believers, branch pastors, and even some church leaders, who are now being trailed by a thick cloud of scandals. This does not refer to genuine believers who fall into sin out of the weakness of the flesh, and have since repented. I am talking about some branch pastors and some church leaders who are sexual perverts, and have continued to destroy the lives of so many young people, but are still being shielded by the sycophants and praise singers that surround them. Of course, some of these perverts engage in this sinful acts as preconditions for their ritual vows, to grow their church, generate spiritual power, and attract demonic financial might.

On the other hand, some engage in these terrible acts to satisfy their sinful desires that are largely nurtured by the dearth of discipleship in our churches. My heart is very sensitive to issues that have to do with the defiling of vulnerable people. Sadly, we are presently dealing with numerous cases of serving branch pastors and leaders in some of our denominations who are actively and regularly desecrating the altars of the Lord with sexual impunity. What is happening is beyond what I can make public. I understand the extreme sensitivity of this subject, and given this, I am carrying a weight of burden and responsibility to discharge this subject with wisdom and in the spirit of Love. As a result, I am not going to be too graphic with specific cases of what is happening in the interest of the younger believers and the dignity of the body of Christ, to which I am eternally committed.

“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.” (Ephesians 5:3).

Yes, ours is a generation of many prayerful sinners, so called believers and preachers whose prayers rarely reach the presence of God, much less having value before heaven. To save our nation, we ourselves must be saved. Our prayers seem unanswered, not because God is weak and merciless. But our iniquities have held back His hand.

However, I am appealing to our fathers in the faith, fathers who are still in touch with heaven, not to prioritise branch expansion and financial considerations above the honour and the dignity of the name of Christ. When we open up churches in every corner of our cities, we are prone to appointing some people with unscrupulous characters as shepherds over God’s sheep. Such individuals eventually become wolves whose main interests are their bellies. Sadly, when these scandals are committed, they largely go unpunished by some of the leaders, leading to the normalisation of sexual pervasion in the church. Also, the usual leaning on the words, “let’s keep quiet and pray for the church” no longer holds waters. Prayer that is devoid of genuine repentance is folly, which is exactly what has brought us to where we are today. We pray so much and repent so little, producing a generation of very prayerful sinners.

“And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.” (Revelations 2:21).

Yes, ours is a generation of many prayerful sinners, so called believers and preachers whose prayers rarely reach the presence of God, much less having value before heaven. To save our nation, we ourselves must be saved. Our prayers seem unanswered, not because God is weak and merciless. But our iniquities have held back His hand. The leaders, the fathers, have the first responsibility before God to raise the banner of righteousness – no sexual pervert must be covered and laundered. Money must not be traded for value and for virtue. Sexual perverts must be identified, disciplined, restored in love, and where possible, exposed to save the souls of their innocent preys. Our younger ones must be protected from sexual predators. Single ladies must be protected. Our teenage girls must not be afraid to visit their pastors for counselling. The dignity of the name of Christ must be restored and preserved. The future of the church must be preserved. The moral compass of the larger society must be positively influenced by the church. Let the church in Nigeria flee sexual immorality!

Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele@gmail.com.