TITLE LOVING GENERATION

BY REV. OJO GBADEGESIN

IT'S ALL ABOUT JESUS 

Someone told us a story of a Christian event somewhere, he saw the titles of a preacher..... Apostle Bishop Dr......, then he called him to pray.....alas, the man could not pray in English except vernacular, it was an embarrassment, as people could not reconcile the titles with the performance. When I was young, it was illiterate musicians who loved bogus titles.... You hear Dr, Commander,Marshal, General, one even called himself Professor Master!. Africans by nature love title! Once you're rich, you just look for chieftaincy titles , the more the better. Also, small minds like titles, to compensate for their ignorance and stupidity.

Whereas Jesus was called the Apostle of our calling, here you have Most Apostle, Most Superior Apostle, Superior Archbishop Apostle....even if Jesus was just the Bishop of our souls! It was this craze that drove the Roman Bishop to become Pope, while his eastern rival, Bishop of Constantinople became Patriach! I still wonder why Billy Graham just remained Evangelist Billy Graham or Dr Billy Graham,or simply Rev Graham or even Billy Graham! How could Adeboye remain Pastor! Kumuyi just Pastor, Gbile Akanni just Brother! Assemblies of God, my beloved church pegged it at Reverend, though Title crazy brethren are not happy with this. It is this that gave birth to all kinds of Doctoral titles!

It's among the clergy you will see all kinds of road side Doctors. Doctors who have never heard the word " abstract, Pre- field, post- field " before. It's in the church you will see professors who are not even aware that there is something called " journals". The worst are the Pentecostals, that is where you will see Bishops without dioceses, no cathedrals, with all manners of caps and vestments that reminds me of my town 's masquerades. All manners of chains and rings like the late magician called Professor Peller. Who has bewitched us into endless errors and insatiable appetite for irrelevant issues?

Jesus called himself " son of man" and that never reduced him from his status as Our Lord and Savior! All the apostles were simply apostles! Even Dr Paul was just addressed as God's servant or apostle Paul. Now, everyone is Papa! Papa means Father in Latin, If you started your ministry as Papa, where will you now go after papa? I've started seeing those who ordinarily should be ushers or Sunday school teachers being addressed as "Generals"! It's in Pentecostals armed forces, your first rank is General! and you're still asking what gave birth to arrogance, pride, egoism, insubordination, endless fragmentation etc among us.

Friends, you don't need bogus, unmerited titles to be great in the kingdom. When your title is bigger than your performance, it brings shame and ridicule. Drop that uncanonized, unrecognized, unaccredited Doctoral and professorial titles. Some even used God's money to buy all these rubbish. Academic laurels are good, if you genuinely work for them in accredited, NUC recognized Universities or Standard Affiliated or ACTEA accredited seminaries. As a beginner, you are not a Papa yet, Bishop and Pastor mean the same thing, however, Bishop oversees many churches! Apostles have landmark ministry, and having a spiritual gift of prophecy is different from being called as a Prophet. Humility is what brings kingdom greatness.

A preacher was called upon to preach with hyperbolic introduction, my church is sometimes guilty of this over introduction! The young preacher went up arrogantly, with haughty spirit, all the bogus titles and exaggerated descriptions  entered his head, he ended up saying nothing, he messed up, and he came down quietly, shamefully, with his head bowed! An old woman went to him and said " my son, if you had gone up the way you're coming down, you would have come down the way you went up! 

As we celebrate Easter, let Jesus resurrect in our alters, churches, ministries and missions agencies. It's not about us, it's about him. He must increase, while we decrease. When people over celebrate the grace of God in your lives, remember, you're not the owner! Be careful of human praises. Its all about Jesus. Stop preaching yourself, you didn't die at Calvary. Stop boasting in the name of testimonies, most of which are false, it's all about Jesus. Even if you have legitimate titles, which of course is never a sin, let it not enter your head, it's all about Jesus. We don't perform miracles, Jesus does. Happy Easter, it's all about JESUS.