Clerics react to strange Church praying with beer

By Mary Agidi

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Mixed reactions have continued to trail a video circulating online showing a Nigerian pastor and his congregants holding bottles of a liquor “beer” during a church service to observe a prayer session titled “My Star Must Shine Prayer”.

In Christendom nowadays, due to the proliferation of denominations in Christendom, founders of these churches are inculcating different doctrines in running their worship. While some doctrines are Biblical, some have been described as self-adopted and contrary to Christian beliefs.

Some pastors came up with doctrines that tend to attract congregants, especially when they are favourable or in tandem with the lifestyles their target audience desire to live. These doctrines are actually far different from the earliest  worship practiced by old-time churches because they are permitted to mix their worldly lifestyles with church service.

In some churches, pastors use water and oil to anoint for healing, to profess blessings, and for ordination. Some use mantles or handkerchiefs, while in white garment churches, they use candles, salt, water, etc.

These aforementioned items have their roots in the Bible.

But how does one justify the doctrine of asking church members to bring alcoholic drinks, beer in particular, to church services for prayers is the question on the lips of many people

This has attracted criticism from Nigerians. While some reactions ridiculed Christianity, some made jest of the pastor’s style of prayer.

A netizen who simply goes by the name EreluRoz on Nairaland said: “Honestly, Christianity has become a joke.”

“BeyondCertainty” on Nairaland also said: “I am guessing they’ll also be told to drink the content of the bottle afterward to eventually make their star shine. Bringing a bottle of beer to the church isn’t an issue; it’s only a dramatic situation to help some people focus on prayers. But they should not be allowed to drink the content within the church premises, period.”

BruceBoss commented thus: “A pastor who is a HERO deserves a TROPHY, which makes him a LEGEND to break the GUINNESS record of STARS.” His comment came amidst many more hilarious comments.

To know if it is biblical to use beer or any alcoholic drinks for prayers in Christendom, The Hope spoke with some notable Christian clerics.

The immediate past State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. John Ayo-Oladapo, nullified the action, saying such cannot be assumed to be synonymous with using salt, water, oil, or mantle to pray.

He explained that Biblically, there are instances of prophets who performed healing miracles with the use of mantles, water, and salt under the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, any pastor using these items might be doing so as directed by God.

He, however, affirmed that using beer for prayer is not Christ-like.

“It is possible God is leading you to pray on a handkerchief and place it on a sick person. It is also possible God may ask you to pray on water and drink it to be healed. He may say take this salt, put it in water, and drink it because medically salt has a way of dealing with rottenness and the like. We have cases of that in the Bible, but one condition is you must be convinced that it is God leading you to do that.

“But when it comes to using beer, Christianity doesn’t subscribe to the taking of alcohol. Where I belong, the Baptist Church, which is an evangelical church, we don’t drink or use it as a beverage to entertain visitors. “What we don’t drink, how can my God now ask me to use it for prayers? After I pray on it, what should I do with it?

Should I drink it or pour it out as a libation, which is also a sin in the scripture? It’s only in the traditional setting that they pour libation.

“In the Christian faith, I want to emphatically say that God can not contradict himself. “Since God does not subscribe to the taking of alcohol, then He can not ask someone to use it to pray. That is the spiritual dimension to it.

“The physical dimension to it is that it intoxicates. What if church members begin to drink it in the church and become intoxicated? Is that not another way of leading members to become drunkards?

“I want to say emphatically, that is not God. I doubt if the video is a church, and if it is a church, they have gone outside the leading of the Holy Spirit,” he asserted.

In his contribution, the State Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Kolawole Opayinka, described the doctrine of the pastor as barbaric and demonic, saying it is not a Christian practice.

“The so-called pastor may want to justify himself with what happened in John chapter 2 where Jesus Christ turned water to wine, and another aspect of the Bible where Paul was talking to Timothy to be taking wine because of the ailment of his body. All those wines are not alcoholic because the scripture forbids alcohol.

“Proverbs 31 talks about King Lemuel where his mother counsels him that a king shouldn’t spoil himself with strong drinks.

“Apart from the Biblical view of the whole thing, is it even ideal? Does it even apply to common sense? What people do outside and get intoxicated. Can’t you separate the church of God from a beer parlour? If you are asking your people to bring beer to the church, that means such a location is no longer a church but a beer parlour. Why then do you preach against people that go to the beer parlour?

“It is not of God at all. I stand to say that it is unchristian and far different from Christian doctrine. We are not talking about religion now, but Christian standards.

“It does not appeal to our common sense, moral upbringing, and ethics. So, it is not of God,” he averred.