The Founder and General Overseer of the New Revival Bethel Fire Ministries, Bishop Stephen Yuiah, has cautioned pastors against extortion from their members and others who asked for their help, because their position was not to use the people to enrich themselves.
He stressed the need for them to emulate Christ, who gave support to those in need without collecting anything from them.
Bishop Yuiah said it was unfortunate that some pastors had deviated from their core mandate of propagation of the Gospel and working within their call to save lives, turned to make the sale of anointing oil as if that was the main purpose for which they were called to the ministry.
Bishop Yuiah gave the caution at the 2023 annual National Convention of the Church at Etordome in the Ho East District, which also saw the ordination of five newly trained pastors and four evangelists, who were empowered to become more responsible in their various ministries.
He explained that he was not against the use an anointing oil, because he also used it in the church, but the sale of the oil was the problem, since both the rich and the poor needed spiritual help from the church, and if the poor could not have access to the oil simply because they could not afford it, would mean that they had been isolated from benefiting from the church.
According to the Bishop, the sale of anointing oil had made some people to believe that Christianity largely depended on the use of anointing oil, and would not visit churches where they did not sell the oil, which he pointed out was unfortunate.
Bishop Yuiah, therefore asked Christians to study and follow the teachings of the Bible which would help them to build their faith and understood God better to enable them to worship him well, and added that Ghanaians should also stop craving for anointing oil as if it was the ultimate to Christianity.
Bishop Yuiah touching on the theme: “All Acted As One”, stressed the need for all leaders to unite and work faithfully including church leaders, chiefs, heads of department and politicians to ensure rapid development of the country.
The General Secretary of the Church, the Rev Killian Okitikroh said the church also embarked on farming of food crops and livestock to generate income for the church, and encouraged the youth to emulate the church and regard agriculture as a business instead of looking for an un-existing white colour job.
Rev Okitikroh announced that the New Revival Bethel Fire Ministries healed spiritual sicknesses and physically through the use of the Bible and herbs because it was revealed to the founder that God power was hidden in his creation like herbs and when revealed could be used for healing to glorify the creator.
He said hundreds of people travelled from far and near to seek spiritual and physical healing from the church and appealed to the government to rehabilitate the Sokode-Bame road, to facilitate smooth transportation of patients to the church as well as goods and services to other parts of the region.
