Not only in person, but also in online video this so-called prophet solicits the specific amount of KSh 310 “seed money”¹.

Conmanship in the church

by Eric Bosire • 18 April 2024

Agnes^*, a born again member of one of the churches in Kisii, explains how our Kenyan church has people whose values are contrary to true doctrines, people who believe in the gospel of material prosperity: Such kind only show up when they hear of prophetic sermons being announced because they know something good will be prophesied about them. (Some of these prophecies end up being fulfilled while others don’t.)

At one point, a prophet from a foreign country (which she did not disclose) was invited to minister in their church. She recalls very well that during that time, they were in dire need of funds as a church to help them pay their annual land lease and so the church development committee had reached out to the members to help in raising the funds. On the fundraising day, they only managed to raise a quarter of the total amount that was needed since some members decided to stay at home perhaps for lack of money as some purported. 

Surprisingly when the members heard through bulletins that the prophet was coming to minister in their church for the 3 days they came out in large numbers. The prophet came, he preached and prophesied to people. On the second day of the prophet’s visit, the members were given envelopes to return them with money on the last day. Mark you, each envelope was labeled with a specific amount of money, eg Kshs 10,000, Kshs 5000, Kshs 2000². 

“After the 3 days the prophet garnered money over 3 quarters of our land lease from the same members who had cried out that they didn’t have monies because no prophecy was done minus one dishing out cash,” said Agnes. The prophet took all the money he raised for himself.

According to Agnes, it was wrong and a false gospel for the prophet to source out money from believers through prophecies. He ought to have prophesied for free if indeed he was a true prophet. This shows that believers too have been brainwashed into believing this as the true gospel which is not right. “Luckily enough the church executive resolved not to invite such ministers who plant false doctrines amongst believers,” noted Agnes.

Unfortunately, what Ages described, mixing up prophecy and money matters, is rather common in Kenya. Many pastors have deviated from the true gospel and are teaching that being materially wealthy is a sign of true blessing from the Lord. Congregants are subjected to some kind of giving that is inappropriate and not consistent with the teachings in the Bible. They are told that in order to receive a certain blessing, for example business growth, one must give an offering, some pastors call it ‘planting a seed’. In most cases, these pastors are primarily seeking to benefit themselves. 

It feels absurd to speak of conmanship in the church. It sounds so bad because the church is a holy place, where people congregate to worship and praise God our creator. But there are people who complain about being duped by ‘men of God’, such complaints are highly visible on social media platforms. Some pastors even commit acts that are quite barbaric in the name of blessing the congregants. Needless to say, all of that is quite contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

The perpetrators of these acts do not necessarily do them in every Sunday church service; mostly they do it in special church conference meetings and crusades where a large number of people is reached at a go. In these meetings, people are sold e.g. “anointed water” or handkerchiefs and are told that by using these things as instructed, their problems will be solved. Some ‘men of God’ use mainstream media and social media platforms to pursue their agenda, they urge their viewers to send a certain offering in return, they pray for them and convince them that their problems will come to an end; be it lack of employment, marital problems, sickness etc.

Relatively few church leaders speak out publicly against these practices, warning that these acts of conmanship put the development of the Body of Christ in jeopardy in the Kenyan church. For a more in-depth understanding, I caught up with some of these critics, so as to get their explanations. 

Pastor Oscar^*, an associate pastor in one of the churches in Kisii, said that conmanship in the church is aided by the “Christians” who are lazy to study the word of God diligently. “Christians that are after the blessings but not the blesser. They do not want to seek God first and His righteousness so that all things will be added to them, they take shortcuts.” he said.

From Pastor Oscar’s observation, the self-proclaimed prophets have mastered the art of playing with people’s psychology. “They know how to package their sermons well in order to prey on the vulnerable in the society, they will tell people with terminal illness that if they saw huge amounts of seed in form of money sacrifice, they will receive healing, in their desperate state some even end up selling their assets for such miracles,” said Pastor Oscar. 

According to Pastor Oscar, the so-called men of God flaunt a lifestyle likened to that of the secular celebrities at the expense of vulnerable poor people whom they have captured using their fake message of selling pure hope. “Some of them fake miracles in order to attract innocent people and all their fake miracles are televised for the entire world to see. Indeed, a perfect example of wolves in sheep skins, as Jesus would refer to them,” said Oscar. “One of the so-called prophets in the country who normally asks for a specific amount of prophetic seed is on record admitting that it is all lies and tricks for him to escape poverty.”³

Pastor Oscar advised that believers should be keen enough in following what the Bible says and maybe they would not fall in the trap of being conned.

Pastor Andrew^*, a pastor in one of the churches in Nairobi said that the Bible is very categorical, that the gifts of God or the responsibilities that are given to the clergy or people that God has gifted in different areas of ministry work is supposed to be free and to build the body of Christ. “You’ll find that in some Kenyan churches today, the men of God bestowed with gifts are using them to trade for something. For example, when a man is gifted with a gift of healing you will find that he charges people which is the highest order of conmanship. These gifts are for free and therefore they should be given out for free because the Bible says that freely you were given freely you should give.”  

What makes it worse as Pastor Andrew puts it, is that some pastors perform miracles that for sure are not from God and end up making money out of them. Spiritual matters of God or the things that God has invested spiritually in our lives are supposed to be for free and for the edification of the church. Nobody is supposed to benefit out of it materially. 

According to Pastor Andrew, the so-called men of God come up with bottled water, oil and handkerchiefs and they sell to their members. “This is not good at all; it is an abomination unto the Lord.

We pray and hope that God will help us to remove all these filths out of the church of Kenya,” concluded Pastor Andrew.

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Notes:

* Agnes, Pastor Oscar and Pastor Andrew are not their real names.

1 The amount of 310 Kenyan shillings is about 2.10 CHF or 2.19 EUR or 2.33 USD; the solicitation is for people to send him this small amount by means of m-pesa mobile money transfer. (The mobile telephone numbers to which people are supposed send the money are blackened out here.)   back

2 The amount of 10000 Kenyan shillings is about 68.55 CHF or 70.57 EUR or 75.14 USD. The amount of 5000 Kenyan shillings is about 34.25 CHF or 35.29 EUR or 37.57 USD. The amount of 2000 Kenyan shillings is about 13.70 CHF or 14.11 EUR or 15.03 USD. For many Kenyans, these are significant amount of money.   back

3 See https://www.citizen.digital/entertainment/pastor-kanyari-mbegu-ya-310-was-a-means-to-get-out-of-poverty-n335836. The phrase “mbegu ya 310” is Swahili for “seed of 310”.   back

About the author:
Eric Bosire is a Kenyan Journalist. He is based in Kisii.

Suggested citation:
Eric Bosire: Conmanship in the church. MissionField News (ISSN 2813-2270)
https://missionfield.news/2024/9_Conmanship 2024-04-18.