Church Reopening: ‘We’ve To Remain Careful, Calm’ – Pastor Sam Adeyemi

Senior pastor of the Daystar Christian Centre (DCC), Sam Adeyemi, has encouraged Christians to remain calm during this period of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

Adeyemi who expressed displeasure over the devastating effect of the pandemic, said he is quite pained churches are closed but however everyone must bear with the situation and hold on for a while.

Adeyemi who spoke during an Instagram live interview tagged “iforowero” with BBC News Yoruba monitored by The Nation, said, “This is a worldwide issue, pastors are clamouring for the reopening of churches”. While giving an illustration of how a church in South Korea got affected by the outbreak, he said, “the church members were badly hit by this infectious disease and the pastor had to go about seeking for forgiveness.”

“Even if there is going to social distancing in our churches, how many services are we going to hold? Looking at the differences between churches with big number of members. We have to be careful and remain calm because there is no vaccine yet… As a preacher, I travel all around, but I have remained indoor with my family.”

While speaking on his church’s efforts so far in taking care of its members during this period, He said, “The money contributed was what the church used in taking care of the church members. We must take care of the people around us, just like the scripture… When a leader is far away from his followers, they won’t feel what they are going through.”

“There is a way Jesus Christ taught us to be as leaders of the church, Jesus told us to be humble and treat the people well. I was well taught in the aspect of leadership”. He added.

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Adeyemi, however, commended the efforts of the government so far, especially the Lagos state government for their continuous fight against the outbreak. He expressed mixed feelings over government’s lockdown relaxation, saying “they should have not relaxed the lockdown but due to shout of hunger. Sadly, many flouted the social distancing rule”. He, however, urged everyone to support the government and stay indoor, “if you have nowhere to go, just stay indoors. I stand with staying indoor, though it might take longer, but we just have to bear”.

While speaking on the post-COVID-19 survival for churches, he expressed fears that things might not be the same as before, He said, “when I think of the situation, many are now watching online service, many have seen the flexibility of worshipping from the comfort of their houses and might jettison the idea of going to church physically after all of this is over. It has brought about weariness”.

“Also, with the way things are going, many church members are even displeased with their churches for forsaking them during this period and not taking care of them in their own little way, it might come back to haunt some of these churches.”