Dr Amaechi Nwachukwu, the Presiding Pastor of Rhema Deliverance Mission, Awka, Anambra State, has actually stated that much of his fellow pastors have succumbed to holding Valentine’s Day celebrations in their churches because they fear losing members.

He spoke on Sunday, during the church service, stating that a lot of pastors were under pressure to please their members, and so they believe that instead of letting them hold the event outside, they bring them into the church to celebrate the day.

February 14 every year is reserved as enthusiasts’ day, in celebration of St Valentine, a priest of the Catholic church, who was stated to have committed his life to commemorating love by secretly wedding event youths in love.

The pastor in his preaching on Sunday said: “In this church, we will never ever commemorate anything that is not in the bible. Here, the bible is our guide.

“These days, the church is ending up being too worldly. A great deal of our pastors today are under pressure, most of them have actually succumbed to commemorate Valentine’s Day in their churches, so that they do not lose members.

“Some fear that if they do refrain from doing it, their members might say that the pastor is not a modern-day individual. It is time to define who is a child of God. Lots of churches are now too worldly, and they are under pressure to do what the world does because they do not want to lose members.

“Let us ask ourselves, what worth does Valentine celebration contribute to us. Anything that will increase your desire for sin is not of Christ. I have constantly stated it, we will never preach anything we do not see in the bible.

“This church has three doors, any day you do not like what we state, simply utilize any of the doors and leave, however we can not preach to you anything we did not see in the bible since we want to keep our members.”

He firmly insisted that there are individuals in the bible who offered their lives for the proliferation of the gospel but have not been commemorated. He likewise insisted that there are some commands by Christ, which have actually not been followed; instead, individuals discover time to celebrate things they know less about.

“If it has to do with commemorating love, it is something we need to do every day. Nobody is celebrating the very first man who was eliminated for the sake of the gospel, no one is commemorating the feast of the martyrdom of Peter.

“In breaking bread, Christ stated– ‘do this as often as you can, do this in memory of me’ how often have we commemorated the death of Christ for us? How often have we done this in his memory? Why are we not commemorating Peter, I can not commemorate what I do not see in the bible,” Nwachukwu stated.

ToriNG