PASSIONATELY DYING - THE CHURCH COLLECTED EDITON
Author: Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr.
Date: August 20th, 2026
INTRODUCTION
The 21st Century has been mother to some of the most mind-bending inventions, activities, medicine, relationships, philosophy, and most importantly, theology. “Emancipated” Theology has always been the catalyst for cultural revolution. From medieval times till now, we have seen how changes in the church and its philosophy have affected the trajectory of the world. Companies, Conglomerates, schools, universities, and Families are all radically affected when theology changes, even if it is just swayed slightly. These seemingly small changes (“and some which are just blatantly radical”) are not by mistake or accident. The Bible teaches us that once we become Christians, we join a battle with the flesh, the devil, and the world. We have been made aware of the days when the Holy Spirit was under attack, where things were being attributed to Him that are contrary to Scripture. We have seen the assault on Jesus Christ and His character. The most grievous of all is the assault on the character of God and his sovereignty, which is usually the first thing to go when the church does not have a firm stance on its Theology. In this article series, we are going to be looking at 8 things that are still going on today, especially in contemporary non-denominational churches- things fatal to the Christian, and when subconsciously embraced, they become death to the church, yet seemingly invisible to the church. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:5 that a day is coming when wolves will be in sheep's clothing. These wolves are fake pastors and elders in the church, inflicting small but critical errors. You might ask what day Jesus is talking about. Well, that day is here. In this article, we will be looking at the role of the congregation in this pandemonium.
CONTENTS
1. Congregation Compromised — May 21, 2026
2. Shepherds for Hire — May 23, 2026
3. Altars of Entertainment — May 22, 2026
4. The Gospel of Accommodation — May 26, 2026
5. Fathers Without Formation — June 11, 2026
Congregation Compromised
Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr. • May 21, 2026
Before we get to how the congregation is to live under such times, we must first answer this question: What is the purpose of a congregation? Ultimately, what is the purpose of the church? This is a fairly simple question, and I will go right to the point. The role of the church can be categorized under three things: function as the body of Christ, edify & educate believers, and Magnify God. With this in mind, we know what the congregation is supposed to do. In most cases, we as believers are very conscious of these three major things; where the rain starts beating us is in the application in totality, more so on educating and edifying believers. It is surprising that over the past decades, the IQ level across the curve has been questionable; safe to say we have a global pandemic of mental laziness. Now, why do I say this?
In contemporary churches, congregations have become accustomed to laziness when it comes to thinking and learning about God for themselves; there seems to be no more individual zeal, care, or hunger for God. These congregations have handed over the “Powers of Intellect" to the pastors and elders of the church. Could this be driven by laziness? Probably so, but I suspect the hand of the devil in this seemingly innocent act of mental laziness. Why do I say that? The answer is clear; we are living in it. There are so many biblical errors being released from pulpits without callouts or repudiation, or rejection from the congregation, yet these errors affect the life of the believer. Essentially, we have given unbiblical human beings green cards to preach whatever they want, the only rule being that the preacher has to preach their heresy passionately; then, regardless of whatever heresy it is, it gets a pass.
The wolves in sheep's clothing are truly here, and we, the church, should not be caught unaware in cognitive slumber; instead, we ought to obey Jesus just as he said in Matthew 6:33, that we should seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto us. God is pleased when His children seek him and want to know more of Him. He is also pleased when His children act out and live according to His word; edifying and educating each other just as we are called to as the church. This entails knowing and studying the word so that you will not become a victim of leaders spouting heresy on pulpits. May we not close our eyes to this manipulation of cognitive dumbness by the devil? This is as dangerous as giving your house title to your 7-year-old and watching him play with it over an open fire. There are several reasons the congregation has grown mute and no longer desires to call their leaders to a higher standard of biblical truth and knowledge, especially when they preach contrary to the Bible. Here are some of them and scripture references to help in overcoming them.
Fear of persecution (John 15:20)
No knowledge to cross-reference the heresy with (Acts 17:11)
Lack of accountability in the church
Fear of being left alone or secluded
No Avenue for voicing opinions discreetly
Lack of care for personal spiritual life
Absence of the reverence of the Holiness, Purity, and Righteousness of God (2nd Timothy 3:5)
Looking at the list above, we can tell what we once fell prey to, or what we are currently falling prey to. No matter your current spiritual level or length of pursuit of the things of God, we should never be ignorant, cognitively dead, or careless when it comes to the things of God. Let us be like the Bereans, who would not only hear the Word of God, but would read it for themselves, just as Paul reminds us in Acts 17:11.
Shepherds for Hire
Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr. • May 23, 2026
Now, this is special, because of the severity of this subject, we will waste no time. Only matching straight to the Word of God. In John chapter 18:12, Jesus says, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” To fully understand the contrast Jesus is making here, you would have to go back to when the text was written. During those days, the biggest threat to the sheep was wolves. If you did not have a reliable shepherd, you might as well start counting losses. The shepherds played a very critical role in standing between the sheep and all kinds of dangers they would face, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Now, why do I bring this up? Really, this is more of a rhetorical question. It is more than evident that the majority of the mainstream churches and some non-mainstream churches have come together into an unholy matrimony of biblical compromise under the pretence of accommodation. This is evidently to their own demise, but we shall look at that deeply later on. The growth of believers seeking God not only caught the attention of Pastors whose hearts are truly focused on being faithful shepherds, but also those who saw an opportunity for self-gain. Many true believers are now under the teaching of hired hands. Inevitably, this leads to less of the Word, if any, being preached. These are the pastors who change not only their doctrinal beliefs but the mission of the church altogether, just to accommodate a certain Board Member who contributes large amounts. These accommodations go beyond fincail again into emotional and physical gain, with some “shepherds” exploiting the sheep. Now, because of what they did, they later on have to be down and say Amen to everything the exploited sheep “suggests”.
The pulpit has become a reverse action, available to whoever wants to be paid more. This profit mentality has caused the church to be greatly affected, as now we see lines that the church was previously clear on being very blurry “intentionally” by those who stand to gain from this great worldly accommodation.
The work must first begin in the hearts of the congregants. In my previous article, I talked about how the congregation has been compromised, handing cognitive thinking prowess to the elders and leaders of the church. To a great extent, this would be one of the main reasons churches are now getting Pastors who are available to the highest bidder instead of true shepherds. The reason being, the congregation does not think or read what the bible requires of a Pastor.
Step number 1: the congregation has to smell the coffee.
Step number 2: the church leadership must be ready to sacrifice, even if it is a huge donor or a government board member who comes with benefits.
Step number 3, the church must come to a consensus on three things: 1. How do we evaluate Pastors coming in? 2. What is our church's Doctrinal Statement that the Pastor coming in must adhere to and assent to? 3. What mechanisms for accountability in the rank and file of the church are in place?
In and throughout this process of purging the congregation, the church leadership and pastor MUST keep in prayer and stay in the Holy with every decision and plan laid out; praying that God’s will and not their own happens.
Altars of Entertainment
Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr. • May 22, 2026
There is a danger in monotonous action; an action that has repeated itself for so long that the reason for its happening has been lost in time. One could say that action no longer needs to exist, but one could also argue that the action, by virtue of its unintended moral neutrality, should exist, due to its lack of external and internal influence. We came across this problem many times when we were young, especially between 7 and 12 years old. We would ask our parents, why should I brush my teeth? Why should I wash the car? Why should I take a shower? Why should I comb my hair? Why should I do my homework, etc?
Now, if our parents were not tired or angry when receiving the question, not only would they explain to us the reason we do these things, but with great care and patience, so that we may understand the reasoning behind it. When our parents received such questions when tired or angry, chances are they would just double down on the command to do the action without explaining the reasoning behind it. Sadly, this is where the church is regarding worship.
Over the decades and centuries, the understanding of worship has been diluted in increments. Worship leaders and church leadership no longer look to the Bible as a guideline for worship; rather, they develop and arrange worship according to how they want to praise God. Completely ignorant of how God wants to be worshiped. This has become such a trend in many mega churches, with some competing on how many new members came to church because of their style of worship. There is nothing wrong with receiving new members who came into the building because of the worship. There is everything wrong with the church developing and arranging worship that only targets new members. This goes into what we talked about in our last article on doctrinal accommodation. The Church's worship has now been diluted into seeker-friendly worship rather than being a moment of sacrificial offering of bodies to God in spirit and in Truth.
The church has been caught in a deadly, monotonous cycle of just playing pleasurable songs that are liked by the congregation in the name of worship. The sad thing is that the more the monotonous activity continues, the more irrelevant it becomes, the more radical its execution becomes. An activity with no moral consequences only ends in paralysis. The journey to that end may be long, but sure. Many worship leaders have become clever and realised that some songs bring out more emotion in the congregation than others. These songs have been cemented into every setlist the worship team does, due to the predictability of emotion.
The truth is, seeker-sensitive worship does more harm than good. In fact, most churches have realised this because of a turnover in the congregation. Some churches have started borrowing tricks from the world on how to attract and preserve attention. This has been achieved through strobe lights on stage, fog machines, and 50 different camera angles. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with using lights or cameras in church; this would be categorized under Adiaphorous. The problem comes when the church relies on and uses these tools in a manner that,
Takes from the main focus
Acts as a substitute for the lack of content
Imposes a monopoly of attention, the lack of which means no congregants will come.
Worship has become a cyclical activity, losing its main purpose as people have slipped into more and more of themselves instead of who the worship is for. We have to be cognizant of who defines our worship. We don’t just sing or play or use any machines we want to because we feel like it, rather, from a place of prayer and a heart that truly seeks to please God, we offer our sacrifice of praise as he commands us to. There has to be a turnaround in the understanding of who owns worship; many communities have been caught up in tradition rather than the true offering of hearts.
This is not limited to only churches that use lights and fog machines, but also to churches that have only a piano and a cajon. The same problem festers in both communities. Worship is not the time for us to pick our favourite genre, keys, and artists and combine them into a regular Sunday live performance with the congregation acting as an extra set of background vocals. Worship is not the time to show the church how high you can sing, how fast you can play, or how many modes you are familiar with. Rather, this is the time to seek God’s face, creating an atmosphere as he commands. Sometimes all God requires is just that one piano and a cajon. Sometimes God may require the fog machine, strobe lights, and the whole shebang.
Our heart, our heart, our hearts matter. Whether on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, we must always maintain a heart posture of worship. Sunday should not be the only time we seek God in song, hymns, and praises. Our Sunday should be the culmination of the worship and offering we have been presenting to God throughout the week.
OUR WORSHIP MUST BE A LIFESTYLE AND NOT A SUNDAY OCCURRENCE.
We can’t have altars of entertainment springing up in the Body of Christ. Many times, our emotional stimulation gets mistaken as a movement of the holy spirit, and we get it all wrong. Our emotional satisfaction cannot be our driving factor in worship. All worship, not only Sunday worship, has to be sacred and full of reverence for God. God commands us in the bible, especially those who serve in churches, “I will be regarded as Holy.” Performance can't be the main agenda of the day when it comes to worship. God is. The amount of gear and lights you have can’t be the main agenda when it comes to worship; God is. The genre, size of the band, and number of instruments can't be the main agenda when it comes to worship; God is.
We, as the visible church, must now move from seeker-sensitive worship into God-driven worship. The good thing is that God-driven worship, in many cases, has blessed many coming to church for the first time.
SCRIPTURAL GUIDANCE
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." – Romans 12:1
"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth." – John 4:24
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." – Psalm 100:4
"But Samuel replied: 'Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice...'" – 1 Samuel 15:22
The Gospel of Accommodation
Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr. • May 26, 2026
The logic of any institution is to move to the left towards greater accommodation. It takes no strength for any organization to move to the left. Many charges have been caught up in this institutionalized universalism. We have church leaders who have come to a true awareness that God’s word divides just as the Bible tells us. We have now decided that the Bible is divided in such a grand manner. Well, why don’t we minimize the points of division, even if the points of division include requirements for salvation? Churches have begun redefining what inequities are and how God defines them, as it is written in the Bible. Many leaders are now framing things that the Bible doesn’t frame and protesting things that the Bible does; we’ve been caught up in a true contradiction of belief. This is not the first time this is happening; when we look back into the church’s life, we see that similar attempts were made by many who were rebutted as heretics
Even though these people are cast off from teaching in the church, the students’ doctrine and beliefs very much live on. This includes universalism, secularism, and its sisters. This teaching crept into the doctrinal foundations of many megachurches, thus influencing a large population of Christians who have now united in the Kumbaya of accommodation
All this philosophy has been tried, tested, and proven to fail in the greater picture of humanity. The fact that many are now clinging to this system of thought in the church should be ringing bells in our heads. Now, you may say, " Why is this so important? She’ll even be taking time to talk about this after all. It’s just accommodation, but I beg to differ this which was started initially as small out of compromise has now evolved into affecting what the church is supposed to teach on Sunday when I have Pastors who selectively preach the messages not for the sake of organization, but for the sake of avoiding content that they deem will divide their church, essentially saying that, if God‘s word instructs us to do something that we deem to be painful or contradicting to our own ways, then we will put that instruction to the pending list
This has led to churches having uninformed congregations that are not equipped with the word, congregations that are fully at the mercy of the Pastor, who himself has chosen to omit some scriptures from the Bible teachings. Peter reminds us that we should always be ready to give a reason for our faith. We should always be ready to defend our faith, but if we are not informed, if we have never read the true word in its totality, if what we read is a skeleton that has been intentionally shaped in a certain way, hiding certain things just for our liking, then we can never fully give a reason for our faith. It’s because of this that now we are having a problem with the church where the world has saved in because people no longer know what their identity is as a member of the church or even as a member of the body of Christ, we have now become susceptible to the attacks of the world, the flesh and the devil because we are no longer equipped with a word instead all we try ourselves in is a diluted version of things that are appeasing to us. Paul warns us of this. He writes and says Be careful, for there are days coming when people won’t want to hear the true word; they will want their ears to be tickled. Essentially, they will want to hear only the things that are pleasing to their ears, and that is where the church is today.
In Romans 13: 11, Paul reminds us to wake up from slumber, for salvation is at hand. We have to wake up from this slumber of accommodation to all that blows our way. We can no longer afford to be afraid of cultural rhetoric culture backlash, or even cultural rejection. We have to preach the word in its totality without adding or omitting anything. Let us bear in mind that Jesus talks to us about these things.
He tells us that if the world prosecuted him, how much more so us, so let us not be shocked when prosecution comes to our door and try to make accommodations for every critic in the church takes on; instead, let us hold our feet firmly in the word of God and on the truth that he’s revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.
In order for the charge to no longer be susceptible to making accommodations of universalism, we must
Know who we are as the children of God, as the body of Christ, and as co-heirs of his kingdom
We must be ready to fight against cultural systems and patterns that are not biblical. Let us not accept everything that walks into our doorstep. Instead, let us shape the culture of the church according to the commandments of God. The church has to be a place of identification for believers, correction, uplifting, and experiencing the presence of God, so that those who come there experience the presence of God, his authority, and his glory
We have to explicitly instruct the coming generation. We can’t afford to leave the next generation to chance. The world is already training and developing the next generation in every industry, be it music. Fashion, entertainment, architecture, science, medicine, and philosophy. The church has to take this very seriously, instructing and ensuring that the next generation clearly understands the ways of God and not only the commands, but the why behind the practices of the church.
Universalism is a dangerous drug that slowly creeps through cracks in an organization that has forgotten its identity, what it’s about, what it is for, and what it’s supposed to do. As the church, may the Bible be our guiding light and may the Bible define our patterns. Our list of affirmations should only be declared by the church leadership, but ALWAYS defined by God
Fathers Without Formation
Nehemiah Muhiri Mahulo Sr. • June 11, 2026
It goes without saying that there is a lack of discipleship in most churches right now. There is no clear guideline to produce a certain kind of Christian. Many youth start deviating from the church as they get into their senior year of college. The secular world has unfortunately done a good job in developing a pathway towards becoming the man or woman they desire, a man or woman who fits into their wants and needs. Most churches have left the growth of their youth to chance; they have become comfortable with having gaps in their growth. It is important for young people to grow in all areas: spiritual, physical, psychological, and social.
The spiritual life of any young person should be intentionally nurtured and fed; this can never be left to chance. Am sure most of us have encountered Christians who seem to have basic gaps in their theology. These are not complicated matters of Doctrine but basic matters such as the lordship of Christ, the Trinity, and the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is these same uninformed people who have amassed a great following on media channels and are leading many astray. It is truly a sad situation of the blind leading the blind. A biblical church takes great care of the edification of all its young people, especially on matters of doctrine.
Now, it is very evident that youth with no discipleship will grow up leading many astray and away from true doctrine, so why do churches keep slacking on this very issue of discipleship? Well, I've taken time to think about this, and I have come to the conclusion that even as some churches are completely unaware of what is happening, some churches are doing this intentionally in order to not to have biblical disciples but dependants. Dependants in the church will not question you; they will not raise a hand against your instructions, but biblical disciples will.
The fear of many pastors and churches that practice heresy of doctrine and conduct is that one of their own will call them out. They would rather raise young Christians under a carefully crafted gospel that leads to dependency. There are many churches succumbing to the pressures of the world, and some have blatantly disregarded the Bible. One may ask at that point, why do you still meet under the guise of a church? At that point, it is more prudent and honest to come before the church and say we are no longer a church but just an organization that meets every Sunday from 10 pm to 12 pm with a time for donations. This is what many churches have become, and this is where many churches are heading.
Accountability within the church through internal members has been weakened by the intentional partial or, in some cases, complete removal of the True, Hot teaching of the Bible. Instead of bible study during the week, many churches have resorted to continuous picnics and game nights. Now, there is nothing wrong with picnics and game nights, but if that's all the church is about, the priorities have been inverted. As much as social church gatherings are beautiful, they should not replace Bible study, nor should they replace the nurturing and discipleship many need. This has to be more intentional than throwing balls on Sunday afternoon; again, nothing wrong with that in itself. One of the problems Jesus had with the Pharisees was that they had become masters in majoring in minors. They were very scrupulous on the minor details of the law but very blind to the important matters of the law. This can be likened to many current churches. How many picnics did we do this month? How many marriage park walks did we do this month? These things are good, but are not the heart of the matter. True biblical discipleship requires intentional edification and correction, not just normal conversations but targeted discussions revealing the deeper things of God.
If you are an Elder or a member of a church where you see this occurring, here are some suggestions:
Teach people to study the bible for themselves, not to believe something coz the pastor said so, but because the bible says so.
Create an environments that welcome theological questions rather than an occultic allergy to questions
Move from sermon consumption to scriptural learning, Q&A after service, bible study groups, and community groups
Ensure every believer knows they are a minister; it is not just the pastor. Equip them for ministry
Decentralize spiritual authority, remove the notion that you need “me” to hear from God, and teach how to test impressions biblically
Model transparency from the church leadership, and remove the notion of untouchable authorities
Encourage everyone to have personal devotion
Move from celebrating attendance to the maturity of your current congregation.
FINAL SYNOPSIS
This collection is ultimately a summons to wakefulness.
The church does not die only when it openly rejects Christ. It can also weaken through small compromises that become normal: congregations surrendering discernment, shepherds becoming hired hands, worship becoming entertainment, accommodation replacing conviction, and discipleship being replaced by activity.
Yet the purpose of these essays is not merely to criticize. It is to call the church back to what it was always meant to be: a people formed by Scripture, governed by Christ, led by faithful shepherds, marked by holy worship, strengthened through discipleship, and willing to stand upon truth even when truth is costly.
The answer to a compromised church is not novelty. It is faithfulness.
May the church wake from slumber, return to the Word, and passionately pursue the God whom it exists to glorify.
“The answer to a compromised church is not novelty. It is faithfulness.”
