I have carried a burden for our nation Nigeria since my early days as a believer. I remember vividly that the first time I got really emotional in the place of prayer that i shed tears was when praying for Nigeria. I have since then wondered how I can do something about the situation in Nigeria to make an impact for change, but the problem in the nation soared to a height where there is a situation better described in the words of the great prophet, Tunde Bakare of The Latter Rain Assemby, Lagos Nigeria that "Nigerian government officials are not corrupt, but corruption has become official in Nigeria".
The nation's problem seem to have overwhelmed everybody that even the Church seem to have lost hope, prayers for the nation has become just an item on the agenda of our meetings; citizens accept the wrongs in the society and every will to fight for change seem to have failed us.
The problem seem unsurmountable, but it recently dawned on me that God has not given up on Nigeria and that He is waiting for His agency which is the Church in the country to do something about the situation, He is waiting for the Church to give Him a platform to stand upon, regardless of how small. This brought the message of the "Parable of the leaven" home to me.
Our Church, The Kingdom Citizens's Pavilion decided two weeks ago to respond to this by offering God a platform & this gave birth to the PATRIS INITIATIVE.
The Vision, the affirmation & vows of this initiative is what i have decided to share as the Proceeding Word in this edition.
God bless you as you read and I challenge Nigerians reading this to consider being signatories to our Affirmation and Denials on our website: www.thekingdomcitizens.org
The nation's problem seem to have overwhelmed everybody that even the Church seem to have lost hope, prayers for the nation has become just an item on the agenda of our meetings; citizens accept the wrongs in the society and every will to fight for change seem to have failed us.
The problem seem unsurmountable, but it recently dawned on me that God has not given up on Nigeria and that He is waiting for His agency which is the Church in the country to do something about the situation, He is waiting for the Church to give Him a platform to stand upon, regardless of how small. This brought the message of the "Parable of the leaven" home to me.
Our Church, The Kingdom Citizens's Pavilion decided two weeks ago to respond to this by offering God a platform & this gave birth to the PATRIS INITIATIVE.
The Vision, the affirmation & vows of this initiative is what i have decided to share as the Proceeding Word in this edition.
God bless you as you read and I challenge Nigerians reading this to consider being signatories to our Affirmation and Denials on our website: www.thekingdomcitizens.org
Patris Initiative
The Vision, The Affirmation, The Denials & The Vow
Patris Initiative is a ministry of The Kingdom Citizens’ Pavilion with a mandate to restore the values of responsible citizenship in the national consciousness of Nigeria.
The Word “PATRIS” is a Greek word which means FATHERLAND and it is the root word for PATRIOT which means one who supports his own fatherland, a proud supporter and defender of his own country and its way of life.
This definition especially the part that has to do with defending “its way of life” poses a great challenge as the current way of life in Nigeria needs a confrontation rather than a defence, hence this action initiative.
PATRIS INITIATIVE (PI) is a Christian Action Initiative which is borne out of the belief that the Church stands as the only hope of National well being for both the government and the governed.
We desire to restore PATRIOTISM, (a passionate love for our fatherland) as a core value in our national life through the application of Biblical principles and God revealed strategies.
In the words of Martin Luther, the great reformer “If our speaking fails to address the precise point at which the world of our time aches, we are not really preaching the Word”.
This aptly portrays the experience of our nation Nigeria where Churches dot every corner of our towns and cities; a large percentage of TV viewing time is given to all forms of religious programs but this trend has not in any way impacted the nation in any meaningful way; it has no effect whatsoever on our national life. It is as if the upsurge of Churches and the increase in social, economic and political degradation are somehow related.
This situation has remained the way it is because Christians have lost sight of the purpose of the Church as Jesus intended it in His words in His first mention of the Word Church – “I will build my Church and gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
This very statement reveals that the Church will engage some hostile powers and will definitely overcome them.
These words played out in the experience of the early Church in the book of Acts and down through the ages, the Church has always been an agent of social change by serving as leaven permeating and transforming the social order.
This position may conjure up the historical images of the dark age of the Inquisition, the violent militance of the Crusades and the Western Protestant Empires; it is so because recent experiences have revealed the Church as a docile and moribund institution whose major duty is singing hymns and printing posters to advertise some unrealistic healing and miracle meetings without any societal relevance.
Patris Initiative is a humble attempt of our ministry to respond to God’s desire to return His Church to that leaven that permeates society, we firmly agree with the words of the Pilipino author who played a formidable role in the fight for social justice under the totalitarian government in the Philippines – she wrote:
“The Church seems such a straggling minority to take upon itself the task of changing society. This overlooks the fact that the powers of the kingdom are already present. The Kingdom is not entirely future...It is here, leavening history in a powerful way”
Melba Padilla Maggay, (Transforming Society- Reflections of Kingdom and Politics 2004)
PI agrees with T.S. Eliot when he argues that “The Church’s message to the world must be expanded to mean ‘the Church’s business to interfere with the world”’.
The gospel when faithfully and accurately preached will turn the world upside down. To speak of Jesus as Lord is to demand subjection of personal and social life under His kingly rule. To call for repentance is to ask people to turn away, not simply from their individual vices, but from participation in the collective guilt of organised injustice. To invite people to come in faith is to challenge them to walk in trusting obedience, to God in the agony of commitment and concrete engagement in the life of the world.
The Gospel is more than a set of things to believe about Christ, it is a radical call to come under the discipline of the Kingdom – rich selling all they have and giving them to the poor and the corrupt Inland Revenue official to repay what he has stolen.
The Church in its present state especially in Nigeria with all its wealth and size is proving to the world that in spite of its physical presence and millions on its roll call, it is still “a straggling minority to take upon itself the task of changing society”; the reason is that the Gospel has been limited to the salvation of the soul as a means of going to heaven and avoiding hell even if it means living in hell in the earth.
Our mandate in Patris Initiative is to wake up this sleeping giant to begin to take its God given role as world changers.
Patris Initiative strives to wake up the Nigerian Nation from the slumber of “Shuffering & Shmiling” to borrow the words of the late musician, Fela’s words.
The nation has gotten used to dead infrastructures and unrighteous governments only to be contented with complaints and talk. We have lost all juice to sustain any struggle; it is almost impossible for any civil society in Nigeria to sustain a struggle for more than few days without breaking ranks.
It is to these trends that Patris Initiative is saying NO.
We believe that it is only the Church that can take on the fight for social justice and righteousness and it will still be correct because it will be done through the Biblical injunction of the expansion of the Kingdom beginning from within us.
There is something about the faith that Jesus Christ left for us as a legacy that has the power to turn the world upside down.
Patris Initiative firmly believes that there is a relationship between real evangelism and social action.
When the Church begins to preach the “Authentic Gospel” TM, that is, the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and bequeathed to His disciples to preach – Matthew 10:7-8:
Matt 10:7-8
7 And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. NKJV
The gospel is that the long awaited kingdom, its reign of peace, justice and righteousness has finally come and it has come in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ present here on earth.
It is a sin for a believer to abstain from the politics of his day because the Kingdom as Jesus preached it is a political term, it has more to do than just the saving of souls.
The idea that Jesus proclaimed Himself as King reveals the political content of His mission; His kingdom was not just a spiritual kingdom, scripture reveals that He is not just king over the human heart, he is also the ‘King of the Jews’ (Matthew 27:11). He never said that His Kingdom was not in the world; it was simply not of the world.
It is on this premise that PATRIS INITIATIVE stands – to use the timeless spiritual Biblical principles of social action to influence our present national experience to establish responsible citizenship and good governance.
We believe that the God of Creation will direct our noble cause.
The Vision, The Affirmation, The Denials & The Vow
Patris Initiative is a ministry of The Kingdom Citizens’ Pavilion with a mandate to restore the values of responsible citizenship in the national consciousness of Nigeria.
The Word “PATRIS” is a Greek word which means FATHERLAND and it is the root word for PATRIOT which means one who supports his own fatherland, a proud supporter and defender of his own country and its way of life.
This definition especially the part that has to do with defending “its way of life” poses a great challenge as the current way of life in Nigeria needs a confrontation rather than a defence, hence this action initiative.
PATRIS INITIATIVE (PI) is a Christian Action Initiative which is borne out of the belief that the Church stands as the only hope of National well being for both the government and the governed.
We desire to restore PATRIOTISM, (a passionate love for our fatherland) as a core value in our national life through the application of Biblical principles and God revealed strategies.
In the words of Martin Luther, the great reformer “If our speaking fails to address the precise point at which the world of our time aches, we are not really preaching the Word”.
This aptly portrays the experience of our nation Nigeria where Churches dot every corner of our towns and cities; a large percentage of TV viewing time is given to all forms of religious programs but this trend has not in any way impacted the nation in any meaningful way; it has no effect whatsoever on our national life. It is as if the upsurge of Churches and the increase in social, economic and political degradation are somehow related.
This situation has remained the way it is because Christians have lost sight of the purpose of the Church as Jesus intended it in His words in His first mention of the Word Church – “I will build my Church and gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
This very statement reveals that the Church will engage some hostile powers and will definitely overcome them.
These words played out in the experience of the early Church in the book of Acts and down through the ages, the Church has always been an agent of social change by serving as leaven permeating and transforming the social order.
This position may conjure up the historical images of the dark age of the Inquisition, the violent militance of the Crusades and the Western Protestant Empires; it is so because recent experiences have revealed the Church as a docile and moribund institution whose major duty is singing hymns and printing posters to advertise some unrealistic healing and miracle meetings without any societal relevance.
Patris Initiative is a humble attempt of our ministry to respond to God’s desire to return His Church to that leaven that permeates society, we firmly agree with the words of the Pilipino author who played a formidable role in the fight for social justice under the totalitarian government in the Philippines – she wrote:
“The Church seems such a straggling minority to take upon itself the task of changing society. This overlooks the fact that the powers of the kingdom are already present. The Kingdom is not entirely future...It is here, leavening history in a powerful way”
Melba Padilla Maggay, (Transforming Society- Reflections of Kingdom and Politics 2004)
PI agrees with T.S. Eliot when he argues that “The Church’s message to the world must be expanded to mean ‘the Church’s business to interfere with the world”’.
The gospel when faithfully and accurately preached will turn the world upside down. To speak of Jesus as Lord is to demand subjection of personal and social life under His kingly rule. To call for repentance is to ask people to turn away, not simply from their individual vices, but from participation in the collective guilt of organised injustice. To invite people to come in faith is to challenge them to walk in trusting obedience, to God in the agony of commitment and concrete engagement in the life of the world.
The Gospel is more than a set of things to believe about Christ, it is a radical call to come under the discipline of the Kingdom – rich selling all they have and giving them to the poor and the corrupt Inland Revenue official to repay what he has stolen.
The Church in its present state especially in Nigeria with all its wealth and size is proving to the world that in spite of its physical presence and millions on its roll call, it is still “a straggling minority to take upon itself the task of changing society”; the reason is that the Gospel has been limited to the salvation of the soul as a means of going to heaven and avoiding hell even if it means living in hell in the earth.
Our mandate in Patris Initiative is to wake up this sleeping giant to begin to take its God given role as world changers.
Patris Initiative strives to wake up the Nigerian Nation from the slumber of “Shuffering & Shmiling” to borrow the words of the late musician, Fela’s words.
The nation has gotten used to dead infrastructures and unrighteous governments only to be contented with complaints and talk. We have lost all juice to sustain any struggle; it is almost impossible for any civil society in Nigeria to sustain a struggle for more than few days without breaking ranks.
It is to these trends that Patris Initiative is saying NO.
We believe that it is only the Church that can take on the fight for social justice and righteousness and it will still be correct because it will be done through the Biblical injunction of the expansion of the Kingdom beginning from within us.
There is something about the faith that Jesus Christ left for us as a legacy that has the power to turn the world upside down.
Patris Initiative firmly believes that there is a relationship between real evangelism and social action.
When the Church begins to preach the “Authentic Gospel” TM, that is, the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and bequeathed to His disciples to preach – Matthew 10:7-8:
Matt 10:7-8
7 And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. NKJV
The gospel is that the long awaited kingdom, its reign of peace, justice and righteousness has finally come and it has come in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ present here on earth.
It is a sin for a believer to abstain from the politics of his day because the Kingdom as Jesus preached it is a political term, it has more to do than just the saving of souls.
The idea that Jesus proclaimed Himself as King reveals the political content of His mission; His kingdom was not just a spiritual kingdom, scripture reveals that He is not just king over the human heart, he is also the ‘King of the Jews’ (Matthew 27:11). He never said that His Kingdom was not in the world; it was simply not of the world.
It is on this premise that PATRIS INITIATIVE stands – to use the timeless spiritual Biblical principles of social action to influence our present national experience to establish responsible citizenship and good governance.
We believe that the God of Creation will direct our noble cause.
