The Nigerian Bomber

The utterance of Nigerian government officials on this terror suspect saga is worrisome and does not paint our dear country Nigeria in good light.

I cannot understand the rationale behind Mrs Akunyili's (the information Minister) statement that the suspect "sneaked into the country", i thought this man is a Nigerian & i believe carries a Nigerian passport. Mr Demuren (The Director of Civil Aviation) even said that his office will investigate whether the man is a Nigerian & that he actually travelled from Nigeria when it has been proven that this man actually did. While this act is condemnable, our officials should not deny their own citizen but assist the US government in their investigation. These utterances are quite disturbing as it shows the level of quality we have in our government. The international community should also show restraint in dealing with Nigerians travelling to the West and the US as this incident cannot in any way be said to be a reflection of a larger Nigerian involvement in terrorism, the action of Alhaji Mutalab, the suspects father, in reporting his son to the US embassy speak volumes about the integrity of Nigerians and the extent to which our citizens can go to prevent senseless and wanton destruction of lives, his action should be commended indeed.

The IRAN PROTEST, lessons for Nigeria

I followed the recently concluded elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran at least from the time that the protests started and it got me thinking about my dear country. What really got my attention was the way the opposition staged their protest especially its spontaneity which lends credence to its validity and a true reflection of the aspirations of the people.

My focus in this write up is the lessons that Nigeria can learn from the recent event, I am not superstitious or else I would have said the election being held on the 12^th of June speaks volume to Nigeria but I guess it was just a coincidence, but our June 12 1993 which was adjudged to be the best election held in Nigeria produced in us as a nation something that this same election produced in the Islamic republic – A PROTEST MENTALITY – this we seem to have lost over the years and I believe it is one BIG REASON why our governments continue in their irresponsibility.

We Nigerians are quick to look for the quickest & comfortable alternative every time our governments fail to provide the necessary facilities that make for civilised living – the generator for normal power supply, the rush for the hiked “black market” fuel when marketers choose to make more money in the name of fuel scarcity and many more.

I wonder if we will ever be able to stand up to protest in this country again, stage a well organised and sustained protest such as we had in Iran in the past few weeks that got the attention of the government; such as we had during the “Frank Kokori led strike” that paralysed the nation in reaction to the annulment of the June 12 election in 1993. I sincerely believe that Nigerians were ready to end up like Lady Neda the now icon of the Iran protest. We were ready then to dare armoured tanks like the Chinese student I saw on CNN.

What we have allowed these political charlatans to do to our psyche has encouraged them to continue to subjugate us in our nation, putting the worst the nation can get in the most sensitive positions.

There is really nothing much to expect from a president like Umaru Yar’adua accomplish in a world where the Obamas lead nations; we seem to just have found a way into the Stone Age due to our quest for the easy life of what Fela Anikulapo Kuti will call “Suffering and Smiling”.

It is unbelievable that we still have a situation where University lecturers go on strike for months to press home demands for better conditions of service; I actually see this as a deliberated strategy to deny the nation credible university graduates as that will keep this political opportunists to perpetuate themselves in office and keep the nation in darkness.

We cannot afford to continue to accept this MESS as normal but it is going to require a mentality that shuns comfort and embrace the spirit of sacrifice.

Our leaders (or better still rulers) are riding on our addiction for convinience and love for life; Jesus says that those who love their lives will lose, while those who put theirs on the line for a good cause will find it. This ancient wisdom is still much valid today as when it was written.

We need to get our bearing back and it must start with a general call for the PRESIDENT TO RESIGN as he has no clue as to what it takes to take this country out this economic, social and economic doldrums.

I know you are thinking the same thing

SWOT analysis of the Nigerian Church

Hello there, my post today is actually a Position Paper for my Masters Program in Christian leadership submitted to West African Theological Seminary as part of requirements for the award of my degree. After i finished the piece, i thought it might be great to share with all. God bless you as you read:

S.W.O.T ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEMPORARY NEO-PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT AND MISSION – FOUNDED CHURCHES IN NIGERIA
There is now global consensus that Africa has become the epicentre of Christianity and if that is to be taken as true, it does mean that a sizeable percentage of the Christian activities in the world are taking place in Nigeria being the most populous country in Sub Saharan Africa.
The Church in Nigeria has experienced phenomenal growth in the last forty years which began with the civil war revival in the Eastern part of the nation which spread to other parts of the nation when the principal actors of that revival left the mainline churches as a result of persecution to set up independent churches founded along Pentecostal doctrine line of Holy Ghost baptism with its attendant focus on gifts and power for healing and financial prosperity.
It is an undeniable fact the Pentecostal Church movement has become a force to be reckoned with in Nigeria and indeed the world over and to say that Nigeria has been a major player will not be an exaggeration.
It is therefore necessary to sift through the Nigerian Church to see how its strength & weaknesses; the opportunities that is available for sustaining the momentum and also look at the weaknesses in order to prevent a recurrence of what the church has experienced over the ages – the revival and death syndrome.
The Pentecostal Church in Nigeria has recorded great strides in many areas especially in the area of numerical strength, it was recently agreed that the Redeemed Christian Church of God hosted the largest human gathering in history at their Holy Ghost Congress which attracted over five million people in one night praying.
This numerical growth has greatly enhanced the status of the leaders of these Churches; one of the renowned international magazines listed Pastor Enoch Adeboye as one of the one hundred most influential personalities in the world ranking side by side political figures like Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton.
This has also led to great sense of member confidence in the Church leaders which has impacted positively on commitment to Christian service with talents, giftings and finances.
The great influence of these leaders have also attracted the elites to the Church which was not the case at the beginning of the Pentecostal move even though the founding actors of the Pentecostal move were educated, their membership were basically the lower or at best the middle cadre populace. The elites still preferred to remain in the mainline Churches because of credibility questions, but this has been largely eliminated with the growth in stature of these Pentecostal Churches.
The influx of these elites have also translated into financial strength for these Pentecostal Churches so much so that these Churches has become like governments in their own right and can embark on virtually any social or economic ventures that they wish. When the government commenced the licensing of private universities, the Pentecostal Churches were among the first set to meet the condition for these licences.
Due to the overwhelming presence of these Pentecostal Churches, the Christian faith has become something that people can declare publicly and not the way it was forty years ago when the born again tag attracted a stigma with serious persecution, but now even the mainline Churches has been provoked to rediscover their Pentecostal roots, case in point is the Anglican Church that actually established branches which allowed the Pentecostal experience of baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
On the spiritual front, the Pentecostal move has gathered phenomenal strength in terms of healings and the manifestation of the gifts and presence of the Holy Spirit in clear case of deliverance and other miracles that has attracted the attention of the whole world. The annual Holy Ghost congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the annual Shiloh Conference of the Living faith Church has become global events attracting delegates from virtually every part of the world because of the power of the Holy Spirit believed to be on display at these events.
But inspite of these perceived strengths, the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria and indeed Africa appeared to be absent in the African society when we use the standard of the early Church in the book of acts as the measuring rod. The Nigerian Church appears to be weak when we look at the level of moral degradation and corruption in the Nigerian society and even in the rank and file of the Church itself.
It is somewhat confusing to see the rate at which Churches spring up in every nook and cranny of the country and this has not translated into moral, social, economic and political transformation as exemplified in the early Church.
This can however be explained looking at the internal configuration of the Pentecostal Churches with its man centred, need oriented and entertainment based structure which has produced an addiction to comfort and convenience as opposed to the life of sacrifice and self denial posture that Christ prescribed.
The weakness of the Nigerian Church can best be understood when looked at from the standpoint of the position put forward by Richard Burgess in his book “Nigeria’s Christian Revolution” as he attempted to deal with the Church’s wrong perception of what revival is.
There is a generally accepted position among most Christians within Nigeria and even outside the shores of the nation that there is a great revival going on in the Nigerian experience because of the upsurge in numbers of attendees in our Churches and the unguided establishment of many Pentecostal denominations, but I believe that this position best reveals the weakness of the Nigerian Church as seen in our attitude of quickly branding things and happenings as revival.
I will like to use the definition of revival used by Richard Burgess in his book “Nigerian Christian Revolution” (The Civil War Revival and its Pentecostal Progeny -1967-2006)
According Burgess, “a Christian revival is a communal event that assumes an element of decline, out of which believers are called to renewed heights of spiritual vitality, corporate worship and moral probity, issuing in efforts to spread the gospel in and beyond the local community, and resulting in a widespread sense of sorrow for sin, extensive conversion experiences, and altered religious and socio-cultural landscapes”.
If this definition is considered to be true, then we see straight away that the strength that the Nigerian Church has gathered over the years though might have been activated by a genuine revival but it has definitely failed to consolidate the gains of the revival that birthed it rather it has gone off on a tangent.
In the first instance, there is no communal agreement as regards a decline or departure from accurate Biblical pattern:
It is believed that the Church in Nigeria is alive and well and functioning as intended by God and the founding fathers.
According to one of the leaders of the main Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria, Pastor Paul Adefarasin of the House on the Rock Church while describing the present state of the Nigerian Church in his contribution to a recent book “Out of Africa” co-edited by C. Peter Wagner and Joseph Thompson, he wrote:
“To say that the explosion of Christianity and the number of Bible believing churches in Nigeria is remarkable would be an understatement. Nigeria, a country too often associated with vices and corruption, has a different side. It is seen by many as the epicentre of one of the greatest moves of God in recent Church history”
Joe Olaiya, another notable Church leader in the Northern part of Nigeria states:
“The current revival in the nation of Nigeria comes in fulfilment of the promise of God to raise up a mighty army that will take the gospel far beyond the boundaries of our nation”
When we look at this position of these two leaders and put it side by side Burgess’ definition of revival, it shows one glaring weakness of the Nigerian Pentecostal movement; Revival has been misconstrued to mean big meetings and mega Churches even if there is no corresponding socio-political transformation.
The question that someone like Pastor Adefarasin must answer is what “remarkable” change has the explosion brought to the experience of the nation; as far as he is concerned the church is another face of the nation rather than the church fulfilling her Biblical mandate of being salt and light.
It is apparent from the events going on in the Nigerian Church that there is no communal assumption of a decline and this is a major weakness as it points to the blindness of the Church beginning from leadership to the led which is reminiscent of the Laodicean Church of Revelation chapter three.
Due to the general denial of elements of decline, the Church is further weakened by the lack of call on believers to renewed heights of spiritual vitality. The Nigerian Church has gone totally off course in terms of her doctrinal birth which many historians agreed that is in the holiness movement.
According to Robert Kipkemoi Lang’ at in his PHD dissertation: THE HOLINESS MOVEMENT IN AFRICA: (a historiographical study of the quest for sanctification as a theological framework for understanding the emergence of Christianity in Africa), Christianity in Africa as opposed to what many other scholars might have claimed in their numerous studies has its roots or even owes its birth and development to the Holiness movement.
He derived his position from the early works of men like Bishop William Taylor in South Africa who was a strong protégé of the Keswick movement and to the present day work of men like Dr W.F Kumuyi who was a student of the works of John Wesley which greatly influenced his doctrine which he used to establish and build the Deeper Life Christian Church. This Church thrived very well on this holiness doctrine to become the largest growing church in sub Saharan Africa up till the late eighties.
Lang’at showed in his study, using his own words that the holiness echo runs through the African Church history like a lone arrow through the wilderness. He called it a lone arrow because according to him, it was not just a message or doctrine but that it actually became a reality which many African theologians and church historians often ignore.
When the present state of the Nigerian Church is compared with this position, it explains why the Church has become so weak doctrinally. Most leaders only gather people weekly to tell them how much God wants to bless them financially and heal their bodies, there is little or no challenge to lives that pleases God.
This doctrinal lapse has given rise to widespread false teachings and UnBiblical practices, case in point is the recent reports of Churches in the south eastern state of Akwa Ibom where Churches have been turned into exorcist centers where some children are accused of being witches and are being delivered for money.
Due to the unguided focus on numerical strength, there has been loss of corporate worship and moral accountability which are vital elements of genuine revival. It is possible for neighbours to attend the same church and not know as Churches have become so contractual instead of being communal.
There is lack of genuine accountability among the many denominations even with the umbrella organs as the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria – the body lacks the machinery for calling erring member churches to order and discipline.
The Pentecostal Churches have also taken advantage of the general loose political environment to recruit unqualified and untrained personnel into leadership positions; this is further compounded by the denominational spirit that operates in the Nigerian Church where almost all Churches have their own “Theological Seminaries” where they basically teach their denominational doctrines as opposed to any sound theological training.
This has produced very dysfunctional leadership in the Nigeria Pentecostal experience.
Although the Nigerian Church have taken the gospel beyond the shores of the nation, it has been made possible basically due to their financial ability and borne more out of competition among themselves more than a clear cut vision of spreading the gospel. One just need to look closer to see that most of the international branches are set up to provide opportunity for their members relocating abroad to continue their membership rather than reaching other cultures.
A visit to say a Redeemed Christian Church in the USA will reveal this trend, it is filled with Nigerians, even the worship style is an importation from Lagos, I am sure the same is true of other “Nigerian Churches” all over the world. They have no impact whatsoever on the culture of the nation where they find themselves.
The so called revival in Nigeria have failed significantly in resulting in widespread sense of sorrow for sin, extensive conversion experiences, and altered religious and socio-cultural landscapes in line with Burgess’ definition of true Biblical revival.
We see a disturbing trend in Nigeria where the more Churches spring up, the more the spate of corruption.
But inspite of the glaring weaknesses of the Nigerian Church, opportunities abound for the Nigerian Church.
If the Nigerian Church will make good use of her numerical strength and give attention to building quality and quantity, it has the potential to change the socio-political landscape of not only the nation but the world in general.
We are beginning to see this in a seed form as few Churches are realising the importance of sound Theological training which is not tailored along denominational lines and with the increasing popularity of seminaries like West African Theological seminary with strong international cooperation, the future is bright.
The crowd need to be trained into a formidable army.
The financial strength of the Nigerian Church can open great opportunities for social impact, we have seen this also in seed form with the entrance of major Pentecostal denominations into the educational and media sector; they can use this medium to shift political and economic policies in a kingdom advancing direction, this can be greatly enhanced with the huge number of elites in these churches.
The Church is Nigeria is capable of determining the result of elections with our numerical and educational strength, if the orange revolution in Ukraine is anything to go by in standards and example; it was even spearheaded by a Nigerian born pastor.
The financial strength of the Church can however be her greatest threat capable of plunging it into the grave irrelevance if the prevailing spirit of materialism is not curtailed.
The words of the great reformer John Wesley to the Methodist Church should teach us great lesson; Wesley told the Methodist Church that God will bless them financially but that they will forget Him after they become prosperous
If the Church leadership continues to use financial and material possession as a yardstick to measure God’s favour and blessing, God will have to wait for another generation to accomplish His will for the nation and it will have unfavourable global consequence considering the investment that God has made in the Church in Nigeria.
I will like to conclude this paper on an alarming note that the Nigerian Church is fast becoming a laughing stock and fast losing relevance inspite of its huge presence with Churches doting every street corner; it is the height of insult on the kingdom of God for the government to place a ban on airing miracles on national television with the huge number of Christians in high government positions.
The Nigerian Church has since stopped being that powerful force that we read about in the days of the civil war where persecution led to increase and growth.
The solution is simple and two faced:
There must be a genuine and sincere decision to return to the passionate preaching of the holiness doctrine especially in its moral content
The above must be actively matched with a great commitment to training in terms of discipleship for members undertaken by leadership that has been properly exposed to sound theological training devoid of denominational bias.
I believe with the whole of my heart that Nigeria can provide leadership for the global church bearing the in mind the great potential that lies in the nation in terms of passion, but this passion must be well directed with adequate and relevant training beginning with the leaders themselves.
One major concern here is that we think we are already providing this leadership because we have a lot of Nigerians pasturing churches all over the world, we are quick to refer the great work that Pastor Sunday Adelaja is doing in the Eastern European country of Ukraine but we must remind ourselves that Pastor Sunday is a Nigerian but not a Nigerian Pastor, he was never part of the Nigerian Church, the story would have been different if he was “trained” in or sent by a Nigerian Church.
We urgently need a rethink in our internal configuration beginning with the empire building tendencies of the leadership coupled with our wrong standards for judging success and failure.
The Nigerian Church has what it takes but we need to look back at what birthed us which is the holiness message which is meant to produce people of character living the higher life of Christ and I believe that accurate and relevant theological training will restore us to provide leadership for the world that is waiting for us.

At the CONCOURSE

Prov 1:20-21
Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares.
She cries out in the chief concourses; At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words NKJV

1 Cor 14:10-11
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification KJV

Let me start this edition by wishing all readers of this piece a very happy New Year and pray that God who is faithful to the completion of His purposes fill you with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and give you Grace and strength to partner with Him in what He has planned to accomplish in our world.
I have decided to do a New Year message on my blog this year which is unprecedented but I have the impression in my spirit to add my voice to the myriad of prophecies and predictions that always characterise this time of the year especially in Nigeria where every Church traditionally christened every year as the year of one thing or the other, some even have a customised way of greeting each other to press home the prophetic word for the year - THIS IS WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS BEEN REDUCED TO.

I believe the world; the Church inclusive is now at a concourse as described in the scriptures cited above – the world is saying much especially as it concerns the economic down turn and the Church too is giving her own interpretation to the whole situation.
But the scripture above says that it is in the midst of this cocktail of voices that Wisdom (The Spirit of God) will lift His own voice; He will speak in the midst of the multitude of voices.
It is therefore the responsibility of every believer to position themselves in such a way that they can pick out the voice of God in the midst of the multitude of voices.

This economic down turn will present a juicy opportunity for many Church leaders to put fear in the mind of their congregations so as to manipulate them to give more money so that God can shield them from the economic problems, I would rather listen to a Pastor or Church leader with enough spiritual discernment to inform me about this economic situation at least two years ago so that I can prepare myself for it.
I am a fervent believer in kingdom investment but it should be done out of revelation and not as a getaway route or insurance against the current economic situation which I believe will come to pass if we trace how we got into it which will show us the way out of it.
God ordered me to stop the tradition of “Year Christening” in the year 2000 and specifically told me that His dealings with the Church and the world generally is not determined or broken down into twelve calendar months but that He is working out a plan which has its roots in eternity which He has put in the hearts of men so that we can appreciate, understand and more importantly use the knowledge and understanding to access the Grace to respond to the Divine initiative.
What he began in my life and ministry then is what He has continued and now taking to the summit this year and the years ahead. What he said to me then is making more spiritual sense today.

At the turn of the century, He spoke to my heart that from year 2000 and beyond, it will be years of great opportunities and that these opportunities are dressed in cloak of hard work, integrity and accuracy and proper alignment with Divine standard
He specifically said that the Word was not limited to year 2000 but that foundation can be laid then and that the experience we will have will be dependent on the foundation laid then.
I inquired at the end of 2008 – a year which I cannot wait for to finish due to the experiences that I had in the course of the year. The best way I can describe 2008 is that it was a “bitter sweet” year for my life.

We started the year with great expectations but with a word that our faith was going to be tested to see whether it was genuine or not; that every word that we have heard from God was going to be tested but that the Grace of God will be there for accurate response.

Our educational reformation outfit recorded great increase that we have to seek a bigger facility and many other great things happened in our Church. But towards the middle of the year an unprecedented tragedy struck, our Singles fellowship went on a mountain hiking on the outskirts of the city and on their way back had an auto accident and we lost a precious sister, this happened just few weeks after one of my associate pastors travelling had a motor cyclist crossed the road before him killing the cyclist in the process.
We made up our minds not to ask God questions because we were warned – God strengthened us and we moved on in His strength

The death of our precious sister revealed something in our Church which we never knew was there or which we thought was just a sermon - COMMUNITY SPIRIT – I broke the news to one of our sisters in Diaspora and the first thing that came out of her after all the crying and grieving was that the daughter that she left behind has now become the responsibility of the Church. We gave our sister a befitting burial, relieving her family of all expenses. The Church came out of this ugly incident much stronger and bonded together more than ever before.

We had so much planned for the end of the bitter sweet year, but it was not to be as this terrible ethno-religious crisis broke out in the city, so much so that we could not even hold the traditional cross over service where we could listen to a sermon chronicling God’s plans for 2009.
But in the midst of all these we remained steadfast by His Grace believing that God must be saying something.
Our passion was to pick out God’s voice in the midst of all the happenings and this is what God would have me broadcast to as many will care to listen
There are many voices, but he said that His sheep will hear His voice and will follow; the voice of strangers they will not hear - WE ARE AT A CONCOURSE AND WISDOM IS LIFTING HER VOICE.

A concourse can be likened to a normal bus terminus the like that we have in Nigeria where we have a lot noise from Bus Conductors chanting their destinations. One thing I have noticed at Lagos Bus stops is that these bus conductors never ask commuters where they are going, they only persuade commuters to go with them where they are going, but leave the decision to the commuters.

These many voices will be on the increase says that Spirit because God is on a process of separation between the wheat and the tares, the sheep and goats; He is pouring out the spirit on His bride to differentiate it from the beast.

It is who you heed that will determine destiny

The voice is going out as in the days of Joshua after the death of Moses the man of God and Joshua found himself on the brink of the fulfilment of an age long prophecy given first to Abraham about the Promised Land, the instruction was without ambiguity:

Josh 3:5
And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." NKJV

The voice of Wisdom is crying out to the Church to “SANCTIFY YOURSELVES” for the wonder which is to come tomorrow.

To sanctify means to separate from all that defiles in thought, word and deed; separation from all that is unlike God in order that we might reveal to the confused and depressed world the true picture of God.

The world has heard the message and the hearing has not succeeded in delivering the world from the bondage of the perverse and corrupt.

The only power revealed in scripture that will deliver the world from the bondage of corruption is the revelation of the genuine reflection of God.
The reason and purpose behind the suffering and the perplexity of the world is to pave the way for the manifestation of the true sons of God.

Rom 8:18-21
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
NKJV

The manifestation of the sons of God is an age long topic, it has been chosen as the topic and theme for programs and conferences, but it is much more than that – It is a process that produces a particular kind or specie of beings pioneered by the pattern Son Himself – Jesus Christ.

This is the word of the Lord for 2009 and beyond.

(Full text of my end of year message can be obtained on CD or audio cassette from our fresh manna ministries by calling Oluwole on +234-8037182533.