Despite the prevalence of Christianity in Nigeria, money is gradually usurping Christianity as one of the major religions in Nigeria. The god of money is worshipped in the country and people will do anything to get money. One can hardly have a conversation with many Nigerians without the discussion focusing on money or the acquisition of wealth. Psalm 23 has been rephrased to emphasize riches rather than God: “The Naira is my shepherd, I shall not want. It makes me to be happy and leads me to sleep in my houses in Dubai, London and New York. It restores my bank account, dignity and connections. It guides me in the path of selfishness, vanity and ignorance. Though I walk through the valley of EFCC and the court I will not fear for thou art with me. I shall dwell in the house of Naira, Dollar and Sterling forever and ever. Amen.” Materialism, classism and tribalism are prevalent in the country. We have become very class conscious and rather than treating the less fortunate as fellow human beings, we treat and describe them as things. In short, those who do not meet our so-called social status are ‘thingified’. A number of our churches are not immune from the plague of tribalism. Furthermore, churches have played a key role in the maltreatment of young people accused of witchcraft. Senior ministers in some of our churches have been involved in beating and torturing young people who have been accused of witchcraft. The breakdown of marriages has been on the ascendency with couples becoming less tolerant of each other. As more people attend churches and church meetings nationwide, the level of immorality in the land is also on the ascendency. Despite the influence and access that the anointed men and women of God have on the political class, they have refused to use their influence to demand the required dividends of democracy from the political leaders. Rather than use their clout to demand positive change for the country, the theological elite have endorsed some of the government’s unjust policies, which have impoverished millions of Nigerians. Due to the apathy of the theological elite, Nigeria has become hell on earth rather than heaven on earth for many Nigerians. Many Christians have become cold-blooded and insensitive. Christians who should follow Jesus mission statement of proclaiming good news to the poor, healing to the broken hearted and declaring the acceptable year of the Lord are in many instances guilty of doing the reverse. The widows, the unmarried, the barren and the poor are often ridiculed and mocked by we Christians. Over a century ago, in a country with a population of almost two million, a minority of one hundred thousand converted and committed Welsh Christians positively transformed Wales during a revival. If over a hundred years ago, five percent of Wales’s total population could positively transform Wales inside out and upside down, why can’t eighty million Nigerian Christians who account for almost fifty percent of the Nigerian population positively transform Nigeria inside out and upside down today? There are two possible reasons for the inability of the current Nigerian revival to effect positive change in the country: a) What is preached is not practiced or b) What should be practiced is not preached. What is preached is not practiced: Perhaps the reason why the country is the way it is could be because we are not practicing what is being preached on the pulpit every Sunday and other days when we go to the sanctuary. Could it be that by the time the church service ends, the message we hear in our left ear has gone out through our right ear rather than being processed and stored in our brains? Admittedly, man is fallible and imperfect and we are all sinners, however based on the number of sermons we hear in a year and the hours we spend in church, if we can apply even a small percentage of what we are instructed to do in the Word of God, Nigeria would surely be a better place. It is time for us to follow the instructions of Brother James by becoming ‘doers of the Word and not just hearers of the Word’. Afterall, James was right when he said: “a person who merely listens to the message and does not live it out, is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.” Another reason why what is preached is not practiced could be because the church has allowed cultural influences to infiltrate and overshadow some key aspects of the Gospel message. As a consequence, many of us have ‘Nigerised’ the Gospel message and this has been reflected in our deeds. The responsibility for practicing what is preached lies with the congregation. It is therefore up to us the congregation to put into practice what is preached provided what is preached is in line with the Scriptures. What should be practiced is not preached: The major culprits here are the many men and women who stand in front of the congregation and preach the Word of God. Ministers who are truly called by God should preach what is in accordance with the Scriptures. Unfortunately, several of our ministers have strayed away from the teachings of the Master and have introduced another gospel that has the unintended consequence of allowing the Nigerian society to negatively transform the Nigerian church rather than allow the Nigerian church to positively transform the Nigerian society. The Nigerian church leadership has to a large extent placed significant attention and focus on the prosperity, which has resulted in an increase in materialism among Christians. As a result, many Christians have become so money focused, money conscious and money crazy. Money is now seen as an end to a means rather than a means to an end, hence, people are willing to do anything necessary to justify the end (money). It should therefore be of no surprise that very often, when the roll call of people involved in corrupt activities in the country is read out, the names of devoted Christians are often included on the first page of that list. Almost a generation ago, there was a group of Christians that swarmed the Nigerian Christian space. They were called “SU” which is an acronym for Scripture Union. They were devoted Christians who were known for their strict adherence to holiness. Although this group of Christians often took their religiosity to the extreme by focusing on the ‘Law’ while downplaying the concept of Grace, one thing that we could not take from them was there integrity and desire to obey the Lord. They feared the Lord and this translated in their deeds. Companies that employed them were confident that due to the firmness of their faith they would not compromise. Once you had these so-called SU’s in your company, you knew that they would not steal, they would not cheat, and they would not lie. The so-called SU’s were taught by ministers who instilled integrity and the fear of God into their mental sheets. Unfortunately, many church leaders of this current revival preach little about integrity and the fear of the Lord. Yes Grace is important, but as Apostle said many centuries ago: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” Another area were preachers are not preaching what should be practiced is in relation to how Christians should deal with evil powers and principalities. Many Christians have been programmed by their church leaders to be suspicious of their family members, friends or co- workers, as their pastors tell them that these people are instigators of their misfortunes. This has resulted in instances whereby children accused of witchcraft are physically and mentally assaulted. Even church leaders have been known to assault children all in the name of establishing the supremacy of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness. Several church leaders are guilty of prostituting themselves with the corrupt political class thereby indirectly contributing in the current state Nigeria finds itself. They fail to speak truth to power. Rather than crying out like Prophet Amos and screaming: “Promote justice at the city gate!” our church leaders have become like the prophets of Israel that God spoke about to Ezekiel when he said: “My hand will be against the prophets who see delusion… because they have led my people astray saying, ‘All is well,’ when things are not well.” Rather than speak God’s truth and judgment to the political class, many of our church leaders have chosen at best to be apathetic and at worst to be wining and dining with them while endorsing the unjust policies of the political class. In conclusion, for the Nigerian revival to be truly regarded as a revival, for the Nigerian revival to positively transform the Nigerian society and for the Nigerian revival to be taken seriously, the solution will lie not solely in the thesis of the church practicing what is preached or solely in the antithesis of the church preaching what should be practiced, but rather, the solution will be found in a synthesis that merges both truths. If a revival that took place over a century ago in Wales is still used as a reference point for revival in our contemporary world, it should not be out of place for today’s Nigerian Christians to ponder over what would be the legacy of the current Nigerian revival. How would Christians want the legacy of the Nigerian revival to be remembered one hundred years from now when the history pages are read? Would we want it to be remembered as a revival that sparked a flame that swept throughout Nigeria and brought healing, restoration and the Kingdom of God to the land or would we want the revival to be dismissed as a jamboree that was hijacked by selfishness, kidnapped by materialism and blindfolded by wickedness. Let he or she that has ears…
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:53:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015