Contemporary Challenges Confronting The Church In The 21st Century By Rt. Rev. Prof. Dapo Asaju
Outline of Lecture delivered by Rt. Rev. Prof. Dapo F. Asaju (Bishop Theologian), at the Annual Conference of Chancellors and Registrars of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), held at St. Matthias House, Gudu, Abuja on 4th August 2021
Preamble
The contemporary world is peculiar and complex compared with previous eras in the world. From the Christian standpoint, it is described in biblical terms as the ‘End Time’, when prophetically, evil and calamities will intensify in occurrence and when the Church will experience untold hardships and persecutions. Our national Church, being the official church of Nigeria by colonial heritage, has the responsibility to act as the voice of the Body of Christ at a time like these. Our discourse shall highlight a few problems currently confronting the Church and the world, with prayerful hope that the ministry of the Church will tackle these challenges for the good of Christians and humanity at large.
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The Challenges
- The survival of Christianity and the Church from coordinated assault by enemies of the Cross:
- Islam Secularism, iii. Communism iv. Pagan heathenism v. Occult. The alarm for our generation is to learn from history. Christianity was lost in North Africa, Asia Minor and Western Europe because of the failure of the Church to rise to threats against her existence. The same trend, factors and methods are being employed today to destroy the church.
- Political Disempowerment of the Church. Whereas the Church and Christians were instrumental to the building of African nations and provided political leadership from post-colonial times to the First Republic, the tide has turned today. Muslims from Northern Nigeria have taken over and dominated the Executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. They have also taken over the educational, security, military, para-military, Police, Customs, Immigration, Civil Service, Finance, Internal Affairs and economic sectors as well. Islam does not separate politics from religion, hence, the dominance of Muslims is an opportunity for their Islamizing the rest of the country to the disadvantage of Christians. African nationalists used the platform of the church to advance decolonization, Ethiopianism and independence. Christian leaders , upon gaining independence for their respective nations, went ahead to lead the nascent countries. Examples are as follows: Nkrumah (Ghana), Kaunda Zambia (Zambia) Nnamdi Azikiwe and Awolowo (Nigeria), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Milton Obote (Uganda), Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal) etc. The reverse is the case today. Even in the United Kingdom, Mayors of major cities are now Muslim immigrants.
- Proliferation and disunity in the Church. The prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ is that the Church will be one ( John 17:21). Many church denominations have sprung up in many nooks and crannies of urban Nigeria in a manner that present the church as a commercial venture rather than mission agencies for evangelism. Yet the many churches do not translate to conversion of many sinners, change of human behavior, reduction in corruption, crime of insecurity. Christianity without commensurate growth is inimical to the witness of the Church.
- Materialism and affluent lifestyles of Church Ministers. This is a scandal already; that many people in church are ravaged by poverty, unemployment and ill health whereas the resources of the church are used to fund affluent and flamboyant lifestyles of church leaders in virtually every denomination. It is more pronounced in Pentecostal churches, where mega church leaders own airplanes, helicopters, most expensive luxury cars, huge bank accounts and many mansions in different countries of the world. Some big names like David Oyedepo, Paul Enenche, David Ibiyeomie and Tunde Bakare, etc are building bigger auditoria costing Billions of Naira; buildings that can seat 120,000 persons at a time. The Redeemed Christian Church of God is currently building another auditorium which can seat over one million, at a time when insecurity and health hazard suggests the opposite. Yet millions of people are poor, unemployed, live in refugee camps, fill hospitals and the Church does not attend to their needed help. We should build the people who are the church and too much concentration on physical structure. The abuse of prosperity theology accounts for this perverted view of Christian blessing. It is unjustifiable for church leaders to depart from the modest and humble lifestyle of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles by diverting church monies from its primary purposes of funding evangelism, missions and providing care for ministers, widows, orphans etc. It is an aberration for Pastors to be listed in the Forbes Book of Millionaires as richest pastors in the world. We in the Anglican Church are copying this lifestyle of concentrating on the comfort of the leaders rather than the welfare of the people, the laity who really are the church we ministers were called, employed to feed.
- Youth Desertion and General Decline in Church Attendance. The Church of England passed through our road before. We are fast having majority of our congregants constituted of the elderly. Many of their children seldom attend the Anglican church of their parents. Many young Anglicans are attracted to other youth-dominated and youth-characterized new generation church fellowships on campus, and from there they move on to the parent Pentecostal churches. The ease with which ministerial training and ordination are carried out in these churches also attract our children and youths to them. Many prominent Pentecostal church leaders were former members of the Anglican Church. We are too clergy dominant; we have little opportunities for upcoming youths to serve without being fully called into ordained ministry. A church that loses its younger generation is on its way to extinction.
- Deviant Sexuality. This tool has been effectively used by Satan and his agents to pollute the vast majority of youths and children throughout the world today. The internet has brought home easy access to pornographic images and videos which have contaminated the minds and hearts of many people and lured them to commit fornication, adultery, masturbation and other sexual sons. Worse still are deviant sexual behaviours such as Homosexuality, Bestiality, Incest, ritual sex, group sex in night clubs which now dot many streets all over Nigeria. In the Bible, homosexuality, sex with animals and incest attract penalty of death. God personally rained fire to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Imagine the recent incident where the Assistant Chief of Staff to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Stephen Knotts got married at John The Evangelist Church Edinburgh in Scottish Episcopal Church. on 3rd July to another man, Major General Alistair Bruce OBE (Governor of Edinburgh Castle- under the Queen of England), with whom he had been in homosexual relationship for more than twenty years yet the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot claim not to have known about his staff’s homosexual lifestyle yet he did nothing to remove or reprimand him. According to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “If Gold Rusts, what will Iron do?” This singular disclosure indicts both Queen of England and Archbishop of Canterbury, both of whom by law and tradition are heads of the Anglican Communion. This is height of the embarrassing compromises by errant Bishops and clergy of our Church in America and the West who have deviated to accept homosexual lifestyle. This is a challenge to us in Nigeria to be careful not to allow these evil people infiltrate our church ranks and Houses (laity, Clergy and Bishops) and to ensure that we stand on the truth of the Gospel based on the Holy Bible, orthodox faith and holy living. Already, our image is dented by the apostate behaviours of our sister Anglican churches in the western world.
- Dwindling spirituality of the Christian family. The family is the basic unit of society, Charity begins at home, they say. The mature Christians today were groomed by Christian parents who practiced the concept of the church in the House. Daily Morning/Evening worship, hymn singing, exhortation, prayers, reprimand /discipline of Children and Christian living; provided good foundation for raising godly children who become well-mannered citizens and leaders of the nation. Christian marriage is the starting point in building Christian family and homes. God stated in Malachi 2; 15 that one of the reasons He permitted marriage as a covenant, I because He desired godly seed. The homes raise the children who will fear God and maintain the good names and reputations of their parents. Virtues such as virginity before marriage, faithfulness to Marriage vows, endurance in building the home, prayer and holiness, are fast disappearing among the younger generations. Many ladies prefer to be single parents. Many have pre-marital polygamy experiences having been exposed to multiple men before marriage. Prostitution, home and overseas, sexual harassments for economic reasons and abortion have made many not to comply with the high standards of godly Christian society. The church and the school which should compliment the home have failed largely because of misplaced priorities. If Christianity will survive, this problem must be corrected. Without holiness, no man will see God.
- Autocracy , Financial Burden and politicking in church.
- Autocracy refers to high handedness by church leaders. Many young bishops of our church are experiencing already, complaints about their autocratic attitude towards clergy and laity. We are servant leaders and we do not have biblical mandate for pride, arrogance, wickedness, oppression and exploitation of the sheep under our care. Recall God’s warnings against the prophets of Israel who rather than cater for the sheep, devour them. We must regain humility, genuine love and brotherliness in Church. Love amongst bishops and clergy is scarce today. Desperation for wealth may blind leaders from seeing the suffering of the clergy and laity at the parish level who struggle to raise funds for the church in spite of growing poverty in the land. Transfers should be inspired by God, not done as punitive measure.
- May we cast a little attention to Assessment methods of funds generation in the Anglican Church? Is it still the best practice to set targets of funds for our priests to strive to get when we do not know what the future portends? Imagine assessments set before the Pandemic without foreknowledge that churches would be shut for almost one year! When we put financial pressure on priests we turn them literally to beggars on the pulpit because they must meet their targets. I know a parish which owes more than 6 million Naira in carry-over assessment under previous pastors and a new Vicar was posted to the parish which has seventeen female and three adult male worshippers, with total weekly collection of about ten thousand Naira. This priest is frustrated from onset. Our priest should be spared from such difficult situations if they must make spiritual impact. Pastors may be forced to compromise their message as a result. Are we morally different from banks which employ young ladies as marketers are given targets of funds them must generate; forcing them into corporate prostitution? Can we examine methods of other churches or devise better one ourselves so that like the Early Church, Ministers can give their primary attention to prayer and ministry of the Word of God; not serving tables. Assessment debt and financial levies often drive many members away from the church.
- Elections and Collegiality We must again prayerfully monitor that election of Bishops are not induced by monetary gratification and lobbying, but as inspired by the Holy Ghost. Can we envisage again in the near future a situation where a Samuel Ajayi Crowther can be bishop in Igboland as well as Niger Delta and where an Igbo Bishop can be Bishop in Yorubaland, etc? Our sense of Communion is incomplete when tribalism dictate our choices and preferences, not spirituality or merit. Remember that we are a church and not a political organization. On collegiality, we are making grave mistakes of procedure. The Synod takes decisions which the Diocesan Bishop or the Primate implement. In the same vein, for matters of faith and order, the House of Bishops must take decisions after deliberating on issues and their resolutions define the actions to be implemented by the Primate. We are getting entangled with a strange un-Anglican tradition where the leaders decide what they want to do and the church follows without critically interrogating and discussing the decisions. This is autocracy; it is found in Roman Catholic papacy, not in Anglicanism. For example, our former leader decided that he will not create new dioceses for certain number of years; he ended up not creating any in ten years , without the three Houses discussing it and coming to a consensus.
- Coming to translation of Bishops, may we kindly look at our Constitution again on this. Translations are to be permitted only at the initiative of the national church leadership based on peculiar circumstances that suggests that option. No Bishop should ordinarily lobby to leave a dioceses to which he is wedded by vows and enthronement because he prefers a richer diocese. We are called to mission and not to business. Theologically and spiritually, a Bishop is wedded to his diocese and wears the ring to symbolize this union. He wears his pectoral cross as a symbol of readiness to serve and to die if need be for the cross of Christ. For the bishop to therefore reject his diocese and translate to another without reasonable cause of the gospel, is tantamount to divorce and remarriage. I make this assertion, not by myself , but repeating the judgment of past church fathers. Moreover, when Bishops openly campaign and contest with a clergyman in an election where the voters are all Bishops, such candidate has an advantage of sentiments and votes already. We should be careful to make room for clergy advancements when openings emerge. It is good for the health of the Church.
- Weakening Power of Miracles. There is so much noise in the church and among Tele-Evangelists today. But in the wake of the Convid 19 pandemic, the weakness of the church leaders was exposed. USA alone lost more than 600,000 persons to the pandemic. The churches were shut down for a while, all over the world. This is a shame. Miracles are supernatural power of God manifest through faithful prophets, apostles and ministers through which they accomplish actions which normal science, natural laws and medicine cannot. Moses, Elijah. Elisha, Peter, Paul, etc were miracle workers. The billionaire preachers on Television suddenly became irrelevant. In the same way, the wave of insecurity in Nigeria has defied spiritual solution by the church. We must all repent and return to God to restore the glory of the Church for the protection of children of God and their families, communities and the nation at large.
- Unpreparedness for Heaven. The mission of the church is to save souls of people from possible hellfire and make them saved citizens of heaven. Jesus’ incarnation and death on the cross is solely to save mankind through His atoning sacrifice. The gospel is simple. John 3: 16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. The commission given to us by the Lord Jesus is straightforward” Go to all Nations and preach the gospel, teaching and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” ( Mathew 28:19). Anything other than this is non-essential. Prosperity theology which distract from the way of the Cross and encourage blind faith for end of material comfort and health, is cheap grace. The teaching that Christian is saved once for all when he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, and that no matter his sinful lifestyle afterwards, he will be saved; is a doctrine from the pit of hell. Many Christians do not know Jesus of Christianity because they do not carry His cross nor obey His commandments, nor lived the way he lived. Our liturgy, ceremonials, church plants, synod gatherings and general modus operandi must align with the primary objective of gospel of salvation. Our treasures should be laid in Heaven and not on the earth.
Conclusion
The above ten major and subsidiary points would suffice to set us thinking on how better we can fix our church and societies in line with the ideals of Christian gospel, spirituality and evangelistic impact. These have implications for the future survival and growth of the church. May God help and use us all to make positive contributions to our dear Church and as we do, may God bless and reward us all both here and in Heaven. Amen.
+Asaju,
Bishop Theologian.
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