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| Rev Sunday Adelaja... Author, ChurchShift |
"The more I think about this and other challenges facing our nation, the more persuaded I am that the Church and its members are guilty of gross dereliction of duty, in a manner of speaking. This is because the theology that we have embraced, which assigns to us the role of clean-up men and women, and gives the church as the role of society’s fire-fighting brigade is simply out of sync with the true intentions of God for us."
In
Election
2011: How-To Guide for Kingdom Persons (April 10, 2011), I attempted a voter-advisory. I listed a few issues
that Christians should consider as crucial in the exercise of their right of choice
through the vote.
Access
to education, corruption, and the structure of our federalism were among the
election issues I identified then. The recent carnage in Barkin Ladi area of
Plateau state and the subsequent death of a senator of the Federal Republic and
a state legislator, however, has brought to the front burner, the subject of
ethno-religious crisis in Northern Nigeria, which predates, feeds, and exists,
side-by-side with Boko Haram.
In highlighting the need for Christians to make the
crisis an election issue, I wrote:
“The Bible
says we are one body in Christ (Romans 12:5). It says that when one part hurts,
the whole body hurts. Yet, for years, Christians in certain parts of Northern Nigeria have been hurting for ages and the rest
of us do little or nothing about it. Many have died; many have lost loved ones;
many have been maimed; very many are living in mortal fear of their neighbours.
In some parts, churches cannot own property, including places of worship. The
persecution and marginalization has gone on for too long while our governments
and intellectuals are busy debating whether the problem is religious or ethnic
or both. Yet the bottom line is that the Christian has become an endangered
species in many parts of Northern Nigeria . The
Christian-friendly candidate, particularly Presidential and governorship
candidate has to be the one who has a clear programme, with timelines for
solving this problems. Timelines are particularly important here because life
is involved.”
Well, the
elections have since been won and lost, and those elected have had some i4
months to demonstrate that they considered the problem and have solution to it.
If anyone, including a President who has been consistent harassed by Boko Haram
has done so, I do not know about it.
But the
focus of this piece is certainly not on what those already elected have done or
failed to do. I am more concerned here about what next. I am more concerned, as
always about the role of the individual kingdom person, and the church in
general.
The more I
think about this and other challenges facing our nation, the more persuaded I
am that the Church and its members are guilty of gross dereliction of duty, in
a manner of speaking. This is because the theology that we have embraced, which
assigns to us the role of clean-up men and women, and gives the church as the role
of society’s fire-fighting brigade is simply out of sync with the true
intentions of God for us.
I have
written about it on this forum for so long that I might have started sounded
like a broken record to many, but I guess I should never tire of saying it;
since I consider it to be the truth. The church simply MUST change, for the
benefit of society.
In one of my
earlier exertions on the subject, I recalled how the Catholic Church played a
major role in the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos from power in the Philippines, and
subsequently bringing about democracy.
I also mentioned
the role played in Ukraine by God’s Embassy, a church founded and run by Pastor
Sunday Adelaja in restoring liberty to that former soviet socialist country.
Pastor
Adelaja has not looked back since that feat. He has since been led of God to
put together a movement he calls ChurchShift. Flowing from a book of the same
title, ChurchShift, according to information available to all on their website
has the following objectives:
To help transform nations by introducing a new way
to do church; reveal how to “pastor without tears;” help avoid splits and
division; change our view of ministry; and inspires to believe for
supernatural outcomes.
Other objectives are: to equip
church members to impact the seven spheres of society; teach Kingdom values for
societal transformation; activate the potential of the local church;
help change nations by emerging from four walls
of a church building and provide the keys for NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION!
In discussing the former, he wrote:
“Too
many Christians and Christian leaders spend their energy, creativity, and
precious time promoting churches instead of the kingdom. They work for the
success of their church, or perhaps for a group of churches in their city, or
they work for their ministry or denomination. They believe that by building
churches and ministries they are building the kingdom. They think church and kingdom
are practically synonymous. This isolation of the church from the world has led
to ineffectiveness and failure to carry out the Great Commission.
“But
the church is not the kingdom. Jesus said in Luke 17:21, “Nor will people say,
‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” It’s
not confined to temples and churches. No church can contain or control the
kingdom of God. The kingdom is meant to inhabit the entire earth, not just your
church sanctuary.
“The
Great Commission is not what many of us have understood it to be. We have
understood it to be evangelism—bringing people from the world into our church
buildings. But the Great Commission mandate is to go out and disciple nations.
The focus is not in here, but out there. This was Jesus’s goal in coming to
Earth. It is supposed to be our goal as redeemed people. The Great Commission in
Matthew 28:19 says: Go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus did not say,
‘Go and build great churches.’ He did not even say, ‘Go and save individuals.’
He never said, ‘May thy church come on Earth as it is in heaven.’ Neither did
He say, ‘Seek ye first the church and all its righteousness.’
“Rather,
His heartbeat is for nations to be ruled by kingdom principles. That is the
calling of every believer and of every church. So why has our attention been
lavished on personal evangelism and building churches? The problem is our
mind-set. We often forget that the kingdom has come. We forget we have been
called to rule our promised lands—and to rule nations. We forget about the
power we received from Jesus Christ…” (CONTINUES NEXT WEEK)
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