Introduction
Definition of terms nation
A “nation” is a large body of people united by common descent, history, beliefs, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. The difference between a “nation” and “country” is that, whereas a “nation” refers to a particular group of people, a “country” refers to the particular geographical area of such people. A nation might be a country like China, or a group of people living in several countries, like the Edos, Hausas, Fulanis, Igbos, Yorubas, etc.
Nation-building
A nation has four characteristics: population, territory, government and sovereignty. “Nation-building” means the process of creating or developing a nation, especially an independent one. “Nation builders” mean those who take the bold initiative to develop the national community through various programmes. Nation-building thus refers to the use of the power of the state to construct and structure for the people, a national identity; to unify people of diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic and others, who find themselves living together.
The church
The “church” by definition is usually seen either as a building used for public Christian worship, or as the hierarchy of clergy within a particular church. It could also mean all Christians living and dead.
Some people erroneously assume that “church,” when defined as “organised gathering of people as a group and under some clear leadership,” is only referable to the New Testament because those who were first called Christians and “had been with Christ” had their conducts scrutinised in the city of Antioch.
The truth, however, is that the church actually evolved from the Old Testament, having started from the Garden of Eden where God fellowshipped with Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. That gathering was rudely interrupted by the “original sin,” leading to the great and inglorious fall of Adam and Eve.
The New Testament church started at Pentecost. God persisted and made sure some other of his people “gathered” in His name, as we saw in the Old Testament, in the stories of Noah to Abraham, Joseph to Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Eli to Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, etc. The New Testament church started at Pentecost in the upper room, led by the 12 Apostles of Christ and the other believers who gathered in His name to fellowship after his death and resurrection. See Acts 2:42-47. Apostle Paul had to counsel the Hebrews to “not forsake the assembly of the brethren,” to emphasis that the church refers more to the relationship rather than the physical building in a place.
The prophets and priests who ministered in the temples in the Old Testament are not different from our present-day priests and pastors who minister to us. Thus, from the images of Old Testament tents meetings, to temples, synagogues, upper house, peoples homes, to today’s imposing church edifices, the story remains the same.
In the Old Testament, Micah 6:8, the prophet Micah asks rhetorically, “What does the Lord require of you?” And he answers, “To do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with God.” In similar vein, Apostle Paul speaks in the New Testament in Ephesians 4:1, “To the church at Ephesus,” Paul writes, “I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling.” For whatever purpose the people of God gather, whether they be followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is only one common denominator for both the Old Testament and the New Testament congregations. It is holiness. There cannot be a “gathering” or “fellowship” of the people of God with God without holiness. In Leviticus 19:1-2, He repeated that same charge of holiness, which He had made to Abraham when He promised to make him “blessed to be a blessing.” In Genesis. Without holiness, God cannot be in the midst of those who have gathered to qualify it for His own definition of the Church that “the gate of hell cannot prevail against.”
It is the manifestation of the working of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church that differentiates it from the Old Testament church. The Spirit of God brought great liberty to the individual who, having confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, is spoken of our Lord as “being greater than the Great John the Baptist even if such a one were the least in the kingdom”. In Revelations 2-3, it is made clear that it is the Spirit of God that is expressly talking to the Church via the revelation experience of John the Beloved, an Apostle of Christ. This is remarkably different from the days of old when God would speak directly to the prophet or priest who would in turn relay the message to the rest of the people. Such instances are recorded in Samuel 22:14; 1 Kings 19:12; Psalm 68:33; Jeremiah 10:13; Ezekiel 42:2; etc.
Trouble in the house of God
Since the 4th Century C.E., or for 1,600 years, the section of nations known as Christendom has dominated the earth. But in recent times, Christendom has been thrown into fear by the rise of Communism and sectarian violence in some parts of the world. These godless ideologies have gained strength as serious threats to the Church’s continued existence.
Additionally, right in Christendom’s own realm, the Church is disintegrating. Church membership has drastically decreased, and in some instances attendance has fallen so low that some church buildings have had to be closed down. Men are leaving the priesthood and the ministry. Some so-called men of God engage in homosexuality. Some sire secret children. Some sisters are not left out. This is very rampant in developed continents like Europe and America. Faced with these and other significant glaring evidence of profanity of the church, the pastor of the largest church in Denver, Colorado, was forced to say:
“The truth is, in spite of the heritage and goodwill of the church, it is currently in a state of decline.”
A minister in Ontario remarked: “The times are tough and will no doubt get tougher for the men who wear round collars and preach sermons.”
In the United States of America, the United Methodist Church has lost some 150,000 members each year for the past five years. Certain other Protestant bodies in the United States have lost from tens to hundreds of thousands of adherents during the 1970s. The same trend exists throughout the world. In some West German cities registrars report that they are kept busy by veritable lines of people who want to cancel their church membership. A comparison of figures in the 1975 Britannica Book of the Year with the volumes for 1974 and 1973 reveals a drop of 80,041,050 in the combined membership of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Churches throughout the world in just two years.
Besides direct losses, Christendom’s churches have gained fewer and fewer new members in recent years. Church attendance, too, is very low. Polls taken in France show that, while more than 80 per cent of French citizens are baptized Catholics, only about 20 per cent attend church with any degree of regularity. A 1972 Canadian survey reveals that only 30 per cent of Montreal’s Catholics attend Mass and receive sacraments. In the United States the church attendance figure is just 40 per cent for adult members. This is not to say that the story is all woes. The Catholic population is 1.313 billion, up from 29 million in 1910. Catholics comprise of 50 per cent of all Christians worldwide and 16 per cent of the world’s total population. According to Vatican statistics, 40 per cent of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America. But, Africa has witnessed the highest growth in Catholic congregations. As at 2017, there were about 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed to three billion. The population of Muslims in the world however is 1.8 billion consisting of about 24.1 per cent of the world’s population.
But why have so many millions of persons turned their backs on the churches of Christendom?
Why do worshippers leave the church?
The reasons that people give for abandoning the church are many and varied. Some in West Germany do it in order to be relieved of paying the church tax.
William L. Edelen, Jr., minister at the First Congregational Church in Tacoma, Washington, admitted: “The church today is… almost indistinguishable from an average business corporation or political machine.”
Some clergymen have tried to retain young people in their churches by conforming to popular fancies. For example, folk and rock music have been incorporated into religious services. But these efforts have been largely unsuccessful. “It doesn’t seem to work,” commented Catholic priest, Andrew M. Greeley. “Somehow, the young are not attracted by clerics who act like drug freaks and churches that try to substitute for the local coffee shop or to do the Woodstock thing.”
Open approval by many clergymen of the loose moral standards prevalent today has brought about further reverses for many churches. Even youths disapprove of this, as noted in the newspaper column Youth Attitudes: “There’s an old saying that you don’t pull yourself up by dragging the other person down. Just the opposite should be the case. That’s why, in our opinion, the churches have erred in not standing firm behind high moral standards and in being equally firm in teaching what is morally right and wrong. Young people need and want guidance. There is no compromise with what is morally wrong.”
Catholic priest and psychologist Martin Pable cited another principal reason why people are discouraged with the churches.
“People have real religious hungers, and one of the few chances they have to satisfy this hunger is during the Sunday service. And when the priest (or minister) doesn’t nourish spiritual hungers, there’s a real disappointment.”
Some people leave the church when things are not going well for them. Some of these people had migrated to the church to escape poverty and hopelessness.
Others leave for the crass hypocrisy displayed by church clerics, elders and the laity. When you preach to your congregation that we are “covered by the blood of Jesus Christ” (Ephesians1:7; Colossians 1:20; Acts 20:28; Hebrews 9:14), but you drive around in bullet-proof armoured vehicles with an armada of security, you exhibit sheer hypocrisy. When you allow your picture to be displayed by the congregation and paste same on your door, you manifest crass hypocrisy. When you tell your church members to sow seeds with their pittance earnings, leaving the church hungry, and trekking home, while you fly over them in private jets, build expensive universities that do not accommodate their children, you are nothing but a hypocrite. (See John 4:20; 1Peter 2:16; Galatians 6:3; Jeremiah 23:11; Mark 7:6.).
(To be continued)
Thought for the week
“We dream of nation-building. We cannot achieve this by fomenting social divisions.” (Rajnath Singh)