The Migration Crises and the Church Response Part 1 - The Challenges

The Migration Crises and the Church Response Part 1 - The Challenges

Migration has been part of human history. It means the movement of animals or people, especially in large groups, from one part or region to another. In our context, our focus is the migration of humans in large numbers from one part of the globe to another. The nature of these movements can be cross-border where people go outside the boundaries of their country into another country. Sometimes the language of the host countries may be entirely different from the language of the migrants; also their cultures may not have anything in common. This movement can also happen within the boundaries of the political nation. 

There are many reasons why people move which include:

1. Economic reasons: This is where people move from supposed areas of lack; areas with little or no prospects to places where they feel they will have better and easier opportunities to fulfill their life dreams and meet their needs. Most of the young men that endanger their lives trying to cross the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea into Europe take the risk seeking for ‘greener pastures’. Also, the movement of nomads like the Fulani Herdsmen in search of pastures for their cattle and animals can be categorized as economical. Furthermore, most young northerners have migrated to southern Nigeria in search of better means of livelihood. 
2. Climatic conditions: When the climate of an area is no more supporting human existence in that area; there is drought and famine for example due to lack of rainfall in a place for a prolonged period, people tend to move away to areas with more favourable climatic conditions.
3. Insurgency and war: This is another cause of migration. When there is insurgency and war, the social fabrics of the society is destroyed; people who do not want to get involved are forced to move in order to avoid being killed. Insurgency and wars shrink the prospects within a region, hence, people tend to leave the areas of conflict both for the sake of their lives and also to be able to have better opportunities. Millions of people have been displaced in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan because of the insurgency and wars going on in those places. Scattered as refugees, many are in Lebanon, Jordan, Greece, Italy, France, and Germany and all over European countries. Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia have a huge number of refugees who migrated from Somalia into their countries because of the insurgency that have gone on for many decades in that country. In Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency has driven people away from their regions to several parts of the country. Only recently most of the refugees that ran into Cameroun and Niger Republic came back to Nigeria because of the progress the army and security outfits are making in ridding those areas in the North East of the insurgency.
4. Islamic Missionary Strategy: This may come to many as a surprise but resettlement of people from one place to another has been a strategy used by the Islamists over the years in order to establish their presence and turn demography in a particular place of interest to their favour. We have had cases where some people are loaded in some big trucks from a different place and offloaded in some strategic places and they settle in that place as their new home.  As they move, they are accompanied by Islamic preachers and scholars. Islamists are strategists and they think on long-term basis.

We have witnessed an unprecedented high rate of migration of people in this dispensation, especially in the past few years. We have seen whole communities, villages and towns, even ethnic nations move completely away from where they have lived for centuries to either new locations or into IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps. Demography is changing dramatically whether we like it or not. Among those who are moving are Muslims, Christians, nominal people, pagans etc. lifestyles are changing and no matter what we do, this migration is here with us.

This migration is not without some unique challenges, some of which are:

• Different languages and cultures

• Fear of economic loss because of scarce resources.

• Suspicion and lack of trust.

• Ethnic tensions.

• For Islamic migrants, resistance to integration causing cultural and political tensions at the long run.

• Basic needs of food, clothing and housing which makes the migrants vulnerable.

The question is, how prepared is the church to take advantage of this migration to enlarge the Kingdom of God? Are we positioning our churches and ministries to be able to take this great opportunity that the current situation presents before us? No matter what we do as Christian leaders one thing is sure, it can never be business as usual anymore.

Banning the most dangerous book in the world - The Bible

This discussion shows how far the world have gone in the opposition direction away from God. Even lands that most of their founders were basically Christians and their principles and laws were guided by the Bible. They have all rejected the Bible, the Word of God, which principles made them what they are today. People are even more comfortable having the Koran around them rather than having the Bible around. But it is not supposed to be a big surprise because the words of Scripture are alive and have an inherent power to challenge us and convict us to change our ways of life - which challenge the average fallen man fights and resists. Eric Metaxas shared these thoughts in Breakpoint.

"...
Apparently many folks find Scripture more dangerous than explicit sex. And you know what? Those who hold to a strictly materialistic and atheistic worldview probably should! And tyrants, from Roman emperors to Soviet premiers to North Korean dictators could agree with Mark Twain’s quip: “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”
To them, the Bible is the world’s most dangerous book..."

Read all of it.

Boaz's Kinsman-redeemer and elders' transparency

At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it." Ruth 4:6 NIV.

This is the second to the last post we are writing on this series. The first post dealt with the moral strength of Boaz which is indispensable in our lives as leaders if we are to finish strong in this ministry the Lord has committed into our hands. The tragedy that has come upon us as a generation is a situation where sex is promoted and advertised as if it is normal for everybody that wants sex to have sex, no matter your estate, whether married or not. We are even being bombarded with advertisements of sexual perversions and unnatural sexual affections and in some cases hounded to accept them as normal no matter what we believe. This has made most church leaders to accept what seems to be the 'lesser evil' - just having sex is not the worst thing after all. Hence, among church members and even leaders, every now and then, sexual scandals hit us, as it were, below the belt. Boaz showed character in his dealing with the young beautiful lady, Ruth.

In the second post, God taught us that we should not take the opportunities the enemy presents to us, no matter how cheap they may seem. As leaders, we should also be careful in our dealings making a conscious effort to avoid scandals. Read it.

In this post, we are dealing with the other character in the passage, the kinsman-redeemer who it was his right to inherit the properties of Ruth's late husband, including marrying Ruth in order to produce children for the deceased. When he was confronted with the matter, he agreed. However, when the issue of Ruth was added to it, he declined "because I might endanger my own estate". No games; no hypocrisy; no dancing around. He was truthful and transparent which helped the elders to quickly take decisions and the matter was resolved amicably. Elders' meeting that day at the gate did not drag unnecessarily, because this man was truthful to himself. Boaz married Ruth.

In our churches, every now and then, we have situations where elders rigmarole up and down in matters because of hypocrisy and personal interests. Matters have often complicated because elders who have the relevant information refused to open up and say what they know. Matters drag, sometimes very messy, even the church unity is affected and yet elders will not take the risk to be straight in their talk and pure in their interests and actions. Currently, there is a very big denomination in this country that is in a serious crises due to leadership tussle. In some cases, they have even called in the police to separate fights in order to avoid 'brethren' killing themselves. It is crazy and unfortunate. This is a clear example of the failure of elders to speak the truth strongly. When elders live in comprise for a very long time, they lose the right to exercise spiritual authority over young people, hence in crises times, their words will not have any power.

The Church Does Not Exist to Entertain Us – Or Bore Us by Karl Vaters

I found this very interesting and apt. A must read for every Church member including leaders.

I don't go to church to be entertained.

I also don't go to church to be bored.

• I go to worship.
• I go to read and hear from God's word.
• I go to be taught.
• I go to be challenged.
• I go to be discipled.
• I go to fellowship with other believers.
• I go to be inspired into action

When we reduce the gathering of God's people to an entertainment venue, we don’t enhance it, we diminish it.

Diminish. That's such a benign word for the damage we do to the gospel when use it as a tool to put on a better show.

The only thing worse? Boring people with the gospel.

Truth Is Better than Entertainment

Entertainment is cheap. And easy. The laptop I'm writing with can access more entertainment than we could have ever imagined. Or than any church can ever compete with. As I wrote in a recent post, “If we compete head-to-head with Hollywood on entertainment quality, Hollywood wins, the church loses.”

Jesus never bored people with the gospel. And a lot of his parables were very entertaining. But entertainment was never the point. Truth was the point. And great truths are never boring.

Whenever entertainment becomes the point, or boredom becomes the result of our church services, we’ve missed something big. Something vital. Something beautiful, eternal and life-changing.

We’ve missed the truth of the gospel.

We’ve traded our birthright for a mess of stew.

We’ve cast our pearls before swine.

Read the whole post here. Subscribe for the Leadership Journal and download the Free Discipleship Book on Small Groups. God bless.

Not a Church Building. Please cite this incident correctly.

This incident was reported in the Blogosphere by several people who did not care to confirm their stories before pushing it to the Internet. If you search for this report, you will notice that it was not carried by the Main Stream Media but by different blog sites. The owner of this property is a very close friend of ours who has been a seasoned Christian for many years. He is not a pastor and there is no church on the property. He works with an Oil & Gas Company in Bonny. He bought the property from another friend who bought it from Ugwuaji people in Enugu State. There is a church adjacent to his own.


THE TRUTH

 He decided to do a dwarf wall fence around the property to secure it. However, some unidentified people went and pulled one side of the fence down for reasons yet to be resolved. No activity was going on at the site. The water tank used by workers was still left at the site and his work supervisor wrote his phone number on it in case other people developing their property around the place would need his services. One day, the supervisor called him that the Police asked him (the supervisor) to come and claim his water tank. He didn't understand what concerned the water tank on site and police calling him, hence he decided to investigate before going to answer the Police. That was when he discovered that there was an incident that some corpses were discovered under the pulled down fence. Meanwhile by this time, the story was all over the place about "corpses found under a church foundation", which our friend also read, not knowing that it concerned him. He engaged the services of two lawyers who started working with the police before his arrival.  He planned for the trip and took leave of absence for two weeks. When he got to Enugu, he went to the station with his lawyers, as usual, he was charged for all kinds of unprintable things. To cut the long story short, the Police discovered that he was innocent. The case attracted the interest of high profile Police officers in Enugu State. He was released after about a week while the Police continued their investigations. His lawyers later told him that the Police had arrested the culprits in Nnewi and they confessed to the crime. We do not have details of their confessions, you can obtain that from the police if you need it.

The concern of the EvergreenWord Team is because of the the way the church is being scandalized and people are spreading lies ignorantly. Why will these reporters not visit the Ugwuaji community to confirm this story before breaking it out this way? Why won't reporters call the police to confirm what happened? We recently saw another picture of a so-called pastor arrested as the suspect for this. Most likely, the picture has no connection to the incident. Christians need to be aware that some people peddle lies and use false pictures and videos on the Internet for different purposes including propaganda. Our goal is not to say that the church is perfect, but Christians, especially leaders need to know the truth because some of them refer to this incident during their preaching. Over the weekend, a respected Christian leader referred to it as if the story about "corpses found under a church foundation" is correct. PLEASE THE INCIDENT HAPPENED BUT IT IS NOT A CHURCH.

We do not yet have the consent of our friend to share the phone number of the lawyers who handled this case. But it is a simple matter that any serious-minded person can confirm since Ugwuaji is along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.

The Lord Jesus Christ said "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it". Matt 16:18 NIV.

Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) Pastors and Ministers Forum - Global Trends in Church Growth & Missions

It was the Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) Pastors and Ministers Forum organized by Port Harcourt Chapter. Church leaders, Bishops, Pastors and Teachers from different denominations gathered to seek God’s face on Global trends in Church Growth and Missions. it held in Golden Tulip Hotels, Port Harcourt. Our brother, Dr. Chinedu Oranye, CAPRO International Mobilization & Media Officer, shared with us some of the things that God laid on his heart. This is just the highlight of the meeting.

He started by saying that the church is supposed to be connected to and in tune with global trends. Any church or church leader that refuses to recognize the global trends will not be able to strategically plan and will eventually lose out. Many things for example are happening to Christians around us and around the world but Christians and pastors go through church services and the motions as if nothing is happening. Issues are not taken up as prayer points in our services and members are not informed just because church leaders are not in tune with what is going on. Brother Chinedu shared what he called the Trends 3-3-3.

3 Current Global Trends that are with us today

1. The growth in fundamentalism and heightened persecution of Christians. There is a dangerous rise in all sorts of religious persuasions. These include African Traditional Religion (ATR), Fundamental Islam, Militant Hinduism, Animistic practices, Secular Humanism ETC. The clear line between animism and some Christian practices today is becoming blurred. Most current Christians join in traditional practices that their Christian fathers rejected. We must teach our members of this global reality. We must teach them on how to survive in hostile environments. Persecution will come but we must be prepared. 
2. Population explosion. Reproduction rate is on the rise in many nations and the youths form greater part of this population. Our strategic planning must take cognizance of these facts. Any church that is not putting youths and the younger generation in the forefront is losing out. The tendency is that church leaders feel threatened when young men begin to appear in the scene. Instead of helping them and giving them the platform to manifest, we tend to fight them and either derail them or pursue them out of our churches. However, the reality is that young people form greater part of this generation currently.  In his words, “we must push them up instead of pushing them down”. The crisis of young men going astray is because nobody cared to draw them close at the beginning. Many of them have no leadership cover. Because of population explosion, if we do not mentor these young men, they will grow to bring disgrace to the church. There must be intentional discipleship. 
3. Migration. It is a phenomenon of the 21^st century. Entire communities, sections of countries are being uprooted. In Nigeria, many northerners migrate to the south because of problems. If we do not take the opportunity, it will remain a threat to us. Many Christians among them do not even find a place of acceptance in our churches in the south. They do not find community among us. Europe is not ready for what is happening to them today but yet churches are taken the opportunities. Churches are filled up by migrants. We need to train and empower our people on how to reach the Muslims. (CAPRO has a training course on this called OASIS. You can contact them to run it for your church members 08034594878 Rowland, 08055457305 Brown). We must equip the church on how to take the opportunity of migration.

   

   Dr Chinedu Oranye Ministering

3 Things to note on Church Growth.

1. There is the reality of church explosion. People fill our churches and church programs. Massive church explosion. Whether the people in the church are Christians is a different thing altogether. It is a segregated growth that is one sided. Even in Islamic centers, there is growth too. This growth gives us a potential to turn out armies for God. Church growth must not just be in numbers but to make men who are relevant to the kingdom.
2. There is constant Church division.  This is a time we must be united but unfortunately, we fight each other.
3. There is so much harvest and opportunities but we are embroiled in competition and in-fighting because we have lost the sight of the global trends.

3 Things to note on Missions

1. Everybody is doing missions forgetting the Macedonian people, the Unreached/Forgotten Peoples.
2. The non-priority of mission opportunities. we must send men and also send resources. we must do educational and social projects etc. The church must have budgetary allocations to missions and offer prayers for missionaries and missionary work.
3. Non effective Church and Mission Agency partnership. There is rivalry and absence of synergy between them.

3 Opportunities

1. Missions Partnership. Acts 16:9-10.
2. Operation Joshua or Short term Field Visits. Sending a team of leaders and young people to the mission field.
3. Restoration of correct doctrine.

CAPRO contacts can be found here or you can contact us to link you up with the Port Harcourt office.

We will be sharing later what our churches can do strategically in response to what God is saying to His Church. Remember to drop a comment or write us if you require further information. God bless you.

Translators Martyred in Middle East

Four national translators were martyred for their work of sharing God’s Word with their people in the Middle East. The location is not being mentioned for obvious security reasons. Wycliffe Associates, the missionary organization the slain translators worked for, said that the office was ransacked, books burned, and all equipment destroyed, including the Print On Demand (POD) system used to print precious copies of Scripture.

The joy is that the computer hard drives containing the translation work for eight language projects was not destroyed. "The remaining translation team has decided to re-double their efforts to translate, publish, and print God's Word for these eight language communities," the ministry said in a statement as reported by Christian Persecution India. To make donations to Wycliffe Associates for the work to continue, click here.

"Ask the Lord to mend the wounded hearts and physical injuries of the surviving translation team members, and to bring greatly needed comfort to loved ones who are now grieving over the sudden loss of the slain workers. Pray for Him to strengthen and equip the other translators as they rise to the challenge of continuing with the eight language projects so that this tragedy will in no way restrict the Gospel from going forth throughout the Middle East. Also remember the perpetrators of this crime, praying that their eyes be opened to the truth, as well as the seriousness of what they have done, so they will experience sincere repentance, forgiveness of sin and, ultimately, eternal salvation".

Boaz - "The righteous shall not make haste".

"Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning." Ruth 3:12-13 NIV.


In our previous post here, we looked at the high moral strength exhibited by Boaz and how every Christian, especially leaders have to take it up as a challenge and resolve to live above board. We concluded in that post with the words "Don't give up. Fight and win because your purity is God's will. You can make it. This is meant to encourage all men to pursue excellence and purity in their relationships; pursue purity in their thoughts and conducts. We can win; we can overcome if we believe, no matter what is going on around us today". In the midst of the moral decadence we are experiencing today, you can still remain a Christian if you want. You can live a holy live if you want.

We are not yet done with the life of the man, Boaz. We want to highlight the self-control he showed and his willingness to follow the established rules, even though he had the opportunity to violate them with bold face. After he listened to Ruth, he asked her to "stay here for the night" and the record continues "So she lay at his feet until morning" Ruth 3:14, and yet she left him that morning still intact the way she met him. God will help us to begin to live in ways that will restore trust and moral integrity that Christians are known for. God will help us as leaders to model this kind of moral strength to both our children and our congregations who watch us day by day. Moral failure can deal a great blow to the faith of our children and those we mentor, even when we have sincerely repented ourselves.

Look at the passage above again and observe how Boaz was ready to wait for the kinsman-redeemer who was closer to Ruth's late husband than himself to make up his mind on whether he would marry Ruth or not. Imagine that if the man was interested in Ruth, Boaz would have missed the opportunity to marry her. He would have lost out despite all the help he had given to her, yet he did not mind. The help he gave to her had not attachments. The attitude was "if she is mine, I will definitely have her, but if she is not  mine, let the will of God be done". "...he that believeth shall not make haste" Isa.28:16b KJV. This fundamental Christian attitude is scarce today among us. We violate ethics, break codes of conduct and oaths of office because of our ambitions. Christian leaders who compare themselves with others push the church member unjustly so as to get the kind of financial wealth they desire; 'no time to waste', 'now or never'. In fact, today if you pray "Lord let your will be done" some people will look at you as if you do not have 'faith'. Boaz was ready to wait for the right thing to be done, even taking a step that makes him vulnerable.

Finally another thing to learn from Boaz is his carefulness to avoid scandal from something he was doing with his whole heart. He made effort to ensure that onlookers did not misunderstand him, even though his heart was free and he did not commit any sin. Ruth was made to leave very early in the morning before anyone could be recognized and he told her "Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor". Though he did not have anything to hide, he was still concerned not to have a scandal around his life. There are many things that can be out of our control, however, we are expected to play our part in things within our control. When I hear some arguments put up by some Christian leaders who travel alone with a member of the opposite sex for programs and conferences, some leaving their spouses behind at home, I cannot help but to really wonder where we learned such carelessness from. We allow and even engage in careless jests and relationships and when scandals eventually break out, we are left only to start explaining and defending ourselves. In most cases, scandals move faster than your explanations. Careless lifestyles can cause us problem when we allow them and they will affect the effectiveness of our Gospel testimony.

Boaz was indeed a man of honour. Let's learn from his life. In part 3 of this series, I will be sharing a few lessons from the life of the kinsman-redeemer.
God bless you as you celebrate the Good Friday.

NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ELDERS FORUM (NCEF) - A PRESS RELEASE

CONFLICT OF IDEOLOGIES AS THE GREATEST OBSTACLE TO PEACE, UNITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

A few weeks ago, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) issued a statement titled THE NEED TO PRESERVE THE PEACE AND UNITY OF NIGERIA. Of concern to the Christian Elders is the deteriorating state of national security, the free fall state of the economy, the inflammation of religious tension through the misappropriation of state powers, a worrisome foreign policy that is evidently skewed in favor of Islamization, as well as the increasing impunity of the Fulani herdsmen, amongst many other issues.

The National Christian Elders Forum was established by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to make statements in defense of Christianity in Nigeria, as well as promote peace and unity among Christians and Nigerians, as a whole. The NCEF is made up of Christian Elders from the six geo-political zones in the country.

.....

4. ISSUES OF CONCERN

In the build up to the 2015 elections, majority of Nigerians expressed great hope that there would be CHANGE in the nation. However, ten months after the new government was sworn into office, credible apprehension can be expressed given the policy direction of the new administration. We hope that the buildup to these policies do not result in full blown Sharia which President Muhammadu Buhari had promised Muslims in Nigeria.

A number of worrisome issues readily come to mind:

a)      The apparent disregard for the Constitution, by Mr. President in many instances. For example, N900 billion was released in bailout package for states without Appropriation, the government was run for five months without a Cabinet, international commitment are being made without recourse to the National Assembly. All these are acts violating the Constitution.

b)     Including Nigeria in the Saudi Arabia Military Coalition of “Muslim/Arab” nations would appear that the Foreign Policy thrust of the present administration is to make Nigeria a satellite state of Saudi Arabia. The strengthening of the nation’s democracy and security for all should remain the greatest priority of Government. This we see to have been negated by the President’s fiat/unilateral decision to enlist Nigeria in the 34 nations Muslim/Arab coalition. Given the emotive and sensitive nature of this unilateral Executive decision, it should have been handled by Mr. President in line with our democratic culture through popular discussion and participation by the citizenry, or at the very least, through the National Assembly.

c)      Attempt to fund deficit in the 2016 Budget through issuance of Sukkuk loan which is a “Sharia compliant loan.” Nigeria is not a Sharia compliant nation.
d)     The consideration of establishing “free visa” arrangement with Islamic D8 nations. These countries are: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, and of course, Nigeria.
e)      The apparent Islamization of key security positions in the country.
f)       The apparent disdain and contempt of Mr. President for Christians in Nigeria as demonstrated during his interview on Al – Jazeera on the objection of Christians to Nigeria’s involvement in the Saudi led Military Coalition to fight ISIS.

We wish to remind Mr. President that he was brought to power through the votes of Nigerians, Christians inclusive. Mr. President should kindly remember that the over 50% non-Muslims in Nigeria did not vote for the nation to transmute into a Sharia compliant nation. Mr. President assured Nigerians that he is “a convert” to democracy but we are disturbed by the direction of his administration.

We are aware that there are presently Islamists in Government prepared to execute the Islamization Agenda. Any nation in which Islamists believe that they are sufficiently strong to exercise influence rarely experience peaceful cohabitation amongst the divergent groups within it. This is the current situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudan. Islamism thrives on injustice, inequality and unfairness. We urge Nigerians to remain circumspect so that the Islamists do not drag the nation down the path of destruction.

5. KADUNA STATE RELIGIOUS BILL

We wish to express tremendous shock at the proposed Kaduna State Religious Bill. The proposed Bill contravenes Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. We should remind the Government of Kaduna State that religion is personal and no one has the right to legislate on how individuals worship. We call on the Kaduna State Governor to retrace his steps from this ill-advised venture.

 ...

See the full text of the Press Release here.