MY RESPONSE TO THE
QUESTION/RESPONSE TO THE SUGGESTION OF COLLAPSING DENOMINATIONAL STRUCTURES ON
THE CAMPUS
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One of the
questions/comments following Saturday’s teaching in the just concluded Emerging
Leaders’ Congress was this: how practical is the collapsing of all fellowships
on campus into one central fellowship? In the opinion of the commentator, this
is impractical; a more likely possibility is the natural death of
denominational systems, as more and more people hear and subscribe to the Kingdom
message.
What led us
into this talk?
We had earlier
seen how the Lord chose to utilise the campus to spearhead the revival of the
70’s. We discovered that one of the qualities of the campus which made it a
breeding ground for revival is the fact that it was a melting pot of
denominational affiliations. Denominationalism has been the largest killer of
revivals; no wonder genuine revivals have never been spearheaded by
denominations but interdenominational movements. God saw the orthodox systems
with their collars, their titles and their structures but preferred to use
those who had no structure, no resource, no institution, only faith and
yieldedness. Unfortunately, that quality that characterised the campus have
been altogether destroyed by the insatiable greed of those who were products of
the campus revival. That is why the campus as it is today cannot produce any
revival anymore.
So what is the
solution? One of the comments that came suggested the centralisation of worship
on the campus. This comment derived from an aspect of the message which
emphasised repentance as crucial to the return of the glory; identifying those
little foxes and dealing consciously with them. We saw during the course of the
message that the encroachment of denominational structures found in the larger
society into the campus overtly did more harm than good – and that practice (of
fragmenting the campuses by churches in town) should be discouraged and
discontinued.
Talking about
repentance, we saw that until repentance gets to the level of actually turning
away from certain practices/customs, it is just a mockery. Most times, our
repentance only gets to the level of confession – but we continue in the same
structures nonetheless. So repenting from the fragmentation of the Christian fellowship
on campus will certainly mean resisting every attempt by G.O’s to conscript
their young members into “starting their own” – for it would mean leaving their
various current fellowships and encouraging close friends to leave with them in
order to start this new fellowship.
A quick
reminder: that was how Deeper Life Campus Fellowship started in the very early
eighties. Their pioneers were mostly from the IVCU, and some were even
executive members. At the mandate given by their G.O, they all left en masse to
start DLCF, disregarding all entreaties. Even, Dr. Kumuyi refused to grant
audience to emissaries that came seeking his mediation into the matter, so we gathered. I’m not
sure that is a Christian spirit; it certainly does not agree with I Cor.
1:10-13 – but that is what we have left to sprawl in the body without restrain.
And see the chaos that has ensued from it.
So like we
said earlier, repentance involves refusing any vision to start the campus arm
of the church. Now back to the comment, repentance should go as far as those
who hold executive positions in denominational fellowships to resign and tell
their G.O. that they want to identify with the central fellowship on campus;
once out of campus, they can then return to their various churches – and this
action is because they wish to preserve the oneness of the Christian community
on campus.
That was the
background. In retrospect, I consider that my response to that question was too
incomplete and I personally feel I’ve done the audience a great disservice by
holding back some aspect of the solution because I felt we didn’t have enough
time to deal with it. I later regretted this because I felt that leaving the
people to go home with such open-ended approach to such a sensitive question
was clearly not the best. I then thought this avenue would be a great way to
remedy he error.
First of all,
it must be made explicitly clear that denominationalism remains the greatest
challenge posed at the very essence of the Church of Christ. In fact, every
problem of the church today is directly/indirectly connected to
denominationalism. Ironically, while so many people agree that
denominationalism is not of God, nobody is willing to do anything about it,
because it seems that there is really no other option. So we go on fortifying
our denominations and starting new ones. But the unpleasant consequences of
denominationalism is there for all to see: defragmentation of the body (thereby
making the church vulnerable and impotent, for the church’s greatest strength
lies in her unity), lowering of the high standards of the faith (in other
words, turning the church into a soft-sell; making the church to be
consumer-oriented instead of Kingdom purpose oriented), diversities of
doctrines, personal interpretation of scripture, all making even some of the
fundamental pillars of our faith such as new birth, the hope of our calling,
the Kingdom of God, eternal judgement, his second coming etc, a free-for-all –
and so on and so forth.
When the
Pentecostals also started their own church brands in the eighties, they never
knew that they would eventually start multiple branches; and they certainly
never knew that the ugly trend would find its way into the campuses. I remember
one of our fathers in the land talking to his members in the universities about
two decades ago, “When you get to your various school, don’t look for a “so and
so” fellowship (mentioning the name of his own church), because you won’t find
any. Go into the Christian Union and make your impact there.” About 10years
later, the song changed, he called all his children in the campuses and
encouraged them to pull out of where they were and start the church campus
fellowship, promising them money, fellowship bus and so on.
So the ugly
trend is now fully entrenched in the campuses such that today, fellowship
presidents on campus are now also papas and mamas. Some of them even get
salaries and more and more fellowships are being born every day. Yet what is
the impact on the campus and what has been the impact of our several churches
on society? The point here is that we are yet to see the end of this ugly
trend, unless a generation arises to say, enough.
Now, back to
the question/response which I want to properly respond to: how practical is it
to ask people in denominational fellowships on campus to collapse their
structures and subscribe to the central fellowship (in most cases, the
Christian Union)? Are the CU’s even ready to absorb/contain /manage that
possibility? Isn’t it more realistic to believe for the natural death of
denominational systems over time? Well, this is my response:
I agree that
at the present moment, it is impractical. Even the so-called central
fellowships themselves have become denominationised. Fellowships like CU, SCM,
SU and a very few others are already denominational because they have national
bodies that have a level of regulatory hold over member bodies in different
institutions and ensure some level of conformity. How else is a denomination
better defined? So this talk is not to make CU members happy and assume they’re
the ones to take it all – no. They will also have to go through a total
overhaul to be relevant to this projection.
But those to
whom the Lord is speaking do not wait for practicality or otherwise. They
simply obey when the Spirit of God nudges their hearts. Just like the Lord said
regarding the doctrine of celibacy, this word is not for everybody; if you are
not persuaded, please go on serving the lord faithfully in your various groups
and keep opening your window towards Jerusalem in the hope of when eventually,
the abnormal will be laid aside and divine order will prevail. But if you feel
strongly impressed that you are called into this, then do not observe the wind.
Don’t ask questions like where will I fellowship? How will I serve God? God told
Abram, Go, just go. And as he obeyed, specific details began to come as at when
due. I myself had an experience similar to this in my campus days.
Let me state
emphatically that the ideal we are believing God for will not happen
automatically by itself. It takes one person and another person and yet another
person in different times and circumstances to yield to the Lord for a quorum,
a critical mass to be formed. Anybody waiting for the truth to become
widespread and established certainly is not a pioneer and cannot be part of the
critical mass. So if God is speaking to your heart, please respond, even if you
are the only one. It is the Lord’s arrangement that you have been called in the
first hour. Some of your other brethren will later be called in subsequent
hours. And let me encourage you with this: don’t be surprised; you are not the
only one God is speaking to. But it takes you responding in simple child-like
faith for you to discover your other brethren for they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord builds again Zion.
Those of us
who are thus persuaded of this truth must make it a point of duty to shout this
from the housetops. I can’t forget a prayer somebody prayed when he read one of
my articles some time ago: may we NOT speak the truth AS IF IT IS A LIE. Those of
us speaking the truth have somewhat been intimidated by the lie that we are
cowardly and apologetic about it when sharing it. No, refuse the intimidation
of satan and the babylonish systems that have been raised in the church:
denominationalism was never God’s and never will be. If He never started it, if
it was never His original invention or idea, He cannot be pressured into
accepting it. Like someone said, God is too old, too ancient to change because
of certain conditions in time/society. He has seen ages and has remained
constant. I choose to be on the side of this ageless, changeless, ancient God.
Denominationalism
only pretends to provide a platform for church expression and ministry
expansion but in the final analysis opposes the ultimate purpose of God for His
church which is producing one indivisible, glorious church that has come into
the full measure of the stature of Christ on the earth, fully representing
divine interest on the earth. Denomination is a gate of hell and it is one of those
things that Jesus declared will not prevail against the Church he is building.
It was the very reason He prayed in John 17 for the church to be one.
Denomination is a tool in the hands of satan to prevent the prayer of Jesus
from being answered. Let those who are like-minded continue to declare this in
our fellowships, our churches, our meetings, our publications, our home videos
and our song lyrics, our prayers. Let it be practically impossible for Tobiah
to be able to find accommodation in the temple of our God. Let denominations no
longer be seen as normal. No, it is poison; it is an enemy of the purpose of
Christ. Many of the fathers I know: Dr. Mike Oye, Pst. Austen Ukachi, Dr. Kole
Akinboboye, Dr. Moses Aransiola, Prof. Fred Adegoke, just to mention a few,
have all spoken against denominationalism on the campus.
But may I say
what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. How can you prevent
denominationalism on the campus when it holds sway in the larger society? Is
the campus not a microcosm of society? Are the young people on campus not the
children of the denominational church groups in the larger society? That means (1)
you cannot oppose denominationalism on the campus while you permit it in the
larger society – that’s double standard. (2) you cannot expect denominationlism
to die a natural death on the campus when it continues to be fuelled and
strengthen and fed by/from the main denominations in town.
This second
point is worthy of serious consideration and should further make those who are
being stirred by the Lord to respond and not wait for a futuristic event when
suddenly majority will change their minds. The truth is denominationalism WILL
NOT die a natural death. Despite the ferocity of Luther’s reformation, the
Catholic Church did not collapse. It survived the 16th century cataclysm
that befell it and today is still standing tall. The tsunami that hit the
orthodox churches in the 70’s and 80’s in this country did not make them to
collapse. Today, they’re standing tall. Even Jesus with all His messianic
anointing and grace did not succeed in obliterating Judaism. There is something
about man: he has creative ability and once he sets up an institution, that
institution can become a living entity that will outlive him for several generations.
That is what we have inadvertently created: a gargantuan, a monster whose
sporadic growth cannot be restrained, a system that has spurned out of control.
No, it is not likely that these systems will die a natural death; what has been
the repeated trend throughout history is for those who have heard the sound of
the trumpet to come out of such structures.
If
denominationalism is not the way to go, how then is our Christian fellowship
and service to be structured? Well, assuming our fathers did not yield to the
temptation of encroaching the campuses with their church brands, what then
would have happened? With one central fellowship that unites all the Christians
on campus, faculty fellowships, departmental fellowships, level fellowships,
hall fellowships even block fellowships would have ensued and would have been
very strong and formidable. Today, they are hardly reckoned with whereas they
are the structures that can more effectively engage falsehood, unrighteousness,
injustice and evil in our institutions. They will best shine as light and be a
Kingdom standard in their respective domains. It is very difficult if not
outrightly impossible to denominationalise those fellowships. This is the way
to go.
In the larger
society, returning to the model of the early church is the way to go:
neighbourhood fellowships (comprising of families in that immediate
neighbourhood) and workplace fellowships (comprising of Christians in that
department or ministry or agency or company etc). This is the church of the future.
And that future starts when some of us begin to believe it, declare it and work
towards its implementation.
Finally, the
joint campus Christian fellowships (JCCF) can play a very critical role in
bringing about this vision, if not for the fact that most of them are more like
trade groups and political associations rather than bodies working to unite the
saints. Many of their leaders do not even have the vision of unity so how can
they promote unity? They see their work as protecting the interests and
promoting the welfare of member fellowships. If the JCCFs can catch this vision
of unity, they can serve as the central fellowship that will meet perhaps twice
in a month: one general fellowship and one general prayer meeting while
departmental fellowships et al will meet weekly, fortnightly etc.
May God in our
day raise up apostles daring enough to confront this ancient leviathan and
cause it to bite the dust. May the prayer of the Lord Jesus be literally
answered in our day. May we have a church generation that is truly
non-denominational in its expression and function, amen.
Temidayo
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