Scheduling posts

Engaging Culture as Salt & Light

It is very clear to everyone that the game has changed. The Church has left the building and it's in the streets. The change we have all longed for is here. The transition of things, spiritual and physical is here. The possibilities and opportunities are boundless and only our imagination will stop us. We all agree that Church, the way we have known it up till now, has changed. It seems that God is pushing the fact that the church is not just a building but an organism that He has set up in the earth to influence it to reflect the kingdom of Heaven as against the desires of the enemy of mankind, the devil. However, I would like to submit to you that there must be some apostolic action backing all these prophetic declarations we have received. There must be some divinely instruction that we carry out to make these wonderful prophetic words a reality. The truth is that God doesn't just give us great dreams or allow us peek into the future of possibilities just to excite us and give us an adrenaline rush.

Mantles are dropping and anointings are being released in these days we find ourselves but the purpose must be made clear. These spiritual graces and platforms are for repairing the breaches and restoring the broken down walls of society. The cities must be rebuilt and the streets must be restored so that the solitary will find families to live in. The focus of my post today is to encourage us to begin to receive instructions on how we can become active players in the society we live.


Jesus called us both salt and light in Matthew 5:13-16.  One of the main qualities of light is that it
illuminates. Light cannot be in a place and not be seen. It will always dispel darkness. As lights, we are meant to provide leadership to our world. We are meant to be the ones to show them what is right and what should be done. Before now most of us have been afraid to shine our lights. What do I mean? We have taken the path of political correctness.

What is political correctness? It is simply when you try not to be offensive with a truth you have to tell someone. It is when you say that Jesus is not the only way and that other people have other ways to get to heaven. The reason for being politically correct is because we don't want to look intolerant and disrespectful of other people. In the end the price you pay for political correctness is COMPROMISE. We end up being like Lot, a righteous man who gradually allowed the perverse world around him to squeeze life out of him. Ultimately Lot lost his entire family to the evil culture of Sodom.

One of the things that light does very well is dispel darkness. To dispel or repeal darkness, light must shine. What does that mean? Let me illustrate with a small story. Just this morning I heard that a petrol station close to my house was selling fuel. I hadn't even taken my bath before I quickly bounded to the place. You needed to see how many people were there. It wasn't surprising considering that for about a 3-5km distance there were no other places selling petrol. As is it a standard in Nigeria, you would meet all kinds of guys at the filling station with cars, motorcycles (okadas) and all kinds of plastic kegs to buy fuel. The unspoken rule is that we should all line up but as corruption and indiscipline has entered into our society, there were some people who were shunting and making a mess of all of us lining up. To cut a long story short, I had to confront one of the guys who wasn't willing to wait to buy less than 4 liters of petrol. He didn't flinch and I was miffed. However my action led to many of the people there, mostly men, speaking about the lack of patience most Nigerian are known for (when we are in Nigeria, that is).

Initially many of the men, even though they were angry about the whole issue, they didn't do anything. However when I began to speak out, they had some courage to fight the corruption that was brewing in this filling station. Finally, we rallied ourselves and enforced some form of order in the filling station. Imagine what would have happened if there was no light in this situation? Lawlessness and chaos would have reigned supreme.

My final submission? Be the light. Speak up against lawlessness. Don't just turn the other way and pretend as if you didn't see it. Make an attempt to speak up. God will give you the courage and wisdom to shine as lights.

Engaging Culture; our Christian perogative

This post is spurred by many things that have happened to me in the past 6-10 weeks; the statistic that Nigeria is top ranking in searches for gay pornography on Google, the purported show on a transgender 11 year old that DSTV wants to air in Nigeria, a guy that I know who is openly coming out as a hater of God and has transitioned into being a woman.  The culmination of it all was the interview between Flo and Bisi Alimi, the first Nigerian to come out as being openly gay. The interview is in 2 parts and you can watch it here. As per the interview, I'm sure many believers would not agree with Flo's strategy (of not coming on forcefully on the guy about his homosexual status) but I think I know what Flo is trying to do-he managed to destroy that stereotype that Christians are all about condemnation and are not understanding in any way (and I daresay we should try this approach more too) but that's not the thrust of my post today.

My mind is troubled by the fact that the majority of christians are not realizing that things have changed and that then environment we are in has completely changed so we keep trying to use the same old methods/technology to produce a different result. Earlier in the year, just before the elections and the announcement of Buhari as the president of Nigeria, God spoke to me about the coming months. I posted it on Facebook. Hebrews 7:12, 18 (Amplified Bible)

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is of necessity an alteration of the law [concerning the priesthood] as well... So a previous physical regulation and command is cancelled because of its weakness and ineffectiveness and uselessness--

What does this mean? It means that once a means of achieving an outcome is no longer getting the desired results, it becomes obsolete. What am I saying? Our approach to changing our culture has been ineffective up till this moment, shouldn't we change it and take on a different approach?

I ask myself lots of questions just to be sure I know what I am talking about and so that I will know the reason why I believe certain things. It seems to me that most of us believers don't ask ourselves questions. Something is not working and we just conclude that it is a mystery beyond us and we just let it be. For example how is it that young people are modelling their marriages, careers, fashion, etc after shady characters and not after people with good values? We simply say "It is the end times. There's nothing we can do about it."

My point is that we need to review our approach to young people today because once the next generation is hooked on the wrong value system, we can be sure that the future will be full of darkness and depravity. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. It works both ways!

My observation over the past few months is that believers have not developed ways to enter into the conversation of culture and engage. We have stood aloof, making comments, boycotting and complaining about how things are while not doing anything. we have become keyboard critics when we could have done something about infusing the values of the kingdom into that teenager that lives in our compound. We must take this fight on two levels; the grassroots level (one on one) and on a large multi/digital media level. Matthew 5:13-16 comes to mind right now.

1. We must be salt; unseen, covert activities that systematically permeate, engage and influence culture and secondly;
2. We must be light: overt, obvious action/activities that will educate and address the issues in our environment.

I still have much to say and I will share in the next few days. In the meantime feel free to share your thoughts with me here or hook up with me on Twitter @eyitope.

Resurrection, the Emergence of a New Nigeria

The time is 10.27PM and here I am, in my study sitting behind my desk, writing about my dear country Nigeria. Since about 4Pm, I had been glued to a friend’s laptop, where we were streaming the live updates of the results of the presidential elections, over the internet. By the time I got home around 7 PM, there was no electricity (trust PHCN or is it IBEDC they are called now sef?), so I had to switch to my generating set, which is meant to be my backup but at times serves as the main de main (shey you get me now?) I quickly switched on the generating set and poised myself to follow the unfolding drama. After several minutes of listening to the results, I heard my gen, which had been purring on gently, suddenly sing a high pitched note. Kai! My fuel don finish, I thought. I would have to follow the rest of the updates on social media or on my phone’s radio. By the time you are reading this, it would be obvious who the president of the country would be for the next 4 years. But that isn’t really my point with this article.

My point is simple. Is it coincidental that Nigeria is choosing the president of the country the day before Palm Sunday? Is it just a coincidence that the commemoration of the deliverance, of the human race from the clutches of the devil, wrought through Jesus Christ death and resurrection (Easter), coincides with the same week Nigeria steps into a new era of leadership? I think not! God is the one who sets times and seasons. Genesis 1:14 gives us a clear picture of God’s intention of setting celestial bodies in the sky and the various seasons. They are signs and tokens (like signposts of appointed events or happenings already scheduled by God).

All around, Nigerians have been clamoring for a new country. A place where things work, where the amenities and utilities available are not just for the enjoyment of a privileged few but open to all and sundry. It is obvious that Nigerians, home and abroad, are desirous of a nation that they can be proud of and of which they can enjoy the good in it. I can also say, with some specificity, that this is the season for the fulfillment of some prophetic words spoken over this great nation. Just last year, we stepped into our centenary, and not too long ago we marked 50 years of independence. In the bible, the number fifty represents a jubilee; a season where freedom is given to people indebted or enslaved.

As Nigeria receives the new president, let us know that we are walking into a new season, a season of resurrection and life. A season where the Emmanuel has broken the gates of brass, cut the bars of iron in asunder and has ransomed and rescued captive Nigeria from the clutches of the evil that has held us down the fifty-plus years of our independence.

Valentine's Day Bruhaha

Just last Saturday was Valentine's day and even though it was celebrated low-keyed (most likely due to the fact that our general presidential elections were supposed to hold on that day but then got postponed), people still went out and celebrated the holiday. Of course Val's day is associated with eros love - between a man and a woman, (even though the origin of the holiday has nothing to do with that kind of love and so there is the giving of lots of flowers and chocolate and deflowering too in many quarters). Christian organizations and churches also use it as an opportunity to teach the truth about love and its true origin, God. This post is prompted by a picture of a young lady's dressing that I saw on Facebook that made me exclaim, Ahhh!

The Change We Need

Throughout history, influencers of society have discovered that the power they wield lies in their ability to communicate their values and concepts to the people effectively. Once people can grasp the concepts and ideals they are passing across, then it becomes easy to change their behavioral patterns and habits. No matter how powerful an idea, concept or value is, if it is not properly communicated, then there's no change. Those who attempted to present their message in such a way that it produced change had to understand the framework of the society i.e. the culture that they lived in. To be more effective communicators, they had to understand the cultural framework of the time in which they lived. Martin Luther, the 17^th Century reformer said this with regards to the translation of poetry

Whoever would speak German must not use Hebrew style. Rather he must see to it-once he understands the Hebrew author-that he concentrates on the sense of the text, asking himself, "Pray tell, what do the Germans say in such a situation?" Once he has the German words to serve his purpose, let him drop the Hebrew words and express the meaning freely in the best German he knows

It is this same principle that some translators of the bible follow, when creating new versions and I believe this same principle is what individual Christians and any local body of Christ should adopt in bringing the change into our societies.

The Gates Of Hell

In recent times I have been asking myself a lot of questions and a certain burden for the Church (the Body of Christ) particularly in my native country Nigeria. One story that I heard, which sparked some of these questions, was about a young Christian lady, who was in an office where some money had been stolen and no one knew who the thief was. A member of staff suggested that all the staff would be subjected to a test, by a juju man, assuring the owner of the company that this fail-safe method would reveal the thief. This Christian lady followed the other members of staff to the place and allowed herself to go through all the rituals the man said were necessary. I asked myself a simple question, how come this tongue-talking, Spirit-filled, church worker couldn't provide any solutions to the problem at hand but instead submitted herself to such base things? Couldn't she have “activated” a gift of the Spirit? That is what leads me to the reason for this post.

Recently I heard a prophetic teacher say something about a very popular scripture. What caught my attention is that I had never considered in this light he was bring before. Matthew 16:18, 19 says:

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

I have always seen that scripture as the Church trying to defend itself against an onslaught of the kingdom of darkness. However when you consider that the keys of the kingdom of heaven has been given to the Church, to bind and loose God’s desires on the earth, then it gives you another outlook. In fact Jesus describes the church as advancing (keywords: BUILD MY CHURCH), which is obvious that we are the ones attacking and not defending. At the time Jesus spoke these words, the gates signified the group of people who determined the course of a society (its language, way of life, education, etc). In fact it was the Romans who invented this ekklesia, which was their way to change the culture of a people, to resemble Rome, without using force but by infiltration.

Secondly, notice the word used here is gates (plural) which means that the forces are not singular. Over the years, what we as God’s people have focused on is trying to bring the influence of God into our society by taking the religious mountain. We conclude that if people can attend church, we can easily penetrate our culture. If we do more prayer and fasting, hold more worship concerts and revival meetings, then our society would be aglow for Jesus. What we are not aware of is the fact that the things that influence behavior (and culture) are more than these Christian activities. I’m sure we may have heard about the 7 mountains or culture shapers namely, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, Family, Religion and Economy.

Over the years our strategy, in my own observation, has been to get Christians heavily involved in the church community and environment, hoping that this would prepare them to take over in the other places of influence. What we have seen, from experience, is that our guys enter into the Arts & Entertainment Mountain and get swallowed up completely leading to choir directors coming out to say that they are now inspirational singers and not gospel singers anymore. People from the church enter politics and are swallowed up by the corruption in that mountain and you wonder if this guy, who ran for senatorial seat in Abuja and was an active worker in the church you both attended, is still a believer in Jesus and His ways of doing things.

What our spiritual warfare, in the form of prayers, worship, fastings, etc do is actually put angels in operation to disallow satanic powers from taking up the ruling power at the gates (where the outcomes of the mountains are decided). At such a time in our nation Nigeria, what the church should be doing is raising men and women who are like David; their spirituality not only delivers access into the divine but also the taking over of territories and the ousting of the oppressors of the people, Philistia. What the church needs to do is to ensure that men and women of maturity and wisdom get to the tops of these mountains of influence and bring God’s kingdom to bear on the earth or else perversion will sweep the nations and eat up the people of God. The devil’s agenda in the last days is simple, take over the earth by putting people he can control in places of leadership and influence. If he does this, then he can easily legislate and legalize evil and find people who will help him express the lawlessness he wants to proliferate.

How to react when Bible Movies miss the mark.

In recent times there have been lots of releases of bible movies by Hollywood (and there will still be more I believe). Majority of these movies have diverted from the original bible accounts that we have read. Most of them are not accurate and some even out-rightly blasphemous. I've been thinking a lot about our reactions to these movies (and even some other ones) mainly because of their strong influence on culture. I stumbled on a post by Phil Cooke, who is a respected media influence in christian circles (he's the brain behind Joyce Meyer's and Lakewood Church social and regular media campaigns).

Here's the link http://philcooke.com/when-bible-movies-miss-the-mark/    What do you think?

21st Century Lot

One of the greatest impressions in my heart in recent times has been how today's believer is so much like Lot and how different Abraham was from Lot. On the top of the list is the fact that Lot was clearly a believer who lived in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Where Lot lived, people called evil good and good was laughed at. Immorality was the normal and perversion was the sanity of that clime. It was so bad that God wanted to wipe out that entire city from the geographical landscape!

2 Peter 2:6-8 says Lot was vexed constantly by the things he saw and heard every day. It seems that same predicament is what many believers today face. I daresay that there are 4 kinds of individuals who lived in those days. The first I would mention are those who have sold themselves to depravity with no sense of restrain. To this group belong the people of Sodom & Gomorrah. They were so vile (and spiritually dead) that the men wanted to sleep with angels even when they were offered young girls to quench their sexual lust.

Those in the second set are Lot's children and his wife. His two daughters, who if they were living in our times, would be children born into Christian homes, attending the church youth church, etc had boyfriends who were unbelievers! I have heard of christians who are engaged to unbelievers and they don't see anything fundamentally wrong with it! Lot's daughters represent Christians who dine with the devil all week and "date" Jesus on Sundays.

The third category of people are like Lot's wife. Externally Lot's wife was the ideal believer. She stayed away from things publicly recognized as ungodly and did a good work at keeping up appearances. She went to church regularly and never missed midweek fellowship. She read her bible and prayed everyday and was an active person in the church she belonged to. Everyone knew her as Lot, the righteous man's wife. But then her heart was not longing for God but the good things of Sodom. It became evident when they were rushed out of the city by the angels and given a clear instruction not to look back into Sodom. The truth is that many believers are like this today. We must be careful and check our hearts. Are we not in love with the world? Do we have a form of godliness that is completely void of any living active relationship with God?

Then there was Lot. Lot was obviously tired of the state of the place he lived in. Lot was influential and powerful. This is evidenced in the fact that the angels met him at the gate of the city. In those days only the decision makers of a city sat perpetually at the gate/entrance of a city. Lot was also wealthy. He had material wealth at his disposal alongside servants too. Above all Lot was a righteous/holy man. But in the midst of all this, Lot suffered in silence. His influence and affluence did not translate to any impact on the environment he lived in. It was so bad that when God wanted someone to intercede for the city, He didn't even ask Lot, who was meant to be God's emissary in the place. Isn't this the same situation believers find themselves today? With all our big churches and large offerings, how much influence have we been able to exert in the political or even media environment. Just like Lot, most of us believers, on the individual level keep mute. Gradually these immoralities have crept into our so-called guarded spaces. Now we are bombarded, on our own TVs, with the lewd lyrics and soft porn in the name of music videos and all most of us can say is "This is not good oh. When I was your age, we never used to have things like this shown on national television."

The truth is Lot was meant to be responsible for Sodom and Gomorrah. He was so weakened by HIS SILENCE and the consistent onslaught of immorality that he couldn't even raise his influence to impact 10 people in the whole of Sodom and Gomorrah! And that was why God destroyed the twin cities.

The final type of believer in those days is typified by Abraham. (Yes I know I mentioned 4 earlier. Just add him to the list and make it five ok?). I'll be discussing the Abrahamic kind of believer in my next post. Right now, I want to get under some warm sheets. It's really cold. Ta ta!

Jesus Was Not A Politically Correct Wimp

I read this post from Charisma Magazine this morning and I know it will enrich you as a believer. Read on and let's have your comments, ok?

Christians: The "softer, kinder, gentler" approach ain't working.

One of the perpetual myths well-intentioned Christians indulge in is that if we are just nice enough, winsome enough and persuasive enough, everybody will love us and eventually agree with us.

This is a pernicious and fatuous lie. It is a deception forged by the father of lies to induce Christians to be passive, meek and timid instead of bold clarions of truth and true justice.

By believing this lie, we have neutered ourselves in the public arena. Rather than winning others to our side, we have earned only their dismissive contempt. Rather than respecting us, they now feel free to punish us by shutting us up and shutting us down, and sending us off to re-education camps if we won't cooperate.

It's been tragic to watch as one pro-family leader and organization after another has lost its nerve and gone to ground rather than going to the mat. Organizations that once stood as beacons of light for the entire nation are now largely forgotten and ignored. They no longer have a message that the world fears. They have been domesticated.

But we do not serve a domesticated king. We serve the Lion of Judah, who is not, any more than Aslan was, a tame lion.

It's time to be done with the "nicer than Jesus" mentality. It never has worked, and it never will work. It only fools us into thinking we are being Christ-like when in reality we are only being wimps.

The odd thing is that Christians who have lost their spine and have become silent and soft are often harshly critical of those Christians who do stand publicly and without apology for the time-honored truths of Scripture. This is especially the case when it comes to things such as declaring that homosexuality is not a benign alternative to heterosexuality but a form of sexually deviant behavior.

Jesus wasn't crucified for being nice. He was crucified for being bold and confrontational. Don't misunderstand: He was the kindest man who ever lived. But he wasn't a sap. He knew when kindness was called for, and he knew when it was time to get up in somebody's grill and challenge them with the truth.

Jesus had no hesitation about speaking truth to political power. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the politicians of Jesus' day. They passed laws that controlled the details of the ordinary, daily lives of everyone who lived in Israel. They could arrest people for violating those laws, detain them, put them on trial, flog them, and even persuade the Romans to put them to death.

Thoroughly unintimidated by their police powers, Jesus rebuked them publicly and directly and even knew when to call them "a brood of vipers" (Matt. 23:33, ESV) and the spawn of Satan: "You are of your father the devil" John 8:44).

So let's not hear any more of that nonsense about how Jesus was not involved in politics. He was involved in politics, and in the end it cost Him His life.

Bottom line: God has not called us to be nice. He has called us to be good. Nice people never confront evil and error, but good people do. It is the truth that sets men free, and genuine love will drive us to declare the truth no matter the cost. It's time to put on the full armor of God, unsheathe the sword of the Spirit, and go to war.

Here's the link to read it here.

Tormented Souls (Part 1)

On Friday, I was in Lagos, preparing to attend a friend's wedding slated for Saturday. I decided to visit a friend and his wife in their house. After we had exchanged pleasantries (and a nice meal!), we got into a discussion of how values were being eroded in society and how unprepared christians were in handling these challenges. Our discusion veered into how we can easily each moral standards while excluding God so people become good but not essentially godly. I got an email from a friend, on something related to what we were discussing and I would like to share that with you. Here goes;

Lot, Abraham's cousin, was a wealthy business man that lived in a city called Sodom. Sodom was a thriving community with the necook upessary infrastructures to support Lot’s agric business. Although the city was thriving economically, it was decaying morally. In the midst of Sodom’s decaying culture, Lot stood out as a godly man. He didn’t get interact much with the people of Sodom neither did he partake in their immoral ways. He worshipped his God quietly, performed his civil obligations and provided for his family.

However, beneath his saintly looks, Lot was a tormented soul. The culture of the people afflicted him, what he was exposed to everyday was very depressing. Lot was able to maintain his righteous stand but from the bible it is clear that his family didn’t have his level of resistance against the onslaught of an evil culture.

When God sent angels to destroy the land because of the prevalent evil culture, the angels were determined to rescue Lot and his household. This event shows the effect of an immoral culture, when the godly do nothing.

·       The men of Sodom demanded homosexual relationship with Lot’s guests.

·       Lot did not take his stand instead he offered his two daughters to the men of Sodom.

·       Lot’s daughters were engaged to the ungodly men of Sodom. Lot’s sons in - laws to be even made fun of him when he warned them about God’s coming judgement.

·        When God’s judgement came, he lost all his investments in the city.

·       Lot’s wife had become so materialistic that her heart never left the city; she looked back and lost her life in the process.

·       After escaping, Lot’s two daughters conspired to have and incestuous relationship with their father. Although his daughters had let Sodom, the culture of Sodom had not left their heart. The evil culture that Lot was indifferent to ultimately destroyed his investments and tore his family apart.

On the other hand, Daniel was another godly man that found himself in an ungodly culture. While Lot functioned as a businessman in the private sector, Daniel was a civil servant in the public sector. As a teenager he was taken captive into Babylon and was enrolled in a special academy so he could serve the king of Babylon. In this academy, Daniel was exposed to all the evil practices of the Babylonians; magic, idolatry, drunkenness etc and Daniel was expected to participate in these practices.

Daniel, from his teenage years, began to engage the culture around him; he was determined not to allow the culture defile him. He approached the director of the academy requesting to be excused from activities that he believed would compromise his godly stand. He was bold enough to challenge the director to put him to a 10 - day test, after which the director discovered Daniel looked and performed better than those that ate from the king’s table.

Daniel had a simple but effective method of influencing his environment with his godly culture. His simple approach was: LIVE OUT YOUR GODLY CONVICTIONS EVERYWHERE, AT ALL TIMES, IN EVERY SITUATION.

This was the method employed by Daniel in the midst of a godless culture, with this principle he was a relevant and respected figure to 4 different regimes.

When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that nobody knew (not to talk of interpreting), all the wise men of Babylon were to be executed. When Daniel heard, he took his stand and told the King about the God of heaven that revealed secrets. When Daniel told the king the dream and its interpretation he bowed and worshipped Daniel’s God.

The same thing happened with Belshazzar and the hand writing on the wall and with Darius when he put Daniel in the lion’s den. In each case Daniel took his stand publicly against the evil prevalent culture and at the end the name of God was magnified in the land. Daniel remained a top government official until the reign of Cyrus who eventually released the Jews from captivity.

Christians now live in a culture similar to that of Lot and Daniel, a culture plagued by all sorts of immoral vices. We live in societies given to corruption, selfishness, tribalism, mediocrity, intolerance and irresponsibility. All these have become a way of life (NOTE: culture means way of life). The sad fact is that Christians too are not excluded and the effect is very evident all around us.

God will not come down to change our culture! (that is our responsibility) but if we don’t actively and strategically begin to engage our society then we become victims of our culture just like Lot was. Our godly convictions must advance beyond our heart into our public acts. Active faith is an advancing faith and to claim to be indifferent is to admit you are defeated. 

Sometimes we think the government is solely responsible for the prevalent culture in the land. Even though the government is involved, there are other institutions; the family, schools, religious organisations and the media. These are major institutions that shape the culture of any society and to change our culture we must engage these institutions with godly values.

Prayer is very important so we must start with prayer; Daniel was a deeply spiritual man but Daniel was also a man of skill and understanding. So we must also take action based on skill and understanding to see the cultural change we desire in our land.

God said

“Ask of Me, and I will give You

The nations for Your inheritance,

And the ends of the earth for Your possession”. (Ps 2:8NKJV)

Selah.

5 Major Challenges In 21st Century Media Evangelism

As people who are called to be salt and light, we must be aware of the challenges we will face in bringing change to our immediate environments and be adequately prepared otherwise our efforts at influencing the world with our lives will lead to us being contaminated with its influence. I've highlighted some challenges facing us today as preachers of the good news of Christ and solutions to some of these issues raised. Read on (and share with a friend too)

Challenge #1 > Contact without contamination
Many, in their bid to make the gospel acceptable to many have shipwrecked their faith. For most contact has led to contamination. For example, there are quite a number of choir members that have gone into music reality TV shows and returned with new identities: inspirational singers. Obviously, their interactions with the world of entertainment has changed their perspectives and positions about being popular as against serving the will of our Father.

Solution:
An active relationship with God (in worship & the word) is the only antidote to staying untainted in the culture we interface with. (Rom 12:1,2) As long as His word abides in us and we in Him (His word) we can be guaranteed not to be swept away. An active fellowship with a body of believers is also key to overcoming living. Daniel and his friends maintained a fellowship in Babylon. This helped them a lot.

How To Unlock Creative Flows

The Tunes Of Jubile Creatives' Workshop is happening again in June. This is a monthly interactive session where we learn how to engage and influence the culture we live in using media as our tool of influence and impact. At the last edition in May, we considered the challenges christians face in getting involved in the transformation of our immediate society. You can download the pdf here.

This time we'll be looking at how we can access a steady flow of creativity for creating exceptional media content for our comedies, dramas, movies, songs, dance presentations, books and so on.

Date: June 8th and 9th 2013.
Time: 5pm (on both days)
Venue: The Youth Chapel, Methodist Church Nigeria, Agodi, Gate, Ibadan.
Details: 08170686445 | apostledavid@rampageoutreach.org | eyitope.lala@gmail.com
I've included a map for the venue for those unfamiliar with the place.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

The Map




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Cultural Change from the bottom up

I start today's post with this quote from a blog I stumbled upon in a Google search about christians changing culture. It goes like this:

In his book, To Change the World, James Davison Hunter asserts that many Christians have adopted a false theory for social change, believing that the majority belief determines the social norm. Therefore, change occurs when a majority adopts a belief that differs from the existing norm. The LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia argues that this faulty theory has led Christians to invest a large amount of energy in resources and strategies to effect cultural change that prove ineffective. 
http://truthseekerblog.com/2011/03/07/strategies-for-changing-culture/

I cannot but marvel at the wisdom the prince of this world uses to infiltrate the world with his own influence in the homosexual issue for example. He uses very simple steps in an effective strategy-

• Remove the *"yuck factor" in homosexuality. (The yuck factor is a belief that an intuitive negative response to a practice, idea or something should be interpreted as evidence of its evil or harmful character.) This has been done by placing homosexuality in a favourable light using movies, sitcoms, comedies and even children's cartoons.
• appeal to sympathy from fellow humans by presenting homosexuals as innocent victims of social, racial and religious bigotry. Something like the feelings of sympathy evoked in the fight against slave trade.

Slowly and steadily the majority opinions towards homosexuality are gradually eroding giving way to more liberal views even among believers. While all this is also as a result of the speed of light changes happening in our world today, there's a simple strategy that I see the devil using. Interestingly it's obvious the devil copied this from the Author and Finisher of our faith as God has always used a seed approach in building anything on the earth.  Unfortunately we Christians have tended to try to infiltrate the power structures to effect a societal change. While this is laudable and can be effective, we live in times when social change is now more in the hands of the "consumers" than the "sellers". 

Jesus NEVER used power structures to try to change society. He went for the core of society that was hurting and needing help and caused tremendous city-wide waves of change. Remember the Samaritan woman? Or the Gaderenes (ex)demoniac? A city policy was issued because of what Jesus did to that man. Jesus did not come as a senator but as a servant. He hated the religious bigotry of the Pharisees and repudiated their beliefs but he poured Himself into the society He was living in humility, love and kindness saving weddings, healing the sick, casting out demons, accepting the unloved into the fold and providing a (better) alternative path (lifestyle) to the already established and acceptable norms of the society.

Platforms already exist for us to bring the change our societies need. (I recently watched a  Youtube video, that has hit more than 20 million views in the space of four months!) In the light of this, I would like to personally invite you to a seminar/interactive workshop taking place this weekend where believers can learn better ways to infiltrate our world with the kingdom of God culture. Follow this link for more details!

Tunes Of Jubile Workshop (April 2013 edition)

The Tunes Of Jubilé Creatives' Workshop was held again this last Saturday, April 6th 2013. The high points of this edition was the 3 fold strategy from Matthew 13 which can be used to infuse godly values into our society.

The pdf is available for your viewing on this page http://rampageoutreach.org/events/tunes-of-jubile-april-2013/

Lessons from My Oga At the Top! (Daz All)

The power of social media has been largerly untapped in this part of the world. Eventhough we have seen several incidents that have shown us how powerful new media is, we are yet to take advantage of that power.

The recent Oga at the Top saga revealed certain things to me that we can leverage on with regards to spreading the gospel. Let me point out some things.

If you Google the keywords "my Oga at the Top", you'll get nothing less than 4 million hits! Not only that.

1. YouTube is teeming with hilarious videos created on the Oga at the top saga.
2. Creative Images abound on the subject
3. T-shirts have been made on the issue, selling like hot akara on the streets of Lagos.
4. Music and music videos have been created on the same issue complete with remixes and remakes of the Channels TV interview.

The shock waves of the social media avalanche made by Nigerian youth, home & abroad, has caused the suspension of the NSCDC commandant (or so we heard), a clear indication that our leadership can be influenced by our disapproval of some of the things they do or say.

I'm still expecting the Nollywood version of this in form of a movie oh. Or has anyone seen it yet? And then there is a game in which, instead of telling you game over when you lose, tells you, hilariously, Das all! (innovative abi?).

T-shirts have flooded the streets of Lagos, advertising the same. I even heard that Daddy G.O. too made a prayer point out of it. I don't know how true that is oh.

For me it all says one thing, new media i.e. the internet, YouTube, Facebook, Blackberry, Twitter, etc have created platforms and meeting points to influence a generation. Platforms that we need to leverage  to impact this generation with truth. These platforms and hubs are the meeting places of this generation. They are the hot-spots and learning arenas where people pick up values on relationships, etiquette, career choices, etc. If we will make any changes in this generation and this time, we must be influential in these areas.

Well, my Oga at the Top wants me to stop now (I couldn't resist the temptation!). Daz all!

Creative & Effective Youth Evangelism

Creative ministries in the 21st century must embrace certain understandings to be more relevant & effective in these days. We live in days when the level of awareness is very high. An average 5 year old child, living in a city has, most likely, interacted with technology his parents never had access to until they were in their late teens or early twenties.

Obviously this means that communicating with this generation will be different than the generation before them. I believe there are 3 things every creative ministry in the 21st century must have to be outstanding & effective in influencing today;s generation with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. They are:

Consecration: We must realize that the backbone of any long-lasting influence on today's youth must be premised on a relationship with God. That is the foundation for the effectiveness & influence we desire. The power source of our ministry is this connection to God. 2 Timothy 2:21 says "Those who make themselves clean from all those evil things, will be used for special purposes, because they are dedicated and useful to their Master, ready to be used for every good deed."

One of the greatest challenges of these days is purity. The standards of integrity, purity and moral excellence have not changed. Interestingly, people still expect individuals to uphold certain values that ensure social cohesion. Things like truthfulness, integrity, loyalty, etc are still expected of people. Only individuals with deeply entrenched roots in God can truly live untainted as they interact with a world of moral depravity. The first requirement of ministry is a consecration to God.

The second thing is Skill. Skill is the know-how, the knowledge of the technology. Most creative ministries don't have the skill required to compete in the world, so we just retract into our "spiritual" environments. We tell them not to be carried away with the music but listen to the lyrics. The secular guys do the opposite by skillfully wrapping their lewd lyrics in excellent music. Excellence is a language all mankind understands and appreciates. And excellence doesn't come cheap. The price for excellence is hard-work and diligence. Most creative ministries receive inspiration from God but don't go beyond that. I believe inspiration usually comes as a zipped folder. It needs to be unzipped using the right software, which is meditation (something from my book How To Unlock Creative Flows).

The third thing is Wisdom. The message we preach will only get through to our audience if it is properly packaged. Wisdom is the key that helps us to know how exactly to package the message. It is what helps us to discern what exactly we are up against, knowing which tools to use per time. Without wisdom, we won't know when to come hard on the audience and when to be tender and gentle. It is this wisdom (knowledge, understanding & discernment) that the guys in the secular have that makes them a hit.

Here are my own thoughts, feel free to comment and visit our page on facebook.com/RAMPAGEOutreach

God is Not Zeb Ejiro

Hello friends, I got this off a facebook friend's page. It is instructive and hilarious and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

OK, I know there's a lot of criticism against Nollywood and some movies are truly a stunning celebration of unparalleled levels of ineptitude and daftness. A friend even said 'every time you watch Africa Magic channels, a brain cell dies in you' Lol! But truth is, this is ours and well, it’s part of our 'rich' heritage!

Anyway, talking about directors, it dawned on me that God is also a Director! He's working on a Master Script and as your life's story plays on, be assured that there's the Supreme being calling the shots.

Your life is, however, not Nollywood and in case you've watched too much “Nneka the Pretty Serpent,” “Yemi my lover” and “Dangerous Love Part 1 to 7”, here's my caution to you not to judge God and life with your Africa Magic mind.

1. Your enemies won't necessarily die or run mad: It is not God's preoccupation, occupation or vocation to kill your enemies or make them run mad after they confess that they are the ones 'doing' you as is common with Patience Ozokwor.

As you see the unfolding sojourn of your life under God's management, don't be shocked at his system of justice. In our earthly time, it might seem like the sinners are going unpunished and those who have done you wrong are getting ahead of you. Be assured, sin has full recompense but what God does is not to kill those who try to harm you, but He makes sure you are not overcome by their evil.

2. There's middle class in life: As against the lie we find in our movies, there's middle class in real life! Don't be deceived by the miracle of Mike Ezuruonye getting a fabulous job just after NYSC and moving into a 'five star' duplex, driving an 'End of Discussion' and earning seven digits for being a faithful accountant! And don't mind Desmond Elliot trekking the streets of PH five years after Uni, surviving on Boli and Epa, and living in a run down one room apartment.

There are small beginnings, not so small to be called a poor estate and there are prosperous progresses not so big to be called a major break! Life is a journey, so don't feel unsuccessful because you earn 60k, take bus to and fro work, can't afford a Nokia Lumia and don't wear designer Cologne.

Even if you are not where you want to be, remember this is not where you used to be.

As God directs your life, He won't necessarily make you meet Ini Edo, the daughter of Pete Edochie, who just decides to favor you with 10million Naira, you will work hard, save little by little, make your brain sweat and broadcast your business ideas on BB, then it will keep adding up to your progressive prosperity!

3. Romance might not mean Boutique Trips: Ehn ehn! My sisters in da Lord, this is for us. Well, if you are single and standing in faith to meet your man of destiny, keep in mind that you are not Tonto Dike meeting a Jim Iyke freshly arriving from Jand, therefore, true love might not mean trips to the boutique with odd Whitney Houston songs in the background of your life story, or running around lonely beaches and falling to be carried.

Romance could mean dreaming up a future together, serious strategy sessions, intense prayer times, happy laughter over homemade meals and promises of an enduring commitment. Wise up!

If you are already married and Africa Magic is confusing your expectations, please don't pay your subscriptions again o. How can you let man made fiction ruin your God made future? So because your husband is not Ramsey Noah taking you, Nse to the Bahamas for vacation, you are losing your joy? Ha! Na wa for you o!

Having said that sha, our men, that's no excuse not to trip us o.

4. God has the proper subtitles: Just the other day, a Yoruba movie's scene had the following subtitling:'Kunle please kill me inside, don't killed me outside'...If you are not a Yoruba person, you can't understand that groove. But be assured that as the script of your life plays out, God's subtitles are right!

You might not understand the language life is speaking sometimes and stuff happens that makes you want to ask 'wetin dey o?' but if you look closely and listen with your heart, you will hear the Spirit subtitling the script, breaking it down in a language you can understand and offering invaluable perspective! That perspective is what keeps you sane through life's mad dramas.

I'd conclude on this tomorrow!

Have a good year and keep God as your Director and Producer, that way, we should WATCH OUT for you!

With irrepressible joy,

Debola Deji-Kurunmi

How to create media content that engages the audience.

If you are as young as I am, you'd remember the days of Voltron, Thundersub, good ol' Sesame Street (where I learnt how to rhyme), even the Sunday-Sunday Tales by moonlight. And then there was G-force, Speed Racer and TerraHawks (Expect the unexpected-Tiger Ninestine). Those were days when choices were few & TV time was limited. Today choices have gone out of the roof (there's Ben10, Power Rangers, The Legend of the KungFu Panda, Dora the explorer, Samurai Jack and so on. (do you know any popular ones I missed out? Drop a comment!)

You will agree with me that it is getting increasingly difficult to watch, listen to decent things on TV or the radio these days. Everything seems to be punctuated with sex, lust, power & violence. If you are someone concerned about the atmosphere that the next generation grows in & the values they imbibe, you would like to screen what they engage thier minds with right? But the challenge is this, where can I get wholesome content?

Did you know that Tolkien and CS Lewis were friends? They both decided to do something about the state of print media, using fantasy literature, in their days. Oh, you don't know who those 2 guys are? JRR Tolkien wrote The Lord of the rings trilogy & Lewis wrote the 7 book Chronicles of Narnia. Both were a response to the desire to have imaginative stories that depicted redemption.

So here are some practical tips to creating media that is engaging yet full of values.

1. Use The bible; It is full of stories! Put yourself in the scenarios. What would have been your response? How would the character have acted/reacted if he/she were living in another timeframe?

2. Use fresh camera angles By viewing an issue from fresh angles, you present it in a new light. Tell the story from another person's point of view e.g. a third party, an onlooker. For example, if you were an investigative reporter following Joseph's story, how would you report it?

3. Real life stories or situations work well too. Focus on the values you'd like to teach & use the experience/story to project it.

4. Perfect the art of story telling

5. Make it believable. Hollywood sells make-believe like its true life. They use the right props-musical ambience, costume, special effects, etc

Tunes Of Jubile! Workshop

In the world we live today, the voice of the creatives seems to be the loudest. Movies, music, fashion and creative things seems to be dictating the pace for the way people live. People like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber and the likes tell the world the way to dress and how to speak. In the midst of all these, what’s the role the sons of God? Some of us feel incapacitated, unable to do anything. Its in the midst of all this that this initiative to equip believers to be more effective in telling the story of Redemption and Creation and turn the world back to the Creator and Father of all life.