Generation Shift

The whole of 2011 was riddled with the toppling of despots in Africa. From the fall of Lauren Gbagbo to the death of Gaddafi, Africa was rocked with a shockwave of change as the youth began to cry for relevance and the removal of the old crop that had robbed them of their potential for so long. I believe the events that have happened were a prophetic symbol to us of the shift that is happening. Have you observed that the same seems to be happening in spiritual circles too? Before you crucify me, I'm not talking about the usurping of church leaders but rather the sudden dissatisfaction with the way church is.

I was speaking with a pastor who had gone to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife to speak with a group of about 200 students. He asked how many knew Benny Hinn and was shocked to see only 4 hands raised. It is obvious that this generation of youth is disconnected from the seeming spirituality of their forefathers. A few years ago, the line between gospel and secular music was very clear. You couldn't imagine church choir members singing at shows like Nigerian Idol or MTN Project Fame (not that it is sinful). Today the views of today's young believer about sex, spirituality, service to God, relationships, entertainment, etc are so diverse.

The reasons are not far-fetched.

Increase in knowledge, dwindling moral standards, the advancement in technology and the natural tendency of young people to hate the mundane and uninteresting have all contributed to what we see around us today. Another major factor is the dearth of good role models. Most parents and models are too busy running the rat race and thus have abandoned their wards to the vices, expertly weaved into our social fabric by the devil.

The devil understands that to take the future just influence the youth. He simply provides  them the influence that would serve his ends. So it would just be a matter of time before the seeds he has sown mature into the ripe harvest of godless, rebellious individuals. All the while, these youngsters are attending church and youth fellowships but rotting deep inside, simply looking for the right opportunities (and freedom) to express their fleshly lusts. However these guys were created by God to express His nature and bring His kingdom to the earth.

The reaction of the older generation, unfortunately, is usually one of the following

• Ignore Them: What difference can they make? Young people are only meant to be seen not heard.
• Overindulge them: Give them all the luxuries/freedom/resources they need and leave them to learn by themselves
• Manipulate them: Monitor, supervise and control their every move and action. This eventually backfires as it suppresses the individual and he rebels against it either openly or internally.

What we should be doing is getting involved in their lives and modeling to them the right lifestyle. The glory of young people is their strength! Youth are usually passionate about anything they are involved in and today's youth would make excellent God-chasers but then they need to see, from us, that following God is profitable and exciting and not boring and uninteresting.

N.B. Over the next few days I would be focusing on strategies to effectively evangelizing today's youth. Stay tuned and check the facebook page (http://facebook.com/RAMPAGEOutreach) for updates on special events and trainings.

Exploring Creativity

One of the greatest challenges of the church over the years has been the ability to translate spiritual intangible to physical realities that the world can understand. It seems that for us to be able to communicate effectively with anyone that does not yet believe in Jesus, we must first confuse them. The more confused they are, the easier it is to get them into the kingdom. We seem to forget that at one time there were some things relating to God's kingdom that we did not understand.

As a result of our inability to accurately interprete these spiritual intangibilities, we give excuses. Here is one that is simply a classic.

Be blessed as you listen to the lyrics of our song and not the music. 

What?! Why call it a song when you all you want is for me to listen to the lyrics and not the music?
Our greatest job as believers utilizing media to advance the kingdom family of God is to interprete these "heavy" spiritual truths in language/expressions that everyone can understand. Let me cite a few examples

Alfa Sule -there's power in the name of Jesus

Suing the devil- answers the question of the validity of God's word in the 21st century

Olori Oko-The King, Jesus, is coming soon.

Once it becomes too difficult for an unbeliever to understand, then you can be sure he's lost to your message. For a few more tips on how to craft media that can cross over into the "secular", take a look at these slides I used for a programme I host monthly.

On books that crossed over

I just wanted to compile a list of some books that have been able to make a crossover into the mainline community from the Christian community. I've read some of them and been greatly blessed. I believe this is another area the kingdom of God can permeate the world. Jesus employed the same style-using stories to share truth (His parables). The truth is who doesn't love to hear some nice story or interesting gist, uhn?

The Circle Triology by Ted Dekker. This set of books explore the story of Creation and redemption using fantasy. His novels have sold over 5 million copies in the United States and over 1 million in 2010 alone. One of his books (THR3E) has even been made into a movie and I bet there's more to come.

Piercing the Darkness by Frank Perretti. It seems to me this is the father of supernatural thrillers. "With more than 15 million novels in print, Frank Peretti is nothing short of a publishing phenomenon and has been called "America's hottest Christian novelist". His books opened up the power and influence of prayer in influencing the outcomes of events in everyday activities.

The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. This book explores the emotional and spiritual aspects of abortion. The Atonement Child brings a new perspective to this very controversial topic in America.

Have you read any fictional book that's explored the themes of God's kingdom? Let me hear about them, ok? Psst...Tomorrow's my birthday.

Contact without Contamination

Nigeria is 48 and that’s something to be grateful to God for. For a country that has such a diverse ethnicity, its nothing less than a miracle that it has remained a single entity for such a long time (with the kind of leadership we have had and our general lack of vision). Why (you may wonder) am I saying this? Without vision a people will run riot, misbehave and just about do anything they like. Without any sense of direction, a group of people will ultimately run themselves and whatever resources they have aground. But enough said about our present situation, just like someone I met recently said, even a donkey on the streets can analyze the problems of this country so I won’t begin to chronicle the many challenges of Nigeria and how we should be truly the giant of Africa in deed and not in word. What I want to do is to get you to think of a way forward.

It’s been my observation that the church has been too quiet over the years, not recognizing the potential it has in transforming the society it finds itself in. And that’s why I was so impressed when I heard of the various initiatives by some of my brothers, members of the family of God, who organized two events that I believe were geared at making an impact on our national life as a nation. One was a rally that was focused on engendering patriotism and a sense of national unity. The second was a meeting that focused on entrepreneurship as a tool for national economical development. It is with a sigh of relief that I say finally it seems we are beginning to see our role in society.

Finally the body of Christ is seeing that we need to be involved to get any lasting change in this country. We can’t just poke one long pole at the problems and think we can solve them. Salt cannot expect to preserve anything if it does not come in contact with it, or can it? Even God had to experience the things we go through so that He can help us properly (Hebrews ). I mean it is completely impossible to think we can get to extricate ourselves from the society we live in and expect that things would just get better. We must take responsibility for the good of our communities. Or why has God left you on the earth after making you His child? However with this involvement comes one of the greatest challenges we can ever have, contamination.

The fear of the children of God in Nigeria over the years has been that if I mixed and mingled with them, won’t I eventually become like them? We’ve misunderstood God’s word where He tells us to come out from among them and be separate and because of that we refuse to participate in anything and eventually we become “heavenly conscious and earthly irrelevant” (12 o’clock Christians as someone put it).

So how can we be effective change agents without losing our Christ-like flavour? We can take a cue from someone who has some experience. Daniel was a young man who had been forcefully and unexpectedly moved into a new society and was expected to learn new values and lifestyles. Here he was exposed to all kinds of influences that were foreign to him. I believe Daniel’s secret can be found in the fact that he had another influence stronger than the external. If a child of God will really make any impact he must come with something different from what everyone is experiencing. Did you observe that Daniel’s diet was different from that of the others? Is it any wonder that he stood out? Daniel was able to live in that kind of society simply because he was connected to a Source different from what all the others were and if we will stand out in this age, as solution providers and change agents, we need to be connected to another Source.

So what is the solution to avoiding contamination? It’s a vibrant relationship with God. It’s a very clear principle in nature that once there’s space, it’s just a matter of time; it will be filled with something. So if there’s an empty can on the side of the road, in a matter of days, it would be filled with something, if there’s a leadership vacuum and a good leader doesn’t fill it, a bad one will.

So lets get deeply involved in God not just in some daily or weekly religious activities but an active participation in God such that His values rub off on us. Like a Nigerian proverb says, when the leaves have mingled with the soap enough, it eventually becomes soap.