The NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 31st March - Sunday 6th April 2025
THE PARABLE OF THE ESTATE MANAGER
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 1 Cor. 4:2
There was a certain rich man who built a housing estate of many apartments and let it out to tenants. After a while, the rich man travelled abroad for some years. Before leaving the country, the rich man handed over the management of his estate to a manager. After a few years, the lord of the estate returned and met his estate in disarray. The buildings were not maintained, the estate roads were filled with potholes, while the tenants were constantly fighting and injuring each other. Instead of managing what was entrusted into his hands, the estate manager was busy acquiring his own properties and making friends with the business rivals of his lord. Those business rivals had purposed to encroach on the property of the master and take it over. What should the lord of the estate do to his estate manager?
The lord of the estate in this parable is Jesus Christ, the estate is the Church, the rivals of the lord of the estate are the Islamists, but who is the estate manager?
At a Christian Conference on 16th June 2018 in Lagos, a paper was presented entitled “Impact of Lack of Unity in CAN as Threat to Christian Faith”. The paper traced the growth of Christianity in Nigeria and identified the foundation upon which the Church was built in the country. Following the arrival of Methodist Rev. Birch Freeman in Badagry in 1842, various denominations came from different countries to Nigeria. The Methodists came from Wales, the Anglicans from England, the Catholics from Italy, the Lutherans from Germany, while the Baptists came from USA. Those denominations reported to different headquarters. Under such circumstance, each denomination operated independent of the others. The indigenous leaders who took over the leadership of the denominations after the Independence of Nigeria simply followed the pattern established by the colonial Church leaders.
On 26th August 1976, the Lord compelled a situation that made the various denominations agree to form an association that would build unity amongst all the Christian bodies in the country. On that day, 49 years ago, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was birthed with the motto, “THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE” (Jn. 17:21).
At the inception of CAN, 49 years ago, the following were the conditions of the Church in Nigeria:
• Christianity was in a stable condition in the country in 1976
• Christians were not being brazenly persecuted, killed and maimed for their faith
• Church buildings were not being burnt, vandalized, and destroyed
• Christian communities were not being sacked and the Christian owners driven off to IDP camps
• Christianity was highly regarded and influential in the country.
The points above reflect the state in which the Church was handed over to CAN, but 49 years down the road, what is the state of the Church?
▪️ On 4th February 2017, the American Congress affirmed that Nigeria is the worst country on earth for anyone to be called a Christian.
▪️ Christians in Nigeria are murdered in the hundreds of thousands
▪️ Thousands of church buildings have been destroyed
▪️ Millions of Christians are displaced, with many of them in IDP camps
▪️ Nigeria operates a constitution which recognizes Islam but makes no mention of Christianity
▪️ The only Chapel in the seat of Government no longer observes Sunday worship for almost two years, while over four mosques meet regularly in the Villa.
▪️ Despite the motto “That they all may be one”, the Church is terribly divided, with ministers of the gospel publicly hurling insults at each other.
▪️ Sexual immorality, greed, covetousness and hypocrisy have combined to rob the Church of integrity and credibility
Under these circumstances, who should be held accountable for the condition of the Church in Nigeria, a non-Christian organization or the leadership of the Church?
The problem of Christianity in Nigeria is simply a leadership problem. There is nothing wrong with the Church neither is there anything wrong with Nigeria. In both cases, leadership is the problem. During the 2018 Conference referred to earlier, the speaker stated, “Islam is a threat, but the Church is the problem.” The Church became a problem to Nigeria because, as the light of the world, the Church refused to shine to dispel the darkness that engulfed the country. The light of the Church cannot shine because those who constitute the leadership structure of the Church have a different perception of what Christian leadership should be. There has been a deviation from the examples and the directives handed over to Christians by Jesus Christ.
There are two leadership groups in the Church: the clergy and the laity. The clergy manage the denominations and ministries while the laity run the fellowships. Some of these fellowships, like Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International and Wailing Women Worldwide are bigger than some denominations and ministries. However, there is a significant difference between clergy leadership and laity leadership. At the level of denominations, under the management of the clergy, discrimination amongst the brethren is common. It is at this level that one hears, “Catholics have nothing to do with Pentecostals”, “Pentecostals don’t believe those in Cherubim Church are Christians”, “Deeper Life is separate from those other churches,” “those ones are not Christians, they are occultists” etc.
However, at the fellowship level, under the management of the laity, the President of the Fellowship could be a Catholic, the Vice President a Pentecostal, the Treasurer could come from Cherubim and Seraphim Church, while the Secretary could be a member of Deeper Life. They all pray and fast together, plan programs together, and worship God together without any discrimination or resentment. Under laity fellowship, the only question that is asked is, “Do you belong to Jesus?” Meanwhile, under the clergy, the question is, “Do you belong to our denomination?”
Under the circumstances, with the goal “that they all may be one”, whom should the management of the umbrella organization be handed over to? Those who promote unity or those who discriminate in the Church? It should not be surprising therefore that 49 years after the establishment of an umbrella organization to build Christian unity, Christians are more divided today than they were in 1976. The umbrella association is currently running as “clergy association of Nigeria”.
Christianity in Nigeria is facing existential threat. Millions of Christians have been murdered while those remaining alive can be killed without anyone being held accountable. Therefore, evaluating leadership performance is neither rebellion nor a disrespect to Church leaders. Given the gravity of the situation, questions should be asked and answers provided, because too many people are dying. It is imperative for the Church to reorganize its leadership structure, to prevent collective suicide by Christians. The deplorable condition of Christianity in Nigeria after 49 years of clergy leadership in CAN demands a performance review. The clear message is that CAN, as it is presently constituted, lacks the capacity to confront the life-threatening challenges militating against Christianity in Nigeria. Tolerating poor performance in leadership under the guise of respecting Church leaders or showing Christian love is suicidal. Which Christian would volunteer to be the next victim of terrorists or kidnappers? Christians cannot keep the same leadership doing the same thing again and again and hope for different results. A quote attributed to Albert Einstein says, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
CAN as an institution is a wonderful concept that should be retained but the structure must be reviewed. Christians, being the most vociferous group calling for the restructuring of Nigeria, should begin to call for a restructuring of the Church, to effectively engage contemporary challenges. If the Church is not restructured, the situation in Nigeria will not improve. Only the Church has the capacity, spiritually and physically, to halt the impending disaster that has been hanging over Nigeria for some years.
Christian laity professionals should be brought into the leadership of CAN to provide virile and competent leadership that will develop and execute countermeasures against the organized murder of Christians in Nigeria and the hostile takeover of the country by foreign invaders manipulating religion for racial, political, and cultural domination. Appeal and dialogue with Islamists will not work. The Salafi/Wahhabi ideology driving jihad does not give room for negotiation. There must be countermeasures.
If Christians in Nigeria should permit the clergy to lead them into the 2027 election, the clergy will repeat what they did in 2015, 2019, and in 2023. Recently, the leadership of CAN undertook an action which is a public statement that it is aligned with Allah, and there has been no uproar from the clerical leadership over the closure of the Aso Villa Chapel. If the Church will not be used again to endorse another four years of Islamist government that is determined to destroy Christianity, Christians should demand a review of their leadership structure. It should always be remembered that in 2013, God warned that “if care is not taken, in 30 – 40 years, Nigeria will be like Turkey.”
It is not wise to keep repeating the same debilitating process while expecting positive results.
God bless Nigeria.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Ps. 46:1-3 Bless God for being our refuge, and holding back the flood of the enemies.
2. Ez. 34:7-10 Pray that God would silence all self-seeking and self-promoting leaders in the Church who for selfish interest resist efforts to make the Church stronger and more effective.
3. Jer. 4:19-22 Pray that Nigeria Christians will receive understanding about the seriousness of re-organizing the Church to respond effectively to the conspiracies of the enemies.
4. 2 Tim. 1:7 Pray for the boldness of Christians to engage Church leaders so that the Church is better positioned to resist and overcome its enemies.
5. Prov. 26:27 Pray that all who have set snares for the Nigeria Church shall fall into their own pit.
6. Ps. 89:19-24 Pray that God would project, promote, and establish all the leaders He has prepared for the Nigeria Church in this season.
7. Matt. 16:18 Decree that no conspiracy of hell, no wile of the devil, and no attack from Islamists shall prevail against the Nigeria Church.
Amen.
