Tag Archives: Church

Adeolu Akinyemi
April 8, 2011

It’s Time to Pray


The Polity in Nigeria is quite heated, friends are willing to quarrel over aspirants they did not know 4 months ago. Strangers are willing to mal-handle each other over aspirants they do not truly know. Everybody want’s their person to win, nobody wants to lose.

Sometimes I play the video of my imagination past the now, into the future, I evaluate the possibilities if my candidate wins, and if others win. Will the momentum built by the opposition parties be well managed, or will it create instability? I did a survey based on these thoughts, the results I got were scary and I think it depends on many factors.

My analysis of the political terrain however shows one interesting reality. No matter who wins, Nigeria can never be the same again. The heated debates and campaigns have made all the parties promise us what we the Nigerian people truly deserve, a New Nigeria. Nobody can get there and take us for granted anymore. Rigging is no longer sufficient, the will of the people and their desires will count!

My heart silently aches over the tense arguments and discourteous use of words by old and young! Most of us are too far from where anything is being shared (when it’s being shared), hence our words and arguments are devoid of financial motivation, but by our desires for change. Our desires for a Nigeria we can be proud of, our desires to tell our children that when they sing the phrase “the labors of our hero’s past”, that our names are in there. Our desire for a Nigeria we can believe in, not one we can be leaving. That even though we were inspired by men, what we passionately strove for was a New Nigeria! And that win or lose, we actually won, because we may not get what we want, but we’ll get what we need! We are certain that when we do our best, God helps us with the rest. We are confident, that God desires that we live to our fullest expression, as individuals and as a nation and that he is more interested in a New Nigeria than all of us.

My heart is burdened, that if the leaders and candidates are at war with themselves and dedicate articles to demean each other, our fight should not be against people, but against corrupting systems, against poverty, against unemployment, against violence, insecurity and so many vices that bedevil our otherwise great country. Oh, I’m not free of blame myself and I indeed apologize. My passion for change has made me utter words not befitting a king. I have lashed out at people I hold in high esteem, demonized people with different views, castigated great yet opposing candidates and criticized pastors. Though I have my claim to truth, I am sorry indeed. The first step in our prayer for change, is that we the people that are called by God’s name, must humble ourselves, and turn from our wicked ways. Then God will hear from heaven, and heal our land.

If we focus more on counting our blessings, we’ll realize that never in our nation’s recent history have we been blessed with such a quality of aspirants. If we challenge ourselves to find the positives in every aspirant, we would indeed find, and some of what we will find would be exciting.

Brothers and Sisters, let’s quit the war. Let’s turn our swords to agricultural instruments and be ready to support the change we desire once voting is done. All those who are in the political scenes today, have 10-15yrs of Political relevance. We have 30-40 active years ahead of us, the future is ours, and it’s our responsibility to guard it. It’s time to pray for God’s will, time to pray for peace and healing. It’s time to rebuild our walls and infrastructures, it’s time for a fresh start. While we pray, it’s also time to watch. To cast our votes for our conscience, and to understand that in a democracy, the winner is the one that the majority wants, and that it is our responsibility as citizens, to accept whoever wins and provide the necessary support and checks to move our democracy forward.

I have a dream of a Nigeria that works, a Nigeria that my children can school in and stand taller than students from anywhere in the world in every way. I have a dream of a Nigeria where corruption, power failure, insecurity, poverty, ethnic or religious bias only exists as history topics. I have a dream of a Nigeria where the street cleaner has her own house, where announcing “I’m a Nigerian” makes everybody around you feel comfortable that a competent and trustworthy person is here. The future we desire is possible, from now till the elections are over, I invite you to join us as we pray! If you can even fast, you are welcome as well. Wherever you are, at Noon daily. Let’s pray! Prayer points will be seen across the facebook status pages of many of us.

North, South, East, West, Muslim, Christian or neither, under God, we are One!КартиниПравославни икони

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Adeolu Akinyemi
March 28, 2011

The Partisan Church


As the elections draw near, people are getting more conscious and sensitive about the future of Nigeria, the political landscape, the key players and the possibilities. In the midst of the  heated political spaces, faithfuls go to church hoping for a word of direction and comfort from the same pastors that they have relied on for direction, wisdom and guidance. Instead of direction however, the drums beating out of the synagogues today are of strange frequencies. The shepherds are playing the politics of silence. In the midst of their tactical silence however, they are beating strange drums and playing all kinds of music. The keen observers know that in trying to appear neutral, they have betrayed that they have no desire for change, and are in firm endorsement of status quo. In being criminally silent about offering even the basic direction of asking the pew to study the candidates and vote for merit, standards, values or competence, they have subtly betrayed their alignment with the powers that be. Who can blame them though, many pastors have prospered at the expense of the nations citizens. It is in the best interest of pastors who have no care for the people, for Nigeria to continue to live massively below the poverty line. It is in the best interest of these partisan preachers, who deceive us with their silence, that Nigerians continue to pray for light and every basic need! In the next few paragraphs, I’ll be saying it as a I see it, if your pastors position is unclear and you are close to him, ask him, I have asked mine! Continue reading →

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Adeolu Akinyemi
January 16, 2010

Religious Brain Drain


There is a trend I’m picking up and it’s grieving my soul. The most religious (Christian or otherwise) societies in the world, are it’s poorest and most underdeveloped. The cities that pack millions into auditoriums are the ones that don’t have any representation in other aspects of human influence. It’s seems like an inversion of everything that I have learnt, that light should give illumination, that spiritual enlightenment should lead to economic, social, governmental and whole revival. Thorough analysis however reveals, that the opposite is true. Continue reading →

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Adeolu Akinyemi
November 24, 2009

Church Relevance 2


Amos 5:21-14 (The Message Translation)
“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
How else can we ensure oceans of justice and rivers of fainess without accurate representation in the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government? How can we take responsibility for doing what God wants when we have strategically placed it out of our reach?
What was God really upset with here, and what was he saying the priorities should be? I think it’s clear, don’t you think so? I think it’s so clear we might need to have to hire someone to decieve us. God is not interested in religious meetings, conferences or conventions. He doesn’t want anything to do with religious projects or pretentious slogans. He’s had enough of fund-raising schemes, public relations and image making stunts. He’s not interested in celebrity ego-music, he wants people to sing to him not about themselves or to themselves. More importantly he wants an abundance of justice and fairness – virtues we may never be able to model without playing an active role in the polity of the nation.
Don’t get me wrong, the Church in Nigeria has tried. We have supported and built a few orphanages, we have created Jobs for many people in the Church industry, we have converted unproductive warehouses into development and production centres, we have kept a lot of young minds busy, rather than idle-ing away their sunday mornings and midweek evennings. Some of the more noble ones among us have even gone further to venture in education, health, communities and all. We have tried, or haven’t we? What worries me however is not what we have done, but what we have done compared to what we could have done! What we have done compared to what we can do! And what we have left undone! All that we do and have done pales into near insignificance when compared to what a serving governor can achieve in a few months of his/her administration. We need credible people to lead us, and what it means is that you and I must be interested, and the church cannot be silent participants anymore. We can give billions to support certain courses, but if the head is sick our investments on any part of the body will soon rot.
Oh, I understand and do know history, I know how in the past the church of God became nothing else but a political gathering, and I know that the fear of that error is enough to completely take one’s hands off it. However, the same way the church has learnt that money itself is not a bad thing, but the lust after it without recourse to ethics is what is wrong, in the same way, we must assure ourselves that if all we do is fold our fingers in the time of voting, we’ll continue to be ruled by wickedness. If we cease to be light, then our lack of expression gives permission to darkness. This is not a clarion call for community development, this is a call for taking political leadership. “Nigerian politics is dirty”, is so common a phrase, my question is how will it ever get clean if those who ought to be making change happen run away from it? The church in Nigeria has gotten more enlightened in the last 20yrs about it’s members taking their rightful place in the economy, today however we must with the same zeal and fire enlighten and empower ourselves to advance into leadership. It is shameful to have 5 star churches and worldclass catedrals in an underdeveloped country. We need to move to action, or we’ll lose our place. Or isn’t the government meant to rest on the shoulders of the body of christ?

Amos 5:21-14 (The Message Translation)

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.

I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects,

your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,

your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want?

I want justice–oceans of it.

I want fairness–rivers of it.

That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

How else can we ensure oceans of justice and rivers of fairness without accurate representation in the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government? How can we take responsibility for doing what God wants when we have strategically placed it out of our reach?

What was God really upset with here, and what was he saying the priorities should be? I think it’s clear, don’t you think so? I think it’s so clear we might need to have to hire someone to deceive us. God is not interested in religious meetings, conferences or conventions. He doesn’t want anything to do with religious projects or pretentious slogans. He’s had enough of fund-raising schemes, public relations and image making stunts. He’s not interested in celebrity ego-music, he wants people to sing to him not about themselves or to themselves. More importantly he wants an abundance of justice and fairness – virtues we may never be able to model without playing an active role in the polity of the nation. Continue reading →

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Adeolu Akinyemi
November 20, 2009

Is Your Church Relevant?


“Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.” – MLKJR

In the days we live in, the world celebrates Martin Luther King Jr, even the church is apt to identify with him and with what he stood for, but it was not so in the days that he lived in. When I listen to people refer to great men like this, I’m often ashamed when I discover that those that speak know little more than their listeners about the life of the people they speak about. Many are shallow, from not reading  in depth enough, to not engaging their minds when they read, to  having insufficient experience to draw from to connect with the lives of these great people. Read this slowly and understand it clearly – “The “Organized” Church Opposed Martin Luther King Jr, in his days!” If you need to read more about this, find articles like the Letter from Birmingham Jail or his book “why we can’t wait”. I daresay, that anybody interested in change in any nation must read the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.

“But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.” – MLKJR.

The question today, is simple and straight forward – “Is your Church relevant, or are you gradually becoming an irrelevant social club?”. I  must warn you that NOW requires urgency. Our nation is in on an auto-cruise that is collision bound with annihilation. We are failing as a state, with all our metrics and indexes for measuring progress plummeting, in a few years we may well be history and the last hope of this nation is currently rubbing shoulders with those who may enthrone it as the headquarters of cowardice and complacency. So answer the question, “Is your Church relevant, or are you an irrelevant social club?” Continue reading →

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