It has been said that "when purposes are not known, abuses are inevitable" That is what has happened and continues to happen to the Body of Christ in our nation and continent in the last few years.
Various kind of insults, abuses and innuendos are heaped on the church by all kinds of people through interviews, press releases, conferences and writings. The other day, a retired archbishop blamed the church for proliferation of branches, upsurge of crime in society and poverty in the nation. Another person wrote about multiplicity of churches in a certain street in Owerri, IMO state, Nigeria and compared it with few churches in Norway, Sweden and concludes that it is churches that causes poverty, laziness and economic backwardness in our nation.
Both in the print, social and electronic media, any fool that can write has turn the church to their laughingstock.
IS THE CHURCH TO BE BLAMED?
Any right thinking person should know that the church is not to be blamed for the moral, economic, infrastructural and developmental calamities that has befallen our nation.
First and foremost, Nigeria is not a Christian country, neither was it found on principles of Christ, but on tribalism, ethnitism, Cheating, corrupt systems and human ideologies. To the best of my knowledge, it's a secular state.
We have muslims, animists and free thinkers in their multiple millions. So the failure of the nation to address poverty, crime and all antisocial behaviors should be heaped on her corrupt leaders, ungodly families and immoral individuals that have the opportunity to do something positive for society, but failed abysmally with their moral lapses, visionless leadership and wrong examples of parenthood.
Secondly, the fact that there are some bad eggs among pastors and church leaders is not enough excuse to heap all the blame on the whole church.
According to factual research, there are between 500 thousand to 1 million pastors in our nation. It's not justifiable to use the extravagant lifestyle of less than 100 who fly airplanes, build exquisite mansions and opulence living to judge the rest tens and hundreds of thousands who are doing great things for the Lord in secret, away from the glare of newspapers, television crews and news flash!
Thirdly, the church is God's idea, institution and interventionist force in any nation. The church is not a social club, but a spiritual force to bring people back to their Creator. The church is to be distinct, different and a change-maker in the spiritual lives of people. The church is placed by God in any nations to bring godly change, transformation and turn around to individuals.
Am a good example of that, because I got saved before my 17th birthday. Before then, I was already into small scale crime. It was my conversion to Christ through the avenue of the church that changed me. And I know many, many others like that. Imagine if we had not been converted by Christ, what havoc we could have done to our nation and her people.
I bet you, Nigeria would have sunk if my sin has been added all the past 36 years!
Lastly, the primary purpose of the church in any nation and community is not social services such as hospitals, schools, electricity, roads and social amenities. Those are SECONDARY, if the church has the funds. Her PRIMARY purpose are encapsulated in these ten truths:
1. FOCUS ON CHRIST. Every church must be built on Christ, proclaim Christ and lift up Christ for all to see. Hebrew 12:2
2. FELLOWSHIP. She must meet together in a locality for nurture and sharing. Hebrew 10:25
3. FIND THE LOST.The church must reach out to Win sinners by preaching and demonstrating Kingdom gospel. Matthew 24:14, 28:19,20
4. FOLLOW UP CONVERTS. The church must follow up, assimilate, integrate and bring into fellowship new converts until they are established in the Lord. John 21:15
5. FIGHT THE DEVILS. The church is to enforce the victory of Christ over the Devils that keep people in darkness and bondage in communities. Ephesians 6:12, 2Corinthians 3:4
6. FOLD THEM IN.Disciple people through teaching, training and demonstrations of Christlike lifestyle.
7. FEED THEM WITH BALANCED DIET. The pulpit of the church is crucial in the spiritual growth of the people. The pulpit must be strong on the undiluted, unaldultrated Word of God. 2Timothy 2:15
8. FREE THEM FROM BONDAGES. The church is to use the power of Holy Spirit to set people free from demonic, occultism and Worldly bondages of sin, sicknesses and diseases. John 8:32. Obadiah 1:17
9. FEEL THEM FOR GIFTS. The church is to recognize the gifts and graces of her members and allow them to use them for church growth, health and expansion. Ephesians 4: 11-13
10. FIELD THEM BACK.The church is to release her members for outreach, church planting and soul winning, both in home and foreign missions. The church must continually go and make disciples of all nations. Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19,20.
Each local church or denomination may couch these PRIMARY purposes in different words or mission statements, but it's the same primary purpose that every church must abide in, irrespective of doctrines, views, philosophy of ministry and perspectives. Each local church is to pursue them, commit to them and build on them continually.
By the way, it's only when we have local churches for 500 worshippers can we begin to talk of profeliration of churches. Before then, we still have a long way to go in planting lots of local churches to reach more people for Christ, especially with population explosion on our hands.