It's Sunday morning in Nigeria. What do I look forward to at church today? A testimony of God's intervention in a life this week, a special number or song, a sermon, a prayer. The testimony challenges me and also helps me know that if I run into a similar situation, God will see me through. I'm encouraged.
The special number is unique—she sings off key and even tells the listening audience not to worry about her voice but to listen to the lyrics of the song. What effrontery you say? But the words speak to my soul, even while the off-key notes annoy me. This happens all over Nigeria. Church may meet in a mud hut with a thatch or zinc roof and a dusty floor, but there is a touching simplicity. We have some beautiful architectural cathedrals that can compare with anywhere in the world, but the majority of churches in Nigeria do not fall into that category.
The dearth of beautiful modern structures for church buildings tells about the dearth and lack of our people. We are a needy people. We lack the basic things of life that most in the West take for granted—24/7 electricity, access to clean water, health care, sufficient food, protection of life and property. In the West, the government easily takes care of such basic things of life, but we do not have that luxury. We're on our own, kiddo!
This lack, this neediness, has forced us to look to God for all provision. We pray about everything and expect God to do everything even when he's done his part and all we have to do is walk into it. We spend hours at prayer retreats—for a daughter who is sick and deathly ill to our need for electricity so we can iron clothes! We know God reigns in our affairs and he is the one who can give an answer. We have not made the mistake of depending on the government. Maybe that makes us trust God more.
We are forced to; it would be more praise worthy if we had chosen to do so. You who are in the West, keep that in mind.
Were the situation reversed, would we depend on him as we do now? Maybe, maybe not. I believe this is where the West can learn from us. While the church in the West is not physically needy, she must still depend on God and not lean on her own understanding. We must not be brought low before we recognize God as sovereign.
You can learn from us that God is no respecter of persons. One would think that is pretty obvious, but it needs to be mentioned and emphasized. The West seems to emphasize physical structures and a lot of the external. Indeed, these are good and one could argue that they aid worship, but they also can give the worshiper the impression that this is what God is about. Simplicity in worship is losing ground in the West, especially as churches grow.
That doesn't mean the Nigerian church is better than Western churches. In spite of our simplicity and sincerity of worship, there is often a surface religiosity. Nigeria is said to be one of the most religious nations in the world, with 50 million worshipers in church on any given Sunday, as well as large numbers that are in attendance Monday to Saturday. Yet Nigeria ranks second to last, with Pakistan holding the last position, when it comes to corruption.
It is great to bring the roof down while worshiping God with music, but it's wrong to step out of church and live contrary to the dictates of God. We lack grounding through Bible teaching. We have emphasized rather the blessings of God over the demands of God through his Word, calling for a changed life. And the result is that we have a church that is sincerely worshiping God, but not in spirit and truth.
Ultimately both the church in the West and in Nigeria have a lot to learn from one another. After all the Church is one body—the body of Christ. When Jesus spoke to the Laodicean church (Revelation 3), he was also speaking to the church at Smyrna. We can learn a lot from each other.
