Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
In recent years, Nigeria has experienced the establishment of churches on a daily basis. Does this suggest a rapid growth of the kingdom of God in Nigeria? Your guess is as good as mine. This exponential growth in churches may be attributed to economic hardship as well as the convenience of social media and technological advancements. Hence, churches are founded daily, both online and on land. Regrettably, this increase in churches does not sufficiently checkmate the immorality in society.
There is no denying that Nigeria’s escalating church population is mocked by the country’s pervasive immorality, corruption, promiscuity, and fetishism. It is equally believed that modern churches and ministries feed these viral desires or contagious cravings rather than addressing them. Consequently, the relevance of the church in today’s world is questioned. However, a critical analysis of this query reveals a paradigm shift in the church’s teaching of repentance. In the narrative of the modern church, repentance or conversion, which forms the central element of Christian faith, has been relegated. Therefore, this article investigates the grounds for this deficiency and the probable repercussions.
Notable among many reasons for the relegation of repentance in churches today is the desire to attract new members while holding on to existing ones like a magnet to mental particles. Modern minds easily perceive the message of repentance as judgmental or off-putting. What would you expect in a time when churches compete to be relevant and appeal to a wide range of people? To suit the cravings of many, churches emphasize messages of prosperity, healing, grace, and acceptance. No doubt these are unquestionably important, but leaving out repentance corrupts authentic transformation. Hence, the shared set of beliefs, values, and principles that guide ethical behavior and decision-making within a particular culture or community deteriorates.
In addition, a number of contemporary churches do not educate their members about sin, repentance, judgment, death, heaven, or hell. Most crusades and church initiatives never address these penitential themes. The homiletic lines from some pulpits serve to further arouse the growing awareness of individualism and moral relativism in society. Preachers have been observed downplaying the significance of judgment and sin. Rather than persuading members to turn away from sin and live moral lives, members are urged to accept their flaws without acknowledging the need for a change of heart. This resistance to confronting sin reduces the transformative power of repentance and feeds a naive conception of spirituality.
Furthermore, the disdain for repentance is indicative of a church whose edifying trend values expediency, self-gratification, and self-centeredness. In a consumerist and hedonistic church or society, the bell of mortification, penance, and abstinence sounds itching and deafening. Consequently, some preachers choose to play con artists and stroke the egos of their flock, whose wealth and status are based on hedonistic traits. Put differently, preachers don’t address the heinous, abhorrent, and disgusting lifestyle in society to avoid reducing congregants and their concomitant financial aid.
This modern doctrine has produced a breed of Christians that lack the desire for authentic practice. It simply shows a generation of a church that is packed full and a brothel that is highly patronized—a generation with the display of miracles and the celebration of frailties and vices. This generation of hybrid faith has installed the holy chants of the sanctuary into the mixers of DJs as sounds and vibes for expensive wine in clubs and bars. The Kyrie of the priest now sells as the brand sounds and chants of the Dorime Chief Priest. Obviously, repentance has been traded, and conversion has been sacrificed on the altar of prosperity.
The way forward is an authentic Christianity that sets the message of repentance as its core principle. There is a need for a Christian agenda to restore the world from lust. If repentance is not preached, genuine spiritual renewal and transformation will remain absent. Repentance here is not just worldly sorrow but godly sorrow with a firm purpose of amendment. Without such repentance, obstinacy thrives.
By providence, the Catholic Church, from her historical spiritual tradition, together with her regular acts of contrition, set aside the Lenten period to deepen the call for penance and repentance. The church, in all her messages, continues to align with the teachings of the biblical patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, and apostles in calling the world to repentance. This is not to pride the Catholic faith over others, but to provoke a reawakening of these values in the hearts of her preachers and teachers. This is necessary because some of these individuals have been seen glossing over the need for repentance, thereby fostering a culture of complacency and spiritual mediocrity. If this viral and infectious trend does not end, we risk losing our faith in the next generation.
We need to rediscover the faith; all the messages of scripture and the crusades of the apostles in the New Testament were informed by repentance, conversion, and salvation. Why do we desire to create a lively, entertaining, friendly, and welcoming church at the expense of salvation? Why are we making mockery of the sacred truth and distracting ourselves from the spiritual decorum established by the apostles? True priests, teachers, apostles, evangelists, and prophets are not to sacrifice the message of repentance for ephemerals. The gospel will be counterproductive if it does not lay emphasis on repentance and conversion.
