Ferdy Adimefe: So, you don’t go to church anymore?

by Ferdy ‘Ladi Adimefe

4548040824_5e173967ea_z

Really, church ought to be more than that. You need to stop and ask why we pray. Why do we read the Bible? If you never bothered to ask the significance, soon enough, someone else will. My fear is, when our young ones go abroad to school, would they return with passion for God?

A while back, I stumbled on a friend, Lekan 21. An interesting and intelligent writer who at 19 published his first book. Quite successful — I don’t tell him this often, and without a shadow of doubt, Lekan has lots of promise. With rising fame and success, the need for God starts to diminish. He once told me, “You know what? I don’t go to church anymore. I guess a lot of you guys are faking this Christianity thing. I don’t understand, and I cannot practice what I don’t understand… I think I know a lot about God not to believe in Him”.

I was still processing this through when another friend, Gbemi said “Sorry dude, really I am not into church stuff. I have changed churches several times and still just couldn’t find a place to grow or get it right. I hate the hypocrisy and religious activities and practices that does not make sense to me. I hate being fake joo… So I chill at home on Sunday mornings, whenever I feel like, I tune into Inspiration FM to listen to Dan Foster play some of T.D. Jake’s sermon.”

There seems to be a welter of questions bothering the minds of many growing young people born into Christian homes, who know so much about Christianity yet so little about God. A good number of young people are becoming disillusioned at church life and are calling it quit

Perhaps something is amiss. What do you think? Personally, I think there is a fundamental dysfunction in our understanding of God and what we know about God. There are different theologies and doctrines being preached from pulpits, which have never been thought through in the light of scripture.

Back home in Africa, the culture of respect ensured our church attendance. We were basically compelled by our parents to attend Sunday services, but from the schizophrenic way we lived, you would know that we were marking time. Most of us longed for when we will gain some level of independence to live our agnostic dreams outside the home of our parents. Some of us may not be self-acclaimed atheist by words, but our deeds do not speak otherwise. For many, church services are nothing short of just going through the motion day by day without any reason why they should. Some actually think they are doing their parents, God, pastor or friends who invite them to church a favor. Perhaps they are still doing this because they are afraid of standing up to their parents or facing up to the reputation and persecution they will suffer when they leave the church community, so they end up wearing a mask or playing a role.

Few things are inherited but faith is not one of them, we will not just go to heaven because our parents were saved, we will all have to know God for ourselves and experience his transformation. Christianity and church is so beyond raising hands and singing to the top of our lungs, or letting out a shout and hoot during sermons. On one level it is not about where we go, what church we attend or whether we attend at all, it is more about whether we have a relationship with God.

Really, church ought to be more than that. You need to stop and ask why we pray. Why do we read the Bible? If you never bothered to ask the significance, soon enough, someone else will. My fear is, when our young ones go abroad to school, would they return with passion for God? Or they will return lukewarm, disconnected and downright uninterested in anything God.

I can’t pretend that I don’t understand. I really do. Frankly, I do not think it is the end for Gbemi and her relationship with God, but a very healthy place to begin. Like it is often said, “To believe is human, but to doubt is divine”. We cannot be effective if we are not authentic in our conviction. We must constantly reflect, re-examine and where necessary doubt what we believe in order to attain true conviction. I think such a rebellion is only a first step towards authenticity.

————————-

Ferdy Adimefe is a Lagos-Based writer and the author of the book ‘The Pulse.’

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail