“How in the world can something so dead look so beautiful?”

This was the thought streaming through my mind in recent weeks as the world observed a lavish, multimillion-dollar spectacle in Egypt where 22 mummies (18 kings and four queens) were transported from their former neo-classical Egyptian Museum to their new resting place three miles away at the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.

With tight security arrangements befitting the Queen of England herself, the mummies were transported with great fanfare in chronological order of their reigns - from the 17th Dynasty ruler, Seqenenre Taa II, to Ramses IX, who reigned in the 12th Century BC in what was called, “The Pharaohs' Golden Parade.“

Now, I’m not a party-pooper. I love a good outdoor party and I certainly appreciate history, but I saw great irony in the lavishness being accorded to corpses. Despite all the shiny glitz and glamour surrounding their relocation, each and every one of those once-mighty kings and queens still remains dead.

I fear that “The Pharaohs Golden Parade” may be a realistic picture of the morbid reality surrounding the global church today.

THE NIGERIAN CHURCH: A CASE STUDY

A recent survey from Pew Research Center revealed that there are already more Christians in Africa than any other continent. Specifically, it noted that Nigeria’s Christian population, already the largest on the continent, is projected to double by 2060. 

If you’ve visited Nigeria lately, you’ve already witnessed firsthand this dramatic growth in the making. The explosion in the number of church structures across big cities and rural areas is unmistakable. In some instances, some mega church sites are the size of small cities, complete with its own police force, residential housing, roads, garbage collection, supermarkets, banks, a fun fair, and post offices.

Talk about having the Church’s Golden Parade!

So, with this level of Christian saturation, one would expect the Gospel to have permeated every aspect of Nigerian society, right? With a church on just about every street corner, including street preachers and Christian ministries in between, it would seem Nigeria should be shinning beacon of Christian hope for the nations, right?

Unfortunately, no. 

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 by Transparency International, Nigeria presently holds the title of second most corrupt country in West Africa (and ranks number 146 globally; out of 180 most corrupt nations).

You can argue about the merits of those rankings, but if we are being honest, even us Nigerians are keenly aware and wearied by the realities of corruption in our own backyard. From our police force to our shipping ports, from our government senate to the street corner salesman, from university faculties to the lady working at the petrol station down the street who rigged the gas pump so that it keeps counting money even though the gas has stopped pumping (I learned this the hard way), corruption seems to have found a retirement home in our land and our plethora of churches and sermons don’t seem to be impacting the everyday lives of Nigerians. Don’t even get me started on the corruption WITHIN the church and how many Nigerians pastors have turned the House of the LORD into a den of robbers. Think I’m being unfair? Pop over to YouTube and type in, “Nigerian Pastors”, then let’s talk.

So what in the world is happening in all our churches?

How is it that on the surface, when researchers survey the explosive growth of Christianity in Nigeria, the church appears to be spiritually vibrant, but up close and personal, we’re not as alive as we seem and inciting societal changes? How can something look so pretty, yet so dead?

Incidentally, Jesus Christ made this same observation of one city in the scriptures.  In Revelation 3:1, Jesus says to the church in the city of Sardis, “These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” 

The MESSAGE translation captures Jesus’ words to the Sardians this way, “I see right through your work. You have a reputation for vigor and zest, but you’re dead, stone-dead.”

Might this be the same strong-worded letter Jesus is writing to the church in Nigeria today?

The real question on my mind, though is, how? As in, how in the world is a church able to maintain a reputation for being alive when it is in fact dead? I ask because I have observed dead things before. I have stood graveside next to loved ones who have passed on. I have observed the process of how cows become steak. I have studied dead organizations, and I have unintentionally put to death a few of my wife’s indoor plants. Here’s what I can say for sure – dead things tend to look dead and stay dead!

So once again, how is it that the Church of Sardis, which had a great reputation for being alive, was in fact on its last breath? How is it that the church in Nigeria, for all its reputation about being one of nations with the fastest growing number of Christians, is in reality a nation rampant with corruption and strife at just about every level of society? 

Here are 4 ways spiritual death happens in a church, (or if you have a morbid sense of humor) 4 ways to tell if your church smells of dead people.

ONE: Spiritual death happens when your faith becomes mechanical. 

Is your faith simply a spiritual to-do duty you check-off the list each week? Do you go to church because you are eager to meet with the LORD and spend time with God’s people or do you go each week simply out of obligation because it’s something you’re supposed to do? 

When you go to a prayer meeting, whether online or in person, do you find yourself anticipating the end or do you feel relief when prayer time is over? Do you say to yourself, “Finally, I can go and take care of other things!”  

Here’s another one; Is your love for God and passion for Jesus more vibrant when you’re in public than when you’re at home in private?” (Your wife and family can probably answer this for you). 

When you observe the church (and Christians) in Nigeria, does our faith in Jesus seem mechanical or genuine? Does our loud and passionate Sunday morning faith have any bearing on our lives Monday to Friday? 

Nigerians, let’s judge for ourselves if our faith has become mechanical, if if it has, let’s heed the words of Jesus in Revelation 2:5, “[Return to your first love, and] Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” 

TWO: Spiritual death happens when your affections for the past is greater than your excitement for the future.

Conversely, spiritual death can also happen when you’re so focused on “prophetic words” about your future that you fail to live in Christlikeness today! 

It’s been my experience that Nigerian Christians struggle with the latter, especially because it is greatly encouraged by men and women in our pulpits leading churches and ministry events. 

Here are a few samplings of actual conference titles offered and hosted by these ministry leaders:

•  “OH LORD, PLEASE RELEASE MY VISA”

• “PRAISE WINE FOR 2021”

• “GOD, GIVE ME SPOUSE OR I DIE!”

• “OPERATION: KILL YOUR ENEMIES!”

With all these generous offerings in our future, who needs to focus on the now? Spiritual death happens and has happened in Nigeria when we become so focused on our “expected prophetic coming blessings” that we fail to live and love with Christlikeness in the NOW. 

THREE: Spiritual death happens when we spend more time working on our reputation than we do on building godly character. 

We LOVE titles in Nigeria! Just take a look at any one of the thousands of Christian event posters along ANY highway and you’ll be blown away by the number of self-appointed prophets, prophetesses, apostles, Father-in-the-Lord, Senior Evangelists, Honoraries, Daddy G.O’s, and Supreme-leader-Most-High pastors Nigeria has.

I ask as a fellow Nigerian: Are these titles getting us any closer to the LORD? On a more personal level, how  much energy are we pouring into people’s perception of us, versus God’s evaluation of us?

Think about the Church in Sardis for a moment. The only way they could have maintained a reputation of being alive, even though they were dead, is if they were pouring lots of energy into maintaining their reputation to their neighbors. Did you catch that? They were more focused on how they were being perceived than they actually were on the Gospel-mission they should have been about, hence their spiritual death.

Here’s the problem with pretentious faith; it is only a matter of time before your true nature reveals itself. You can’t hide behind your profile picture forever. Whether in this life or the next, Jesus will expose who you truly are and you will discover that you were truly spiritually dead all along. 

Pray that you don’t end up becoming one in the crowd of people to whom Jesus will someday said, “I never knew you, depart from me you workers of evil” (Matthew 7:23; Matthew 25:41).

FOUR: Spiritual death happens when Church is all about “ME” rather than all about “THEM.” 

(“Them” refers to people in our community and region who don’t know Jesus Christ). 

Jesus hints at this at the end of verse 2 (in Revelation 3) when He says to the Sardians, “…for I have found your deeds [your works] unfinished in the sight of my God. ” The implication here is that there was ministry work to be done inside and outside the Church of Sardis that was NOT being done, hence “unfinished.”

Remember, Jesus told His disciples (and us) that we would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. The idea is that the Gospel should start locally, then spread out to the outskirts of our city, then out of our state, throughout the land, and overseas. It’s my experience, however, that most of our churches in Nigeria never go beyond our, “Jerusalem.” This is why there is such a large concentration of churches in every municipality in the southern states of Nigeria. I also suspect that this is why the southern hemisphere of Nigeria is heavily Christian, while the north remains mostly Muslim. 

Listen, THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA NEEDS TO RETURN TO ITS MISSIONARY MANDATE!!!   

I understand that there is a complicated long history of ethnic conflict between Muslims and Christians, but Jesus has not changed or rewritten the Great Commission to include only people who think like us and speak the same language we do! Jesus is not going to come down to evangelize the north of Nigeria or the unreached people in your backyard; He has already put His Spirit in YOU and has commissioned YOU to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES.

The Church of Jesus Christ will experience a spiritual awakening (and become undead) when it starts thinking beyond its four church walls or its own denominations and starts sponsoring and sending out missionaries into OUR nation as the early church did!

The LORD, Jesus Christ is calling out to the church in Nigeria today, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”