Provost of West African Theological Seminary (WATS), Dr. Williams Udotong, in this interview with TEMITOPE OJO, speaks on the plunge in professionalism in the running of the church and the spread of the gospel.
With the proliferation of churches, one would expect transformation and forthrightness among Nigerians; but the reverse seems to be the case. What do you think is responsible for this?
We pride ourselves as a growing church and I am not in any way playing down on that. I am grateful to God for the opportunity for the church to grow, but it is difficult for me to match the growth and expansion of the church with the massive corruption that goes on in our land.
Of course, we could make the argument that not everyone in the country is a Christian. But I also believe that we don’t need everyone to be a Christian in other to make a difference. I think we have enough critical mass of believers that should make a difference. But we realise that although there are churches on every street, yet we are not seeing a corresponding lifestyle; we are not seeing believers carrying this to the market place, work and public places. For me, the churches have done a good work in terms of outreach, but I believe that there is a leadership vacuum in the church. There are people, maybe as a result of the growth and the expansion of the church, who are now in pastoral leadership, who are not helping the church in terms of impacting the lives of believers.
If you look at our church today, the growth of the church has resulted in so many believers coming in; many of the pastors have not or are not prepared to take the issue of discipleship seriously. When someone just start up a church for the wrong purpose, though in the mind of the person he thinks he is doing the right thing, the issue of discipleship and growth of believers is usually the last thing on the agenda of that person. Sometimes they have different motives for setting up the place; maybe for entertainment or to meet the needs of people. But, many times, I feel that they miss the core issue and business they should be doing in the church. I think this is an area of concern that should be looked into.
If a man is gifted and anointed, and he prays and miracle happens, does he need to go to the seminary to be an effective pastor?
This is always a debate that goes on. I am anointed; so, why do I need to go through a seminary to be able to perform? First, I want to say that having anointing is very important; in fact, it should be the cornerstone of our ministry. We cannot do ministry in the flesh. But, we need to remember that there is so much to even study from the Bible. Anointing does not stop you from reading the Bible. If you don’t read the Bible, even with anointing, you will still have limitations.
Second, the calling into the pastoral responsibility is just enormous. There is so much that the pastor needs to know as far as building the congregation and building the people of God is concerned. There is so much to know about how to interpret and teach the Bible. One of the problems we have today are people who are on our pulpit every Sunday but have shallow knowledge of the Scriptures. If you want to commit someone to take care of (the health of) human beings, that person needs to go through medical school, which is a very rigorous training. I am sure that if you want to go to the hospital and they tell you that this doctor is not trained, you will be concerned. I think what has happened in the church is that we have substituted good training with the ‘holy shoe’ of anointing.
As I said, anointing has its place in what we are doing. But, I see the work of the pastor as just very similar to that of a medical doctor. Medical doctors deal with physical issues of human beings. When you talk about the work of a pastor; it is dealing with the soul and human heart; that is very serious. Again, we need to learn about the human beings we are dealing with. There is so much we need to learn about the society in which we are doing ministry and you have situations whereby a society is developing and making progress, but the pastor, who has anointing, has no skill to match the development in the society. So, you have a pastor who is still ministering to people in urban or metropolitan Lagos in 2014 as though he is ministering to people in the 1960s or 1970s.
So, all of these are issues of education; but a key component is the interpretation of scripture. There are so many people who are in churches and on television that should have no business with the pulpit. It’s like a medical doctor who is hurting his patients because of lack of exposure and training. So, I think we have to put that well in balance, so that we know that although anointing is important in the ministry, training the pastor is key to true success.
Bearing this in mind, would you like to tell us some of the courses you run here at West African Theological Seminary?
Right now, we offer Bachelors of Arts degree in Religious Studies, which is affiliated with University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). We also run a Bachelor of Arts in Theology. Our Theology programme is either on a regular or full time basis; spanning a period of four to five years. Then we have Masters programme in Biblical Studies, where you either concentrate on the Old or New Testament.
We have our Missions study programme, Masters of Art in Intercultural Studies, which focuses on Muslim Evangelisation and then preparing people who can engage them at that level. We have Masters in Divinity, which is a three-year programme and then we also have a Masters of Art in Christian Leadership, which is primarily a plan for those who are bishops, overseers and senior pastors, who have pastors under them. They are busy and only plan to be here on campus for two weeks during the month of January and July. We have a Doctor of Ministry programme, which is primarily focused on training some top level leadership for the church. These are basically what we offer.
We also have some non-traditionally academic programmes, which are more of short courses, with people coming from time to time to develop themselves.
Many have argued that the greatest problem of Nigeria is that of leadership. What do you think is the problem with Nigerian leaders?
It is a challenging question. It could be looked at from different ways. One way is to blame it on our colonial past. I believe that there have been, over the years, a gradual and systematical erosion of value systems. I mean it is okay for us to point fingers at the government. But, I believe that the primary place where leaders are groomed, our homes and families, have problems. Values that children should learn right from the cradle are no longer being upheld. We have to know that the church has a role, but when there is a split between the home and the church, things will not go the way they ought to. When I use the term ‘split’, the church is supposed to reinforce what goes on at home and the home is also supposed to reinforce what goes on in the church.
I believe that the reasons we are where we are today is that, some of us, when we were growing, the focus of our parents, some of who were not educated like mine, was unmistakable; I mean it was very clear. I believe that something is missing in our value system today. No matter how we try to think that the schools will solve the problem, they cannot. In fact, schools can help, but they don’t have the whole answer. Once there is a split, if the school tells the child cheating in examination is bad, but at home we, the parents, give them money to go and bribe their way through to success, then they cannot get it right. Unfortunately, this is what is being passed on from one generation to another and I fear that we are probably now raising up a generation that does not believe in ethics and values. Imagine a situation where the invigilator, who ought to be a role model, is the one asking for bribe.
I want to believe that this is a big fundamental issue that the society is going through. For instance, the way we have mentored the young people to understand what politics is all about is such that they are so desperate to get into power. Their belief is: wherever I find myself, I must make sure I get what I can get for myself. I know that when I get it for myself, no one is really concerned or going to ask me, ‘How did you get this?’ In fact, I will become the champion, I will be the person revered and worshipped by both the family and community.
So, when you have a situation that the organ that is supposed to promote values is already having problems, what do you expect? The home, the school and even the church are not doing what they are supposed to do. In fact, for some churches, what is being exalted as values before the people or the congregation is really not what it ought to be.
Is there any hope that things will change for better?
There is hope. I believe in the audacity of hope and it would have been great if we have all the churches and everyone ready to do the right thing. But, maybe, that will not happen until we get into the new world. But, as far we go on with the level of people we have in leadership, with the kind of things motivating the people to go into ministry as focus, there will be trouble. I think what we have to do is to focus on raising the small critical man. My message to our people is that while it is important to hold our leaders accountable, we must change our language and practice. We must desist from wanting to see change come from Aso Rock or Lagos House. Don’t wait for a change that is going to start from the top down. Rather, I am advocating for believers that can work up the change from the bottom to the top.
I know corruption is endemic in our country, but we need some people that will say: Well, we have to stand up for it. We need people who are consistent; who know what they ought to be doing. We need pastors who are committed to the teaching of the word of God and understand that Christianity doesn’t end on Sundays.
Christianity must be taken to the market place and while we pray that God should provide us our daily needs, people must understand that a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of things that the person possesses, but making a mark for God and trying to change the mindset of people.
Does it bother you that the focus of most preachers today has shifted from transformation of lives to motivational speaking on prosperity, healing and deliverance?
Certainly! That is the more reason we need to combine academic excellence with spiritual formation for the minister. When the minister is one-sided, we get into this kind of problem, because life gives birth to life; a preacher or teacher will struggle to give out what he or she does not have. We have so many people on our pulpits that are there because of what they will get out of the ministry. In the mind of many of such people, it looks like the church is where things are happening now.
Today, there is so much teaching about materialism that it is packaged in the guise of the Bible and presented to people. The problem that comes with this is that it results in the development of very shallow believers; believers, who, on their own right as God’s children, cannot access God, because they believe there is someone with the entitlement to access God and it robs the church of authentic discipleship.
So, believers are not being discipled. Believers who will make a difference in this world in our time are those who have been thoroughly discipled and can go out and make true disciples for God.
The other issue connected with that is that it changes the quest of believers from the pursuit of God to the pursuit of materialism. My own goal is not how to be the best for Jesus, but to meet up with our yardstick for measuring spirituality. So, the yardstick for measuring spirituality is not the number of cars we have in the church or number of people who have homes. You see, some people think that God is a fast food restaurant; I just get in there and tell him I’m giving you N10, remember I need N50 or I need it back. We give to God because of what He has done for us. So, we don’t give to God. This is the kind of way believers are being taught today and they grow with this kind of mentality.
You have these pseudo-Christians that now operate at the level of what I call street level Christianity, whereby on Sundays, you see them in the church. When some of the things they have in mind, i.e. their hopes and expectations, seem not to be fulfilled, they move back to our African traditional way of doing things; in a way to conjure or twist the hands of God in getting what they want. In the night, they are out there with a witch doctor. Part of it is the kind of motivational preaching that develops false hope, which is not well grounded. That is what all of these motivational teachings do in the lives of people. When that hope is not realised, you see them look for another way to meet their needs, though they still come back to give it a Christian connotation. This is just the danger in Christianity that focuses on prosperity and miracles. It doesn’t really build the future of a strong Christian.
What is your advice to Nigerian Christian leaders?
I will like to encourage our leaders not only to think about the church they are building today; they should think about the church of the future and ensure that they are bringing up leaders who are not only anointed, but have basic training that will help them to meet the challenges of life and ministry.
We live in a very unique world today. There are all kinds of challenges that the church faces and the society must be properly understood and leaders must invest their lives and time in the business of mentoring the next generation. They have to do it at their level.
Second, they should give those people the opportunity to get training beyond the four walls of the church. They should be given that opportunity. There should be a good job in parents focusing on providing basic morals to the leaders of the future. If the pastor is not trained, there will be limitation. I want to encourage them to investigate West African Theological Seminary. I have made it clear that we are very serious in combining academic excellence with spiritual commission.