Church on Sunday

Having heard some threatening stories I had a few trepidations as I walked down a empty hall in the Lagos airport to use the bathroom, but when I found the door I heard a woman inside signing a beautiful Christian praise song, and I immediately relaxed. Since arriving I’ve been surprised by how thoroughly life revolves around the Christian faith in this part of Nigeria. Most of the advertizing in Calabar reflects this, with names like “Divine Life Barber“ and “Good Faith Technology.” As I’ve observed the coaching conversations, nearly all of the participants have spoken about their vision and decision making as leaders being guided by God’s word. At the same time there seems to be a relative tolerance of other religions; one participant of the group is Muslim, and was given a turn to speak the opening prayer one morning last week. The northern part of Nigeria is mostly Muslim, yet these differences don't appear to be a major dividing factor here.

The weeks here revolve around church on Sunday, where everyone gets decked out in their finest and flashiest attire, for an extravagant and lengthy service. Last week the One Sky team got dressed up in our best, (which in no way compared to the beautiful Nigerian wears) and hopped in our truck to experience the service at the City of Testimonies. A Nigerian friend met us there, and we were ushered into our seats, directly behind the Preacher, who sits next to his wife in a throne-like chair. The church is a huge outdoor amphitheater, with a center stage where the preacher and other speakers stand, their crackly microphone voices towering out over the audience. It was interesting to notice the hierarchical power and influence of the leaders of the church as well as the wealthy people who donate the most money. Members of the church approached, kissing their feet for blessings. The Preacher had a rock star quality to him, and the whole thing was quite a production! The brightly dressed choir sang beautifully, parading around the church in lines, dancing and singing. The visiting Pastors from other cities and countries were given three minutes to impress the audience with as much gusto and intensity as possible. Then came the main sermon on The Way, which was extremely energetic, especially considering the intensity of the hot sun and the Preacher’s black suit.

I myself found out about the burning sun around the stage when the Pastor called everyone into the center, bellowing “the first 200 people down to the stage …!!!” My new Nigerian friend took my hand and led me down into the center, where everyone gathered in a huge crowd, cheering, praying, and being forgiven for sins. I didn’t really know what I’d gotten myself into by going down with her, but stood among the crowd of Nigerians open to the experience. As he spoke I thought of my Grandmother who passed away recently. She was a very religious woman and a Minister’s wife, and so I connected to the memory of her, and felt happy that she probably would have loved seeing me there.

Next the Pastor asked told us to raise our hands if it was our first time at the church, and then I became a bit worried that I would get called onto stage. He chose individuals to come up, and he would lay his hand on their head, and forcefully push them down to the ground, blessing them with the Holy Spirit. There are so many ways to look at this! On the positive side, I’m sure the people who received this did experience a transmission of some state experience, and it is quite beautiful how open the believers are to surrender. Personally I avoided eye contact with him, and luckily I was not called up. However I was starting to feel my skin burning in the hot sun, my sensitivity to sun increased by doxycilin, the malaria pills. He asked those of us who were new to join with someone from the church who would tell us about the services there, and the joy of God. The woman I came down with spoke to me earnestly with so much love, that the night before she had dreamed of meeting two new friends and she now knew it was James and I she had dreamed of. She held my hands and told me that I would see a change in my life, and told me about her love of the church. I was very happy to connect with her.

The four-hour service ended soon thereafter, and we filed out, greeting a few Leading From Within participants and friends along the way. It was quite the experience, and very good to see into and understand the participants’ worldview better. There are many ways to interpret all of this, but for the time being I was simply happy to feel more connected to the culture here.

It is interesting to see how James is incorporating the participants’ spiritual beliefs into the coaching program design. I’ve been noticing his targeted use of language and imagery to connect with them in this way. For example, in one of the intake meets, James was speaking to a leader who has a strong vision but has difficulty asserting his passion into the group, for fear of having people go against him or not like what he’s doing. James pointed out that many people did not like or understand Jesus’ words, yet his love was true and people have received this gift all over the world.