Thread by @zeal_a

Here’s a story I wrote in 2018 that has relevance today (with events around Covid and CAMA)

THREAD

Hindsight they say, is 20/20 & it’s often easy to look back & see what should’ve been & to see why exactly the string of “coincidences” happened the way they did.

2. “Peter go visit & share with that Gentile called Cornelius!”

Still, it took 3 visions before Peter went & God must’ve said
“Can’t work like this & save the world using 3 visions per person”.

So, God locked down an overzealous religious bigoted killer called Saul of Tarsus.

3. Saul had 3 important things God needed:

1. Zealous to a fault for what he believed
2. Well educated (means he reasoned things out)
3. Was both a Jew & a Roman.

Reviewing/overlaying the life & character of Paul, timing of his calling, dual citizenship and education...

4. with his ministry & achievements, we should have an “aha moment”

Paul wasn’t judgmental & stuck up but felt free, or perhaps, less discriminatory than a typical Jew, to roam around in pagan temples & yet, still see that it’s the same God in some of them.

Where am I going?

5. Arguably, but almost certainly, the 2 largest churches, by reach and membership would likely be Redeemed and Deeper Life.

So Let’s look at both with the same 20/20 vision we can use on Paul the Apostle and try to project what their purpose is.

6.

1. The leaders of the churches took “mantle” in the early 80s
2. They were both born within a year of each other
3. Both were teachers/lecturers in university
4. Both lectured Mathematics
5. Both started on the premise of or belief in the church being in the “home”

7. At this point, I’d implore that if you haven’t read the book “OUTLIERS”, read it first & then come back to this post.

So, questions:

What was going on spiritually, at the time, that home/house fellowships became the foundation?

8. What does it mean to have a vision to have a church in every street? What would be the characteristic of such a church?

And then the almighty formula…sorry, meant almighty question:

What could it be that God needed in Nigeria in the early 80s that young mathematicians...

9. ...who trained as simpleton teachers with humble backgrounds could solve?

To get the right people, you'd probably need to first, differentiate, then integrate using various permutations, combinations and environmental factor[ial]s. 🤪

Let’s look at what they started with!

10. A church on every street: would invariably mean that the church would be small, Members would know each other by name; Love and care would be easy to share, just Like the churches in the book of Acts.

Funding would be decentralized and accountability would be visible.

11. Why mathematicians? And lecturers? From simple backgrounds? I’ve often said “Education is the ability and power to reason”. Who embodies this more than lecturers & then math lecturers for that matter, who don’t only reason, but reason in a highly structured and logical...

12. ...way to make sense of things everyone else sees as random (in the true sense, random = spiritual)

Read the title and if you don’t get it, that’s why mathematicians were needed.

Let me attempt to summarize:

13. Bringing seemingly random spirituality to the simple minded in a way that’s logical & makes sense, answering questions a
& bringing clarity to every single home by planting & empowering leaders on every street.

Basically it would seem that God was trying to achieve...

13. ...what mega churches were not structured to, in that:

They (mega churches) end up losing the personal touch/symbol/mantra of Christianity (i.e. personal love) by being political (church politics not national) power hungry and controlling;

14. deciding for and dictating to individuals without returning any accountability; raising up man-gods; built on structures that alienate the simple minded and do not encourage personal interaction, abhor questions and therefore alienate reasoning

15. But wait, isn’t that exactly where we are? Exactly where we should not be?

Like the tithe debacle where we remain stuck in just the “activity” yet almost entirely missed the principle, I believe the same now where we have succeeded in the “activity” but missed the intention

16. If you asked me, the next step to achieving the intention of God, assuming my hypothesis is correct, would be to dismantle the structures that are contrary to ensuring that God is brought to small circles of people; and then using reasoning to expound the...

17. ...seemingly hidden things of God in a manner that makes people see God for what He really is, and not some abstract and mysterious taskmaster.

In other words, God will use structures that allow Him have intimate fellowship and relationship with INDIVIDUALS directly, not...

18. through a proxy church, or proxy pastor, or proxy man of God. God isn’t looking for a deputy, he’s looking for traffic wardens who direct and get people asking about God by the way they live, not just by what they say!