LEADERSHIP;A Fear of The Strong? The GROWJOURNAL September - December 2011. Editor: David Dungji Chinke Contributors: Rotkang Job Lami Chinke ISSN: 2141 - 9507 Published in Nigeria © 2011 by Engraved in Gold Media Enterprises +2348065721408 Jos, Plateau State Nigeria " EDITORIAL : Know Your Theological Foundations Long ago a young man gave his life to Christ and began a walk towards spiritual growth. Coming from a Judeo-Christian background, his experiences with religion had been far from simplistic and therefore he was very reluctant to pursue an overenthusiastic relationship with Christ. Even though he had received Christ, he viewed those having such “deep” experiences as fanatics. When he was going to the university he was reminded by his parents of their own experiences with fanatism and encouraged not to follow church fanatics rather to concentrate his time and energy on his academic studies. He followed their instructions and kept to a moderate lifestyle, thus while he joined a Christian fellowship, he kept it casual and maintained an open mind. This lifestyle continued until he started having problems with the very thing he wanted to protect – his grades were nothing to write home about. As any normal believing student, he automatically thought this turn of events was because he was displeasing God. Naturally, he got more committed to fellowship and to seeking God’s face – he rededicated his life to Christ and joined a cell group in the fellowship. His spiritual life began to increase but his academics remained impoverished. As he struggled with questions in his mind about this, he discovered his calling. Being one who was relatively unfamiliar with the greater Christian community, he found himself in a dilemma! This was the discipleship dilemma! A dilemma of submission to temporal authority or divine authority, temporal direction or divine direction? One day, a preacher spoke from Mathew 11:16 - "To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' That we are like children in the market place, suffering from the confusion of variant voices. Thus we must be sensitive to choose carefully whom to follow. This was a liberating understanding for him, but along with this came the sudden realization that this meant that: belonging to the community of the saved was not enough, he had to be sure of who he was really following! He had to know his theological foundations and this sent him on another longer road to knowing God. He had to lay down painfully his quest for wealth and riches hidden in the guise of seeking higher education. He had to put as priority another quest, the quest of discovering God more and also who he himself really was! This became his primary and foremost quest which was to be done not in his old age but in his prime! It was prerequisite to peace and fulfillment, to prosperity and Eternal life. He thus realized that Christianity had gone through a lot over the ages and many times it had veered into practicing paganism and magical arts instead of obedience to Christ. The fact that Christ is our Banner has been misunderstood to mean we can do what we like as long as we call his name or bear the name Christian. Discipleship he discovered is key to unlocking this, thus knowing ones theological foundations will help him/her to know which temporal authority to follow! And as we consider the topic of Leadership as relates to the fear of the strong in this issue of The GROW Journal, we would want to implore you our brothers and sisters that; beyond any quest on this earth, know your Theological Foundations. Psalms 11:2 PS 11:2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. PS 11:3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" " COVER : LEADERSHIP;A Fear of The Strong? By David Dungji Chinke Students are always a sight for sore eyes; their communities always have some hidden comedy to them; especially when it has to do with their relationships with their teachers! I have personally noticed that some teachers are very unpopular with the students because they hold to very stringent principles! From my primary school, it was one Mr. Eze; he was a disciplinarian who moved around with a short fat stick which he used to punish offending pupils! At the secondary level there was one who was nicknamed: Bob. He also was a strict disciplinarian. This went on even up to the tertiary level, and when I went to seminary, I was shocked to find certain lecturers that were feared and even dreaded! Still there were those whom even though they were feared, were still very amiable to the students. These teachers were often appointed to positions that suited their hard demeanor i.e. disciplinary master. Their strength was thus used for the good of the community. In the last edition we talked about segregation. Some areas were not fully discussed and one of those is the issue of a fear for the strong. Sometimes segregation is as a result of the fear of the strong – in order to protect the weak, people tend to oppress the strong by deliberate segregation! The measurement of strength is varied though and is usually determined by what characteristic is being measured! We all have strengths and weaknesses; there is hardly any person without weaknesses. Some people are strong in character but weak when it comes to physique or physical strength. Others have the physique and are weak in character but still, some have both. Strength could also be in terms of monetary wealth, intellectual intelligence, numerical strength and also spiritual power. These could be combined in one person or group of persons and still it could be distributed among many. These characteristics may vary in value depending on culture or geography of the people. E.g. money is valuable on the streets, intelligence is valuable in the academia, brawn is valuable in sports and in the security forces, number is valuable in Government and spiritual power is almost valuable everywhere (at least in Africa). When we were young, I remember the super heroes in our comic books were portrayed to be very powerful both in character and physique. But there was always one secret weakness that they had. Even though many Christians today tend to be a little critical of the movie world, one must never underestimate the level of influence ideas from movies still have on the populace, especially children. Superman is known in the movie and comic world to be the most powerful superhero but with only one weakness: a green rock called “kryptonite”. Much like the Biblical Samson, often his enemies or the bad guys would try to use that against him. In the comics of old, superman always won the fight. It seems though that there has been a paradigm shift (change of popular way of thinking) as the new smallville movie portrays a picture where Lex-luther (superman’s arch enemy) is able to get the tool that holds superman under his control. The same idea is portrayed in the legend of Bearwolf where a woman goddess moves from generation to generation to entrap great kings and keep them under her control, thus when she desires to end their rule, she reappears to claim back the power she gave them. These Ideas Generally show an overwhelming fear for the strong. The popular Harry Potter series is one theatric that is based on the idea of the fear of the strong – from a much more optimistic angle. No one should be so powerful that he/she has no other person to answer to at one point or the other – this is more so as pertains to spiritual power! That is why in the days of old, people were involved in killing those considered to be witches or wizards especially the ones involved in dark magic. Unfortunately, not too long ago, these things were rampant in some parts of Nigeria. Also, some African tribes had the culture of killing kings. When they felt that a king had over lived his time they killed him, and not only him but his children, some of these tribes became kingless and became segmented into tiny groups. Their fear of the strong thus caused them to become weak and thus became the object of bullying from the bigger monarchies ruled by powerful kings. These powerful monarchies became the very systems that ruled the world for centuries. But the fear of the strong was proved right when these kingdoms perpetuated slavery and tyranny. Soon the people again rose up and created systems that were more balanced. Delicately balanced between nationhood and individual freedom. In countries like Russia, Germany, and in most of Europe the people decided to revolt against monarchies. But the only thing they succeeded in creating were dictatorships that were a little more liberal, soon those dictatorships became worse than the monarchies they overthrew. Democracy has been the last resort. Today, most of the world has shifted to the system of democracy. This is a system which if properly implemented allows the weak to have a say in governance. The community seems to have the ultimate power. This system allows people to maintain a great amount of individual freedom and still be part of a greater nation or state. This is a little different from the system that existed in most parts of Africa which did not allow individual freedom but people were segmented into tiny city states or ethnic nations. Thus democracy provides a middle alternative. All in all, it seems throughout human history, there has been an overwhelming fear of the strong! A story which emanates from the bible, has also been the hidden cause of a certain belief that leads to people being skeptical about intelligent and spiritually powerful people: from Genesis 6:1-8 the story of the sons of God impregnating the daughters of men which led God to take action against humanity. These people believe they should segregate certain people who have angelic or extraterrestrial blood – it is clear though that the bible teaches the exact opposite since God himself had already remedied the situation through the flood and after Noah great men like Abraham, Moses and the prophets were used by God to help the world. Hence the story of Biblical Israel seemed to show its own fear of the strong in a different way! The Israelites, unlike some tribal groups, have been people who had wanted to have kings. Though God always instructed them not to do so, they often wanted kings like the nations around them. In 1st Samuel 8:1-20 it is recorded that their opportunity came when Samuel their judge became old and his children were becoming lawless. The people demanded for a king in defiance of God’s kingship over them and God granted their request. But God still used that to impose Himself as king through the family of king David calumniating with Jesus. But Jesus did something that seemed strange, he fulfilled the prophecy of Prophet Nathan and Isaiah (That He would be a King forever) in a more spiritual way (since he returned to heaven after resurrection). But he fulfilled much more the prophecy of Moses, as he was almost exactly a prophet like Moses, instead of becoming an earthly King, he left them with instructions to preach the gospel and put judges in the form of apostles over them. But it seems the Israelites expressed their own fear of the strong by rejecting the rule of God thereby settling for the rule of man! That same fear of Gods indirect rule, was the same thing that led them to crucify Christ, they were indeed looking for a human king and not God ruling through a man or men – such a system was too weak for them. It seems then that God forced Israel to submit to kings of other nations since they did not want Him as king over them. At the same time, He forced some other nations who did not want a king (because they wanted to be free to worship their numerous gods) to submit to kings, through invasions and subsequently, colonialism. On a larger scale, what Jesus did was to unite Humanity under Himself, and since then, those kings that have been ruling the world have fizzled out to give way to democracies that encourage the individual freedom. Freedom that sometimes has great disadvantages but gives people the right and opportunity to worship God directly without hindrance or compulsion from a physical king. I believe that is what God wanted when he began the Theocratic timeline shift from the time of Moses and Joshua – that is the same reason he destroyed Babel. As we said some paragraphs above, another aspect of this fear is that it can also emanate from the fear of satanic interference in human affairs. But then; it still seems that it is a fear that should be properly directed so that it would not become the fear of the strongest – in that case God – and thus causing a rejection of the strongest also! Today we often see this fear of the strong and the strongest expressed in the fear of people who show talent (both ordinary and extraordinary) or ability in whatever they do! A fear of giftedness, even in the church these days there is a certain level of fear for the strong! Of course it would be an understatement to say that the church itself is supposed to be one of the only institutions that operates based on the direct intervention of the supernatural God (the strongest) in human affairs. That is why it has evolved into an entity that exists as separate from the administrative state, legislature and Judiciary. Nevertheless, the church is not free from the same weaknesses of Israel; the church has developed into a body that has adopted an institutionalized system (patterned like the secular world) much like the Israelites who wanted a king. The reign of Apostles that Christ instituted seemed to be too “unstable” or maybe uncontrollable. Some church groups have opted for democratic selection of leaders while others do not subscribe to internal democracy – believing that God does not depend on majority to make his choice. Each view expresses some kind of fear of the strong! One group showing a bias in favor of gifted people and another expresses a fear of people who show a certain level of calling or unction, thus giving the community a greater power over apostolic unction! This fear is not all out of place as some gifted people over the ages have shown themselves to be weak when handling the resource of power – it is also true that this fear might come from one influential individual trying to protect his/her own position. But at the same time there has also been another set of people who appear not particularly gifted and yet have misused authority and destroyed institutions and nations. Some of them being, excessively obsessed with an uncontrollable hatred for spiritually strong, rich and gifted people. We @ GROW believe that God is supreme and He still rules over the affairs of men although He allows a lot of individual choice. Galatians 6:7 and 2nd Corinthians 9:6 say that we reap what we sow; every choice we make has its consequences and if we learn from God and from past experiences of good or bad leadership, maybe our motives and methods of selection of leaders will be positively impacted. For now, church leadership is generally above and beyond any autocratic or democratic human process; therefore attempts to institutionalize it or vice versa must be done with great caution. The intrusion of false doctrine and spiritual destabilization has been linked to church bureaucracy as the Apostle Paul discusses in 1st Corinthians 9:5; 12:28; 2nd Corinthians 11 & 12. These show that the church is a very complicated institution of God. But as far as our secular governmental institutions are concerned: we are happy to say that for now, democracy and the rule of law when practiced correctly helps to bring a balance between these two schools of thought! It gives an opportunity for the weak, the strong and the strongest to live together in peace!! At least for now! Why is it just for now? This is because; giving this kind of power to the community, might make us so self sufficient as a global village that we might move towards imbibing atheism; which is already happening as many people believe that mysticism or religion is responsible for much of the disharmony in the world. That is why the world for some time has been moving away from religious mysticism to more atheism and science – this move is also because of a fear of the strong and the strongest. But it seems that recently there has been a gentle global resurgence towards belief in the existence of the spirit realm – intelligent design (God created the world) is now being discussed among even non Christian scientists. But then again (ironically) in Africa, Asia and even America, there has also been a shift towards the revival of cultural religions, instead of Christianity – and these also tend to be anti Christ. We believe that this is dangerous as it might lead to two things: 1. The Holy Spirit might revive the method of harsh and instant punishment in the church that existed at the inception of the church. This is basically to checkmate the possible intrusion of those cultural religions into the church. Cultural religions are known to practice such harsh treatment of offenders – and because they are basically a mix of good and evil, the Holy Spirit might have to take such stringent action against some of them that hide within the church to seek power. 2. God may decide to gradually extend this to the rest of the world i.e. an increase in large scale natural destruction which we are already witnessing. This is also very natural as a response of God against atheism which is known to practice a system of alienation of Christians. Atheism is also blasphemous. As these events take place, we believe that the church must learn from its antecedents and be able to effectively preach God’s Word to the world and also be a practical example of right living. Thus: properly and effectively emulating Christ by protecting the interests of both the weak and the strong. This we believe may be the pangs that would lead to the reappearance of the Strongest in the person of Jesus Christ to rapture His church and subsequently judge the world. All in all we must remember that: 27In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. 28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." 30 He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit." (Mark 3:27) Only the stronger can bind the strong, therefore we must be weary of an excessive fear of the strong. This is the challenge of godly Leadership in the church and the State in the 21st Century! David Dungji CHINKE is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Theology (Missions and Evangelism) from Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS). He founded and coordinates GROW. From his experiences with a formally non evangelical background, and a subsequent powerful experience with evangelical Christianity, he has written 5 life changing books which will greatly enrich your spiritual life and library. He is married with two children. " The Last Shuttle Space Mission;Is It Mission Accomplished? By Rotkang Job Space travelling is always a dangerous endeavor. Space at anytime is a hostile environment. It is not human friendly – and supports almost no forms of life. The only two bodies in space that are slightly human friendly in terms of temperature, gravity, water and microbial activities would be the moon and Mars. Which could be an alternative futuristic destination for man – which partly explains why man is so interested in space; Man has also been fascinated with the idea that he is not alone in the universe. He has always wanted to know if other creatures exist elsewhere in other bodies or planets. He’s been obsessed with the thought of discovering other forms of life – Aliens or Martians or creatures, apart from the terrestrial ones he’s seen or heard of. Besides, with the third world war looming on the horizon, the ever increasing population and the scarce resources that sustain it – man had better find an alternative environment – and quickly before it’s too late. However, all these endeavors and fascination with space had come at a great price. For example, it is known that space travelers – Astronauts or cosmonauts – develop symptoms of advance in age; loss of their sense of balance; their hearts grow smaller and weaker and their sleep becomes erratic. While it is true that a space craft is in the words of Gregg Easterbrook (a senior editor of the New Republic and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution) a metaphor of national inspiration; the space shuttle in a way was just more than that. It was a symbol of man’s power and the capability of not just exploring or reaching distant celestial bodies, but God indirectly. For three decades, the space shuttle carried men and women to the international space station (ISS), a low Earth Orbiting Metal framework with compartments for space travelers to stay, live and work in, usually for two to six months and then get replaced. Therefore, all these travels to ISS; the building of stations in space, the scientific experiments on board the space shuttle as well as payloads; in the form of satellites, telescopes and other equipment – have helped broaden or increase man’s understanding of the cosmos and gravity-zero environments. The shuttle spaceship is not just another space craft. In technological terms, it is the most advanced and complex craft ever built by humans. It has more than 800 different switches, 2.5million parts and, usually, costs between 450 million to 1.5billion dollars to be launched each time to space (international space station). However, the problems with the space shuttle is not that it is too expensive to build (about 2billion dollars) but it is too big and too risky. For example, the challenger and Columbia (names of two out of five spaceships) were lost in 1986 and 2003 respectively – killing all crews on board. While challenger disintegrated shortly after lift off, Columbia was blown to pieces on re-entry (the return of a spacecraft into earth’s atmosphere). The temperature of re-entry is usually as high as 2000?C. This explains partly why the remaining shuttles have been retired to the museums. Originally, the international space station and the shuttle space program, were actually American space projects. But when the Americans thought it would be too expensive to handle both of the space related projects unilaterally, the Russians joined in; as well as other nations. But why this international collaboration to explore the universe? This is a good question. Since usually, these nations don’t find common grounds at all. There have been fierce or stiff competition and wars: the cold war, nuclear arms race; the world wars I and II etc. However after one good look at it – man is making a statement with all this technological advancement about his capability to reach the heavens. In my judgment and little biblical understanding, we are witnessing a repetition of biblical events. But can we find any parallel with the Book of Genesis chapter 11? Remember the tower of Babel? When man thought he could reach God using stones and mortars! With the idea of the international space station, and a planned futuristic moon station, man has refined his previous understanding of building a tower from the ground up (i.e. Heaven), to establishing stations on celestial bodies – just like the filling stations we have here on earth! Instead of wasting time, too much energy, to come up with this technical knowhow and the best architectural design that could support such towers or buildings, man has settled for space stations – in a way man has succeeded in reaching heaven. But it seems man did not find God on the moon and on Mars! But man has just begun to scratch the surface of space exploration! But is this how far man can go? The answer is an emphatic no! this is just the beginning! The president of the United States, Barack Obama, has challenged NASA to be “bold and dream big” and shortly after the retirement of the shuttle space program was announced, NASA unveiled the Space Launch System (SLS) – a space program that will eventually take humans to asteroids and Mars (The red Planet), think of this! Rotkang Job is a graduate of the University of Jos with a degree in Microbiology. He is a literature enthusiast who writes the science and technology column of the Redeemed Christian Church Praise Digest. A committed GROW team member, Rotkang also works as a teacher. " ANTIBODIES;The Bodies Watchdogs! By Lami Chinke Today is a good time to be alive. Productive social activities are pushing back the aging process. So are exercise, a better understanding of the role of diet, earlier attention to health problems and advances in modern technology. People today are often staying physically and mentally fit into their 80’s and 90’s. Scientist are discovering that an optimistic positive attitude actually boosts the body’s immune mechanism. This means that feeling good about yourself, being optimistic about life in God, having a healthy relationship with fellow humans and not being too anxious about issues of life can prolong your life. This sophisticated defense system is proving to be one of the major keys to good health [health power] Proverbs 17: 22 says ‘’A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Let’s focus on the role of antibodies in our bodies. ANTIBODIES are our molecular watchdogs, waiting and watching for viruses, bacteria and other unwelcome visitors. Antibodies circulate in the blood, scrutinizing every object that they touch. When they find an unfamiliar, foreign object, they bind tightly to its surface .In the case of viruses, like rhinovirus or polio virus, a coating of bound antibodies may be enough to block infection. Antibodies alone, however, are no match for bacteria. When antibodies bind to a bacterial surface, they act as markers alerting the other powerful defensive mechanisms available in the immune system. These watchdogs get a boost through good and healthy nutrition. Babies need the antibodies [immunities] found in breast milk to protect them from infectious diseases. Phytochemicals found in plants lower the risk of cancer. Excess fat in the blood stream is one of the factors that depresses immune cell production, hence the need for exercise to burn down excess fat Your body has the ability to prevent many diseases if you provide it with whole – food nutrition. Unrefined plant foods are found to contain substances that protect the body from cancer and other diseases. The best way to take advantage of this protection is to eat a wide variety of fruits; vegetables and grains. These have been given to us in abundance. GEN 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”Finally, let’s look at Philippians 4:8 ‘’finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely ,whatsoever things are of good report ,if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things’’ So, it is mandatory and good that we think about our health, because God wants us to prosper and be in good health, so as to fulfill our purpose on earth. Health is wealth, though wealth cannot buy health. Let’s do the right thing, eat well, exercise and be optimistic, to boost our immunity. Lami Grace CHINKE is a Nurse Midwife with the Plateau State Specialist Hospital presently on deployment to the National Blood Transfusion Service. She has been a vibrant youth leader both in school and in her local church, and is presently supporting her husband in his work at GROW. She has two lovely children and loves singing and doing her work. When you meet her, the first few words you might hear are: safe blood saves lives. <<  <<   >>