THE IDEAL BALANCE: ACADEMICS AND FELLOWSHIP

Facilitator: Sis. Olajire, D.O.

Introduction
The ideal balance between academics and fellowship refers to the correct proportion between
academic and fellowship activities and this proportion may vary from one child of God to
another. This is because God has gifted each of us in various ways and with a variety of
capabilities. Also, in many instances God has unique tasks for each of us to do, for the ultimate
purpose of glorifying his name. This topic will be discussed in three sections:
 Foundations to achieving balance
 Importance of academics
 Fellowship activities

Foundations to achieving balance

1. Be a child of God, truly

2. Know how God speaks to you and be in constant communion with the Holy Spirit

3. Listen for God’s instructions

4. Be quick in your obedience to them (God’s instructions)

Importance of academic excellence for believers

1. Our God is a God of excellence
Why is school important? Why are academics important? Why is making a first class or 2:1
important? I am not even studying the course I want, why should I bother with doing well? I will
go to the university later after NCE/OND/HND, why should I bother having good grades during
this NCE or polytechnic program?
I would argue that the answer to all these questions is the same, whatever your particular
question is. And that answer is this: Doing well in your academics, no matter what or where you
are studying, is important because Our God is a God of excellence.
As God’s children, we do not have any inherent excuses not to do well. If you are not doing well
academically, you need to seek God on the matter because God’s default plan and purpose for
you is not for you to be a failure or even mediocre. But you cannot stop at just praying, be quick
in following the instructions God provides to study in a particular manner, focus on specific
areas, spend more time studying, utilize the capacity of the brain to learn by repetition, focus on
studying during specific times of the day as opposed to others, making use of old notes, talking
to students ahead of you, leading you to approach instructors for clarity, participating in tutorials
etc. These are strategies that you will read about in books on academic excellence and from
which the Holy Spirit will emphasize the ones that are most applicable to you for your success.

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And as a bonus, the Holy Spirit can guide you into the thoughts and expectations of your
examiners, for your success.

2. Our testimony of excellence helps further the gospel

All the places in which we find ourselves are mission fields. Excellence in academics is one way
in which we draw others to Christ. We, believers, have not really shown ourselves to be excellent
in our academics. ‘SU’ should not just be synonymous with speaking in tongues, let it also be
synonymous with being first class candidates – people who are intelligent, book-smart and have
good character. Believe me, these qualities go a long way in making us attractive without bling-
bling and set the stage for us to share the gospel with our colleagues. Imagine a scenario where a
believer is tongue-talking and doing poorly academically. How does that individual share that
Jesus is the answer to all situations to an unbelieving student who is academically sound or that
yahoo boy who doesn’t think that it is possibly to have good grades without paying one’s way
through? Let us allow the light of Christ to shine through us by being models of changed lives –
afterall, God can change any life for the better.
As an undergraduate, at some point my classmates started to call me mummy G.O. And it is to
the glory of God that this mummy G.O. graduated as the overall best graduating student from the
University of Lagos with a CGPA of 4.96. At that time, my CGPA was said to be the best-ever
or so since the University was established. Now, that record has been broken, at least, twice as
there have been 5.0 CGPAs. But let me tell you some gospel opportunities that academic
excellence gave me in a secular community: In many programs, one of them been the
University’s matriculation ceremony, I got to tell freshers to put God first and all other things -
including academic success - would be added to them. If someone had thought that they needed
to leave God at home as fresh undergraduates, they learned better. And this is one way that
learning to strike a balance between academics and fellowship activities can further the gospel
and advance the kingdom of God on our campuses.

3. Academic Excellence (in particular) is a habit that serves you well after graduation; and

4. It prepares and launches you into the next phase God has for you either directly or
indirectly.

As believers we should not be so versed in the working of the spirit that we neglect the workings
of this physical world that we are all in, temporarily. As Christians, we should not be so heavenly
minded that we become earthly irrelevant. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells us the parable of
three servants. We must not in our pursuit of heaven bury our talent/gold/silver like that servant
did. Do you know that the world is watching us to see how we live and what we accomplish?
There are life principles on how to achieve excellence that have been written in books. The bible
tells us about these life principles and both believers and unbelievers have written about them.
Read books (letter-based and audio) and prove what you read and intend to adopt against the
standard of the word of God.

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Fellowship activities and concluding thoughts
There are a lot of benefits that are found from serving/leading in the fellowship. These include,
and are not limited to:
- Building one up as an individual. You need to understand that God has beautiful
plans for you beyond your current institution of learning and beyond the role you are
playing in the fellowship. However, both the school and the fellowship are simply
training grounds for other things God has in store for our lives.

- Serving in the fellowship provides life examples of leadership experience that one
can apply in seeking jobs as you go into the workforce or even as an entrepreneur.
Overall, achieving the ideal balance between fellowship activities and academics is not a once-
and-for-all endeavour. It is something that needs to be maintained over time and from which one
can fall out of balance. Whether you are looking for balance or trying to get back in balance, first
seek God, follow his instructions and utilize the life principles that apply to our world by reading
relevant books and learning from forerunners (in other words, take action). Note that you may
need to take specific actions related to changing how you manage your time, for example,
spending more time studying, learning to focus on the most important things, spending less time
in meetings (even fellowship executive meetings – note: less time by bargaining or related
means, not zero time), making productive use of time spent in traffic etc. Again, all the life
principles guiding these activity changes are in the bible. Also, both believers and unbelievers
have written books that give specific examples of how to implement the principles in different
situations. Such books revolve around time management, how to achieve academic excellence
and others. Read books (and listen to audio books); “readers are leaders”. The bottom-line is to
check anything we desire to adopt against the standard of the word of God.
Finally, God desires to speak to, and lead, all of his children in all areas of our lives, whether
academics or in fellowship activities. It is nothing to be ashamed about if you do not yet
recognize how God speaks to you. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus Christ instructs us to “…seek and you
will find”. God has blessed us in TACSFON Lagos Zone with the gift of people. Please approach
the Zonal Executives if you have questions on academic/spiritual matters and if you desire to
learn, for example, how to know when God is speaking to you. The Christian journey is one of
continuous growth, we are all growing and at different levels of maturity. May the Lord uphold
us all till the end in Jesus’ name, Amen.