BISHOP CROWTHER COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY OKENE

KOGI STATE

LITERATURE REVIEW
ON
THE BOOK
FINISH THE UNFINISHED TASK

SUBMITTED TO
The Rt. Rev Dr. DUKE T. AKAMISOKO

SUBMITTED BY
JONATHAN YETU YISA

MAT NO:
BCCT/B.TH/22/6014

100 LEVEL

MAY 2023
NAME OF THE AUTHOR

PROFESSOR DUROJAIYE ADEGBOYE

LENGTH OF BOOK (PAGES)

64 pages
Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and R them and confirmed his word by

the signs that accompanied it ight from the on set, The Task of the Christians has been cut out for

us:

"Discipling all Ethnic Groups".

Every Christian Denomination should have a Map of the Country, that lists the various Ethnic

Groups in a given Parish, District (Archdeaconery, Area)Association, Diocese, Conference,

Region, or Province and so on. This should be followed by cross-checking the number of Ethnic

Groups in which we have planted Churches.

At the last count, there are about 645 Ethnic Groups in Nigeria. The questions my and your

Denomination should be asking are:

1. How many Ethnic Groups have we reached with the Glorious Gospel of CHRIST?

2. In how many People Groups have we planted Churches?

3. How many of the Ethnic Groups have we adopted as our own Mission Fields?

Truly over the decades, the CHURCH in Nigeria has built many Sanctuaries in which Believers

worship and serve GODIf all we have done in Nigeria is to construct the largest and/or the most

beautiful Christian Auditorium in the universe, then we can be sure that we will constantly be

confronted by an "unfinished task"We normally say that we "Believe in the Apostolic Church".

By the Apostolic Church, I believe we are referring to the Model Church of CHRIST as

described in Dr Luke's SPIRIT-inspired "Acts of the Apostles". If we set up The New Testament

Church as our Model Church, then our NOW TESTAMENT CHURCH is below Standard.

Compared to our Present Church, the New Testament Church was

a) Orthodox in Doctrine: virtually all the members knew what they believed and why b)

Fundamental in Holiness: the members were to be holy in thought, word and deed c) Pentecostal

in Power: the Members did not seek Power outside the HOLY SPIRIT d) Evangelistic in

Practice: their Weekly Activities were dominated by Soul winning While the New Testament

Church Preached to the Non-Christians, the same Church Taught the Believers in the Sanctuary.

In today's Church, sometimes we give a total of 45 minutes to Praise and Worship, while any

Sermon takes more than 20 minutes is considered too long. Never mind that the time allotted to

Announcements may be up to 1 hour, while Thanksgiving by the various groups in the Church

might consume more than 1 hour.1 hour.

THE TASK before the Church is enormous and unfinished. We still have many "Ethnic Groups"

to reach for CHRISTThe Desire of the Author of this Book (GOD-the HOLY-SPIRIT) and The

Prayer of the Writer of the write-up is that the CHURCH i NIGERIA will wake up from slumber,

roll up its sleeves, sharpen the sickle and

The Missionary Diocese of T Kubwa created from her mother diocese, Diocese of Abuja, was

conceived by Church of Nigeria Standing Committee, in her meeting of September 2004, at

Enugu. In that meeting nine new missionary dioceses were created of which Kubwa was one of

them. Furthermore, the Episcopal Synod of the Church of Nigeria, popularly known as House of

Bishops, met at the Chapel of StPeter, Ibru Centre, Agbarha-Otor in Delta State, January 2005, in

a weeklong annual retreat. There theThe author started by pointing out in his introduction that

Church Administration is a very wide subject and requires deep understanding of biblical

foundation, principles and practice as contained in the scriptures before a church leader can

successfully apply it. Many church leaders profess to know everything about church

administration.
This is, perhaps, because they are able to gather people together either by persuasion or by

caging people with unnecessary discipline or by instilling fear into their congregation supporting

their claims with references of some passages in the Bible that have little or nothing to do with

the issue at stake. Whenever these members realize that they have been deprived of their liberty,

they withdraw from the church and go ahead to establish their own. No sooner do they withdraw

than they resort to the tactics of their former masters. No wonder Jesus Christ who knew the end

from the beginning said:

"And upon this rock I will build my church and the gate of hell shall not prevail against it." -

Matthew 16:18.

This means that the gate of hell will wage war against the church but will not prevail. Satan has

been using this much talked about church administration to destabilise the church by

blindfolding church leaders from seeing the essence of administration in the smooth running of

the church. A deep knowledge of administration by leaders will help in no small measure to

solve many of the problems in the church. This book has been written to enable the present and

future church leaders to appreciate the essence of administration in their various churches.

Administration is very important to a church and every leader ought to depend basically on it for

the smooth running of the church. It is sad to realize that only a few church leaders actually

administer their churches properly. The obvious reason is the lack of understanding of their

functions as leaders. Most of the time they do not plan. They might just wake up one morning

and say, "God says" whereas God has not said anything. It might be the thoughts of their minds.

Therefore, they conjecture un-implementable proposals without due consultation and setting

objectives and policies, which hitherto would have been a guiding principle for achieving a

targeted goal.
At times some of them plan, but fail to organise. They use human elements and wisdom to pick

right people into wrong places, thus muddling up their good planning. Some of them lack sense

of direction. They find giving good directives and motivating their members to carry out well

thought-out programmes difficult. So that they over burden themselves with the sole task of the

implementation of the programmes on their own without due regards to the principles of

collectivism.

The best part of the church administration which people take cognisance of is control. This has

led to the breaking away and proliferation of churches. Unfortunately, these could have been

avoided, if the church leaders had imbibed the principles and practice of control. This book,

therefore, is written to identify and enumerate the duties of church leaders so that all these

pitfalls can be leveled up to enhance the harmonious working of the church, which is a gift of

God to man.

The early people in the scripture, Moses, Aaron and Miriam who led the Israelites through the

wilderness from Egypt to Canaan demonstrated a trinity system of government. During the time

of kingship in Israel, the trinity system was still maintained. For instance, we have the king, the

prophet and the captain of the army. Even during the time of Jesus Christ, this trinity was

maintained. We have God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. After He departed

physically, the trinity system of governance was still maintained in the early church. These are in

the persons of Peter, James and John. This is what can be referred to as Leadership.

Taking all these into consideration, the leadership of the church should not be the one and the

only person taking all decisions, implementing all decisions and relegating every other person to

the background in such a way that whosoever wants to correct him immediately becomes an
enemy and he is variously labeled. This was not so in the beginning. And God said, "Let us make

man in our own image after our likeness." - Gen. 1:26.

There is the need to learn and develop an enabling environment that will give room for

successful church administration. Apostle Paul writes about the administration of the church as:

"from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint

supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the

body into the edifying of itself in Love." -Ephesians 4:16.

Since religious politics was the dominant spirit behind it all, the Catholic clergy sought after

riches and prominence more than the welfare of the people. The Catholic Church and clergy

were draped in wealth while the common man suffered. Every doctrine they created, every

system of worship they instituted, all had the lust for money behind it. They made whatever laws

they felt necessary to insure more money, more land, and more power for themselves. In the

fifteenth century, the papacy itself was shrouded with murder and the "sudden deaths" of those

who tried to gain power. Immorality was rampant as priests had numerous mistresses as well as

homosexual or adulterous affairs. Since the priests didn't know the Bible, they didn't have any

revelation of its contents. The blood of Jesus wasn't enough for them, so they invented the

reconciling power of dead saints like Anne (mother of Mary), Joseph, Mary, and countless

others. By the sixteenth century, if anyone challenged this system, the person was put on trial

amid a torrent of lies, and either excommunicated or killed.

In the midst of these dark times, men such as John Wycliffe, Jon Hus, Martin Luther, John Knox,

and John Calvin arose. By the seventeenth century, the Reformation was in full swing. George

Fox challenged the cold, religious lethargy and civil discrimination in another way; he stayed in
the Catholic Church and sparked life back into the Church through the ministry of the Holy

Spirit. Each of these six men rose to meet the voice of God within them. Through unflinching

spirit and determination, they stood for the truth and became reformers for God. Each of them

slowly began to penetrate the darkness around them with the truth of Jesus Christ and the surety

of His Word.

John Wycliffe was born in Yorkshire, England, around 1330. Little is known of his childhood

and young adult years until 1360 when he entered Balliol College in Oxford, England. The life of

Wycliffe comes alive for us as he reaches the age of thirty and begins his life as a great Reformer

before the actual Reformation.

Wycliffe fought for the common people and identified with their right to know God in a personal

and intimate way. Before those years young Wycliffe was raised by a modest land-owning

family in a secluded area and was taught in school by a village priest. In those days, the Catholic

regime controlled the government as well as Church affairs. Priests were assigned to every

village to oversee the affairs of life from the Church to the common market,

from the schools to civil affairs.

It's important to note that John of Gaunt (the second son of King Edward III) was the feudal

overlord of Wycliffe's boyhood home. This simply means that Gaunt owned the land, and those

who lived there and worked the land were given protection and favors from Gaunt. The fact that

Gaunt was the natural protector of this area's citizens became an important point later in

Wycliffe's life.

Wycliffe entered the priesthood, but his ordination date is not recorded. He probably left for

Oxford somewhere around 1346, at the age of sixteen, the common age for entering a university

at the time.
The writer referred to John Wycliffe as a Reformer before the Reformation. Historically, his life

doesn't fall within the years of the actual Reformation period. But his life and his theology are

almost identical to what the other Reformers stood and fought for.

Wycliffe was a forerunner of the great revolution that was about to hit the known religious’

world. Yet interestingly, none of the other Reformers, except John Hus, gave Wycliffe credit for

the highly controversial road that he paved. I believe this was largely due to the fact that the

printing press was not invented until after Wycliffe's death, and many of his writings were

burned by the Roman Catholic Church. Still, he is seen as one who amply seeded the earth with

the truths of Reformation; those after him watered and harvested the fruits Wycliffe had sown.

Wycliffe was a figure of stability-a man who strongly associated with the rich and powerful-yet

he unflinchingly fought for the common people and identified with their right to know God in a

personal and intimate way.

During Wycliffe's day, the concept of a common person knowing God intimately was unheard of

and extremely controversial. It is no wonder that he is called "the Morning Star of the

Reformation"-he changed the barometer of spiritual ignorance and, from his efforts, a new

horizon for the church dawned.

Born in 1372 to poor peasant parents, Hus began his life in a village called Husinec, located on

the Blanice River in the southern part of Bohemia. The house where Hus was born still stands

today, but a fire destroyed most of it in 1859; only the room where he was born was saved.

Hus was not a man who warred with swords. He made war with words, and a violent revolution

could have started from his speech alone. This inward spiritual strength has carried his name

through the halls of history. Although his thin frame gave him the appearance of being frail, Hus
was a warrior. He vowed that his life would count for one thing reformation of the Catholic

Church from within. He had no desire to pioneer a new denomination. Instead, he felt that if he

could shake and expose their hypocritical doctrines from the inside, the Catholic Church would

have a chance to return to the spirit and beliefs of the early church. Hus was a revolutionary man,

but little is known about him. I'm writing this chapter to change that. We have only a limited

amount of books about his life that have been translated into English, but these few references

are very thorough and precious.

Hus was a warrior. He vowed that his life would count for one thing reformation of the Catholic

Church from within. With our great debt to Hus, it's amazing that we know so little about him.

For the sake of perspective, allow me to list the great "generals" that Hus affected. He influenced

the beliefs of Martin Luther (who said, "We are all John Calvin (whose reformation focused on

dedicating all aspects of life and culture to the lordship of Jesus Christ), and George Fox (who

taught that we are led by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit). Through the Moravians (a Hussite

branch), Hus' influence reached down through history to touch John Wesley.

Martin was born November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany, to Hans and Margaretha Luder

(Martin would change his last name to Luther in college).

Luther's story is one that shows the power of what can happen to someone who gets into God's

Word and doesn't come out. The light of revelation began to shine in Luther's dark mind, leaving

no shadows where the devil could torment him.

He didn't get into trouble until he wanted to share the Good News with his mentor and other

leaders. He also got in trouble for having some questions that, if it weren't for divine providence,

could have gotten him burned at the stake. These ninety-five questions, known as the Ninety-
Five Theses, are printed in their entirety at the end of this chapter. The revelations of most of the

biblical truths we consider common today came from them.

Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and R them and confirmed his word by

the signs that accompanied it ight from the on set, The Task of the Christians has been cut out for

us:

"Discipling all Ethnic Groups".

Every Christian Denomination should have a Map of the Country, that lists the various Ethnic

Groups in a given Parish, District (Archdeaconery, Area)Association, Diocese, Conference,

Region, or Province and so on. This should be followed by cross-checking the number of Ethnic

Groups in which we have planted Churches.

At the last count, there are about 645 Ethnic Groups in Nigeria. The questions my and your

Denomination should be asking are:

1. How many Ethnic Groups have we reached with the Glorious Gospel of CHRIST?

2. In how many People Groups have we planted Churches?

3. How many of the Ethnic Groups have we adopted as our own Mission Fields?

Truly over the decades, the CHURCH in Nigeria has built many Sanctuaries in which Believers

worship and serve GODIf all we have done in Nigeria is to construct the largest and/or the most

beautiful Christian Auditorium in the universe, then we can be sure that we will constantly be

confronted by an "unfinished task"We normally say that we "Believe in the Apostolic Church".

By the Apostolic Church, I believe we are referring to the Model Church of CHRIST as
described in Dr Luke's SPIRIT-inspired "Acts of the Apostles". If we set up The New Testament

Church as our Model Church, then our NOW TESTAMENT CHURCH is below Standard.

Compared to our Present Church, the New Testament Church was

a) Orthodox in Doctrine: virtually all the members knew what they believed and why b)

Fundamental in Holiness: the members were to be holy in thought, word and deed c) Pentecostal

in Power: the Members did not seek Power outside the HOLY SPIRIT d) Evangelistic in

Practice: their Weekly Activities were dominated by Soul winning While the New Testament

Church Preached to the Non-Christians, the same Church Taught the Believers in the Sanctuary.

In today's Church, sometimes we give a total of 45 minutes to Praise and Worship, while any

Sermon takes more than 20 minutes is considered too long. Never mind that the time allotted to

Announcements may be up to 1 hour, while Thanksgiving by the various groups in the Church

might consume more than 1 hour.1 hour.