WELS – ELS Mission Exchange article

The loving hand of God in Nigeria

Pastor Daniel Koelpin, WELS Board for World Mission administrator, and Pastor Doug Weiser, WELS liaison to Nigeria, recently traveled to the southeast region of Nigeria to evaluate and visit Christ the King Lutheran Church and All Saints Lutheran Church, two church bodies that are in fellowship with WELS.

Both synods continue to expand by starting new congregations. With its fourteen pastors, Christ the King serves over 2,500 people, while All Saints ministers to nearly 5,000 with only two pastors. Currently seven men from All Saints are training for the public ministry at Christ the King Lutheran Seminary in the village of Uruk Uso. Teams of two WELS pastors each travel to the region three times a year to help support the training and assist in teaching. WELS also provides a subsidy to Christ the King Lutheran Church and supports the seminary and its students. As gifts permit, financial assistance is given for providing chapels, deep water bore holes (wells), and welfare relief. WELS provides no ongoing subsidy to All Saints Lutheran Church.

The greatest challenge for these synods, according to Koelpin, “is striving for self support in the matter of pastors’ salaries and church operations. There is little opportunity for most of the members of the churches to earn a livelihood. Thirty-two percent of the populace is illiterate. The nation of Nigeria is sometimes rated the second most corrupt in the world. There is little opportunity in rural villages to pursue business ventures and even less knowledge of how to go about doing so. African culture has the expectation that an influential man (a tribal leader, government leader, or church pastor) is to provide for them rather than the other way around. Support for church work and church workers is an uphill battle.”

Despite financial hardships, the Nigerian people find ways to give joyfully. “During the worship service everyone in the congregation gets up from his or her respective chair and dances all the way to the collection plate up front, giving what they can. That is joyful giving,” says Koelpin.

Koelpin is equally awed by the worship style: “Endearing is the enthusiastic worship of these Lutheran Christians. They dance and use drums to praise the Lord. They take choir membership very seriously. To be asked to leave the choir is almost tantamount to excommunication in its social impact. All are involved in worship and song. There are people here who know the Lord.”

To learn more about the more than 70 years of Lutheran presence in Nigeria and to view pictures from Koelpin’s recent trip, go to www.wels.net/jump/nigeria.