The Anglican Church in Nigeria has Red Hair!

Presentation by the Rev. Tad de Bordenave
Director of AFM-US
Hope for a Future, Pittsburgh, PA
November 11, 2005

Maybe that title needs an explanation! I'll be happy to do that. First I must tell you that I flunked biology at the University of Virginia. Since that time I have learned to tackle things biological by simplifying things until they make sense to me. And I have learned not to be concerned about accuracy!

When we talk about having red hair, we are talking about DNA. Everybody has red hair DNA. But the reason that we don't all have red hair is that we also have black hair DNA and white hair DNA and the supreme one of no hair DNA! These other DNAs are a bit more aggressive than the red hair DNA. They sort of push them to the side. The red hair DNA is a bit on the timid side anyway. So we have lots or people with black hair, blond hair, white hair, a few splendid heads with no hair – and very few heads of red hair.

In fact it takes lots of extra red hair DNA to get a head of red hair.

Now, what does this have to do with the Anglican Church in Nigeria? Well, it's about missions and DNA. Some people are saying that we must insert the missions DNA into the church. That is not right! God has already put missions DNA in every church. "You shall be my witnesses... (Acts 1:8) Putting missions DNA in the church is not the issue, making it dominate the other DNAs – that is what makes a missions church.

And that's what the Anglican Church in Nigeria has done. It has made the missions DNA rise to the surface. There is other DNA – good DNA – but the Nigerian Anglican leadership has successfully said to that DNA – you have good DNA, it's worthy, but the missions DNA must have a higher priority. We must first direct our resources of prayer, finances, training, and research to making sure that we are giving priority to missions. Then we will give attention to the other DNA.

This missions life of the Church of Nigeria puts their attention to those inside as well as those outside Nigeria. We have heard how the Primate has asked that the membership of the church double in the next five years. But more significantly, the missions leadership is seeing that church planting is going beyond the borders of Nigeria to unreached groups outside Nigeria. These people are found in Niger and Chad and Cameroon. They have no way to hear the Gospel – no radio, no Scriptures, no pastor. They are out of reach of hearing the Gospel.

This commitment to the unreached peoples outside Nigeria has a fierce grip on the Anglican Church of Nigeria and is the toughness of their missions DNA.

The question for us, then, is how we can bring missions DNA to the surface in our churches? What can we learn from the Church in Nigeria that will put missions in its proper high priority?

We have missions DNA and we are seeing evidence of it more and more. But it is not strong enough to give us have red hair. Maybe we can see streaks, red tints, some red highlights, but we don't have red hair.

The other DNA continues to have a strong voice – for new pipes on the organ, new paint, new books, new staff, new additions on buildings. Nothing at all wrong with this DNA. But these are the things that get the votes at vestries, space on the bulletin board, committees, and popular support. Not missions.

Our missions looks like this. We do evangelism in our neighborhoods and schools – for people like us and near us. We plant churches in new housing developments, probably within four blocks of evangelical Methodist and Baptist churches. And we do overseas trips, going from one part of the Anglican Communion to another.

All that is good, but it is lacking the fierce hold of mission to the unreached, to the 20% of the world who have never heard the Gospel for the first time.

Why is this? Maybe it is because we have never heard of these peoples who are "unreached". Maybe it is because we have never gone to them, or don't know how to start.

Well, on that matter, some of you might like to join me in a prayer request that I have before the Lord – that for the next ten years He would transpose Tibet and Bermuda! Then we would know who these people are and what their sad life is like!

Maybe the reason we don't go is because of a limited view of God's mercy – that He has forgiven our sins but we don't think of Him as offering forgiveness to the Mauritanians. Or is it because we believe that He saves sinners like you and me, but it doesn't occur to us that sinners beyond the boundaries of the Church also qualify!

The Nigerian Church has two things which have kept the red hair DNA at the forefront. The first is jealousy for God's name. This is not the petty soap opera jealousy. Far from it! This is a grieving that God's name has been usurped by other gods, and these gods do not deliver. They deceive, dehumanize, destroy, and then discard. Jealousy for God's name is the outrage that His name and His kingdom have been oppressed and suppressed by the gods of this world. In most cases this is a territorial thing. It's not just that many people are not Christian in a certain area, like the US or Chile or Burundi. This is when scarcely any people in a land know the name of the one true living God. The Nigerians will not stand for that! They will go to those places which do not have the name of God planted.

The second is jealousy for the people who are outside of God's kingdom. This is a deep yearning for those who do not know Him or know of Him, that they will have the opportunity to bring their lives and hopes under the reign of Christ. Jealousy for the people outside God's reign is the compassion for their plight and determination to go to them that they may hear and receive His grace as we have.

How do we get such a fierce grip on us, a fierce jealousy for God and His people? Well, of course we can pray and study the Scriptures. There we learn the grand overarching theme from Genesis to Revelation that God will have some from every people group before the throne. We read of His coming to us as Father, with love and forgiveness, such an unexpected revelation from heaven! "He had not dealt with us according to our iniquities." No other religion can make that statement.

But sometimes our heart follows our actions. Sometimes actions can lead us to passion. We can offer such an opportunity. We refer to it as "The Blessing of the Twelve". In July of 2004 AFM here with AFM-Nigeria trained 12 missionaries of Nigeria who would each go to one of the unreached groups outside Nigeria - in Niger, Chad and Cameroon. These men and women are culturally adapted already, they can learn the language easily, live the way their people group live, eat what they eat, and speak persuasively to them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are eager and prepared to go. But they lack funding.

"The Blessing of the Twelve" connects a congregation here with one of these missionaries and his or her people group outside Nigeria. The cost for this missionary endeavor is all of $2,000 per year. We are asking for a two-year commitment. By then we will know if it is merely a line item or if it has become a cherished ministry. AFM's office has lots of material to nurture this so it becomes a beneficial relationship both ways. Contact our office if this might interest you and your church.

If not that approach, then there are others. We offer "The Blessing of the Twelve" as an easy bridge to the unreached. The main thing is some involvement that brings the unreached to us and our participation of taking the Gospel to them.

Take that bridge or any other. But do this - learn about the unreached, where they are, how they live, what they lack. New things will come to your faith and your computer screen – a greater view of God's intentions, of His grace, His mighty works, a view of prayer and prayer reports, research on the sociology of your group, and strategies that will lead to a church planting movement.

And then we, too, can have red hair.