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What you must Know

MEMBERSHIP OF THE MINISTRY

The call to evangelization is an obligatory Call that is attached to our Baptismal responsibilities by Christ; not even the Church – the Church only guides, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt. 28: 19) – The Great Commissioning!

In his Angelus address on the 15th of July, 2018, Pope Francis tells his audience that the call to evangelization s not only for the clergy, but for all the faithful – the laity also. He says: “This evangelical episode applies also to us, and not only to priests but to all the baptized, called to witness, in the different environments of life, the Gospel of Christ. And for us also, this mission is only authentic if it begins from its immutable centre, which is Jesus.”9(Pope Francis; Jul. 15, 2018 – Angelus)

Before this in Jan. 15, 2014, addressing the General Audience at St. Peter’s Square, he says:

“In virtue of Baptism we become missionary disciples, called to bring the Gospel to the world (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, n. 120). ‘All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization…. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement’ (ibid.) from everyone, the whole of the People of God, a new kind of personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. The People of God is a disciple people — because it receives the faith — and a missionary people — because it transmits the faith. And this is what Baptism works in us: it gives us grace and hands on the faith to us. All of us in the Church are disciples, and this we are forever, our whole lifelong; and we are all missionaries, each in the place the Lord has assigned to him or her. Everyone: the littlest one is also a missionary;and the one who seems to be the greatest is a disciple.”10

No wonder then, that the theme of his message to the faithful during the celebration of his “Extraordinary Missionary Month” in October, 2019 was: “Baptized and sent: The Church of Christ on mission in the world.”11

Recall that this is exactly my mission, and message in my second Book: The Laity in the Modern World: A Call to Evangelization, For the Relevance of the Church in the World of Today. This is the product of an inspiration that came up between 2010 and 2011, after so many years of worries about the state of the Church in Nigeria, and the World at large; an inspiration that finally gave birth to a Book in 2014.

It is worthwhile to note that it is the same inspiration that has conceived this New Evangelization Team, about to be born as: St. John the Evangelist Catholic New Evangelization Team. I believe that the Holy Spirit is doing this because, not everybody has read, or can read the book; and not all those who read can understand how to live out this call to evangelization. Thus, the necessity for the establishment of this Ministry, to lead us into the Christ’s life that is our Call in Baptism.

So, while the call to evangelization is for us all – the Baptized, the membership of Evangelizers into this Ministry is only for those who cut up with the burning zeal, not only to evangelize, but to help others to learn how to evangelize in the principle of the New Evangelization according to Pope St. John Paul II, those who are really disturbed about the rate of the non-relevance of the Church in our present societies despite her glamourous material possessions, gigantic buildings, academic excellence, and numerical capacity, the rate of the increase of the Neopaganism practices amidst the Church, the increase of the rate with which our youths are trooping out of the Church and embracing paganism and the New Age religions in the society, which of course, continues to escalate the menace of insecurity in the society, and inhuman system of governance, especially in Nigeria, and the world over most of whom are Catholic Laity and Christian Brethren in the midst of Non-Christians.

Those who are comfortable with all these cannot be part of this Ministry. This also applies to those who are very interested in spending money, time and energy looking for the miracles of God, while not interested in the God of the miracles – seekers and performers of signs and wonders; those who are interested in announcing demonic agendas from the demonic world in the name of prophecies from God, and those who run after them. Such cannot be comfortable in a Ministry like this.

Our basic interest is in the witnessing to the message of Christ, helping ourselves, and others to meet Christ, encounter Christ, and witness or share Christ with others, in partnership with the Holy Spirit who is the Principal Agent of Evangelization, and the Blessed Virgin Mary who is the Star of Evangelization. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Lk. 24: 48). We believe however, and have been witnessing that while we go about preaching the Word, counselling and praying with people, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the intercession of Mother Mary, Jesus goes about doing good, and healing all that are oppressed with the devil in the lives of those who believe, testifying to His Ministry that we carry. Ours is to teach, to share the Word and to pray, carrying out the commission – to evangelize; he rest is for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to testify to our mission.

 

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

We do this in three categories: Mission by practically going about teaching and preaching the Good News to people; Mission by praying for the success of the Mission and the protection of the Missionaries in the Mission Field; and Mission by providing fund and materials for the Mission.

This means therefore, that membership to this Team is divided into three categories: Field Evangelization Team, Prayer Team, and Financial/Material Providing Team. They are all working together to make the message of our salvation spread to all and sundry that more souls be won for God through Christ.

 

 

  1. THE FIELD EVANGELIZERS:

These are those who are fully, and practically involved in the Ministry of Evangelization – moving out and reaching to people in the works of evangelization through teaching, and sharing of the message of salvation: giving talks on the mission and faith-lifting areas of life, organizing our seminars, helping in teaching catechisms – especially in preparation for Adult Baptism (Catechumens) in the parishes, preparing those for marriage ratifications and those preparing for marriages. They organize and carry out practical evangelization Out-reaches in the parish communities, and open air crusades.

  1. THE SPECIAL PRAYER GROUP OF THE TEAM:

This group serves what is called the “Engine Room” of the Team. They give the spiritual backup to those who are in the field. They carry out their own part of the Mission by praying daily for the conversion of the individual souls, families, parishes, villages and towns that the Ministry will be encountering in her evangelism – especially the hardened souls through the actions of the Holy Spirit who is the principal agent of evangelization. They pray for the fertilization of the places the Team will be going for the mission of evangelization, that God may be pleased, by the Angelic Salutation from the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary – through the Rosary – to open the hearts of those to hear the Word so that the Word may penetrate and bear fruits. They water the ground for the Mission. They pray also for the protection of the Team and the Team members and their families in their day to day lives as they go about spreading the Good News. They pray too that God may continue to provide for the Mission spiritually and materially – including the fund for the running of the Team.

They can be gathering as a group for their prayers, or be carrying out their functions from their respective places under team agreements and chain prayers. One is also free to decide the level of participation that he or she can be offering daily or weekly, or monthly. One can, for instance agree with the Lord to be saying five decades of the Rosary daily for these intentions of the Team, some twenty decades, booking of Masses, Priests can be offering Masses for the success of the Mission, while picking days of fasting and prayers, etc. for the Team, the Team members and the people of God they are ministering to, or evangelizing. The Team should have their particular days for communications and prayers too. People may, however decide to be silence on this and make it between them and their God. Whichever way, the graces therefrom as the evangelizers carry out their mission, and pray for their backup Team members, both those who remain anonymous and the registered members whose names are with the Team, reach to everyone, because God knows each one by name, as well as their intentions. This is not limited to Nigerians alone, but extends to all those who are earnestly interested in the spreading of the Gospel and the salvation of souls all through the catholic world.

 

 

 

  1. FINANCIAL AND MATERIAL PROVIDING GROUP:

The third group of the Team Membership is those who carry out their own part of the mission through financial, and material provisions for the running of the Team’s evangelization activities.

The work of evangelization is always very costly all over the world, how much more in our country. It is very dire to run an evangelization Ministry or Team, especially in an environment like ours, and worst, under this present dispensation, with the economic dryness in our country Nigeria. So the Team can only establish through financial assistances from the people of God who are interested in partnering with the Team in their mission of bringing souls back to God through evangelization.

Our location and area of operation is a very peculiar place – the Igbo Land. We know that it should have been financially easier for the Team if it had been established in the city areas of the country or in the city areas of the East. But we are where the Holy Spirit directed us to be.

This is because of the peculiar nature of the Team, and her basic areas of operation – paganism and Neopaganism, and the New Age religions. So we are located in the heart of paganism and Neopaganism, where rich and wealthy people will come back from the cities, and Overseas, meet the few remaining traditional religionists – the pagans – and renovate all the dilapidated shrines in their kindred and, or villages, or town, then gather the youths, throw parties, kill cows, share money, and reactivate and re-invoke the abandoned spirits, demons, and the spirits of the ancestors in the pagan symbols and objects, renew and expand the old covenants. They then get the young ones initiated into the spirits of the gods and goddesses of their land.

Unfortunately, the youths did not know that their future are being mortgaged to those idols, and their stars taken over by those initiators. The people would be made to believe that they are renewing the cultures and traditions of their forefathers, that Christianity has failed them; that Christianity is other people’s religion and cultures that the White and the Missionaries brought to them, and to their advantage, discrediting our own. Mostly people do not know that there are the “unknown gods” that are attached to the ones they know, which are the ones that would be sitting on those “commoners” who are following money.

My cousins – mother’s side did it. One of them is a marine spirit chief-priest, a native doctor (dibia). The other animator is not, but a friend and ardent customer to the native doctors. The duo lured my other cousin who was an ardent Catholic, an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament in one of the most popular Adoration Ministries in the area, and was doing well in the business. 

As usual, they started by attacking his sources of income. Mysterious attacks started hitting him. Unfortunately, one of the preachers he had listened to was promoting paganism in the name of inculturation, advocating taking care of your ancestral issues before settling down fully to serve God. He was promoting, negatively, the philosophy of “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God, what belongs to God;” without telling them that they as human beings belong to God, that the earth and its fullness belong to God, therefore, they should not give their obeisance to a creature. So when he was having problems and those his cousins – who were not even in good heart with him – told him it was their family deity that has been abandoned that was attacking his sources of income, he believed. They even took him to native doctors, their juju oracle men – pretending to him that they had not been there before, but were being directed by some people. There his story was told, and his secret of success exposed to those unfriendly cousins.

The end point was that the abandoned gods and goddess of our grandfather were conjured back within new shrines. He was cajoled into sponsoring the evil act with his own money. But something strange was noticed by my uncle who himself is a juju chief-priest. There was another deity that was brought by the two initiators of the act, known to them only. When the native doctor performing the act of reinstallation wanted to place the shrine of the second juju close to the family deities the uncle objected, and told them that the “Aro” – the deity does not stay with another deity. But the duo who really knew what they were into, insisted it must be there. So my uncle withdrew his support and left them. Meanwhile, it was that other cousin that sponsored the operations as I said before. Imagine his deep commitment in the abominable acts that he was the target.

In my Father’s side, it is not left out. One of my cousin’s son, a very young boy, came home one day and told the father that he went somewhere, and he was told that he is to become a chief-priest, that that was why he was having problems in life – nearly convicted for murder in a case he knew nothing about. The father was praying and joining me and my brothers and sisters as we strife to cleanse our family foundations. So the family deities, including the “Aro” have been expelled from the family. When he was vindicated in the court, the father was preparing for thanksgiving in the church. But the story changed. The son said it was the goddess from the mother’s side that wanted him to serve her. He said he wanted the “Aro” re-invoked and reinstated back to where she was expelled from in the compound. Today, he is a juju priest. These are from my own personal extended families – maternal and paternal. If you come into these families and see young able bodied men, and the environment where they live, you will understand what poverty is, and the effect of family, and village evil foundations can have in a person’s life. These narratives are to help people understand the task ahead of this Team, and why it is to be located in such environment. 

Again, the area is that part of the country which is being daily subjected under severe hardship by the Government in power because of religious bias – being the major Christian base in the country, and the ethnic hatred for industriousity and social enlightenment of the people. But that Christianity is being so greatly challenged by both external and internal forces. The devil is fully out to destroy this major base of Christianity in the country through the other anti-Christ Religions: Traditional African Religion (paganism) both from outside and from within (in the name of inculturation), and Islamism being fully enforced by the present Federal Government of the country, which used the weaknesses of the Nigerian Christians – materialism (money and wealth) and ethnic divisions to take over power and changed the political system of the country within a twinkling of an eye. In Nigerian, and I believe, in most of other countries’ Christianity, blood or ethnic relationship, or bond is more important and recognized, and preferred to the religious affinity – Divine relationship – contrary to what our Bible teaches and directs us. As somebody said: “However, in the new covenant, the waters of baptism are thicker than the blood of natural relationship. In other words, the blood of Jesus is thicker than the blood of human kinship”12. But this is not the case in other religions, especially our Muslim counterpart.

So, a lot of challenges are awaiting this Team, and as such much finance is needed for us to operate successfully. Though, as time goes on, we shall have the Team’s Kiosk for the exhibition and marketing of the Team’s products and those from our mission – like Ministries Abroad like: books, talks in CDs, DVDs, MPs, Holy Pictures, etc. as means of evangelization; but, is it not those who have money that will buy those products.

Most of the people to be evangelized are living in penury, hunger sickness; some are homeless, some are sick and have no money to take medications, or could not go to the hospitals for treatments. Sometimes we meet people in the hospitals well, but no money to bail themselves. Some are staying in houses or tattered houses where domestic animals cannot live in the homes of the rich.

The rich and wealthy evil relatives – the pagans and evil cult relatives – of many have subjected them to such conditions that they absolutely depended on them for living. Some are there pretending to be taking care of the children of those impoverished relatives while they have diabolically taken the stars and destinies of those nephews, nieces and cousins they pretend to be assisting, leaving them with no future. Some of such evil people have given money to the children of their relations, and have exchanged their destinies, leaving them morons. They make the parents of such children to remain perpetually dependent on them. Mind you, such people do not assist people without very bright futures.

Preaching therefore, to such people to turn to Christ, contrary to their ‘lords’ or ‘sponsors’ without alternatives is beaten about the bush, a mission almost impossible; unless by the special grace or intervention of God – and that is why prayer is paramount  – to get those who are ready to hold on to Christ without minding the physical consequences, those who can come to the level of “even if” faith of the three young men in the heart of the seven-time hotter furnace recorded in Daniel 3: 17 – 18, which is still very uncommon in our time.

This is why this very group of the membership of the Team is very important for the success of our mission, especially in this part of the world – precisely, in our region, Nigeria, and Igbo Land.

The people in this group are those who have passion for souls and the mission of evangelization, those who are not happy with the present rebirth of paganism in Igbo Land, the increase of Neopaganism in the present Church of Christ, and Christianity in general due to wrong teachings and applications on inculturation, and the mad-rush into cultisms – the New Age religions in our societies and their free rides inside the Churches, from the top to the down; those who want to be part of this mission but their businesses, their works, their places of residence, language or nationality do not allow them to be physically involved in the practical evangelization of the Team.

They then decided to be using their money and resources to be part of the mission for Christ in the New Evangelization Team. They can join from any part of the world and Christianity. It is part of our Christian charity. Such people decide on themselves on how much they can be contributing or offering daily, weekly, monthly or annually to God through the Team, for the running of the evangelization projects, either in local or foreign currencies. Some can be doing that as sowing of seeds or spontaneous offerings to God for their private intentions, for the smooth running of the works of evangelizations most of which have be mentioned in this note.

This is why the Team was registered as a Non- Profit Organisation (NPO), a “Religious Charity Organisation” – solely, for the mission of the Lord.

The Team – especially through the First and Second Groups will be praying constantly for those in this Third Group for God’s blessings and protections on their lives, families and means of incomes, and the salvation of their own souls. The prayers shall be both in daily, and monthly basis.

NB: Assisting the Team can also be once, or any time one is inspired to do so, without registering as a Financial Member, or Friend of the Team. In any case, God sees and blesses the donor, and the prayers of the Team members reach the person involved wherever the person is. God is everywhere, and sees and knows everyone.