Godly Recklessness

“A godly recklessness!”

That is the way my good friend, Alex Araujo, described the type of boldness we are seeing these days coming from mission initiatives emanating  from the “Global South,” or the non-Western world.

And that is what I say is also a good description for Nigerian Christians, especially after spending the last five days there.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my venture to this amazing West African country which was focused on consulting with the Nigerian Bible Translation Trust, the one and only national entity occupying itself with the task of translating God’s word into the remaining 300 plus languages that still do not have a Bible. At first when you meet Sule Auta, Executive Director of the NBTT, you would not immediately guess he was in charge of such a major enterprise. But after a couple hours’ interview, learning of the complexities of staying on top of 40 different translation initiatives, managing a 20 acre property with all the headaches of providing power and water when the city services are notably unreliable, not to mention maintaining proper relationship with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Wycliffe Global Alliance, Summer Institute of Linguistics, The Seed Company and Wycliffe Associates, you have a new appreciation for the amazing number of balls in the air he is juggling at any one time. That’s not to say he’s able to do it all perfectly, of course. But Sule seems to model the typical Nigerian mix of God-given vision with a down-to-earth “Let’s-just-go-ahead-and-do-it” attitude. Which is why he said to me as I left, “Just come back in a  few months and teach us what you can about organizational development.”

I got another taste of this same spirit when I dropped into the House On The Rock church for their second Sunday service. Not only was that same Nigerian “can-do” spirit demonstrated throughout the lively service, which reminded me of a good ol’ Southern Gospel crusade, but the number of PowerPoint projectors, wireless mics, electronic keyboards and flat panel screens clearly indicated this was one group that wasn’t going to let their “developing world” status slow them down any.  Even the pastor was reading his notes off of his own iPad there on the pulpit!

Another connection I was pleased to make on this trip was with Timothy Olanade, someone I have probably had a cup of coffee with in more places around the world than any other African I know. Up until three months ago, Timothy was the head of NEMA—the Nigerian Evangelical Missions Association. As a result, he has attended every major global consultation the mission’s world has sponsored. So, I’ve run into him over the past fifteen years in such places as Singapore, Cape Town, Malaysia, South Korea and Denver. But this was the first time to visit him in his own home and finally meet his wife, Hanah. What was cool to hear from Timothy is how he is now turning down well-padded invitations to speak at more global events, not just so that he can spend more time mentoring younger leaders in Nigeria, but so that he can intentionally model that being an effective leader doesn’t require having impressive international credentials. You can’t believe how refreshing it is to hear of an African leaders who doesn’t feel he has to become a “big chief!”

Nigerians themselves know that they carry a certain reputation among other Africans as aggressive, dominant, self-serving  entrepreneurs.  But if the “godly recklessness” I saw demonstrated during the past week is any example of the new style of Nigerian ministry leader, all I can say is, “bring it on!”