Why are young people abandoning christainity?

By Nnenna Joseph

There has been a series of responses surrounding Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s black box interview with Ebuka Obi Uchendu where she says she does not attend church in Nigeria because “Nigerian catholicism is way too much about money, fundraising, and thanksgiving. Some in the east look at who is wearing gold. I think the focus of religion should be things Nigerian Catholicism does not focus on”

A closer look at the trends and conversations evoked from that statement will reveal that In totality, Christianity, both protestants, Catholics, Anglicanism, grail message, Eckankar share the above decadence in gradient quantities. What is the resultant effect of this? 

The sole purpose of the church is to win souls but the statistics available show that the church is doing the opposite unknowingly. In the United States, Christianity made up 73.7% of the total population in 2016. This fell to 65% in 2019. At the same time, those identifying as “no religion” or “unaffiliated” rose to 26% of the total population.

In Nigeria, there is an unaccounted percentage decline of church attendance among people between the ages of 19 to 45. This places the questions on the table; Why the rapid decline in Christianity? What do you presume would be the future of the church in some 30 years? 

Christianity(In Nigeria) in its earliest forms served a variety of purposes which include indoctrination into the body of Christ, a gathering of like minds, fellowship, assistance when members are in bad situations, an informal therapy coalition, communality with brethren, a sense of belonging, to build up faith and maturity of members, among others. Their fellowships were simple, doctrine-oriented, religious teachings, canvas for punishments for sinful offenders and its likes.

However, we see that the succeeding phase of Christianity in Nigeria which became universal in early 2000 saw the prevalence of prosperity preachers. This stems from churches whose pastors preached that a member will be rich once they committed their finances to the church. 

They equally claimed that failure to sow seeds and invest in the work of God in the church will lead to perpetual condemnation and poverty on earth. This hinged on the teachings of John in 3 John 1:2: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” and the infamous Malachi 3:10: “‘Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 

They quickly forget that Timothy warned against people who are “depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, [who imagine] godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim. 6:5).

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We see a blend of God and money. How many people worship God without intentions of seeking wealth, knowledge, success, health, or earthly related issues?. 

This is not entirely new, Martin Luther King was forced to hammer down on “granting Indulgence ” by the pope of the catholic church in the 15th century, members were made to pay, both on earth and at purgatory as a way to cancel the accumulated debt of one’s sins. Martin Lurther King saw to the end of that aberration. 

This era seemed to ruin Christianity as we know it. Some of the foremost churches that used these preachings (in no particular order) were Christ Embassy, Winners chapel, Dominion city, etc. 

Seed sowing became the watchword, “Every miracle grows from a seed, a believer seeking God’s help should first consider which seed is the most likely to produce his hoped-for crop. Someone who is in financial dire straits or is praying for a miraculous recovery from a disease must sow this “precious” seed”- says Pastor Chris Oyakilome in an online video. The seed talked about is money. 

In the last 10 years, there have been over 1,000 churches all over the country with suit-wearing, acclaimed men of God promising prosperity from every angle once you sow seeds. It is important to note at this point that these seeds (money) have enriched a lot of these pastors, from hard-earned coins of faithfuls. 

If everyone who sowed seeds were to reap bountiful harvests, why did so many worshippers pull out of attending church and why have a lot of persons pulled away from Christianity in general. 

Is prosperity preaching working? Are the proponents of these preachings doing Christianity good? Why is there a tragic decline with young minds attending churches? We live in an information era, the world has seen light and logic are being questioned. 

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We see that the faithful who trust prosperity preachers are not getting rich. A lot of people are embittered because they have parted with the little money that they had and it has not multiplied. Consequently, the name of God is getting a lot of bad publicity from these bitter individuals hence a rapid decline in Christianity and worship of God in general. 

Often, due to life’s courses, there are people who will strike luck or fortune and it is often attributed to seed sown in the past. According to a philosopher “most prayers prayed for you by pastors you can pray for yourself from the comfort of your home and God will hear, is he not omniscient anymore”? 

During the course of the research on this project, our correspondents were asked to attend 10 different churches in different parts of Nigeria for 4 consecutive Sundays, and here is what we found out.

RQ1: Frequency of fund demands

70% of the churches raised funds for various special projects

100% of the churches received offerings and tithes 

48% received donations of various forms

32% asked for special seeds.

RQ2: Decline in belief in religious leaders

This was a very difficult sector to determine 

90% have a strong belief in  their religious leaders

47% do not believe everything he/she says

80% believe in seed sowing

82% have doubts about sowing seeds but sow regardless

Another independent research conducted to determine why an unidentified percentage of Nigerians do not attend Sunday services regularly as was obtainable in the last 10 years came up with these results. This was gotten from people who didn’t attend church. 

RQ3: Decline in church attendance

17% said their preferred church is far from their house 

33% said they prefer to stream online

40% said they preferred to listen to gospel music on Sunday

50% says church is expensive owing to too many donations and offerings.

40% say their jobs don’t permit them

RQ4: The future of the church attendance

This was conducted for people below the ages of 30

28% says they do not attend church and have no intentions of attending 

40% says they attend church once in 12 weeks 

20% says they attend church regularly 

10% say they attend church regularly and keep to all the tenets of the church including seed sowing. 

Only in Africa do we see pastors do despicable things, a pastor in Abuja Nigeria was said to have asked his members to pay N50,000 to swim in the pool of Bethesda he built in his church. 

The body of clergy, Vatican, Church of England, Order of  Bishops have to call a self-evaluation meeting of what they are doing with the body of Christ, if not, prosperity preachers will continue to cause a decline in Christianity in the world. Always remember the quote: theology is the number one reason why people choose to stay or leave their churches. “Mess with the music and people may grumble. Mess with theology and they’re out the door,” explained Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.