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INTRODUCTION
This assessment is an attempts to investigate the impacts of loose moral life and immoral practices on the discipleship and evangelistic ministry of today’s church. Majority of the 21st churches are founded on the ground of divisions, filled with arrogance, seemingly supportive of immorality, involved in litigation, and struggling over wealth and prosperity. For the morals and ethics of discipleship to be practiced and passed on for posterity sake, evangelistic ministry has a great role to play. Since the inception of Christianity into Nigeria, the proliferation of churches has been remarkable and also a commensurate rise in immorality and other social vices. It is believed that if Churches are on the increase, its positive impact in the lives of the people should be greater than when there were few Churches. Almost every major street within the urban areas of Nigeria today plays host to a church. Millions of Nigerians, from the North to the South pledge allegiance to one Christian denomination or another, just as much as Church auditoriums and Crusades are thronged with millions of worshippers all across the nation. Yet immoral practices remains rampant.
According to (Proverbs 14:28; and Acts 4: 13) it is lucid that God is interested in Church growth and at the same time morals of every member of the Church. Thus, Christians are supposed to showcase all the embodiment of godliness. From all indications, the reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria. 1, therefore wondered if the Church growth and rise in corruption are coterminous in these societies. Scholars and other agencies 2 who studied this phenomenon seem to agree that, initially, when Christianity was first introduced in Nigeria, it had the impact of leading people to holiness than contemporarily when the reverse is the case today.
1. Mfumbusa, B. (2010). The Church is Growing. Corruption is Growing.
2. Adams, A. (2015). Anne Adams: The Rise of Prostitution in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
Effective discipleship begins with knowing what to do in God’s sanctuary and doing same without being told. Ideally, disciple primarily refers to a dedicated follower of Jesus. In the ancient world, a disciple is a follower or adherent of a teacher. Although the Christian mission is multi-faceted and all encompassing, yet the call to faith and belief in Christ can only happen if the gospel is heard; as (Romans 10:14) insists, “how shall they hear without a preacher?”. This is the sole responsibility of discipleship, to preach the gospel in words and in actions. But where Christ’s disciples today have deviated from moral lifestyles to immoral practices in the church. The question automatically lends itself: how much influence does the Church bring to bear on Christian adherents and worshippers? To what extent does it, or has it been able to regulate the behavior of millions of Nigerian Christians? And if this influence were effectively asserted, what would be its impact in checking immorality in the church? The above led to the investigation on the impacts of loose moral life and immoral practices on the discipleship and evangelistic ministry of today’s church.
Discipleship Morality
Christian religion is highly noted as a religion with high moral teaching. The nexus between religion and morality is well documented 3, 4, and 5. The debate on Christian morality is vast, inexhaustible and sometimes controversial. In the same vein, any denial that the subject of Christian morality is a theological enterprise is erroneous. Christian morality, otherwise used synonymously with Christian ethics is purely derived from the Bible.
3. Onyeidu, S. O. (1999) Introduction to the study of Religion. Nsukka: Fulladu Press.
4. Agah, A. (2003) Religious Ethics in a permissive Society. Enugu, SNAAP Press.
5. Bowie, R. (2004) Ethical Studies. (2nd ed) Chenetham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Scholars like 6, and 7 pointed out that the Bible is the fundamental source of Christian morality. A part of the Old Testament biblical teaching which forms a huge source of Christian morality is the Decalogue otherwise called “The Ten Commandments” 3. The Decalogue is contained in Exodus Chapter 20. It deals with both vertical and horizontal moral relationships. In other words, the Decalogue deals with man’s moral behaviours towards God and his fellow human beings. Though given to the Jews of Old Testament as a moral code, the indispensability and relevance of the Decalogue lies in the fact that it formed the basis of Jesus moral teaching (Matt 5, 6&7). In contemporary Christianity for example, it is still taught that it is immoral for a Christian to use God’s name with contempt or to engage in idolatrous worship. Other moral Jewish teachings contained in the Old Testament are not our concern here. This is because, each of the moral teachings of books of Old Testament is better studied in the context of Judaism and also through strenuous exegetical study.
The New Testament presents almost the bulk of Christian moral teachings. Jesus Christ, the man whom Christian is traced to, is presented in the New Testament as a great moral teacher, if not the greatest ever lived 8. The bulk of Jesus’ moral teaching is contained in the four gospels namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Three of these gospels (Mathew, Mark and Luke) present the moral teachings of Jesus from similar perspective. But a particularly important moral teaching of Jesus is contained in the book of Matthew chapters 5, 6&7. This teaching is better called the Sermon on the Mount. Scholars like Cross (2005)9;
3. Onyeidu, S. O. (1999) Introduction to the study of Religion. Nsukka: Fulladu Press.
6. Stephen, Long.D. 2010) Christian Ethics: A Brief Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Pinckarcers, S. (1995) The Source Christian Ethics. Philadelphia: West-Winister Press.
8. Kimes,S.(2011)“Jesus moral teachings, A Summary” www.radicaljesusfollowers.blogspot.com/2011/10/Jesus-moral-teaching-summery.html.Accessed on 15/08/2013.
9. Cross, F.F. (ed) (2005) “The sermon on the mount” in Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press.
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