LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Dawn is near. But the congregation shows no sign of tiring. For more than eight hours – all through a torrid tropical night – they have danced, shouted and prayed with a preacher most simply call Daddy.
More than 300,000 have come. But for the Redeemed Christian Church of God, it's just an average turnout.
Think big. Then think even bigger.
This is the face of 21st century Christianity: colossal, restless – and African. There's no better lesson than the Redeemed Church, and the insatiable ambitions of its guiding hand, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye. The savvy former mathematician leads the fastest-growing Christian movement on a continent that's rapidly putting its stamp on the faith around the world.
Centuries after the Gospel was brought to sub-Saharan Africa by colonizers and missionaries, the faith is coming back to the West. The forms are passionate, powerful and come with various names: Pentecostal, afro-evangelical, charismatic, Christian renewal.
For millions of worshippers in Africa and around the world, the movements represent a sharp break with tradition and have redefined how they practice their faith – with great emphasis on fever-pitch gatherings, spiritual "rebirth" and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives.
Many in mainstream denominations, from the Vatican to Westminster Abbey, view the new churches like an invading army that is reshaping Christianity faster than they can adjust.
The Protestant-dominated World Council of Churches now places Christianity's demographic center of gravity in northwest Africa and has it drifting farther south each year. Some theologians say the "African century" of Christianity is already under way.
If so, then populous and English-speaking Nigeria is its spiritual homeland, and churches like Adeboye's are its new missionaries.
What began as a living room Bible study in 1952 is now a juggernaut: a university, movie studio and satellite television outfit. Now add to that millions of followers in more than 90 nations. Just this month, close to 1 million worshippers turned out during a three-day prayer gathering near Lagos.
In a rare interview, Adeboye (A-day-BOY-ye) told The Associated Press where he hopes to go from here: "At least one member of the church in every household in the whole world."
The dream, however improbable sounding, has some genuine underpinnings.
The broad Pentecostal-charismatic-evangelical family currently accounts for about a quarter of the nearly 2.2 billion Christians, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in South Hamilton, Mass. It could grow to more than a third by 2025.
That's despite critics who say the movements are often based on shaky or cynical theology. Scripture, they claim, is used to enrich pastors through the so-called "Prosperity Gospel," which says that God has no trouble with material wealth and smiles most on the generous givers to the faith.
"You want to see where Christianity is heading?" said Campbell Shittu Momoh, an author on Nigerian religious affairs. "Come look at Nigeria."
It's impossible to miss.
Banners for revivals, sermons and blessings dot nearly every street in teeming Lagos. Graffiti on a roadway barrier: "Nigeria is the nation which will achieve the kingdom of God that Israel lost in Matthew 21:41-44." Continue >>
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