Evangelical Church of West Africa

The Evangelical Church of West Africa now called Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) is one of the largest Church denominations in Nigeria, reaching about five million people. ECWA is a partner church of the international Christian Mission Organisation: Serving In Mission (SIM, formerly Sudan Interior Mission). It was founded in 1954 when the SIM-related churches (initially in Nigeria) came together to form an indigenous body.[1] Since that time, mission stations, Bible Schools, academic schools, and medical programs have been transferred to ECWA leadership.

History

Evangelical Church of West Africa now called Evangelical Church Winning All (due to its wide spread to beyond its scope) was a result of ministry history and the wide spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Africa by several missionaries who came from several places in the Canada and the United States of American on what can be termed "evangelical suicide mission" which was coined by Oji Chukwudimma Chukwudike because it will be glaring to see that West Africa, at that time, was known to be heavily infested with malaria and there is almost a 100% possibility that a white man will not survive it as they even called the West African region "the white man's grave."[2] These missionaries braved malaria and yellow fever to preach the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ under the auspices of the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) and planted several churches as they preach along like Paul the Apostle and around mid 20th century these churches became independent to carry on the gospel. ECWA has got the largest mission organization of any African church living up to its name Evangelical[3] which by name Evangelical Mission Society (ESM) has sent out about 1,400 missionaries.

Throughout Nigeria, but especially in the central regions, ECWA churches are growing rapidly. Some churches have experienced as much as 400% growth in the last several years. Churches in the Northern (traditionally more Islamic) parts of the country are also growing.[1] There are currently more than five thousand ECWA congregations with more than five million attendees and a church membership of over three million people. ECWA has eighty District Church Councils (DCC's) and a number of Local Church Councils (LCC's).

ECWA has started three Theological Seminaries (ECWA Theological Seminary Igbaja, established 1941, Jos ECWA Theological Seminary, and ECWA Theological Seminary, Kagoro), eight Bible colleges and fifteen theological training institutes. ECWA's Medical Department coordinates a wide network which includes four hospitals, a Community Health Programme with over 110 health clinics, a Central Pharmacy and the School of Nursing and Midwifery.[4] It is also involved in radio, publications for outreach and discipleship, rural development, urban ministries, and cross-cultural missions.[5] There are more than 1600 missionaries from ECWA churches who serve in Nigeria and other countries with the Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS), the missionary arm of ECWA.[1]

There has been a serious confrontation between evangelical Christians standing in opposition to the expansion of Sharia law in northern Nigeria by militant Muslims since 1999. The confrontation has radicalized and politicized the Christians. Violence has been escalating.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 SIM Country Profile: Nigeria
  2. ↑ Oji, Chukwudimma C. "White man's grave". Tiscali. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  3. ↑ Oji, Chukwudimma C. "Evangelical Church Winning All". ECWAUSA. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  4. ↑ Camp of the Woods - ECWA
  5. ↑ ECWA
  6. ↑ Terence O. Ranger, ed., Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp 37-66
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.