Heritage Of The Lord: Youth Ministry Within A Christ Apostolic Church In The Diaspora

2009·0.93 MB·English

by  Oluwagbemiga. T. Famojuro

HERITAGE OF THE LORD:
YOUTH MINISTRY WITHIN A CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN THE
DIASPORA
By
OLUWAGBEMIGA T. FAMOJURO
DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Submitted to
New York Theological Seminary
in partial fulfillment of the requirement
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, USA
2009
ABSTRACT
HERITAGE OF THE LORD
By
Oluwagbemiga. T. Famojuro
The problem was the rapid and increasing loss of the young people—second-
generation immigrants, from their parents’ churches in the Diaspora. I became aware of
this during my eleven years of being an associate pastor in a prominent immigrant church
in Brooklyn, New York. The purpose of this study was to define and explain the struggle
of Christ Apostolic Church to retain young people for the Church of tomorrow. The
purpose also was to translate the result of the research into a meaningful training manual
to be used to educate pastors and be used to teach the young people of the church. The
principles of this manual are expected to have great impact upon the beliefs and the
attitude of the young people towards their parents’ churches.
As a first generation immigrant pastor, I feel it is important to reach out to the
other immigrant pastors, churches and their young people; to educate them about the
CAC “perspectives” on rapid disappearance of the second-generation immigrant young
fellows from their parents’ churches; and then suggest steps to take to retain these young
people in the church. Invitations were sent out twice to twenty-eight immigrant churches,
to attend youth/adult interactive seminars. Workshops were held separately for the young
and the adult members of the church. In all, about 192 young people and about 65 adults
attended the workshops.
The response of the young people was very remarkable; they saw the workshops
as thought-provoking media, where they were able to air their grievances and make
valuable suggestions on how to enhance attendance of young people in their parents’
churches.
While this study was focused on CAC, the problems, the findings and the results
have relevance to all churches.
Copyright by
Oluwagbemiga T. Famojuro
2009
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to my family—my wife and children, who dearly
supported my wish/strife to do this project and with unalloyed love, they put up with
every sociological, financial and psychological stress that the course of this work have
caused them. Gradually, after I turned our dining room into a bookshop and our dining
table into a bookshelf and a reading table, yet they journeyed down the pathway with me
with their unflinching support and love.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are many people who have greatly helped me in numerous ways to
complete this project. I am so grateful to God, who granted me the strength to pursue the
job, the ability to pull together the parents and the children, the adults and the young
people of the church, in spite of their socio cultural differences in the world of today, all
in aspiration to strengthen their abilities of working together for the progress of the
gospel of Jesus Christ on earth. I am thankful to Dr. Dale Irvin—my advisor, for sharing
his knowledge and wealth of experience with me and for providing relevant resource
books for me in the course of this project. My sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Abraham
Oyedeji—my Daddy and the senior pastor of CAC (first in the Americas), for his fatherly
support and encouragement and for paying part of my tuition at NYTS. Dr. A. Akinade,
my mentor who greatly guided me through the processes of this project and volunteered
to be the second reader of my project. I am most thankful for the wonderful job and help
of the members of my site team, which enable me to pull all the ends together for the
final edition of this project: Deacon Ilori, Deacon Adeyinka, Mrs. Olowofela, Mrs.
Okunnubi, Deaconess Browne, Evangelist Adeoye—whose tireless effort and support to
hold weekly site team meetings have contributed immensely to the success of this project.
My profound gratitude goes to my children in the Lord—Mr. Bola Omotade, Miss
Ayomide Okusanya, Mr. Kunmi Browne, Mr. Kola Benson, Miss Wunmi Akingba and a
host of others who worked with me on this project. I am also grateful to Mr. Tunde
Oyadeyi, my technical consultant, Mrs. Okusanya and Miss Ayo Showemimo who
helped me to type this project. I am deeply grateful to my mother for her support and her
long-held wish for me to be a Doctorate degree holder.
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I am also thankful to my brother—Mr. Olutayo Famojuro, for his cooperation and
perfect understanding with me while I was attending classes for my course work. I
cannot but be grateful to my sister, Mrs. Olufisayo Fadeyibi, for her financial support and
encouragement for me throughout the course of this project. To Deacon Fasusi and my
professors at New York Theological Seminary, especially Rev. Dr. Wander Lundy, Rev.
Dr. George McClain, Rev. Dr. Moody Shepherd, Dr. Lewisky of blessed memory and the
librarian Mr. Jerry Reisig. Finally I am most grateful to my wife Mrs. Omolara
Olajumoke Famojuro.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1
Christ Apostolic Church (First in the Americas)............................................................1
The Tenets Of The Christ Apostolic Church..................................................................2
Home Away From Home..........................................................................................10
Challenge Statement.................................................................................................16
Preliminary Analysis of the Challenge Statement....................................................17
CHAPTER 1.....................................................................................................................21
Sociological Issue.........................................................................................................21
CHAPTER 2.....................................................................................................................25
From Catechism to Mission..........................................................................................25
Doing Theology As If The Children Matter.............................................................36
Proactive Teaching Techniques In This Revolutionary World.................................38
Teaching Through God’s Eye...................................................................................41
Being Cognizant Of Their Heavy Eyes....................................................................44
Revolutionary Ministry Model.................................................................................47
Getting to the crux of the Issue.................................................................................50
CHAPTER 3.....................................................................................................................56
From Post-Modern To Globalization............................................................................56
Reappropriation Of The Traditions Of Jesus Christ.................................................70
Do We Dare To Exclude?.........................................................................................75
CHAPTER 4.....................................................................................................................78
Immigration Issue As It Touches First, Second And Third Nigerian-American
Generations...................................................................................................................78
Political Representation............................................................................................79
Raising The Hip-hop Generation..............................................................................81
Children Of Immigrant Parents’ Identity Issue.........................................................88
The Dynamics Of Raising Children Of Immigrant Parents In U.S.A......................90
Immigrant Children’s Family Income And Structure...............................................93
Immigrant Children In The World Of Two Languages............................................97
CHAPTER 5...................................................................................................................100
On The Question Of Methodology.............................................................................100
The Pizza Party.......................................................................................................100
The Youth Interactive Conference (March 15th 2008)............................................104
Reflections of Sunday March 16 English Service..................................................115
Adult’s Interactive Seminar....................................................................................116
The Workshop Session...........................................................................................119
Behold They Are Coming Back..............................................................................121
CHAPTER 6...................................................................................................................125
Becoming A Listening Church...................................................................................125
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CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................126
APPENDIXES................................................................................................................128
APPENDIX A.................................................................................................................129
Plan Of Implementation..............................................................................................129
APPENDIX B.................................................................................................................138
Ministerial Competencies...........................................................................................138
Description Of Evaluation Process.........................................................................138
Preacher/Interpreter Of Sacred Text.......................................................................142
APPENDIX C.................................................................................................................149
Youth Ministry Operating Manual..............................................................................149
CAC (First In The Americas).....................................................................................149
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................175

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INTRODUCTION
Christ Apostolic Church (First in the Americas)
Christ Apostolic Church first in the Americas is located at 622 Cortelyou Road in
Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1976 by Dr. Abraham A. Oyedeji, the church
presently has a membership of about 600 with the average Sunday attendance of a little
over 400. My church is a charismatic/Pentecostal church that is characterized by aspects
of African culture and traditions. Situated between East 7th street and Ocean Parkway,
the church building is a monumental edifice. This church is rooted from and connected
to her mother church in the Yoruba region of Nigeria. Christ Apostolic church is a
fundamentally distinctive African indigenous church (AIC). My church was the first
CAC branch to be established in North America as indicated by Alokan that “Elder A.A.
Oyedeji is regarded in many quarters as the founder of the CAC in the Americas.”1
Apart from its strong belief in the efficacy of prayer, some of the CAC’s
fundamental beliefs are: strong respect for the Bible as the inspired word of God, the
basic foundational structure upon which their theology and belief strongly rested and the
content of which is infallible divine revelation. Other beliefs of CAC include but are not
limited to Baptism by immersion, the Trinity and the Unity of God-Head, The Divine
Healing power of sanctified water. (See the tenets of CAC for details of other beliefs of
CAC). My church, though located in the United States, adheres strongly to the doctrines

1 Adewale Alokan, The Christ Apostolic Church 1928–1988 (Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibukun Ola Press,
1991), 256.
1