History Of Revivals In Nigeria That Shaped The Modern Churches.

 

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and at the same time, the country with the highest number of Christians in Africa. About 88.4 million out of its total population identify as Christians followed by Democratic Republic Of Congo.

Nigeria also host some of the largest church auditoriums in the world such as the  Hand Of God cathedral by Salvation Ministries which can host about 120,000 worshippers at a time, The Ark by Living Faith church which can host about 109,000 worshippers, The Glory Dome by Dunamis International Gospel Centre which can host about 100,000 worshippers. 

There are thousands of churches scattered all over Nigeria and the number of worshippers are still growing everyday. The success in the growth of Christianity in the country is not something that happened overnight, just as the disciples of Jesus led revivals that led to the spread of christianity worldwide after the departure of Jesus from earth like the day of pentecost, there were men who paid the ultimate price to lead powerful revivals that ignited the fire we are seeing today.

In 1937, an Englishman named Sydney Granville Elton left his home country of England armed with a mandate for the Christian church of Nigeria. He was thirty years old, and an elder at the Apostolic Church at Shrewsbury. He was sent as a missionary to Nigeria by the Apostolic Church headquarters at Penygroes, Wales. His task was to do what missionaries were known for doing: establish and oversee schools and churches. 

But arriving in Nigeria, Elton got caught up in the pervading atmosphere of revival that swept through the nation, the revival that began in 1918, at the close of the First World War, and that continued until the late 1930s. This was the revival that birthed the first indigenous African churches which culminated into what was called the Aladura Movement of 1918-1930. These indigenous churches sprang up among the Yoruba people in the southern part of colonial Nigeria. 

They were the Precious Stone or Diamond Society founded at Ijebu-Ode in 1918 under the leadership of Joseph Bayo Shadare, the Cherubim and Seraphim Society of Moses Orimolade and Christiana Akinsowon, founded at Lagos in 1925, and The Church of the Lord (Aladura) founded by Josiah Oluwalowo Oshitelu at Ogere in1930. These churches were characterized by a prophetic-healing form of Pentecostalism, and were so named ‘spiritual churches’. 

They emphasized visions, dreams, prophecies, trances, speaking in tongues, believer’s baptism by immersion, holiness, various possessions of the Spirit, including the presence of the Holy Spirit made evident in charismatic gifts and visible signs and results.Then In 1914, Sokari Garrick Braide, a catechist in the Anglican Communion, pioneered a healing revival in the Niger Delta area, causing a great awakening and increase in Church growth. Eventually, at his death, the revival gave rise to the Christ Army Church, which flourished in the eastern part of Nigeria.

Then, in 1927, a revival called the Spirit Movement broke out among the Annang and Ibibio in the present day Akwa Ibom State. The revival brought increased harvest in the work of the Qua Iboe Mission, culminating in their mission thrust into Igala land in 1934, and two years later, in 1936, into Bassa land.

In 1930, another revival fire broke out in Ilesha with Joseph Babalola as the arrow head of the movement. The Babalola revival was by far the most outstanding revival in Nigeria's church history until the Charismatic revival of the 1970s. 

It brought great increase to Christianity and eventually led to the founding of the Christ Apostolic Church.

Four years later, in 1934, there was another Holy Spirit outpouring in Old Umuahia, about three kilometers from the present Abia State capital. That led to the founding of the Assemblies of God Church in Nigeria by June, 1939. By February 1948, the spark of the Latter Rain revival started in North Battleford,  Canada, and by 1953, its blaze had reached Nigeria, causing an awakening in some cities in the West. Ripples of these revivals spread like tidal waves far into different parts of the country, and in some cases extending up to the north.

These series of revivals gave rise to the explosion of churches, ministries, Bible colleges, television ministries, and kingdom-related institutions and businesses like micro finance banks, hospitals, camp sites, guest houses and hotels, water and beverage companies, schools, universities, printing and publishing companies, and fast food eateries, carving out an identity of its own, and becoming a force to reckon with.

Some of the men God used to revive Nigeria are: 

Joseph Bayo Shadare who founded Precious Stone or Diamond Society at Ijebu-Ode in 1918. 

Moses Orimolade and Christiana Akinsowon who founded Cherubim and Seraphim Society at Lagos in 1925. 

Josiah Oluwalowo Oshitelu founded the The Church of the Lord (Aladura)  at Ogere in 1930. 

Sydney Granville Elton who arrived Nigeria in 1937 with a clear mandate to raise a new breed of leadership in Nigeria.

Benson Andrew Idahosa who founded Church of God Mission International.

Rev. Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi who founded The Redeemed Christian Church Of God in 1952. After his death, Enoch Adeboye became the General Overseer of the church in 1981.

Joseph Ayo Babalola who was the first General Evangelist of the Christ Apostolic Church popularly known as CAC