Category: Illuminare

Lessons From Notre Dame

Posted on by Leke Alder
Some say the Notre Dame Cathedral is the symbol of Christianity in France, and even Europe. Maybe, maybe not. The name is French for “Our lady”. The church was named after Mary, the mother of Jesus. It was built for almost two centuries between 1163 and 1345. It’s an architectural icon for its pioneering use of rib vault, flying buttress, and those huge colourful windows. Her two spires were the tallest structures in Paris until completion of Eiffel tower in 1889. During the French revolution it was desecrated and much of her religious imagery was destroyed. Interestingly Napoleon Bonaparte was coronated at the Notre Dame. That was in 1804. Two hundred years later, on April 15, 2019 the cathedral caught fire.

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Remembrance VI: The Jesus Brand

Posted on by Leke Alder

Many, many, many years ago I got a call from a church to design and produce invitational fliers. The church was new – it was a demographic outreach of a particular denomination. The church is located in the highbrow section of town. Successful people live in that part of town and certain pedigree of businesses occupy the real estate. It is an expensive locality, one of those areas rent is paid in dollars per square metre. The church comprised the affluent, the successful, the succeeding. They wanted to reach out to their kind – their business and professional colleagues. […]

Remembrance V: Spiritual Anniversary

Posted on by Leke Alder
My favourite lecturer in university was an atheist. No, he wasn’t my favourite because of his atheism, though he did try to influence our young minds in that direction. He taught me Phil 201 – Logic. It was compulsory for first year law students. In teaching us syllogism he would illustrate with stuff like this: “If God exists there will be no evil in the world. Evil exists in the world. Therefore God does not exist.” Of course the first premise is contentious, if not fallacious. Who said God and evil cannot coexist? By what exclusionary law can God and evil not coexist? And why juxtapose God and evil? Shouldn’t the proper juxtaposition be God and Satan, or evil and goodness? And if God represents goodness how come goodness and evil can coexist but God and evil cannot! Nonetheless he was a wonderful lecturer – hardworking, approachable, fair and dedicated. He represented what teaching should be. He critically engaged my teenage mind, made philosophy most interesting. I think I took four philosophy courses that year, though outside of philosophy I also enjoyed sociology and economics. These were powerful foundational knowledge and they would prove very useful to our brand consulting practice. We drew from so many disciplines. The irony though is that I got born again right in the midst of this rational assault on faith. How strange!

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Remembrance IV: Prosperity

Posted on by Leke Alder
Modern Pentecostalism tends to equate prosperity with righteousness. That’s a shame really, and it’s not scripturally sound. A materialistic gospel is its own danger. God is not against the prosperity of his servants however, and we see copious references to this disposition in scriptures. As far back as 1,000 BC David had written, “Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favour my vindication and want what is right for me; let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, who delights and takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.’” Psalms 35:27 AMP. Though we must note the word “prosperity” is rendered blessing and security in some other translations. But the general point is that God wants his people to prosper.

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Marriage Divination

Posted on by Leke Alder
One of the most troubling aspects of Nigerian Christianity is the concept of marriage divination. It is now prevalent in Pentecostal circles, and this is what happens: A young man who has been dating a girl realises he needs to take the next step and so he approaches his pastor. The pastor promises to “look into it.” The pastor comes out with a negative prognosis that generates fear. That fear is consonant with the root derivative of such systems – African traditional religion.

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Remembrance II: I Went To Golgotha

Posted on by Leke Alder
Today I want to take you to a place far, far away, to a place that was and is, but can never be. And I want to take you back to my childhood, to a time when I was five. We all have thresholds of remembrance. Our threshold of remembrance is that age from which we recollect things from our childhood. The way God designed life we live incognizant from zero hour to a certain age. We can’t recollect a thing. That period is filled with foolishnesses and early attempts at functioning as human. Your attempt to talk, your attempt to crawl, your attempt to walk, your attempt to learn to eat by yourself… Those are the earliest trials of life. But they build something in us. We just kept going until we were victorious. Remember the joy of a child when he realises he’s actually walking!

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Cogitation XVIII: I Met An Angel On The Subway

Posted on by Leke Alder
I have had a number of strange experiences in life, supernatural kind of stuff. Some are so bizarre my wife insists I cannot share them in public. Some people will be scared of me she says. Not that I had anything to do with those things. Things just happen. There are forces around us, personages unseen, as the Bible says. We’re not alone. But I see wisdom in her words. Not everything can be shared. To reveal some things will be criminal divulgence of information. Paul was exposed to state secrets he couldn’t share for instance. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). He said it would be criminal to do so. There are confidences God expects of us. There are confidences God reposes in us that demand fiduciary maturity. There’s a breach of confidentiality that is criminal.

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The Church And State

Posted on by Leke Alder
The year 2018 was annus horribilis for the Pentecostal movement. It was the year the image of the Pentecostal pastor sank so low many pastors dropped the honorific from their social media handles. The word “pastor’ became synonymous with greed, avarice and exploitation. It was the year of the concerted crusade against the payment of tithe. The income of many ministries dropped.

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