Boko Haram insurgency has affected many people in the northeastern part of Nigeria. Many of these victims have migrated to other parts of the country. While some of these people become internally displaced persons (IDPs) in IDP centres or camps, some prefer to migrate to, and live among their ancestral relatives. The latter are referred to as migrated displaced persons. Many faith-based organizations especially churches of the Nigerian Baptist Convention have been making efforts to transform the lives of these displaced people and reintegrate them into the society. The paper reviews some related themes such as terrorism and religious violence, Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, jihad, trauma, internally displaced persons, Christian theological bases for humanitarianism, Baptist policy/theological stands on humanitarianism, and religious responses to crisis in transforming lives of displaced people from conflict-affected areas. The paper ends with some recommendations for faith-based organizations and the Nigerian government.
KEYWORDS: Boko Haram, terrorism, conflict transformation, internally displaced persons, migrated displaced persons, faith-based organizations, Nigerian Baptist Convention, Nigeria
COVID-19 has changed the world tremendously as the world is now living in the “new normal”. Pastoral care has to respond to this new normal especially through social media in order to be relevant in the post-COVID-19 era and contribute to the sustainable development of the society. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the relationship between pastoral care, social media and the sustainable development of the society relevant in the post-COVID-19 era. Semi-structured interview sessions were held with some purposively sampled pastors in the Ibadan metropolis. It was discovered that while many pastors have started adapting to the use of social media in their pastoral care, there are still many challenges that these pastors are facing that are impairing the sustainable development of the society. Based on the findings of this research, this researcher postulates a new theory of pastoral care through social media for sustainable development. The paper concludes with some recommendations for pastors, church members, the government and the populace at large.
Many churches and other public places in Nigeria and other places throughout the world experienced lockdown as result of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic. These affected church activities and pastoral ministry of many church pastors greatly. In response to this lockdown and its negative effects, many pastors in Nigeria start to explore other ways to perform their pastoral ministry to their church members. This study explores how pastors are performing their pastoral ministry to their church members during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Some open-ended questions were sent randomly to some pastors through WhatsApp Messenger. The pastors responded either by WhatsApp or email. There were further correspondences with some of the respondents through WhatsApp and phone calls. The findings of the study revealed that while some of the respondents were still using some of the old traditional means of pastoral ministry during the lockdown, many pastors have started adapting to the current situation by exploring other possible means to perform their pastoral ministry to their church members. One prominent means is Internet ministry. Many of the respondents bear their minds on how pastors can respond productively to the situation. Some recommendations and suggestions for further study are made at the end of the paper.
KEYWORDS: Nigerian church, pastoral ministry, COVID-19 pandemic, Internet ministry, lockdown
This article aims at exploring the conflict management mechanisms through social media that the pastors of the Nigerian Baptist Convention are using in their churches. Twenty pastors were randomly and purposively selected from the pool of Baptist church pastors in the Ibadan metropolis. Five key officers of the Nigerian Baptist Convention at the national level at its headquarters were also interacted with. Each of these pastors was orally interviewed. Some documents were used to substantiate or disprove the assertions of these pastors. It was revealed during the study that church members are faced with a lot of conflicts. It was also revealed that pastors have been unconsciously using various conflict management mechanisms to resolve these conflicts. Furthermore, the study revealed that pastors have started using social media to resolve conflicts. The study, therefore, recommends that Baptist pastors in particular and other pastors, in general, should be introduced formally to more conflict management mechanisms in order to more effectively and consciously resolve conflicts among their church members. The study also recommends that pastors should be more familiar with how to use social media to manage conflicts among their church members.
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