Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA) is set to celebrate its 40th year on 20th and 21st July 2022 at All Christians Fellowship Missions, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria, with the theme: “Progressive Synergy for Accelerated Harvest.”
The theme for this anniversary was chosen because of the need to foster unity and partnership among the mission movements in the country.
All through February, during the Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association NEMA Month of Mission, we spent the whole month with devotions focusing on this theme. We hope this will bring agencies and church denominations to work together.
The mission agencies accepted that we have a problem that must be addressed honestly. NEMA believes this is the way forward, and we stand in a position to bring true reconciliation.
At 40, NEMA has done well, but there is room for improvement. The celebration comes with a heart of gratitude, as the various reports and testimonies have proven.
As part of our many activities during the Anniversary, we will be relaunching our Vision 5015. This will be tagged Vision 5015 Plus. This will be an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the vision of reaching the unreached within the 10/40 window.
The Vision 5015 Plus is all about reaching unreached communities, the unreached people in Northern Nigeria, Sahel, the Middle East and the Jerusalem neighbourhood, with the message of Jesus Christ.
Our 40th Anniversary is a time of celebration. It is time NEMA is celebrating God’s faithfulness over the years. Today we stand tall as the foremost Mission Movement in Africa. NEMA has catalysed the formation of Missions Movements in other African Countries like Ghana, Malawi, etc.
Nigeria chairs the Africa Missions Association (AfMA), with Mr. Gabriel Barau as Founding Chairman. During the Anniversary, we will also be honouring our founding fathers and leaders in recognition of their years of service unto the Lord through the ministry of NEMA.
We recall that our journey as an organisation started far back in 1981, and after its official inauguration in 1982, our main goal was to galvanise the Nigeria missions’ movement and also mobilise the church to engage the vast harvest fields.
The first significant missions mobilisation conference in 1983 was tagged Missions Awareness Conference (MAC ’83).
In our early years, one of our primary objectives was to reverse the number of foreign missionaries, which numbered over 10,000 in Nigeria, compared to about 600 indigenous missionaries.
This we reversed within a few years. Today over 15,000 Nigerian missionaries are serving in several countries of the world.
It’ll be noted that at present, NEMA has over 130 registered member Churches and Agencies. In the last decade, several national consultations have been held concerning unreached people groups.
That contributed to the number of unreached groups reduced from over 70 in 2017 to about 43 by December 2021, including unevangelized people’s groups. This is not a small achievement considering the challenges of missions today.
On Bible translation needs, we note that currently, Nigeria sits in the third position on the list of countries with Bible Translation needs.
As part of NEMA’s mobilisation strategy, we’re promoting the translation of the Bible into the mother tongue of the unreached people group. Bible translation is, without doubt, the best way of reaching the unreached as it affords them the singular opportunity to understand the Bible better than all the teaching, discipleship and preaching we will ever do. We are encouraging Churches and agencies to get involved in Bible Translation to address this crucial need.
We’re promoting the translation of the Bible in the mother tongue of the unreached people group. It’s our passion to reach every nation on earth with the Good News of the Gospel in their heart language. If we must complete the Great Commission, we must work towards counting to zero in Bible Translation efforts.
Bible translation is, without doubt, the best way of reaching the unreached, as they will understand the bible better than all the teaching, discipleship and preaching we will do.
We have equally been up and doing in terms of support to missionaries. During the Covid-19 Pandemic and the ongoing insurgency in the country, which is coming in different shapes and forms, NEMA has been able to provide support to the families of missionaries and communities that were worse affected. We stand tall today as the foremost Mission Movement in Africa.
The issue of resource mobilisation is another major challenge we are facing in NEMA. Vision 5015 was meant to catalyse the Nigerian church to engage in missions to the Core North – North-Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Middle East and the Jerusalem Neighbourhood.
Sadly, many Nigerian Churches have not taken the issue of missions to the unreached as a priority. Many financially endowed Nigerian churches have a large evangelical population and have resources that can be deployed for field missions, but unfortunately, that is not their priority. They don’t quite see it as an urgent issue.
There is also the problem of member care. It has become a critical need in missions. This is an area that many agencies have ignored, and yet, it is essential in building confidence and support for missionaries and retaining them in the field.
More recent years, there has been high attrition of missionaries in the field due to poor member care. Missionaries sent to the fields are not well catered for by their sending bodies or mother churches. Many leave the mission field due to hunger and lack of care.
The more recent NEMA Research, HarvestScope, indicated a high percentage of missionaries leaving the field due to personal reasons that may not be unrelated to member care.
NEMA has reduced the number of unreached and least evangelised people’s groups from over 70 in 2017 to about 43 by December 2021. This is no small achievement considering the challenges of missions today.
NEMA is a membership Organisation with over 130 registered member Churches and Agencies, and our membership is open to Mission Agencies, Para-Church Groups and denominations that are engaged in ministry to unreached peoples groups or mission-related programs or projects and are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
NEMA depends solely on the Lord via the sacrificial support of individuals, member agencies, churches and organisations to fund its operations and maintain its staff.
We thereby invite you, your Church or your organisation to partner with NEMA through the gift of your resources and be a shareholder in the reward that God would give His faithful stewards on the day of accountability.
