RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS

Over the years, various denominations have evolved from various Church tradition. However, denomination as a concept is said to be religious subgroup that follow some basic religious doctrines. On the basis of this research, some nagging problems arose which makes the growth of the Church seems hindered and these include but not limited to leadership problem, economic, and social problems among others. This study therefore examines denominational practices and its significant effects on Church growth. Also, it examines the relationship between Church growth and Church health. The methods implored here are historical, phenomenological and interpretative approaches. In the course of this research, it was discovered that Christianity which was introduced in Nigeria over 150 years ago has grown over the years to claim an estimate of between 40% of the population. It is worth noting that Christianity is a major religious tradition in Nigeria and has significant impact in lives and culture of people. The work therefore recommends that the Church is the theatre of the Holy Spirit irrespective of denominational differences. Hence, people should seek the Holy Spirit and also growth of the Church should not be based on orthodoxy, rather on orthopraxis to change Nigeria for better just as this research helps us find out that at its best, the Church Growth Movement (C.G.M) and the Church Health Movement (C.H.M) grew out of missional understanding of the Church.

The waves of Islam is felt in nook and cranny of the world as the result of its sound seed which is its creed planted on a fertile land of Arabian Peninsula in fourteen hundred years ago by the able Planter, the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad bn Abdillah bn Abdilmutalib. The growth of the seed was rapid and miraculous with the production of gigantic trees across the globe; Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America.

A great deal of psychological research as well asones own personal experience, demonstrate that as people mature they change their values in very deep and profound ways.Just as peoples physical, Emotional, and cognitive ablilitiesdevelopes as they age so also their ability to deal with moral issues developes as they move through their lives. Infact ,just as there are identifiable stages of growth in the physical development so the ability to make reasoned moral judgements also develop in identifiable stages. MORAL reasoning refers to the reasoning process by which human behavior, institution s or policies are judged to be in accordance with or in violation of moral standards. Moral reasoning always involves two essential components;

The purpose of this research work is to investigate into factors militating against the growth of Christianity in Duya Land, Jaba, Kaduna State. And it was divided into five chapters; Chapter one deals on the introduction, statement of problem, purpose of the study, significance of the study and definition of terms. Chapter two deals on literature review of other prominent scholars. Chapter three deals with the methodology for data collection and analysis, chapter four deals with the interpretation of data collected in chapter three while chapter five deals with the conclusion and recommendation as well as suggestion for further studies.

The elementary fact is that faith is in-built. We are born believers. If you think you have no faith-try it! Try not believing in anything or anybody – your wife, husband, doctor, bank, boss baker or chief. There are no guarantees, but we put our lives into the hands of surgeons and trust drivers of cars, and planes without thinking of faith. But that’s what is it faith is a kind of immune system fettering out fears that otherwise would paralyze all activity. When it fails we develop breakdown, Jesus said not to have phobia but faith (Luke 8:50).

It is axiomatic that one of the factors that contributed to the development to Islam in Nigeria was poetry works. Arabic poetry began in Iwo town some years after the town came in contact with Islam in the year 1655 as said by Al-Iloriy. There were different types of themes used by the scholars such as Didactic, Ascetic, elegy, descriptive, panegyric, and thanksgiving poems.

The Almajiri pupils brought to learn the Qur’an, some dropout along the way and become a problem to the society. Most pupil withdraw due to hardship that is endured during the training, also with the growing complex nature of the society. People tend to complain at the act of begging which is becoming unpopular and unacceptable. In some cases, the very resourceful among the pupils do menial jobs (such as washing, grass cutting, farming and water barrow pushing) to earn their livelihood (Abdulkadir: 2003).

Religion has taken a position of importance in Nigerian politics. The nation is the most populous country in West Africa and vest with religious diversities: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion. These religions are intertwined with political activities in the country. The political office holders are misusing religion as a tool to get to power while religious leaders are mishandling it to get personal gain from those who hold public office. Thus, religion has been mostly used negatively in Nigerian politics since independence. The study makes use of descriptive methodology to explore how religion impulse has affected political development and how it can bring sustainable political development if used positively.

The uncertainty about the future of Nigeria is unfortunately tied to poor democratic culture, which is an important ingredient of political life of every nation. Nigeria has been tagged, a failure in all fronts (political, economic, social and moral). Despite an abundance of economic resources, attempts to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development have not become a reality in Nigeria. Lack of political will, corruption, a deficiency of proper coordination for sustainable development programs, and wasteful patterns of production and consumption have hindered any meaningful progress in Nigeria.

The phenomenon of church planting has its merits and demerits. The merits include, rapid evangelization, development of new leadership, provision of checks and balances to orthodox churches, promotes specialization in ministry and enhances the provision of an atmosphere in which human problems are at times solved (Adesanya, 2004). On the other hand, the demerits include, personality clashes, unhealthy competition for convert via homiletical propaganda, lack of unity, monetary crises, heresies, fanaticism and bickering (Tokunbo, 2007). Although, massive church planting has certain demerits as noted above, but they are not strong enough for total condemnation of the phenomenon. This is because Jesus was reported in the Bible to have said that, the Gospel should be preached to all nations (Mk. 16:15). Then, Paul in Philippians 1:15-18, supports church planting and proliferation for the expansion of the kingdom of God. This is because religion is not fossil, but a living and dynamic phenomenon. It will surely continue to increase. However, the researcher is out to examine the issues and prospects of church planting in Nigeria.