CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background to the Study
The slow rate of church growth in our society is calling for urgent attention and way out looking at Christ expectation of church growth through the great commission, mandate and commands given to every Christian. Despite the population of Christian and methods which are currently available for the church of God to growth such as members of massive open and closed crusades, one to one evangelism, all kind of church programmes, social media and media houses. Lewis C. S. said that literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it, it enriches the necessary competences that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become[1].
Hence, this observation led the researcher to think outside the box in the area of Christian publication, on how it can be broadly looked into, to complement other methods give corresponding growth to the church and expense the short coming of Christian publication.
- Statement of the Problem
It is very disheartening that the church has shifted its focus on publications of Christian literatures as a means to encourage both quantitative and qualitative growth of the church. Since church growth is high expectation by God from man and command to men from God hence attention and strategy should be shifted to Christian publication for church growth has to be shifted back and answers have to be provided for this following questions:
- How does Christian publications influence church growth in the church at large and Christ Apostolic Church Ogudu Zonal Headquarter in particular?
- Does the disposition of members to Christian publication affect the growth of the church?
- Does the educational background of the members of the church influence their disposition towards Christian publications?