THE BIBLE AND THE PLOUGH STRATEGY: AN IDEAL WHOLISTIC EVANGELISM IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The quest to fulfill the great commission, made the Church Missionary Society of England to choose West Africa of which Nigeria is inclusive as a focal centre for apostolic work. When they came to Nigeria, they discovered that slave trade has dealt a big blow on the indigenous people. The missionaries were aware that the indigenous people may not welcome them nor be interested in their missionary activities as a result of what the earliest European traders and the British colonial administration have done to them. Thus, there was the need to orchestrate a plan which when carried out would lead to the successful evangelization of Nigeria. The Bible and the Plough policy was formulated and considered as the best strategy for evangelization of Nigeria. This was formulated to commiserate for wrongs which the slave trade had wrought upon the indigenous people. The Bible and the plough policy, in no doubt prompted the indigenous people to accept the gospel as well receive other benefits that came along with it. Many works written about Christian missionary enterprise in Nigeria appears to focus on missionary activities and civilization of Nigeria, neglecting the strategy implored during the era of Christian missionary enterprise in Nigeria. This is the gap the study intends to fill. Thus, this study will point out how the Bible and the Plough policy became a missionary evangelistic strategy in evangelization of Nigeria. Secondary sources of data collection like mainline books, journals, book of readings and unpublished project works relevant to the topics were used in this study. The study finds out that, the Bible and the plough ideology was truly an ideal for wholistic evangelism in Nigeria.