CHURCH AWARENESS AND PRACTICE OF TOTAL QUALITY ...

A key element of TQM is “continuous improvement.” In other organizations apart from
Church, the competitiveness of any under this concept is based on continuous
improvement of people, process and product/service. Though in the Church setting there
is no competition per se and whatever looks like it is not divinely recognized, the same
continuous improvement of People, Process and Service is highly necessary for
effectiveness in God’s Own Business called Church. The destiny of human life is too
important to be left in the hand of a Church that places little or no importance on quality.
Nigerians can be called globe trotters. They are highly mobile people who are found
around the world. Church service processes and people improvement methods as found in
Pentecostal fellowships for example in America, are different and considered higher than
obtainable locally. When these Nigerians return on holidays or for good, they expect to
enjoy similar if not the same level of service they enjoy abroad. This calls for quality
improvement here at home as long as it conforms with the Bible.
Lateness is considered a bad thing in some key areas of life. But looking at lateness
closely, it has a big advantage of compelling a late comer to start at the level of
development on ground at his point of entry if acceptability and recognition will be
achieved. This is the situation being faced by new Churches in Nigeria. It is either one
matches the quality on ground or one surpasses it right from the on set, if he has the
capacity to do so or he waits to prepare properly before starting at all.
The level of formal education of Church founders and leaders is getting higher and
higher. So also is that of members from Church to Church. This has two quality
implications. One, Church members mostly need the input of Pastors on what is called
secondary level of spiritual interpretation of the Word. Each individual Church member
by the help of literacy handles the primary level of reading the Word and getting out the
basic initial meaning. Two, the Pastors now have to work harder than before by digging
deep into the Word, in the very “presence of God” so as to receive rightly from God for
proper feeding of the flock. The days of ordinary story telling on the pulpit have vanished
and gone forever.
The urgent need of the Church in Nigeria is continuous improvement of services, people,
processes and facilities to accommodate the numerical upsurge and to meet people’s
aspirations, and God’s divine expectations on constant basis. How prepared the Church is
to meet these challenges, how they are doing it right now, what methods are involved and
how much success is being recorded are some of the issues examined in this work.
1.2 Statement of the Problem: The Church in Nigeria as well as all over the World is in
the last age of the present time which was carved out of Eternity by GOD for obvious
reasons. Satan the arch-enemy of God and man is on a serious rampage because it is clear
to him that the time left for him is five minutes to 12 mid-night by God’s reckoning.
Because of this, all hell is let loose on nations world over. The fall out of the secret
activities of the devil are troubles and difficulties that human race is facing constantly;
ranging from earthquakes, hired killing, unexplainable diseases, fire, flood, famine, wars,
terrorism, etc..