THE CHALLENGES OF THE UMC-NIGERIA--Bishop Arthur Kulla
except of an interview By Dauda Marafa Goding,Nigerian Communicator

(first posted April 2008)

Q.Welcome to Nigeria

Ans.I am a Nigerian,i was here before,see my dress,is Nigerian.I was here as a missionary in1982 and the church in Nigeria was in the process of becoming a United methodist church. i was send here to prepare this annual conference by knowing and understudying the UMC doctrine and choosing a church structur and leadership structure like bishop etc.

Q.Why are you in Nigeria in 2008?

Ans. Let me first condole the UMC worldwide on the death of Dabale and Kefas,outstanding young men.After the death of Dabale,Ntambo was send as interim bishop until march 2007 election.After the death of Kefas,the council of bishops met and the WACC UMC recommended me being the eldest and because i know the situation here in Nigeria,the executive committee of the UMC elected me to serve as interim bishop until such a time as we are prepared to elect another bishop,it may take 1,2.3 or 4 years depending on the circumstances on ground.

Q.What is your mandate from the council of bishops?

Ans. First to work with the church here to bring reconciliation.when i first served here it was an outstanding church here but for the past few fears because of the challenges we had misdirection,misunderstanding,misinformation here and there. My mandate number one is to unite the church to make it one as it use to be,o make it strong second to bring reconciliation and peace within the church and that in order to have reconciliation we need to change our vocabulary instead of saying the church has crisis we should say the church has challenges and challenges will provide for us opportunities that we will be able to build the church of Jesus christ.Nigerians have all it takes to build a very virile,strong vibrant christ like church.They are well educated among Africans,you have the resources,you are respectful,you are very humble and son thatis all it takes and so with these attributes,those characteristics,iam sure all of us Nigerians young men and women the elders, the DS the general suprentendants,everybody we put our hands together to build one of the best church in Africa.

Q. What are the Challenges of the church from the perspectives of your two experiences in Nigeria?

Ans. There are sveral challenges one of which is the leadership.When the church decided to join the UMC,the UMC worldwide did not spent enough time here to train the leadership e.g. what iam doing now should have being done 20/26 years ago.There should have being a retired bishop reactivated to come and lay the foundation and work for at least 2 years to prepare you the leadership within the church.we did not do that.

Another thing that happened was that the support that was suppose tocome to this church has not being forthcoming .The UMC bishops are given equipment to work with here in this office there is nothing to work with,though i was told there were computers before but some people took them away.

And then within the church itself, we started up very well when i came in 1982 there was nothing called tribe,there was one conference,one UM people,we were given crosscultural appointments,mumuye man was sent to Munga area and Munga people were appointed here and Pero were appointed,everywhere but now people are fragmented,pero don'twant o go to mumuye area mumuye don/t want to go to yandang people... you know that is not good ,the church of Jesus christ is one and no matter what tribe you belong to and no matter what section you belong to ,when you come to Jesus christ you are one body....

Q.WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?

Ans. one of the way is for the pastors,DS to come together,we are going to have a seminar where all the DS,pastors from pero gwaten and southern area where we will study the bible,talk about the churh,talk about the interest of our people,talk about our ministry and mission,you understand?...that will be the beginning..then we fellowship together,know each other,eat together...that is why in UMC we call each other brothers and sisters.

And then on the annual conference level,we will establish committees where people from pero,gwaten and southern area will be meeting together to discuss about the church.Then officials of the annual conference will be meeting with everybody..these persons will be responsible to walk all around and have retreat/seminars for pastors.

Then we will have revival and director evangelism/sunday school coordinator will be bringing people together...these are some of the things we shall do together to bring the annual conference back together and when that happens, the devil will be ashamed and the glory and honour shall all come to God and we will say halleluah.

I will ensure that there is a cross-cultural appointments/cross sectional appointments,that is what i will do before i go back to Liberia..iam not saying that the existing demarcations will be abolished,it is for administrative reasons,for motivation..because we have 3 annual conference does not mean Peter cannot come from conference 1 and go to conference 2..that will help unite and strengthen the church.

After the general annual conference in the US,i will sit down with heads of programs and spent talking about to ascertain their difficulties.

As for the communication center,the annual conference has no internet link,no computers,no radio station like we have in Monrovia,Zimbabwe,Zaire,Ivory coast.These places have very strong communication centers why can't we have in Nigeria ?.I am going to invite Tafadzwa to come to Nigeria and set up a communication center.I will give him one year to set up a radio station here in Nigeria.we see him do that in Monrovia,zaire,,uganda,Tanzania,s/leone,why can't he do that in Nigeria?