Rural Based Religious Organizations and Rural Community Development: The Case of Six Local Government Areas in South Western Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the characteristics of rural based religious organizations in six Local Government areas of south-western Nigeria, and their contributions to the development of the rural areas in which they are located.

A total of forty-six settlements were involved in the study and within these, 212 leaders representing respective religious organizations were identified and interviewed on the general characteristics and activities of their organizations. In addition, 614 local residents were also interviewed to determine their perceptions of the roles played by their religious organizations in the development of their areas, the problems the organizations have and the roles which they would like to see the organizations play in their community's development. It was found that:

• A variety of religious organizations exist in the area studied with the Christian nativist type being most prevalent.
• Most of the organizations have existed for over 30 years in the communities.
• Over a half of them have less than 100 members with females predominating and membership did not cut across community boundaries significantly.
• A majority of the organizations maintained vertical linkages with superordinate bodies beyond the community boundaries and were thus not independent.
• Church collection, forms the major source of income for the organizations and negligibly few of them operate any type of economic enterprise.
• Most of the organizations are led by untrained pastors or imams and volunteer lay preachers.
• The establishment of schools seems to be the major contribution of the organizations to the development the areas in which they are located.
• Lack of money, poor membership and competition for membership constitute their most important problems.