Charis Growth in Nigeria Despite Extreme Violence

Relevant Magazine recently reported that 52,000 Christians have been murdered  in Nigeria since 2009. When the article was published in September 2025, it stated that over 7,000 Christians had been killed there just since that January, with thousands more kidnapped. “Nigeria has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian,” the article stated. 

Considering these shocking statistics, we want to celebrate the great sacrifice of the early Charis leaders who pioneered bringing the movement there. 

Before our movement reached Nigeria, God was already doing amazing things through the Charis family in the neighboring country of Chad. The reason we have a presence in Nigeria today is because the gospel was thriving in Chad—and it overflowed naturally across the border. 

In Chad, there was a man named Dadjé Samuel, a bi-vocational church planter who also ran a construction business. He was a teacher and leader at the School for Evangelism in Chad and a key figure in church planting across the country. In 2004, Dadjé left Chad to visit Nigeria and learn English. During that visit, he met a couple struggling with infertility and prayed for them. When he returned a year later, the woman had given birth to her first child. That miracle gave Dadjé credibility and opened doors for him to build relationships and share the gospel with many Nigerians. 

Recognizing the hunger for biblical truth, Dadjé invited two Nigerian men to attend the School for Evangelism in Chad for training. After graduating, these men returned home and planted the first Charis churches in Nigeria around 2005 or 2006. 

By 2007, Nigeria had established its own department for church planting, and by 2010, the movement received official government recognition as the Grace Brethren Church of Nigeria. During this time, Nigeria sent many students to be trained in Chad, while Chad sent trainers to Nigeria. This mutual partnership gave the young movement a strong biblical foundation that helped it endure and grow. 

That growth has come at a great cost. The northern region of Nigeria is predominantly Islamic, and several states operate under Sharia law, making evangelism and church planting extremely dangerous. Christians there face constant threats from groups like Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist organization made up of people from various Islamized ethnic groups who turned to violence in response to government neglect. Boko Haram is fiercely opposed to education and uses terror to pressure the government—leaving Christian communities especially vulnerable. 

Adding to this threat, nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are also Muslim, frequently attack Christian villages, burning homes, destroying crops, and committing atrocities. These ongoing waves of persecution have made it nearly impossible for believers to live out their faith openly in some regions, much less plant new churches. 

 In 2011, tragedy struck when Dadjé Samuel lost his life to dehydration while attempting to cross the Sahara Desert to bring a church planter to Libya. Though his death was heartbreaking, God used it to usher in a new generation of leaders—men like Enoch Koularambaye and Clison Djendode. Enoch served as the first president of the Grace Brethren Church of Nigeria for many years and now leads the church planting department while pastoring in Abuja. Clison, who previously led the church planting department, now serves as the church’s president. 

 Though our movement’s growth in Nigeria has been slow, its very survival amid persecution, violence, and loss is a living testimony of God’s sustaining power. Against all odds, the Charis church in Nigeria stands as a light in one of the darkest places on earth. 

Jesus, please sustain our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, providing them with protection and peace.