The National Coordinators of Eternal Bible Quiz Unit, Dr. Emeka Agwu and his wife, Dr. Mercy Agwu, have been organising Bible quiz for adults and the youth in different churches. The America-based couple and members of the Eternal Scared Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church (ESOCS) recently sponsored the 2025 Champion of Champions Children Centenary National Bible Quiz held at the ESOCS, Mount Zion, National Headquarters in Surulere, Lagos. At the end of the event that produced the first position from ESOCS Holy Trinity House of Prayer under Lagos Province, Dr. Agwu, who is also the President, Voice of Evangelism International, Houston, Texas, USA, shared his vision and how the competition evolved. CHRIS IREKAMBA was there.

How did the concept of organisingBible quiz across churches and nations come up?
THE Holy Spirit inspired it. The Bible Quiz Movement (BQM) started in 2022 with the adults. The maiden edition was a huge success and I appreciate my church, ESOCS leadership; they saw the vision and embraced it. We took the vision to Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), where we were allowed to organise a national Bible Quiz.

How did it attract children when it was planned for adults?
It is because we are celebrating our centenary. Our church is 100 years and the anniversary is coming up on September 9, 2025. We cannot do anything without children; so, we started with them.If you can crosscheck our records with CAN, you will find out that we startedthe programmefrom the grassroots to the national level. This is also the case in all thechurches we have organized it for.In 2024, we took competition to Catholic Church.

In this Centenary Children Bible Quiz, we started from the “branches to the districts and then provinces. From the provinces, we shall move to the Central Management Committees (CMCs), then the grand-finale at the national level.

What is the plan to sustain the programme?
The future is that we are communicating the word of God to the nation. The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, you cannot have faith when you do not have the knowledge of the word. It is when you have the knowledge of the word that you can establish your faith. We do not walk by sight, but by faith so that you can declare things by faith and you see them manifesting. Remember Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

How did you come about the National Bible Quiz?
The Spirit of God for some reasons decided to bring back the word into this life and generation. One of the things we are battling now is that there are a lot of movements that are walking against the word and want to replace it with things that are not really of the word. People are doing programmes that are not based on the word of God. God wants His word to be seen in the affairs of men; so, the Holy Spirit of God had to activate us and say call it, “Bible Project.” We do Bible Quiz Football; Bible Quiz Seminar; we can even do Bible Event Centres, too. God’s words do not have any barriers; there are no limiting walls. The words are for all nations, which is the reason we can do Bible Quiz here and there; in any country.

What is your impression of the competition this year?
It has produced what I call, “sustainable evangelism.” Sustainable evangelism is when you know you are grooming children that are carrying the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and doctrine. Doctrine is the teachings of Jesus Christ and not dogma. What you saw at the competition was doctrine based on the scripture.

What value can this programme add to national development?
This is real national development because when you do not train a child the way he should grow and the child grows into being a physician, engineer, minister, and or even a political juggernaut, he will not be able to manage his office according to the scriptures. Leadership is the word of God. It is written clearly on what to do and how to do it.

We have another programme for the women of this church and it is holding on June 7, 2025 and my wife will be coming from the USA to join them.

The church has positioned us as the National Coordinators of Bible Quiz because of the concept God has give to us, which the church (ESOCS) prayed about and confirmed it to be the way of the church. This church has been known everywhere as prayer strategist.

Have you any message to parents, teachers and other caregivers in the society?
My message is that, there should be a conscious synergy among them to train children in the word and ways of God. They should encourage these young ones to hold fast onto God’s words throughout their life. Give them a holistic training at home and school. A child that is trained knows that he or she must honour and respect his or her parents, so that, their days may be long. When you don’t train them in the word of God, there will be a big gap, which the reason we are having marital crisis or other societal ills. With the word, we will win the war.

The truth is that, if we do not take measures to catch them young for Jesus, the devil would exploit our lapses and catch them young for himself.

We place high premium on children, for we believe it is a legitimate thing to do, particularly, at this end time.