In life, every mission, no matter how noble, depends on systems that work. A good idea or vision is never enough — when the structures that support it begin to fail, even the best intentions can crumble. I learned this truth very early in life, not from business or leadership, but from my childhood experience in church.

My Early Church Experience

There was a time when I was a member of the Royal Ambassadors (RA) of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.

You see, my childhood was filled with great memories. Many of these memories come with valuable life lessons. One of them is my experience as a young Christian child who would follow my family to church. We used to attend Yejide Baptist Church (YBC). Yejide Baptist was located in the interior of Ibadan — the Odo Oba area, behind Molete. Yejide Baptist is primarily a Yoruba-speaking church, and its members are predominantly from the interior parts of Ibadan.

The Structure of Church Groups

Churches, like any society or tribe, have systems to keep people engaged and to ensure their tenets, beliefs, and traditions are deeply rooted in the hearts of their members. Such systems involve creating subgroups to cater to people with specific needs and interests. In our church then, there were separate groups for women, men, children, teenage girls, and teenage boys.

As a young child in a church under the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), you are born into a subgroup called "Sunbeam." Sunbeam is like a church for children. Whether you are a boy or girl, there are programs to keep you engaged and to teach you the tenets of the Bible, the church, and the values of Jesus. You learn Bible verses, songs, and rhymes. It's usually a fun environment and the only place in the entire church where you're sure to get free snacks, sweets, and even food almost every Sunday. I believe it must have been part of the Sunbeam mission to make it enticing and lively for children.

Joining the Royal Ambassadors

When you reach a certain age — perhaps your teenage years — you graduate into either the Girls' Auxiliary (GA) if you are a girl, or the Royal Ambassadors (RA) if you are a boy. As a boy, I was drafted into the RA, and we met once every week, engaging in activities like sports, parades, playing drums in the band, and learning the Word. In RA, we had ranks, and you were expected to grow in rank as you progressed in the group.

The Annual Camps

Once every year, we (RA members) had summer camping activities where we would go to a nearby town to camp for three days and two nights.

At the camp, RA members from different churches in the NBC association would compete in sports, parades, and other activities. It was also at the camp that we were tested to determine whether we could move to the next rank. Those who passed the test would advance, while those who failed would remain at the same rank.

I attended those camps three times — I particularly remember the one we went to in Fiditi, a small town outside Ibadan, on the way to Oyo. They were always fun and something every teenage boy looked forward to each year. Those years were between 1997 and 2003.

When the System Failed

But there was a problem: every time I went, we wrote tests, but we never got to see our results. Somehow, the results from our church always went missing. So technically, I was stuck at the same rank for more than five years. Imagine being in a school where you stay in the same class for five years. At first, you would get carried away with the fun, friendships, and adventure. But over time, you'd get bored of being at the same spot — and eventually, you'd drop out. That was what happened to me. I lost interest. A lot of us did.

Structures in the NBC, just like in other cultures and tribes, exist for preservation. Structures determine what comes and what goes; they determine who comes and who goes.

I've often wondered — if the RA system hadn't failed in my case, maybe I would have remained in the Baptist culture. When things don't work the way they ought to, we have a responsibility to make them work — or we become responsible for their failure. Those who were in charge of the Royal Ambassadors' records at that time failed. Possibly because our church was a local one, they didn't think it mattered. Possibly because we were among the few who wrote our tests in Yoruba, they didn't pay attention to us. But the RA mission failed me.

The Lesson I Learned

Whenever I remember this, I'm reminded that whenever things don't work the way they should — in my life, workplace, or dealings — the faster I can fix them, the better. Because those things might be responsible for driving good people away.

When things don't work, with time, people will lose interest. Could it be that I would still be a member of a Baptist Church today if the Royal Ambassadors had fixed issue with our former church results?

Conclusion

Every mission, organization, or system survives not just because of its vision but because of the efficiency of the little things that make it work. Missing records, unkept promises, or broken systems can silently destroy great missions. The lesson from my childhood experience stays with me — if something isn't working, fix it fast. Because when things don't work, people eventually walk away, and even the best missions will fail.