Overview

Worship for sale: Rescuing the Nigerian church from the hands of praise and worship dealers (1)

Today, it is an industry of proud, arrogant, greedy, and egocentric people — many of who are not really saved, much less being broken.

“My fee is one million naira for a two-hour session of worship, amounting to a service charge of N500,000 per hour. Any additional worship will require you to top up my fees. Your invoice will be issued by my manager.” How low could a man fall as a worship minister? At the root of this widespread desecration of the sacred music ministry is the spirit of mammon, which obviously is a major stronghold in the Nigerian church. It is the same spirit working on the hearts of several ministers of the word at several levels of ministry. But my focus today is within the scope of the music ministry.

As far as I’m concerned, music dealership has taken over music leadership in the church, resulting in the pollution of the sacred altar of Christ. These breeds of worship leaders (dealers) share striking similarities with the biblical sons of Eli — Hophni and Phinehas, whom God judged for their attitudes towards His sacred Altar.

In 1 Samuel 2:17, the Bible says, “The sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the Lord’s sight, because they treated the offerings to the Lord with such disrespect.” It has never been this bad in the Nigerian church. I was privileged to know the Lord in the early 80s. There was no time in the history of the Church that the offering of praise and worship became a commercialised venture for branding and marketing purposes.

Today, it is an industry of proud, arrogant, greedy, and egocentric people — many of who are not really saved, much less being broken.

We have lost it completely in this aspect of our service to God, and the earlier the fathers in the land stand up to this menace, the better for the next generation. Who are these worship dealers? They are many of our brothers and sisters whose faces adorn fliers and posters in our conferences and meetings. They are the products of our churches. Sadly, many of them have turned their backs on God — blatantly violating the tenets of His word as ministers of Christ that they all claim to be. It is a generation populated by plenty of unsaved people and carnal worship dealers, all of whom have found a safe haven to market their singing skills to the highest bidder. It is not about the desire to advance the gospel of Christ, but to build image empires and global brands for themselves, that will ultimately convert to financial gains for them.

Root Causes

But what is the root cause of this problem? The Church, our fathers, and society at large are responsible for this menace. Many of the “superstar” worship dealers who are grinding the noses of pastors on the ground in Nigeria with their “pay me my fees before I lead worship” practices were influenced by some of our fathers.

My conversation with worship leaders in Nigeria, coupled with my many years of experience in the Church, proves to me beyond all doubt that this menace has its roots firmly entrenched in the values and practices of many of our church leaders. Here are the findings from my research on this subject matter. Many of our church leaders publicly boast and brag about their global influence; they spread branches all across the globe and rake in funds in their billions on a regular basis; they come to the church on Sundays and speak glowingly about how much money they’ve got; they boast about the experiences of their families and children in their last holidays to the Bahamas and to Hawaii, etc.; they revel in their acquisition of state-of-the-art automobiles and choice properties; they invite pastors from other parts of the world and pay them fortunes in speaking fees.

According to my findings, these praise and worship leaders told me that aside from the sacrifices of these pastors, their own labour and sacrifices equally contribute to the growth of the church. They told me that as they sit in church every Sunday listening to the mouth-watering financial successes of the pastors and the churches, they feel used and abandoned. “We’ve got families too,” they told me. “We studied music in school and hold music as our major calling in life.”

Consequently, Satan hijacked the process and pushed these young, talented worship leaders to rebel against the system, “Me too will make money with my skills and talents, anyhow, anywhere.” And to make matters worse, when a pastor invites a “superstar” worship dealer with a large following to his convention, with mouth-watering reception and a red carpet to match, the faithful worship leaders in his church become frustrated and influenced to toe the same path, “Me too must become a superstar,” “Me too must be received at the airport with a red carpet.” And then the cycle of desecration continues.

Further to this is the role of our declining culture. Nigeria is a nation deeply rooted in the culture and value of greed and waste, ably promoted by corrupt politicians, impoverished populations, and massive unemployment. These socio-economic factors, coupled with the role of the fathers, constantly sweeten the narrative, “There is no other means of paying my bills if I don’t charge fees prior to accepting invitations.” Second, these superstar worship dealers are instruments of pulling crowds to programmes. So, the supply chain of ministries is fraught with compromised church leaders who eventually mentor and nurture compromised worship dealers. It’s a joint venture — I’ll bring crowds to your meetings, pay me my fees.

Remedies

It is important for me to tell whoever cares to listen that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Your present needs, my present bills, and our collective challenges do not and will never be the logical and rational excuse for desecrating the hallowed chambers of the church of Christ. You may not know, but what you’re doing is selling the grace of God on your life. It’s a very grievous sin against God.

For those churches in Nigeria that are actually founded on Satanic covenants, it is logical to desecrate and re-desecrate their altars with any method or practices available to the mind. But for every pastor or church leader who is standing for Christ, what we say in public and our practices in private must align with God’s ways of doing things. It is evil and satanic to charge to preach or to charge to lead worship within the church community.

Credit: Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through [email protected]