The spate of things happening in the christian world these days are really troubling. Things are truly getting out of hand, was just reading today about a pastor in Australia who got men in his church to swear an oath of total devotion to him and him alone forsaking their families for him. They are to seek his permission and decision about their daily lives, they are to acknowledge him everywhere they go. They must be in attendance in every meeting where he is ministering, sitting as close to him as possible and give him the necessary props he needs. They must never disagree with him or confront him when he is doing something wrong, his word must be the law at all times.
I understand loyalty to your pastor but not to the tune of elevating him/her to God's level. We are to follow our pastors as he/she follows Christ, they are never to take the place of Christ or to be idolized in such a way that we swallow everything they say, hook, line and sinker. Test every spirit and pray for discernment. There is need to search the Word of God for yourselves and see if what is being preached is in line with God's Word. I thank God for pastors in my life that emphasize studying and meditating on the Word of God. Respect and acknowledge the anointing upon the lives of your pastors but don't place them on a pedestal because a wise man of God once told me, "Men of God are still men at their very best" I pray we don't have another Jim Jones situation in our hands one of these days.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Elements of Worship Leading.
It's being a while since I posted, it's been a busy time at work, working with a non profit is really tasking especially during the holidays because that is our busy season and every hands are on deck to ensure we maximize our presence in our community.
I have been a praise worship leader since 1993 and I just want to share a little about what motivates me while before and during worship. At the beginning of my ministry I was fortunate to read a book by the late Pastor Judson Cornwall titled "The Element of Worship". I jotted down some points from the book and I will love to share them with you.
Preparing your praise & worship songs is a crucial time to seek His face because there could be a message in those songs for someone in the congregation who desperately need an answer to their prayer or a word from the Lord. The time of praise and worship is not just a time for singing, it's time for healing, deliverance, salvation of souls, releasing of burdens etc and it is sometimes an entryway for the message from the Minister of God. So here goes:
1. Preparation of the leaders heart is necessary.
2. The leader should seek vision or direction for the meeting [Very important]
3. Part of the task is stirring the congregation, physically, vocally, emotionally to praise.
4. A standing congregation is more likely to find full involvement.
5. The leader needs to be relaxed [Very important]
6. Move purposefully from vigorous praise to more personalized worship, moving from the "We" to "I"
7. Have an open heart concerning the flow do not automatically follow a line and procedure that was particularly blessed last time.
8. As the worship becomes more intimate, the leader will become less prominent, mistiming a "breaking in" at a time of intimate worship can be disastrous - [it brings distraction and rather than the people concentrating on worshiping the Lord they are trying to find out what happened to the music or the leader]. So your timing is very important.
9. Realize that worship will ebb and flow, it is good to understand the variety of intensity that enhances the worship time.
10. Encourage the people to avoid "second hand worship" i.e riding on someone else's experience or inspiration. The hymn and choruses are excellent vehicles to take us into the realm of personal worship.
Above all know the lyrics of the songs you are singing. Practice, practice, practice, practice.
Leading praise worship is more than singing, it's a deep intimate expression of your devotion to God remember He inhabits our praises, see Him wrapping Himself in your praises and worship.
God bless you.
As usual, you are free to comment.
I have been a praise worship leader since 1993 and I just want to share a little about what motivates me while before and during worship. At the beginning of my ministry I was fortunate to read a book by the late Pastor Judson Cornwall titled "The Element of Worship". I jotted down some points from the book and I will love to share them with you.
Preparing your praise & worship songs is a crucial time to seek His face because there could be a message in those songs for someone in the congregation who desperately need an answer to their prayer or a word from the Lord. The time of praise and worship is not just a time for singing, it's time for healing, deliverance, salvation of souls, releasing of burdens etc and it is sometimes an entryway for the message from the Minister of God. So here goes:
1. Preparation of the leaders heart is necessary.
2. The leader should seek vision or direction for the meeting [Very important]
3. Part of the task is stirring the congregation, physically, vocally, emotionally to praise.
4. A standing congregation is more likely to find full involvement.
5. The leader needs to be relaxed [Very important]
6. Move purposefully from vigorous praise to more personalized worship, moving from the "We" to "I"
7. Have an open heart concerning the flow do not automatically follow a line and procedure that was particularly blessed last time.
8. As the worship becomes more intimate, the leader will become less prominent, mistiming a "breaking in" at a time of intimate worship can be disastrous - [it brings distraction and rather than the people concentrating on worshiping the Lord they are trying to find out what happened to the music or the leader]. So your timing is very important.
9. Realize that worship will ebb and flow, it is good to understand the variety of intensity that enhances the worship time.
10. Encourage the people to avoid "second hand worship" i.e riding on someone else's experience or inspiration. The hymn and choruses are excellent vehicles to take us into the realm of personal worship.
Above all know the lyrics of the songs you are singing. Practice, practice, practice, practice.
Leading praise worship is more than singing, it's a deep intimate expression of your devotion to God remember He inhabits our praises, see Him wrapping Himself in your praises and worship.
God bless you.
As usual, you are free to comment.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Nigeria"s religious junk - True or false?
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit…Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20).
I begin this blog by apologising to all my Nigerian brothers and sisters for its title. At first sight it is rather offensive, but I hope that as you read on you will see why I elected to still use it as a title. As nations or tribes or social groupings we take on a certain characteristic that is not true about each person in the group but which we come to be identified with. Hence, Paul could write, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:12-13). In the same way, we tend to (rightly or wrongly) identify Americans with arrogance, Kenyans with marathon running prowess, West Africans with fraudulent activities, Afrikaners with racism, etc.
I have just returned from a consultative meeting in South Africa where the first day was spent surveying the spiritual state of the countries in the southern African sub-region. Central to all this was the state of evangelicalism in all these countries. Nation after nation reported on the arrival of “Nigerian religious junk” that was changing the landscape of what there once was of evangelicalism. One or two of the countries were blessed exceptions. Evidently, this junk originated from mega-churches in the USA and then found ready soil in West Africa, and especially in Nigeria. Having given it an African flavour, it is now being exported across Africa at a phenomenal rate.
I feel very sad to write about this, but by “Nigerian religious junk” I mean the phenomenon of churches that are personal-to-holder. They exalt the personality of their founding father, who is still alive somewhere in Nigeria (or elsewhere) and is treated with the aura of a state president or paramount chief. It does not matter which country you go to, the bill boards of these churches do not have the faces of the local pastors of the congregations in those towns but of the founding father in Nigeria—or wherever he has since relocated. It is all about image and power. This “man of God” claims to hear the voice of God and proceeds to minister to you accordingly. If you do not obey him you are resisting the ministry of God into your life. So, the churches are often called “ministries” rather than churches. And to make them even more impressive, the term “international” is often added to their name.
The Africanisation of this religious junk is primarily in the way it has been made to appeal to African spirituality. The pastor is the modern witchdoctor calling all and sundry to come to him for “deliverance”. Just as the witchdoctor appealed to us by inviting us to see him for spiritual protection or when we were struggling with bad luck, childlessness, joblessness, illness, failure to attract a suitor for marriage or to rise in a job or get a contract, etc., these pastors do precisely the same thing. So-called prophetic utterances are made which explain why all this is happening, holy water or oil is prayed over and dispensed, and some money is extracted from the persons seeking help. Thus their churches attract thousands of people who are there for purely selfish reasons. The motivating factor is not reconciliation with God through Christ but rather “deliverance” from perceived evil and to be blessed through the supernatural powers that “the man of God” possesses. Let’s face it: this is our African traditional religions coming into the church through the back door.
The self-centredness of all this is seen in the worship. Churches are being turned into entertainment centres instead of edification centres. People come to church to be entertained, healed and blessed . The fact that professionals, who engage their brains when working with their hands five to six days a week, stop thinking and just dance and laugh in worship is extremely sad, in the light of the demand of God that we are to love him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. It has been the failure of Christians to think through the implications of their Christian faith on the whole of life that has left Africa filled with Christian churches and lack of development at the same time. Surely, if these professionals were thinking they would have added up one-plus-one by now and seen why their pastors have become stinking rich. It is not their faith but the money of their congregants, whom they cheat with promises, that makes them buy expensive cars and clothes and put up mansions. If one thousand individuals are “sowing the seed” every week to be blessed by the man of God, of course the man of God will get very rich while they will get poorer. That is simple common sense.
The result of this phenomenon of personal-to-holder churches has been the selective nature of church discipline. You do not discipline a Sangoma (i.e. witchdoctor)—or a chief! It is a known fact, even among the church members, that a number of these pastors have serious moral problems. However, “you do not touch the Lord’s anointed” and so they are not disciplined, even when they have impregnated girls in the church. One such anointed one in Zambia changed wives three times through divorce in less than six months and still remains the apostle of his church. To be fair, this man is a Zambian, but he has imbibed this personal-to-holder phenomenon from Nigeria. There must be accountability from everyone in the church—including the church pastor.
Yet another characteristic of this phenomenon which is particularly African is the craze for titles. We Africans love titles! Once upon a time, evangelical pastors were content to simply be called pastors. Terms like “bishop” were left to those who had an Episcopalian system of church government, which was a formal structure that rose to national and global level. Alas, that has now changed! With the advent of this Nigerian religious junk, it is titles galore! You now have bishops, arch-bishops, prophets, apostles, chief apostles, etc. Some are not even content with that and so have combinations like, “chief apostle prophet doctor so-and-so.” This is certainly very different from the teaching and personal lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they claim to serve.
I begin this blog by apologising to all my Nigerian brothers and sisters for its title. At first sight it is rather offensive, but I hope that as you read on you will see why I elected to still use it as a title. As nations or tribes or social groupings we take on a certain characteristic that is not true about each person in the group but which we come to be identified with. Hence, Paul could write, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:12-13). In the same way, we tend to (rightly or wrongly) identify Americans with arrogance, Kenyans with marathon running prowess, West Africans with fraudulent activities, Afrikaners with racism, etc.
I have just returned from a consultative meeting in South Africa where the first day was spent surveying the spiritual state of the countries in the southern African sub-region. Central to all this was the state of evangelicalism in all these countries. Nation after nation reported on the arrival of “Nigerian religious junk” that was changing the landscape of what there once was of evangelicalism. One or two of the countries were blessed exceptions. Evidently, this junk originated from mega-churches in the USA and then found ready soil in West Africa, and especially in Nigeria. Having given it an African flavour, it is now being exported across Africa at a phenomenal rate.
I feel very sad to write about this, but by “Nigerian religious junk” I mean the phenomenon of churches that are personal-to-holder. They exalt the personality of their founding father, who is still alive somewhere in Nigeria (or elsewhere) and is treated with the aura of a state president or paramount chief. It does not matter which country you go to, the bill boards of these churches do not have the faces of the local pastors of the congregations in those towns but of the founding father in Nigeria—or wherever he has since relocated. It is all about image and power. This “man of God” claims to hear the voice of God and proceeds to minister to you accordingly. If you do not obey him you are resisting the ministry of God into your life. So, the churches are often called “ministries” rather than churches. And to make them even more impressive, the term “international” is often added to their name.
The Africanisation of this religious junk is primarily in the way it has been made to appeal to African spirituality. The pastor is the modern witchdoctor calling all and sundry to come to him for “deliverance”. Just as the witchdoctor appealed to us by inviting us to see him for spiritual protection or when we were struggling with bad luck, childlessness, joblessness, illness, failure to attract a suitor for marriage or to rise in a job or get a contract, etc., these pastors do precisely the same thing. So-called prophetic utterances are made which explain why all this is happening, holy water or oil is prayed over and dispensed, and some money is extracted from the persons seeking help. Thus their churches attract thousands of people who are there for purely selfish reasons. The motivating factor is not reconciliation with God through Christ but rather “deliverance” from perceived evil and to be blessed through the supernatural powers that “the man of God” possesses. Let’s face it: this is our African traditional religions coming into the church through the back door.
The self-centredness of all this is seen in the worship. Churches are being turned into entertainment centres instead of edification centres. People come to church to be entertained, healed and blessed . The fact that professionals, who engage their brains when working with their hands five to six days a week, stop thinking and just dance and laugh in worship is extremely sad, in the light of the demand of God that we are to love him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. It has been the failure of Christians to think through the implications of their Christian faith on the whole of life that has left Africa filled with Christian churches and lack of development at the same time. Surely, if these professionals were thinking they would have added up one-plus-one by now and seen why their pastors have become stinking rich. It is not their faith but the money of their congregants, whom they cheat with promises, that makes them buy expensive cars and clothes and put up mansions. If one thousand individuals are “sowing the seed” every week to be blessed by the man of God, of course the man of God will get very rich while they will get poorer. That is simple common sense.
The result of this phenomenon of personal-to-holder churches has been the selective nature of church discipline. You do not discipline a Sangoma (i.e. witchdoctor)—or a chief! It is a known fact, even among the church members, that a number of these pastors have serious moral problems. However, “you do not touch the Lord’s anointed” and so they are not disciplined, even when they have impregnated girls in the church. One such anointed one in Zambia changed wives three times through divorce in less than six months and still remains the apostle of his church. To be fair, this man is a Zambian, but he has imbibed this personal-to-holder phenomenon from Nigeria. There must be accountability from everyone in the church—including the church pastor.
Yet another characteristic of this phenomenon which is particularly African is the craze for titles. We Africans love titles! Once upon a time, evangelical pastors were content to simply be called pastors. Terms like “bishop” were left to those who had an Episcopalian system of church government, which was a formal structure that rose to national and global level. Alas, that has now changed! With the advent of this Nigerian religious junk, it is titles galore! You now have bishops, arch-bishops, prophets, apostles, chief apostles, etc. Some are not even content with that and so have combinations like, “chief apostle prophet doctor so-and-so.” This is certainly very different from the teaching and personal lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they claim to serve.
Having joy inspite of it all.
It's being a while since I visited due to situations and challenges I have been facing lately. I will like to share one of such incidents to encourage someone out there.
I love connecting people with friends or family they have lost contacts with and I take pleasure when such people are connected to their long lost friends or family and they have such joy getting back together so this past week, I read a comment from someone I just recently befriended on facebook and who is a member of my local church about meeting one of her long time friend's mother and since the lady in question was a former dear neighbour of mine who is such a sweet sweet soul, and also former member of my church, who now worships in another church closer to her house. I felt obligated to help make that connection a reality. So I commented on my new friend's facebook status about helping her connect with the lady and all hell sort of broke loose.
I was going to call this former neighbour to let her know someone wanted to meet with her or speak to her on the phone and to see if it was alright to give her phone number to his new friend of mine but I got sidetracked and forgot but at the back of my mind, I was still going to call her before the end of the week.
So yesterday when I logged on to my facebook page I was dumbfounded by what I read from my former neighbour's daughter who felt I exposed her mum's business on facebook and she also mentioned things I never shared which was disturbing to say the least. The accusations came with such venom, I didn't know what to do but cry at my desk at work that someone could read such bad meanings to my evil intention. Talk about misunderstanding!!!. As soon as she finished sending the email, she defriended me on facebook, which was not a surprise because I was going to do the same thing, with friends like that who needs enemies right? I added this lady because I knew her to be a christian believer and we have mutual friends and I was a guest at her wedding a few years ago.
After shedding a few tears to ease my tension, I called her mother [my former neighbour] whom apparently the daughter have called the previous night and told her all sorts of things that was not even written in the comment I made on my friend's status, I apologized for not calling her before promising to give her number to her daughter's friend and she understood and also stated she told her daughter it was not a big deal but apparently her daughter didn't get that memo because she made a big deal out of the situation. I also sent an email to the friend who wanted to meet her mum to let her know what happened and adviced her to ask the daughter to for her mum's number. My sweet kindhearted former neighbour apologized on behalf of her daughter and we had a pleasant chat, she is such a wonderful gracious lady whom I love chatting with. I have forgiven the lady [neighbour's daughter] because I feel she just misunderstood my intentions and I am trying to forget the incident ever happened as well.
This incident though trivial in other people's opinion could stop me from helping someone else, it robbed me of my joy for a few minutes but I remembered this Ron Kenoly song "I still have joy" and searched for it on youtube, found it and listened to it all day because it was a word from God to me. I just want to encourage anyone who have been misunderstood, who have their good intentions evil spoken of to focus on the joy of the Lord which is our strength, the enemy will come in diverse ways to steal your joy, he might even use someone who you never expected to be the joy robber. Chose to praise God joyfully.
Song: This joy that I have the devil didn't give it to me, the devil didn't give it, the devil can't take it. This joy that I have Jesus gave it to me, Jesus gave it, the devil can't take it away.
Chose to be joyful regardless of situations or circumstances and you will find out, your life is richer because of it, you are healthy, your facial muscles are relaxed and you look radiant. Happiness is a fleeting emotion but joy is everlasting and the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Be joyful, God's got all in control.
I love connecting people with friends or family they have lost contacts with and I take pleasure when such people are connected to their long lost friends or family and they have such joy getting back together so this past week, I read a comment from someone I just recently befriended on facebook and who is a member of my local church about meeting one of her long time friend's mother and since the lady in question was a former dear neighbour of mine who is such a sweet sweet soul, and also former member of my church, who now worships in another church closer to her house. I felt obligated to help make that connection a reality. So I commented on my new friend's facebook status about helping her connect with the lady and all hell sort of broke loose.
I was going to call this former neighbour to let her know someone wanted to meet with her or speak to her on the phone and to see if it was alright to give her phone number to his new friend of mine but I got sidetracked and forgot but at the back of my mind, I was still going to call her before the end of the week.
So yesterday when I logged on to my facebook page I was dumbfounded by what I read from my former neighbour's daughter who felt I exposed her mum's business on facebook and she also mentioned things I never shared which was disturbing to say the least. The accusations came with such venom, I didn't know what to do but cry at my desk at work that someone could read such bad meanings to my evil intention. Talk about misunderstanding!!!. As soon as she finished sending the email, she defriended me on facebook, which was not a surprise because I was going to do the same thing, with friends like that who needs enemies right? I added this lady because I knew her to be a christian believer and we have mutual friends and I was a guest at her wedding a few years ago.
After shedding a few tears to ease my tension, I called her mother [my former neighbour] whom apparently the daughter have called the previous night and told her all sorts of things that was not even written in the comment I made on my friend's status, I apologized for not calling her before promising to give her number to her daughter's friend and she understood and also stated she told her daughter it was not a big deal but apparently her daughter didn't get that memo because she made a big deal out of the situation. I also sent an email to the friend who wanted to meet her mum to let her know what happened and adviced her to ask the daughter to for her mum's number. My sweet kindhearted former neighbour apologized on behalf of her daughter and we had a pleasant chat, she is such a wonderful gracious lady whom I love chatting with. I have forgiven the lady [neighbour's daughter] because I feel she just misunderstood my intentions and I am trying to forget the incident ever happened as well.
This incident though trivial in other people's opinion could stop me from helping someone else, it robbed me of my joy for a few minutes but I remembered this Ron Kenoly song "I still have joy" and searched for it on youtube, found it and listened to it all day because it was a word from God to me. I just want to encourage anyone who have been misunderstood, who have their good intentions evil spoken of to focus on the joy of the Lord which is our strength, the enemy will come in diverse ways to steal your joy, he might even use someone who you never expected to be the joy robber. Chose to praise God joyfully.
Song: This joy that I have the devil didn't give it to me, the devil didn't give it, the devil can't take it. This joy that I have Jesus gave it to me, Jesus gave it, the devil can't take it away.
Chose to be joyful regardless of situations or circumstances and you will find out, your life is richer because of it, you are healthy, your facial muscles are relaxed and you look radiant. Happiness is a fleeting emotion but joy is everlasting and the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Be joyful, God's got all in control.
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