Sunday Oguntola writes on prospects, challenges and implications of the growing trend of Christian fellowship and services online as against traditional physical assemblies
The last time anyone saw Sam Oye, a medical doctor, in his Ikeja-based Lagos church was a little over six months ago. But nobody is bothered or anxious to hear from him. “That is because they know I am in church, only not physically,” the 46-year-old father of two said last week.
Though he has not been physically in church Oye has never missed any service or anything of interest in the fast-growing assembly he attends. “I can assure you that even those physically around don’t know as much as I do about the church. This is because I don’t miss anything at all. All I do is to follow services online. That way, I am as active as most people on ground,” he explained.
The medical doctor is one of the growing army of Christians in the emerging virtual church culture in Nigeria. For reasons ranging from time schedule to demanding work rate or shift, they are unable to join services physically during worship hours. Rather than miss out completely on fellowship, they simply hook up online with services.
The trend, championed mostly by Pentecostal churches that attract upwardly mobile business owners and executives, is catching up with many assemblies, serving as alternative worship outlets for parishioners.
Taking church to people
Senior Pastor of Harvesters International Christian Centre Gbagada Lagos, Pastor Bolaji Idowu, told our correspondent the culture has come to stay. He said it is important to take into consideration the fact that many people will not be able to make services because of professional, medical or logistics issues. “The truth of the matter is not everybody will be able to show up physically. Yet, the church must reach them too. They are part of the people Christ died for.
“So, instead of waiting for them to come, we take the church right to them. It is an attempt to ensure no one is left behind in the quest to make worship experiences available to people. Even they cannot show up in church, God can still reach them in their offices, homes or hospitals because He is not limited by space,” he explained.
The church, which runs four services every Sunday, streams live worships on social media and its website for members outside the auditorium. “People hook up a lot because they know it is the same as coming to church. When they travel or at work, they have the hearts for God and seek to fellowship without coming down,” Idowu stressed.
Rev Ebenezer Diyaolu is President of Family Care Mandate Ministries Int’l. The Baptist-trained family counsellor has a regular worship service on facebook that attracts huge followership. The service involves hymn-singing, sermons, prayer sessions and sharing of testimonies.
He said the concept has helped him to touch lives and change marriages for good. According to him: “The first online service I had was a prayer conference. It was well attended. The comments, shares, like and publicity was overwhelming. I could not believe it.
“And honestly, there is no distance in the realm of the spirit. The power of God was present on my phone as I type the prayers, songs and message to the people and people were literally feeling the awesome power of God on their phone screens
“It was like a face to face service. Testimonies of healing, deliverance and salvations, miraculous conceptions were rolling in that same day and days and months after the online service.”
Diyaolu has also gone on to start online vigils on facebook. Thousands participate in the all-night service. “When I posted the flier, so many people were amazed. Some discouraged me, saying ‘your own is too much’. I was amazed to see people by 11:30pm chatting me here and there that they couldn’t wait for the time to be 12am.
“The vigil lasted for just 2 hours with raw power demonstration. I got a testimony from a woman all the way from one of the eastern states.
“The power of God came in her as I was releasing the prophetic prayers. Right where she was in her room, she fell under the anointing, vomited some strange things and that same month, 8 years barrenness was terminated by Jesus.
Technological innovation
Observation by our correspondent revealed that the churches latching on to this growing trend take advantages of social media as well as deployment of technology to reach members or admirers outside their four walls.
Many of them have twitter handles and facebook pages from where they engage worshippers during services. While the twitter handles offer second-by-second blow of happenings during the services, the facebook pages enable them to stream live services and present more detailed updates, including pictures of interest.
Some simply stream the services live on their website, providing links for members to hook up across the globe. That way, many who cannot come physically to church are still able to catch up with real-time fellowship.
Soji Bakare in is charge of the twitter handle of a Lagos-based church (name withheld). He said services begin for him more than one hour before the senior pastor mounts the podium to preach.
“What happens is that I have to arrive early to set up the room for my operations. I have to get the advance copy of the sermons so that I can prepare significant quotes or statements. Then, I have to be keenly attentive during the sermons so that I can update and engage the tweet community,” he stated.
He has no doubt that people follow the tweets and updates on the handles. “It’s easy to know because engagement offers instant feedbacks. You see people retweeting or liking the tweet. Sometimes they respond through replies. And every service, you see many people following the handle. So, you know you are reaching real people, not robots,” he offered.
Senior Pastor of Living Waters Unlimited, Pastor Ladi Thompson, believes the virtual church is a great innovation those concerned about reaching all the nations with the gospel must embrace. “It is simply another platform or avenue to reach souls who are outside the church. They are children of God too and cannot come to church for one reason or the other.
“Yet, they don’t want to miss out on fellowships with the children of light. Though the element of physical contact is important yet they can still experience as much presence of God as those physically in church,” he said.
Publisher of Church Times, Mr. Gbenga Osinaike, is also in support of the trend. “The truth is the church is not a shrine where you must get to because you worship. If you cannot go to church, nothing stops you from hooking up online,” he explained.
He however said virtual fellowship should be circumstantial and not habitual. “It is not something people should now turn to a habit because they don’t want physical contacts or something. It is something we do only because we don’t have much of choice. There is still something about physical contacts that no other platform can offer,” Osinaike stated.
Abandonment of physical contacts?
Virtual church is certainly helping to reach worshippers who can come online wherever they are but there are concerns it may be counter-productive in many other respects. “While I agree that we can offer that platform for those who don’t come, I am bothered that many may deliberately stay away from church at the slightest excuse for online service.
“You see when we see ourselves physically, we get imparted and refreshed. It comes with challenges because of human frailties but we must never forsake the assemblies of others because of the non-physical advantages of virtual fellowships,” church growth expert, Dr Francis Bola Akin-John cautioned.
He stated that when people sin and meet with saints, they become easily convicted and make amends immediately as against being alone during online fellowships, which may not encourage instant repentance.
Director of Media and Public Relations Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Rev Dapo Daramola, believes virtual church is not a bad idea but shouldn’t be overemphasised. “I agree we need online fellowship for sharing daily devotional and mutual encouragement as well as discussion of doctrinal issues.
“But when it comes to real worship service, there is nothing that can replace physical gathering. If you look at the bible, you find expressions like assembling and gathering. We need to gather and assemble as Christians.
“That is when we can feel our pains and pulses. Some people may not talk when they come for prayer meetings but merely looking at their postures or faces may tell you what they are experiencing. You will then know how to join them in prayers. When we diminish this physical gathering, we will have an army of untouchable worshippers that may die lonely and without help,” he stated.
He said coming to church shows commitment to Christ and His body, arguing there are so many aspects of service that cannot be replicated online. “Can we receive the Holy Communion online? Can we break the bread and partake of the blood of the lamb online? Online is not a bad idea but I don’t believe it is for real worship experiences,” Daramola argued.
Payment of tithes and offering has not really been an issue online. Most of the monitored virtual services simply allow members to pay to church accounts through transfers.
Diyaolu believes online services are never substitutes for physical worships. “Online services are not to be used to replace physical meetings. Well, there is a possibility for that to happen. But on the other hand, there are things people get in the physical meetings at churches that they cannot get online.
“As a person, I don’t hold online services on Sunday mornings because I love people to go to their various churches. My online services are always in the evenings and I select days that I know many Nigerian Churches don’t have their mid week services.”
He added: “I want to say that, if our pastors are hot! Impactful and delivering great contents of God’s message with raw power in demonstrating signs and wonders, many of their church members will still be coming to their physical meetings.
“During online services, I don’t collect offering or tithe. We don’t have departments. We don’t have members’ welfare committee, and some other things peculiar to physical churches.
“There is a place for online services and there is a place of going to a physical church. Serious Christians will not stop going to physical churches because there are in online services.”