If we don’t charge fees, how else do we survive? (2), By Ayo Akerele

The practices of giving honorariums have historically existed as an alternative support system for ministers. Yes, a lot of pastors abuse it. But that is one of the sacrifices of being a faithful minister of Christ. A faithful person will sometimes be cheated. He will sometimes be taken for granted. Jesus was cheated, humiliated, and taken for granted. How do you want to become faithful if you don’t experience some of these challenges?

Further, the tithes and offerings collected by the church should actually be used in manners that don’t just help the church to flourish and advance the cause of the gospel, but to also meet the needs of everyone connected to the church, music ministers, workers, or whoever. I agree that a lot of pastors neglect the poor and use these offerings as they wish. I know a lot that is going on in our churches. Also, to save the next generation of worship leaders, many of whom have already found mentorship in the hands of the advanced worship dealers, we must get back to our roots.

All pastors, General Overseers, and Church leaders who know the truth and are not working to build their own empires must start using their in-house worship leaders for all programs and conferences. Build them. Develop them. Expose them. Appreciate them and to the best of your ability, provide for the needs of those who either cannot work or have not found work.

However, it is difficult to expect General Overseers and Church leaders who are working for money, many of whom are in Nigeria, to stop this menace. Why? They need these “superstar” worship dealers to gather crowds and make money. It is not God they are worshipping. Their conventions are only designed for fundraising purposes. But whether these categories of ministers in Nigeria want to repent or not, they would have at least seen this message and many other ones that have come from other concerned brethren. This message will act as a witness against them on the day of judgment.

If We Don’t Charge Fees, How Else Do We Survive?

This is the narrative from every single proponent of “fees before worship” in Nigeria. Now, if you are truly called by God as a music minister, your case is very different from music artists or music entertainers. I am not addressing entertainers here. I am addressing people who lead the body of Christ to sing and worship God. There are dozens of avenues you can explore to generate resources as a genuine, God-fearing worship leader. If you are a trained music minister with skills in writing songs and playing instruments, set up online or physical music training schools and trade your skills at that level.

A keyboardist for a leading church in Nigeria is training my children on the keyboard and we placed him on a fat monthly salary. We are also connecting him with many more families. He provides his training by Zoom, and potentially, if he trains five children in a month, he can make more than N600,000 per month.

Now imagine if he is doing that for ten families. So, the excuse that I must charge fees prior to accepting invitations to lead worship holds no water if you really want to be honest. Also, put your content on YouTube and on iTunes and receive royalties from these mediums. You can also write short books on song compositions and stage management and sell them in your network. You can make your own albums too and sell them. For those who have other skills and training aside from Music, you can leverage them to make money.

There are music ministers who have IT backgrounds. You can pick up a remote IT job. You can start investing in real estate. I know IT consultants that are serving God as worship leaders in many conferences and church programs. One of the main worship leaders of the Oslo Gospel Choir in Norway is a primary school teacher. Yet, he sings around the world on his annual vacations, winning souls for God. There is no excuse for desecrating God’s altar. The challenge with many of our brethren is “Laziness.” They want to sing for one hour and charge N5million because they know that it will take them a longer amount of time to make that money, should they choose to do other things.

If you know that “stealing” is wrong, is there any tenable excuse before a court of law for engaging in stealing? It’s a matter of the mind. And if you are truly faithful to God, and are hard-working, God will bless you. He will open doors for you. If you think God cannot bless you, it calls into question your relationship with God.

Brethren, what do you think will happen if all churches in Nigeria stop inviting praise and worship dealers and start using their in-house praise and worship teams, those who don’t charge fees prior to serving God with their gifts? What do you think will happen? Let all “superstar” worship dealers go back to their local churches, submit to their pastors, humble themselves, attend Sunday schools, prayer meetings, and Bible studies and grow in Christ. You will be amazed at the level of transformation that will occur in our churches. The music ministry is as critical as the preaching ministry. Dear Sister Superstar, Dear Brother Superstar, God may not judge you now for desecrating his temple, but don’t forget, you will still die and stand before Him. God does not have to win on earth to win in eternity. He does not have to win physically to win spiritually. He is interested in your success, but not by merchandising His grace on your life.

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 ayoakerele2012@gmail.com