Chude Jideonwo: It’s time to sing a new song

by Chude Jideonwo

Something has worried me for quite a while, and it goes without saying that for this meeting to be convened, it has worried many of you too. Last year my Album of the Year – not Christian Album of the Year – was ‘Miracle Worker’. There is no church in Nigeria that I have gone to where Glowreeyah Braimah’s glorious worship hit doesn’t ring loud and clear.

And this particular speaker is a church rat – so everywhere from Mountain of Fire to RCCG parishes, through House on the Rock to Catholic Charismatic churches, this is a song that has captured the imagination of let me say millions. It has lifted my spirits, it has spoken miracles to the hearts and lives of many, heck on his birthday this year, no less a person than the nation’s Vice president took his time to play this song in his private office.

Glowreeyah has become iconic in Gospel. Everyone knows her. No concert for Christians is complete without her. But why is Glowreeyah, whose music has touched, again lets say millions, not just a national Christian icon, but a national icon period?

Why is Tim Godfrey whose song Agidigba is known by everyone, Christian and Muslim, not an ambassador for any telecoms companies, why are brands not working with him to extend the frontiers of their work and reach the audiences he has garnered? Why are mainstream gospel artistes not mainstream enough to be seen as the cultural icons that they are?

Of course it would be ignorant to state that this is a local issue. It’s a global phenomenon. Kirk Franklin is an American star, but still one dedicated to exciting Christians. It is difficult to imagine Mary Mary blanketing America’s cultural airwaves the way of Lemonade. And the Winans are one of the world’s power families but you are almost certainly not going to find them on the cover of Rolling Stone today. According to Nielsen Music in 2015, Gospel music only took about 3.1 percent of the market in America in 2014. In the same year, Rock music sold over 85 million albums. The entire collection of Christian music sold less than 20 million. And America is to all intents and purposes, at least as far as the Republican Party will call it, a Christian nation.

You know what? I don’t care. This is Nigeria. And here, our faith is the most important part of our lives, permeating politics, economy, owambes even – this is after all the country whose economy is sometimes determined by whether the moon shows up! Our religion is the major driver of our culture and dare I say, most of our life decisions.

According to the Pew Research Center in 2010, Nigeria has the largest Christian population of any country in Africa. More than 85 million persons in Nigeria belong to the church with various denominations – moving from 21.4 percent of the population in 1953 to 49.3 percent in 2010. Note the research – they BELONG to a church. They are not just name-check Christians.

In a country this deeply aligned with faith, it is possible to create a new reality. It is infinitely possible for faith to be a driver of political systems, economic decisions and national movements. Like India with Bollywood, and China with industrialization, countries can decide upon what rings truest to their hearts and build culturally and nationally aligned frameworks that drive growth and drive citizen ownership and drive progress.

Wait a minute, are you truly aware of the depth of Gospel talent that this country has? Last year I took a deep dive into the Internet and what I uncovered was beyond incredible.

We are talking of millions of views that Sinach racks up on YouTube, Nathaniel Bassey whose hits stood side by side in volume with Olamide last year we are talking of Gabriel Eziashi whose Aka Jehovah video has almost 1 million views, and many Nigerians haven’t even seen him on the stage of the Experience. We are talking about a nest of crowd movers from Christ Embassy, a network of cultural influencers from House on the Rock and ministers you don’t even hear of in Lagos who fill church auditoria everywhere from Benin to Kubwa with songs that tens of thousands know.

Paul Chisom, Monica, Ronke Adesakon, Steve Crown, Lawrence and DeCovenant, Elijah Oyelade, Preye, Mairo Ese, Eben, Tosin Martins, Frank Edwards, Ada Vincent, Samsong, Jahdiel, Joe Praiz, Soltune, Martin PK, Isreal Strong, Ada, Henrisoul, Asu Ekiye, Chris Shalom, Buchi, Enitan Adaba, Flo, Lara George, Mike Abdul, Solomon Lange, Neville D – across Jazz, Folk, R and B, Hip Hop Juju, Apala, Ikworikirkwo, Highlife (my God, have you heard Ibitayo Jeje?), Alternative, Soul, everything. That is before you make me go to Agatha Moses, Sis Ranti, Gozie Okeke, Juliana Okah, Chinyere Udoma, and others the media mainstream hasn’t even begun to think about.

This is a deep wealth of opportunity – and possibilities.

So beyond singing worship on Sunday, crucial as that assignment is, what are we going to do with our ten talents?

How can you be the salt of the earth if the salt only adorns the food of your family members? How can you take over the earth if your light only shines in the bushel of the church? Did God send us to establish dominion over the church alone, or did he ask us to take it over the length and breadth of the earth that has been giveg to us as far as our eyes can see?

How can you influence a generation that isn’t paying attention to you?

The excuse will emerge. The Nigerian audience only welcomes gbangbandindin music? But then there are two problems with this excuse. First, the church has its own gbangbandindin – because there is nothing wrong with music that makes people dance. And second, this is the same country that has yet rewarded the hearts and sounds of Asa, of Timi Dakolo, of Cobhams Asuquo, of Waje. The possibilities are endless for a country of 160 million people.

Unfortunately, the reality is that we have been unable to harness those possibilities, crippled by our own inexperience, by the dogmas of Christianese that somehow allow Christians in other fields to soar and extend but unfairly and unbiblically limit the energies and capacities of Christian singers and those who chose to sing Gospel.

The perception of the public that a Christian singer is some kind of rarified act who receives his remuneration fro God in a secret room after performing, and the misplaced piety of artistes themselves who reduce the complexities of this art form – because it is in fact an art form – to the outward appearances of what they count as holiness also has become a major stumbling block to growth.

Gospel music is a genre. In fact if you get into the complexities of musical history, you will be told that Gospel, the term, which first appeared in 1874, is 9n fact a genre of Christian music. It was supposed to be, according to a school of thought, that aspect of Christian music that reaches far and wide into the world, and goes toe to toe with its peers.

After World War II, gospel music, according to the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, published in 1984, moved into major auditoriums and its concerts became, and I quote “quite elaborate”.

So let’s not allow people who read their bibles with local cultural lenses rather than with the intent it was written limit the potential for us to take over the world. Let us also not allow the perceptions of a blinkered population stop us from achieving full scale. We need to think seriously about how we will become cultural powerhouses and, yes, commercial legends. Because you are supposed to possess the wealth of those Gentiles.

To do this, we must begin to think seriously as business people – thinking of markets and their segmentations, thinking of the market value of what we do, and how we can communicate its value proposition, we need to think of the way that the church can serve as a midwife to create a movement that stands outside of it and moves beyond it and of course it is crucial to have an intellectual center like the Fellowship of Gospel Music Ministers of Nigeria (FOGMONN) to disperse knowledge, build networks, accelerate insight and propagate the possibilities of this limitless genre on the socio-culture of Nigeria, and, quite frankly, in the thriving epicenters of Alaba market.

We need to think about either exploiting existing networks or creating new networks of our own. We need to think of funding models including perhaps Christian challenge funds. We need to think of the place of technology and how it can drive numbers. We need to think of the Internet and how your Instagram followers can create a community that deepens financial upward mobility.

I think in this regard the church must play a crucial role as enabler. It’s not enough to gather artistes every time we want to fill the pews. It is time to begin to think as massively as the Experience has in exposing gospel to the mainstream. Churches must create platforms beyond using artistes for services and meeting to investing in facilities or gospel music to thrive with state of the art technology and partnerships for concerts, recordings and festivals that promote and reward artistes and their music.

Churches and ministries should begin to think of investments – including in subsidized or even free high-end studios with best-in-class technicians to compensate for those horrendously meager honorariums. Jesus Christ! Are we waiting for him to descend upon the temple again and flog us with whips?!

Dear church, a labourer is worthy of her wages.

So.

Open up those church auditoriums! Let the artistes use them to fill the hall with people screaming their names and the names of their God! Let us create superstars for the kingdom! Open up the networks used to sell the GO’s books and let the children of his kingdom find the space to explode! Open up the church! So that its children can eat the fruits of its land!

Then, it goes beyond the church of course.
How is it that you can be so blessed by Chioma Jesus and see her bring thousands to their knees just by showing up by the grace of Jesus, and yet you think as a Christian running a company or an organization that you cannot have the confidence to say: look, I have seen these guys move numbers, and we need them to drive our audience?

Video facilities, sponsorships and endorsement deals by companies owned and run by Christians is part of the possibilities mix, they must see the audiences that these artistes pull as audiences, beyond the Spirit that moves them. And ultimately, as a market.

Then there are the artistes themselves. They must treat themselves with the high standards and the savvy that the disciples showed as they rapidly expanded the boundaries of the kingdom. Best practice is crucial – in styling, in image, in media management, in performance, in vocal excellence, depth of lyrics, audio fidelity, and even embracing their own identity without being distracted the validation of the world because they see clearly the business model for this great world of possibilities.

Worship is where I go for strength, for clarity, for warfare. My friends and I have a small worship community we run every month in Lagos – where for almost two hours, all we do is war with songs. We have been honoured to be ministered to by Timi Dakolo, by Tim Godfrey, by Nathaniel Bassey, by Tosin Martins, by Lala Akindoju, by Glowreeyah Braimah, by Nosa, by Mairo Ese, by Lami Opere, by Pasyor Wale Adenuga, and they have blessed me. Oh, they have blessed me.

And I think it’s time that we tithed on those blessings, and we create a loop that ensures that they can continue to be a blessing to themselves, to their families, to their industries, to the world.

I need to young woman screaming, fainting, running stark raving excited when they see God’s servant, Glowreeyah walking the streets of Lagos.

FOGMONN is a crucial organization for a crucial mission.

I am not unaware of the complexities of running collectives for artistes. We have seen the failures of PMAN, of PMEAN, of COSON. We have seen the battles and the attacks; we have seen the failures and the disappointments. It is incredibly difficult to connect a group of talents together to work on a common, long-term goal where they cannot see immediately that cheques are being deposited in their accounts, or the glory in the immediate.

You should not be ignorant of the devices of that enemy. And it will come here. If it isn’t already here.

The brilliance and success of this crucial platform will depend on how successfully it navigates those pit falls and transcends the inevitable periods of famine to focus its members on the glory that will come after. People must see that if their sector thrives as a collective, then the individual will have a safety net to land upon, irrespective of his own peculiar weaknesses.

It is no mean task. There will be challenges, but his grace is sufficient and his strength is made perfect in weakness.

I choose to believe this inauguration signals that you are ready for the task that lies ahead.

FOGMONN shall become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. You will continue to grow stronger, and each of you will appear before God in Jerusalem.

Like trees planted by the rivers of water, which bring forth their fruits in season, and whatever you do will prosper.

In Jesus name.

_____________________________________

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

This is a Keynote Address given by Chude Jideonwo, managing partner of RED (www.redafrica.xyz) at the inauguration of the Lagos branch of the Fellowship of Gospel Music Ministers of Nigeria, on Friday, 8 July 2016

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