Psalmist and gospel music minister Nathaniel Bassey began a thing he dubbed the Hallelujah Challenge on Instagram this month. ‘
Basically, believers gather on Insta Live to worship God in song and pray. The time is midnight and the date is every day throughout the month of June.
It is the first of its kind and it has been a rousing success, judging by the skyrocketing numbers every night and the marvellous testimonies.
Media entrpreneur Joy Isi Bewaji is a skeptic. What’s the point of the Hallelujah Challenge if it does not solve any of Nigeria’s problems, she asks in these series of rants posted on Facebook.
These are the 7 things we learned:
1 Nigeria is fertile ground for religion
#HallelujahChallenge will succeed bigly in Nigeria. That’s a given. Not a miracle.
Religion is the bedrock of our confidences and convictions.
Reinhard Bonnke succeeded in the 90s with his exaggerated revivals in Nigeria.
Adeboye succeeds every first Friday of the month, leaving travelers along Ibadan-expressway pulling out their hair (the irony of that situation: a god worshiping mission that makes people swear and curse in god’s name for hours of traffic they have to suffer just so a few can practice a religion).
Christ Embassy succeeded on Television. No ministry is yet to beat the hours dedicated to Oyakhilome’s theatrics.
Religion succeeds in Nigeria.
If I start a church today, it will succeed. Calling or no calling.
Because we are not people given to anything apart from an obsession with things we cannot see or have any control over, whilst all that we see rot away and are destroyed by our innate corruption.
2. The Hallelujah Challenge will change nothing in Nigeria
This cute online revival will change nothing; even if we gather half the numbers in Nigeria to spread their faith on third mainland bridge and cry out to God (apart from that good feeling that plasters your heart after belting out and sweating on a few hallelujah songs).
This is the era of knowledge. We are not Israelites under Moses. Salvation has come. Jesus has come and died. What else do you want?
3. We need a mental revolution
We have had too many spiritual revolutions. What we need is a mental one.
You cannot pray Nigeria to greatness. It is impossible for God to move in a country where we allow our police to discard rape cases with the wave of a hand, and our politicians rob us blindly. It is not up to God to save the rot in our educational institutions or fix the drainage on our roads. It’s up to us. And we can’t do any of that on our knees. We get shit done in 2017 by cerebral drudgery.
Religion is like soda. It’s Coca-cola. That drink isn’t going to save anything. It’s feel-good… and like Coke, we are addicted to this feel good process. Every Sunday we go to church to get our feel-good tablet. Then we have to come out of that fix after a few hours and face the issues that have been haunting us for decades, still unsolved. Still in need of a different approach.
Religion makes us vulnerable, self-centred and clearly delusional. It attacks our rational and coherent capacity.
4. Revivals are Nigeria’s biggest achievement
Things are moving well in your life and a miracle occurred in your life and you finally got an answer to something that had been bugging you in your life because you prayed. But your prayer doesn’t have the depth or promise to change the problem called Nigeria. Your little success is beautiful. But what does it matter when every part of the country you call home is a wreck.
If you have beautiful lips but your body is ravaged by cancer, what then does it count for – those beautiful lips?
#HallelujahChallenge will succeed bigly. That’s a given. Not a miracle.
Why then are y’all so surprised that you can gather 50,000 people online? Revivals are our biggest achievements. The most educated will bow to a man of God who couldn’t pass his WASSCE exams. It is why we are what we are.
Stop being so shocked that people want to serve God. It is what we do. It is the only thing we do well. When we are done, we go back home and justify a paedophile, or delay the transaction of a debt, or bear false witness. Or choose any of the 100,000 ways to live sinfully. Then the process continues the next Sunday. Like a dark cycle, like playing russian roulette, until your own dark faith and spinelessness kill you.
5. We need a different challenge
God, however, wants you to get your knees up and go challenge your Local government for a start. He wants you to write a petition and follow through in regard to Queens’ College. Or choose any 100,000 ways to fix your country.
Try #ScienceChallenge, a hashtag that hopes to promote facts through experiment and observation, and see how far that will go. It definitely will not get 50,000 people questioning why we, a people of over 170million, cannot produce our own malaria drugs.
Do you know if they close the borders of Nigeria we will all die? Over 90% of our daily needs are imported. Even toothpick.
But prayer is the key. Smh.
Rant 883
6. Religion is Nigeria’s greatest obstacle to growth
Is Nigeria’s spirituality productive? Don’t share personal stories. Even heathens and infidels have glorious personal victories.
The question is: has spirituality affected Nigeria as a country in politics, education, economy, vision, leadership? Is it taking us closer to first world realities… or is it just helping you as an individual sell more garri in your shop?
Nigeria’s spirituality isn’t interested in ensuring better healthcare, for instance… it only wants to heal a child of pneumonia miraculously, which it hasn’t even yet succeeded in doing.
There’s no holistic mission for religion in Nigeria. You want to drive a fine car through bad roads and call it a blessing. Build a Lekki house right in the middle of a street with bad drainage and call it a blessing.
These personal victorious are cringe-worthy, pedestrian and ridiculous.
7. Nigerian Christians need to grow up
You are not developing your minds. That is why we have to break this down to tiny bits of information so you can burp on it like a child still being fed cereals.
When will your spirituality and church-going and hallelujah-shouting graduate to tough meat and sound knowledge?
We don’t need spirituality to succeed or develop or curb our excesses as a failed country.
Religion/spirituality, as a matter of fact, is our biggest obstacle to growth.
We still believe God will do som’tin… and your faith will heal the land… and your prayers will touch the hearts of our leaders so they can stop looting.
Lol! Shoot me!
Deal with the loot in your respective religious centres first. Then deal with your own duplicity. That should keep you preoccupied for the next decade.
You don’t need God’s permission or even His blessing to build a first world county. Our minds can do so much. And HE gave us that mind. We are blessed already.
I don’t do my children’s homework. I stopped since grade 3. I provide. Children, go and read and pass. You don’t need me.
I know when I need to come in. You can’t be children forever. Kill your cockroaches with your own broom, make your sandwich by yourself, sweep your room, wash your toilet, throw your clothes in the washing machine, change the bedsheet, negotiate with the shoemaker by yourself.
Don’t call me.
When are you going to grow up?
That’s parenting. And if God is your father, why do you expect His parenting to be different from ours?
[See also]: “7 priceless answers to critics of the Hallelujah Challenge”
This article was culled from Facebook
My people perish coz dey lack wisdom ,,,,d bible also says wisdom is profitable to direct ,,,,don’t be deceived by d kingdom of darkness ,,,,,if u can not sing a song of praise to god den who did u want to sing it to ,,,, u better mind ur speech so dat d holy spirit will not strike u ,,,,,,go back to ur bible and read wat god does to those dat oppose him ,,,,i pray dat may ur sins be forgiven
Tremendous issues here. I am very glad to peer your
article. Thank you a lot and I am looking ahead
to get in touch with you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
As sarcastic as she may seem, I must admit she raised a point or two…a mental revolution one of them. Christians are meant to be the light we’ve been praying for. We must pray and praise to receive power to do God’s will.
Christians can unite over genuine causes. if the hallelujah challenge is possible, anything is.
This is a long shot at very cheap popularity
For Your information Pastor Nathaniel Bassey is a Professional Musician with Talent and Skill in Music….
He has trained himself and he is contributing value by singing and Praising God….
He is a Musician and He contributes to Nigeria’s GDP just like Nollywood and All the other Secular Musicians do!
Woss Wobi….
Listen ooooo
Aunti.Isi Bewaji…..
You start the science challenge or blogging challenge or whatever you want.to.contribute to Nation Building…..
You cannot become Great by Criticizing Greatness in display…..
Let Brain borrow you sense oooo
Abiii You be Winch nii….
Who paid you to write against A Worshipper ?
Aunti….Wo….
You can easily become barren ooooo…..
If you have no.challenge to contribute and launch on social
shut UP!
2 Chronicles 7:12-14 And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and TURN from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bible.kingjamesbiblelite
Praising is great, prayer is awesome.. However, until we Forget the Religiosity without the fear of God, we are only making noise. Only when we turn from our disobedient living and work the talk (faith without works is dead) can things change…healing of our Nigeria. Worship is a life surrendered to Jesus as Lord and master. Is He really our Lord? Or is he our problem solver, our spare tyre.. and that’s all.
Let’s seek Him and serve Him the way He instructs us to in His word and not as we see fit (Do we even read His word anymore?… Like study and meditate on it?). Look around… With all our ‘churching’ … No impact. Why? Do we truly know that Jesus who gave His all for us? Or are we a generation who think they know God, but are actually without God?
Hmmmm…I seriously think we are loosing Joy in translation here…Calm down….Read again… She’s christian…she believes in miracles….she even quotes scriptures….What she’s trying to get across albeit with so much attrition is that…being religious is different than being spiritual… that God has already blessed us and we should use our brains…my only gross with her is that she has piggy-backed on a trending issue instead of starting hers….so it appears to some people that she’s a devil’s advocate….
P.S. Some of us here think you’re replying to Joy…emm…the posting here is an OP-ED…why am I not surprised??
Lol morons everywhere who won’t see beyond their nose. The British colonised you and brought you Christianity, yet they don’t carry it on their head as you do. This has not prevented their economy from booming, in fact their currency is the strongest in the world while you who’s here insulting her for telling you the truth struggle to feed despite your ‘love for God and Christianity’. Your citizens and the biggest hypocrites in the world.
miss or Mrs joy…God av mercy on u…u think bcos u re a media critic u can stand out n say things like dis…I just pray for u cos I don’t want to insult ur shallow mentality…
My advise to you is to get really busy and submit your life to Christ. It isnt your business what we do with our nights worshipping our God and Father. Redirect your anger to those that are ‘troublers of Nigeria’ because Our Halleluyah challenge is changing everything to the glory of God. The destiny of our dear nation is manifesting and we shall behold it
Poor Shot at trying to Be Revelant…
Critic.
God will prove you wrong. He created us to praise Him.I pray God reveals Himself to you. Amen.
God Will prove you wrong. He created us to praise Him. I pray God Reveals Himself to You. Amen.
funny enough, the only thing that kept coming to my kind as I read this article was the song: Onise iyanu, You’re the God of awesome wonders… Am I on the right track or what? lol
Why are you bothering with the attention seeker. She can only make mouth at Christians, come and abuse or put your dirty mouth on islam and fatwa will be on you and your family
There’s no point ma’am, you just want to gain popularity and recognition.
We know such strategy. Your claims and assertions about the followers and church of Christ evidently shows that you know nada about us or our Lord Jesus Christ.
You are forgiven for your ignorance. We will pray for you to be enlightened; only then can you share our matchless joy and blessed hope.
Shalom.
This is another daughter of Jazebel seeking recognition. Note her and ignore her.
joy or what are you called..since you have the solution to Nigeria problems..then start with the challenge and we wud all follow you instead of talking that never solved the problems..you have no point bcos u sef have refused to provide the solution that Nigerians need..so let kip on serving n worshipping God cos that’s our purpose of existence..You are a christian u r castigating the christ-like amongst us..how many tyms do u see Muslims castigating theirs…SMH for u
Would u follow #sciencechallenge ? Shebi u r only doing ‘karimi’ upandan? By the way y’all aren’t Christian. You’re just a bunch of Jews and Pharisees. All tradition, no substance. Much like Muslims. #NotJudgingJustSaying
truth hurts
Joy or whatever the hell you call yourself… you made a whole lot of sense in your article but don’t you ever say that this Hallelujah Challenge will produce nothing, Cause you are wrong on that. And don’t be attacking Christianity it’s not a religion it’s a relationship. And besides since you called it a religion, also remember we have other religion that are as evident as Christianity. Don’t be among those who are quick to attack Christianity probably cos you want the other religions to applaud you.
Spot on
Things are already changing
Abi o