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+ Plus the inability of the Nigerians to understand complexity.
I will try and make this as brief as possible.
I had intended to write about Sinach and her dramatic rise in the world of global Christian music and then trace the elements of her rise. I wanted to show that the Iceberg Theory is at work, and hopefully, Africans can begin to understand complexity, systems and processes.
Sinach fascinates me. She’s a Nigerian worship leader who went MAINSTREAM in the global sense of it. That is unprecedented in the annals of Nigerian music – secular of Christian. If i am wrong on this note, my in-house Prof, Adeniji Toyin would correct me.
My reasons are simple. With her track ‘Way Maker’ she has racked up 146 million views on Youtube. You may think that’s not in the league of Beyonce. But if you put together the views formidable people who have produced versions/covers of her song, it may well be closer to half a billion or northwards of it.
The ‘Way Maker’ song has been covered by the heavyweights of the global Christian music industry such as Micheal W Smith, Darlene Zschech, Leeland, Bethel Music, and Mandisa. Others are Mahalia Buchanan, Mike Schmelzer, Steffany Gretzinger, and probably a million choirs all over the world.
I have no doubt whatsoever, that in the halls of worship, concert arenas and homes, that song would have been on the lips of hundreds of million of people, if not billions.
And i am talking about every continent on earth, regardless of language, race and colour. I have listened to the song, since i started my research, in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Chinese and a host of other languages.
I do really believe she will win a Grammy’s next year. Osinachi Joseph (née Kalu) is fantastic.
Any time i see someone shoot off into success stratosphere like this, i really want to spend time, to understand how and why they achieved that. I want to map the critical stages of their journey and identify the thresholds that catalysed the efforts.
This is where Pastor Chris Oyakhilome comes in.
If you can get past the Jherry Curls, the sleek Pastor Chris excites me as well. Not really in the spiritual sense (He’s a fantastic teacher, but i have other preferred teachers. He’s a great one though) but in innovation sense.
This man understands complexity and can see the whole picture. The first time i saw him on TV, i thought he was some Nigerian born preacher who was based in the US. That was because the quality of production of his services was world class. I am talking about Nigeria at the turn of the millennia. It was crisp, professional, quality and did not feel out of place with the best produced shows on international cable channels. It was by a long mile, ahead of all others in the local scene.
I later found out he not only invested the church’s money in top-of-the-range equipment, he actually sent a crew, 40% of whom were women (a feat still in patriarchal Nigeria) to learn end-to-end production process.
He also matched his level of intellectual and spiritual abilities to carve the position and image for his TV ministry.
For me, i always am very proud and appreciative of Africans, especially Nigerians who truly demonstrate that zeal and drive to be compete globally and shine. That takes guts regardless of my personal issues with Nigerian brand of Christianity.
He’s not afraid to take on ideas and recreate them with panache, studious stoicism and utter focus.
THE HILLSONG BLUEPRINT.
Pastor Chris may not have original ideas (very few of humans will have anyway), but he understands systems and what makes them tick and not afraid to make them work. This point to someone with ability to put ideas at the center of power.
For instance, the Rhapsody of Realities wasn’t original, but he adapted it to be a cross between the daily homilies of the American pastors and Jehovah Witnesses’ Awake. And whilst everyone was asking for a donation for books like that in Nigeria, he made it free.
Yookos was a clone of Facebook as a social media for his members. I don’t know of any other church in Africa to have attempted that. Whilst i don’t particularly like the insularity of the platform, it is no less a fantastic innovation and a refreshing thinking especially coming from a church.
LIMA Loveworld International Music show is a talent hunt/display platform adapted from Simon Cowell’s X-Factor. I must confess to you, i have seen a finale of one of that series in South Africa and i can tell you it’s pure quality.
This is a man who understands how to build a congregation and connect with them via affinity building. He knows the power of a brand. And that brings me to the Hillsong blueprint.
As you may be aware, Hillsong is a church that was founded by Pastor Brian Houston in Australia in 1983. At some point Pastor Brian realised music was going to be the focal point of his evangelistic ministry. He put a lot of effort into them, paying musicians salaries to focus on producing music. In no time, they upstaged Maranatha in America as the source of the most coveted worship songs which brought them a global recognition.
Their worship group have their own labels and sell millions of albums , reaching out to millions of worshippers. Darlene Zschech is one of the more global faces of Hillsong Music.
It was this idea that Pastor Chris took on and was able to reach out to teenagers and youths who have grown to become world beaters like Sinach.
I don’t know of any other African church that has been able to critically engage with, and sustained the attention of youths like Believers LoveWorld does. Someone who believes in their talents and put huge resources behind it, giving free expression to their boundless energies and seeing them fulfilling their promise.
All of these ideas could never have come from Pastor Chris. If an organisation is thriving like his is doing, he must be doing something super right! I don’t care what my own misgivings are with him, and i have a few, one must RECOGNIZE that it takes a genius to hold it all together…..
Not only in one country, not only on one continent but in multi-layered strata of society. From retired people to university students, professional people, and kindergartens the ORGANISATION of BLW is something to appreciate.
CRITICAL INNOVATION THRESHOLDS
WHICH PRODUCED SINACH.
Other Christian organisations in Nigeria could have produced someone like Sinach if they had the same thresholds that Pastor Chris and his organisation navigated.
Sinach didn’t just drop from heaven. These are the thresholds to consider.
a. FOCUS ON TALENT – By recognising, investing in and nurturing the talents of the youth in the area of music production, he engaged many youths out of which Sinach came out. Great talents need spaces to discover and practice. Lionel Messi was discovered in Argentina, but needed the philosophy of Johan Cruyff in Barcelona FC to become a world beater. The beginning matters.
b. INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION – Pastor Chris built a church that is truly international in dimension. I have been invited and attended their services in Nigeria and London a few times. With their big international conventions, a singer/songwriter like Sinach was given a platform to thrive. If the people loved her songs, they immediately took it back to their nations and introduced the song and the writer to new audiences.
c. CONNECTED CHURCH ONLINE/OFFLINE – The of Yookos and the LIMA LoveWorld International Music Talent show is a global event. That thrusts you into many markets and peoples by being a member. If the Pastor sings one of your song on the Yookos platform or people watch clips at the festival, they searched you out on Youtube and give you attention.
All these were catalysts for the rise of Sinach. Just like we cannot have Darlene Zschech without Pastor Brian Houston, we cannot have the Sinach we know today without Pastor Chris.
This is important. I am sure they will produce many more global worship leaders. I am only surprised they haven’t turned their attention to film/movies. You’d be sure they will do well.
PASTOR CHRIS AND 5G.
We are men. Therefore fallible. Only God is infallible. I am forthright with my views on religion because i kept quiet for so long. And i am not shackled anymore.
I do think Pastor Chris got it wrong on the connection of 5G to the spread of Coronavirus. That is obvious.
But he does have a point in thinking we need to be wary of Corporations. I don’t trust those mofos. If you still think that is conspiracy, you cannot be helped. Look in this link for how Radium was put in most household goods in the 60s and sold as the miracle substance. How many hundreds of thousands died from Cancer? https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/how-we-realized-putting-radium-in-everything-was-not-the-answer/273780/
But whatever it is, i really don’t care.
What i mean is this, in ANY society, there will be a difference of opinions. Some of these opinions will be valid. Some will be invalid.
That doesn’t mean we strip people of their respectability. We must learn to understand a faux pas, deal with it and not seek to take them to a cliff edge and kick them off it.
I mean i love a robust debate in the public sphere. We need it. We must encourage it. And we must be able to shut down bad ideas without the ones who propose them feeling they cannot bring other ideas to the table again!
Even the best minds and scientists have got it wrong.
I’d leave you with this lines from a podcast (you also have the transcribed version in the link)….
“Ever heard of a guy named Charles Darwin? How about Linus Pauling, Albert Einstein, Lord Kelvin, Fred Hoyle? OK, I know that most of you have heard of those names, because these guys are some of the brightest minds in the history of science. But they all have something else in common, too. They all, at some point in their career got, something terribly wrong. That’s right, terribly wrong. And being right doesn’t always mean you never make a mistake.
Take Darwin, for example. His theory of evolution by natural selection, the key to that theory, the way favorable traits are passed on, it’s through genes. The only problem is Darwin did not understand genetics. In fact, his original idea of how inheritance worked would have been discredited. It would have discredited the whole process of evolution.
And it’s just one of the fascinating stories in my next guest’s book, “Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein.” Mario Livio is the author. He’s also an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
Pastor Chris got it wrong. Those who want to shout down every dissenting voice without learning the lessons and letting it serve as a debate to better the system are also getting it wrong.
That’s my view.
