Chidi Anthony, general overseer of Kings in Christ Power Ministries International and President, Pentecostal Ministers Forum (PMF), spoke with JOHN SALAU on the impact of technology adoption on the 21st century Church. Excerpts:
What is your take on technology adoption and the Church; is it wrong for the church?
Yes, based on the question you asked me, technology and the current economy in this nation have reduced the church. That’s the truth. This is not the church of 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Let’s talk about the technology. If you check what is happening today in the social media, you know that they have brought the church to nothing. Look at what is trending today about the Lord’s Chosen. These things were not like there at the early stage. Yes, we have the bloggers, but some pastors are also not helping the matter. Many pastors today believe that the technology is the best way to reach out to people. Yes, it helps, but you find out that the disadvantage on it is far more than the advantage because people are not using it very, very well these days.
What are the disadvantages you have noticed personally?
Look at it today; pastors are fighting one another. The bloggers are the so-called Christians. Most of the bloggers doing these things today are Christians, but they are more interested in what they get as click revenue from what is trending. Yes, there might be people giving false testimonies and all the rest. And who are we? Because we are not there when such things happen so that we cannot stand and say it is a lie or not. Let’s just take it in the Old Testament about John. Assuming at this time that somebody woke up in the morning and said he was swallowed by the fish and stayed at the belly of the fish for three days and finally being vomited by the same fish, everybody will look at him as a stupid person. Let’s just take it that it is this time that Peter woke up and said Jesus asked him to walk on top of the sea and he did that. Nobody will believe his story. Let’s just take it that this is a time one pastor from anywhere will come and wake up and say he commanded fire to come down. Nobody will ever believe him. In fact, if such a thing happened, the Federal Government would have to come after the pastor. That’s the truth. So, to me, this so-called technology has reduced the church to nothing. Pastors are fighting one another every day. Today, about Jeremiah and Verydark Man and what is trending – before we know it, something new will trend by next month because in Nigeria now every month something must trend. So, technology is good, but people can clone a pastor and post it and before you could know it, it will be the story of the day.
As a pastor, what is your take on the current happenings in Nigeria; looking at the triangle of the Church, technology and society?
What I see is that people nowadays can just go online for one thing or the other, and one thing with this technology, especially social media is that anything posted on the social media will stay there for years. So, faith is being posted and the world is seeing it generally on social media nowadays. But, technology is killing the church logically because many of the things associated with fellowship of the brethren are gradually being lost to technology adoption. Not only is it killing the Church, the technology has caused a lot of damage to the Church.
Check around you; you will find that all these rituals and all the rest of the things that is happening today, especially with many of the young boys in their 14, 15, 16 years that entered into crime are usually because of their heavy exposure to technology. If you listen to them, they will say one baba they watched and they say they should come for money ritual, going to double money. And before you could know it, they will tell such person to go and kill their mother. Technology has damaged a lot of things. All these hook up girls you see today, most of them are online. Yes, you contact them through social media. So, automatically technology have not only caused a lot of damage in the church, it has also caused a lot of damages in the society. Most people today don’t even go to the church again. They will tell you that they will stay in their house and will fellowship online. The Bible said, don’t ignore the fellowship of brethren, which is gathering together at a place to serve this God. The Bible said in the Acts of Apostles, the apostles, they gather together, they lock themselves inside and they pray the Holy Ghost came down. When they were praying for Peter, Peter was in the prison. When finally he was released from the prison, he came and met the apostles, stayed at the place. But today, online service everywhere. People don’t go to church again. They wake up in the morning, they put on the television, they believe that the church is already in their house. One pastor will go to social media and the other one will quote another scripture. Social media has been a grind, a ring for pastors to fight each other. So technology is not helping the issue. Technology is killing the church of the 21st century. And it is only God that can save the church from it.
As the president of PFM, what can be done to sanitize the ecosystem?
As the president of PFM what I promote among young pastors is that we have to balance our adoption of technology to deepen and growth the gospel of Christ. So, at the moment technology is not helping the issue because many do not understand how to deploy technology for ministry work, which is why many are finding it difficult to manage their image on social media. The truth is that it is hard for somebody not to wake up and say, this is a pastor. I remember those days, if you know what I’m saying. In those days, you carry your vehicle and you put clergy on that vehicle and you’re moving on the road. When police see your vehicle and the clergy sticker; the next thing they will say, ah, man of God, please pray for us. And they will not even stop you. They will ask you to go. But today, try it. Put clergy in your vehicle and you meet any policeman – the policeman will say, immediately that he saw the clergy and he said, you’re a pastor. Before you could talk, he said, ah, we don see pastor tire. And begin to tell you a lot of things.
