‘There is no place for entertainment in true worship of God’

Reverend Femi Popoola is the pastor-in-charge at Divine Mercy Baptist Church, Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos. In this interview with SEYI JOHN SALAU, Rev. Popoola speaks on the church, the youth ministry and why the youths seem to struggle with spirituality, neglecting the things of God as they seek to satisfy their needs.

What is your view about the youth ministry in our churches today?

Maybe I should use my own experience. This is a youthful church. We have a lot of youths in our church, and they keep coming, and it is needful because the elderly ones are almost gone. If there are no youths, that means there will be nothing left behind. But the challenge of ministering to the youths is quite enormous because of so many factors. The major factor has to do with financial matters. As youths, it is a time to run around, get yourself together and prepare for your home and everything, and because of that most youths do not give the needed attention to spiritual things. A lot of things are distracting the attention of the youths nowadays. Some youths are over-ambitious because of the things they want to accomplish. I see a lot of youths that even though they come to church, they are always mindful of the time they spend in church. They can spend a lot of time for other things but when they come to church, they feel most things should be as snappy as possible and they show little commitment to the things of God. When we look at the commitment of the youths, it is somehow worrisome; they are not so committed because of numerous challenges, such as marital issues. It is not easy for one to ignore these challenges which are rubbing on the youth ministry.

Having said all that, I think we still need to be grateful to God and encourage the youths because it is understandable. The elderly ones that we may likely compare them with, some of them in their own days were not faced with some of these challenges the youths are facing now. It’s these challenges the youths are facing that are making it appear that they are not getting their priorities right, especially in terms of spirituality, because spirituality is the basis. And that is what I usually tell them: once you get it right spiritually, every other thing will follow. But because of the normal socio-economic problems around now, the youths tend to look to those things and neglect spirituality. The fact remains, however, that if we want to move forward as individuals, as a society, nation and church, we cannot neglect the youths.

How do we bridge the gap between the older generation and the youths of the church?

There are so many ways we can do that. Number one thing we need to look at in our society is that a lot of godly virtues are being eroded and some of these things, the youths did not just pick them from anywhere, they copied from the older generation. It is the ripple effect of what the older generation had sown that the youths are now beginning to reap. Having said that, that does not mean that if the generation before you is messing up, you too have to do that. So the youths need to first of all return to God and embrace godly virtues. The youths need to do away with vices like taking to crime, imbibe honest life and think positively and creatively. They should avoid over-ambition. Yes, the situation is tough, but if they trust God and do His will, it shall be well with them. The youths must be ready to take responsibilities; they must be ready to make sacrifice – these are the things that will make their situation change. In the process of doing all these, things that have gone bad will begin to rebuild themselves and work.

You talked about creativity, but in being creative, can the church deploy entertainment in getting the youths to embrace the things of God?

You are asking a very important question that must be approached very carefully. The fact is that Baptist is different from the new generation churches. Doctrinally, when it comes to worship, we believe in solemn worship. Yes, music is part of worship, yet we expect that music should be solemn in the way we worship. In that regard, yes. We do not encourage entertainment in the church; the two do not go together because there is no place for entertainment in worship, but that does not mean the youths even in our church cannot be involved in entertainment. Entertainment is entertainment, and worship should be worship. So, I find it as something that cannot be reconciled when you try to take entertainment along with worship; they do not go together, and if you are doing that, you will be violating the tenet of the bible. The thing is that, like in our church, entertainment will go with social activities that we can organise, and we know that this is a social event. So, when it comes to worship, entertainment should not be merged with worship. But you can organise a get-together where the youths showcase their talents, there is no crime in that because you know it is a social gathering though being organised by Christians. But in a situation whereby you bring entertainment into real worship, then you will be violating the bible.

Christ prayed for the church to be one. Can you categorically say the church in Nigeria is one as Christ would have wanted?

I want to thank you for referring to the bible talking about the prayer of Jesus Christ, “That they may be one”. But when we are talking about the unity which Jesus Christ prayed for, first of all, it has nothing to do with physical unity. The unity that Jesus Christ prayed for has to do with the spiritual, and it is not just coming together that makes us united. If you go to the book of Philippians, Apostle Paul was talking about the things that unite the church: he talked about unity of faith, unity in the spirit, unity in so many ways. So, Christ in that prayer is expecting that we will be united in our doctrine and any group of people can just gather together and say this is a church, but that does not make it a church because there are some basic things that you expect a church of Jesus Christ to possess. In that case, I would say that the true church is one all over the world, and in Nigeria, the true church is one. But the unity Jesus Christ talked about does not necessarily have to do with the outward unity.

Nigerians are divided over the calls for restructuring the country – some are for it while others are against the idea. As a pastor, where do you stand on the issue?

Let us look at the issue first of all. Let us look at the way Nigeria evolved and you will realise that there are so many issues in the evolution of the nation Nigeria. But be that as it may, we have come together, and I believe that God has a reason for allowing all of us that make up the Nigerian nation to come together. So, looking at it from that perspective and the way we have been existing together, you can see that if things are done the way they should, we will not have any problem. The reason we are having problems is that things are not being done the way they should and that is why we are having some people feeling maltreated and some being treated unfairly. But if there will be equity, justice in Nigeria, I do not think there is any need for us to break away from the Nigerian nation – that is my own opinion. But right now things are not ok, and unless we do something about it, it could degenerate into something that will be unwholesome.

Who is Reverend Femi Popoola?

By the grace of God, Rev Femi Popoola pastors Divine Mercy Baptist Church, Ikosi, Lagos. I am married with children. I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) in Communication and Language Art from the University of Ibadan and a Master of Divinity in Theology from the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso. At present, I am almost rounding off with my MA programme in English from the University of Ibadan. I have been pastoring this church for about eight years.