•To Keep Them Busy During This Lockdown
Many states have been on total or partial lockdown, since the global outbreak of the pandemic disease, Coronavirus also known as COVID -19. And it has practically brought many sectors to a halt.
It has also affected human lives in a way that it has disrupted social activities and put it on hold temporarily. Since the announcement of no social or religious gathering whatsoever, many pastors have devised other means to get across to their members scattered around the world.
Consequent to the earlier announcement by the Federal Government to practise social distancing and avoid large gatherings of over 50 in headcounts, leaders from notable Churches such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries. House on the Rock, Daystar Christian Centre, KICC and Trinity House have all taken drastic measures to ensure that they comply with the new guidelines imbibing social distancing thereby preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Several of them have released statements announcing that during this period, church services will hold via online channels and physical gatherings will be discontinued.
This season of total lockdown is a time where couples have to spend time together with their families in a long while, it has brought many reunions between some families and has also strengthened family ties. Many pastors who have a special calling in dealing with relationship issues, marriage, love and dating have exceptionally maximized this period to get across to many couples in the comfort of their homes via their online programmes. They have been able to use the strength of the social media to pass many information, share experiences, pray, worship with their many followers and esteemed audiences thereby gaining new ones every day.
Most especially the women have dedicated time to be on these programmes and the feedbacks have been amazing. On Social media, especially the Instagram and YouTube channels, this pastors share voice and visual and it makes it very convenient. The tool they are using is inviting, useful, and creative in many relationships, having the power to enhance their existing relationships and the encouragement to create new friends and new collaborators. In fact, they excel in this.
Pastors like Pastor Bisi Adewale has been very prominent online in the last few days, he has been organizing daily programmes for married couples. His excellent wives 3days conference was tagged on how to win your husbands love and attention, and it has garnered many followers for him. He is very versatile in his relationship calling and he has used this device to address couples who are staying together in this lockdown period. He also does breakthrough for singles and married summit.
Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo whose calling is on love, dating and marriage and whose passion is to help people have successful marriage also had some mind-blowing programmes via his social media page. He held an Instagram live Session titled COVID 19 relationship:Dos: and Donts, it was a sold-out session where the feedbacks and participation were amazing. He also did a session titled. How you can define a successful marriage. This and many more were his sessions for Couples and Singles during this lockdown.
Fela Durotoye too, a top motivational speaker who is versatile in the word of the bible also took some online session on relationships tagged, “What every lady should consider before accepting his marriage proposal”. It also gained prominence online.
What about the popular female pastor, Funke Adetuberu is another hot motivational speaker cam pastor. Her presence online through this lockdown is also amazing. She has wowed many of her followers through many programmes online. She pinpointed some cogent points and advised couples, singles and adult raised from dysfunctional homes on some of the things they need to do this lockdown period.
She spoke on cybersex, porn and phone sex and how people can deal with such addictions. She also did programmes like relationship rescue where she shared 600 questions to ask in a relationship. Her programme she matters on radio has gain a worldwide audience because she focuses on mostly relationships. Popular fashion couturier and minister of God, Nkechi Ngonadi is also very strong on social media. She gained many attention of couples especially this lockdown season as many had time to join all her various programmes on social media. She started the war room prayer which has pulled over thousands of followers to her page and she also came up with many prayer guides for this lockdown season. She specialized in praying for spouses, prayer against violence in marriages, revoking every evil marital decree against the marital settlement, prayer for firstborns, couples looking unto God for the fruit of the womb, prayer over sickness, prayer for children and so many. She touched almost all the corners of prayers in marriages and for the singles. She also advised her followers on how to attend E-churches.
Many pastors and most churches who have embraced social media have found it to be a viable method of expanding their church community and outreach into the virtual and physical world and while being successful at it, they use it for communicating with current members and reaching out to new ones. They do so and gain more audience via tweeting a daily message or Bible verse, broadcasting regularly scheduled podcasts, Uploading videos of sermons or other spiritual teachings, Sharing blogs written by the minister or other church leaders They use this means through this lockdown to meet real needs in real-time by focusing on the Family and focusing on real-time online communication with people struggling with family-related issues.
As custodians of God’s word, they are called to influence the world and social media is where people have access to ask fast questions, look for quick answers and spend time researching. Studies show that an average person spends close to 2 hours a day (118 minutes) on social media and this has been a veritable medium especially in this lockdown period where this pastor gets their audience attention thereby helping them build a big community online.
Social media is not just a trend that will fade away. It is an evolution that is here to stay. It will continue to grow and influence the way we communicate with each other especially in seasons like this.
TAYO FAJORIN OYEDIJI
