‘Social media can destroy your ministry,’ Poju Oyemade warns young Nigerian pastors

Covenant Christian Centre pastor Poju Oyemade has warned his young colleagues against getting addicted to social media hype.

“Let me tell you,” Oyemade, who has a history of using money to promote his own Facebook posts, said, “to young people listening, to preach on this altar is easy.”

“You can prepare a good message and come to preach, and you are anointed. And when you come down, they say, ‘Great message! great message!!’ That doesn’t mean you can build a great church.

“This is why at times older ministers are careful about younger people because you will be guilty in heaven for premature exposure of a younger minister.

“For the Bible says ‘do not promote a novice lest he be lifted up with pride and fall under the same condemnation as satan’.

“So, if you promote a novice and because of that he came under condemnation and started behaving like a rascal, God will hold you responsible for promoting somebody before his time.

“You think once people follow you on twitter you are a champion. I tell people, ‘I have more followers on twitter than Bishop Oyedepo,’ a man that is opening 10 thousand churches in one year.

“There is Twitter game and there is ground game. (Social media) likes don’t mean they will come to your church. That is what is confusing people. ‘I got 400 likes’. They can like your poster and not show up at the meeting.

“Social media can become the greatest killer of ministry because people’s desire for likes and followership will make them tamper with the authenticity of the message God has given them.

“I can assure you, if you go there and say, ‘Repent of your sins,’ nobody is going to be retweeting. Or you say, ‘The works of the flesh are…,’ and you start listing them, they won’t retweet.”

Oyemade’s comments were reported by Church Gist on Sunday.