…As Nigeria’s Gen-Zs shutdown arenas for worship
As dusk falls over Lagos, worshipers in their numbers gathered across worship centres to welcome the New Year – something many see as a night of prophetic declarations and spiritual realignment.
For many of these worshipers, it was time to crossover from 2025 into 2026. For some, it’s time to move away from the old – accepting the new with all its clouds of uncertainty.
Again, some have tagged it a night of ‘CrossoverToTakeover’ – whichever group you belong to; New Year’s Eve (December 31) usually hold a special place for many individuals.
It is a night where many who had not been to a church or worship arena in the last 364 days suddenly remember the need to appreciate and praise the Supreme Being.
Many get into their praise mood to worship God for the outgoing year, and to also seek divine guidance for the New Year.
For those in Christendom, the special gathering to welcome the New Year is tagged ‘Watch Night Service’, which is now a tradition across all denominations of the Church in Nigeria.
However, a new trend of outdoor Watch Night Service is sweeping across the Church as worshippers now fill stadiums/arenas to capacity in worship and praise to God.
For instance, in the last 20 years, House on the Rock has shut down the 56,000 capacity Tafawa Balewa Square, while other mega praise concerts have also shown the growing interest in worship among Nigeria’s teeming youthful population.
On the other hand, The Elevation Church in the last two years has also filled the 20, 000 Mobolaji Johnson Arena to capacity with some overflow outside.
While the ‘Detty December’ fever has taken a global appeal every December – the Church is also showing that there can be a touch of ‘clean’ December in the ‘Detty’ with a growing number of young worshipers gathering for praise and worship.
As Lagos continues to lead in the mega praise concerts, states like Ekiti has also caught the fever with the annual Adoration Night.
Adoration Night held in Ido-Ekiti since 2023 is another example of the growing influence of mega praises in Nigeria.
Organised by a group of sons and daughters of Ido-Ekiti under the name ‘Ido-Ekiti for Christ Ministry’ a non-denominational group working to promote Christian virtues in Ekiti State.
While mega praise concerts like The Experience, Unusual Praise, among others rely heavily on gospel artists – organisers of Adoration Night instead leverage a 100-man mass choir raised from the various churches within the town.
Read also: The Experience returns with Jesus United, celebrates 20 years of extraordinary gospel concert
Concert cost
Organising a mega praise concert goes from venue to logistics, artists, and ticketing and takes into consideration – the location.
While many gospel concerts are ticket free, organisers usually require participants to pre-register online to get their e-ticket to access the venue.
That being said, organising a mega concert will require an average of 200, 000 USD (equivalent of N289m). This is going by an average of 5 A-list artists and an array of between 10 to 20 other artists.
However, artists are also expected to pay their band members, crew, equipment, logistics, hotels, and other touring expenses.
At the end of this, the artist walks away with less than 10 percent of fees paid by organisers.
Organisers however, bank on the ability to fill the arena to attract corporate sponsors, since the concerts are usually ticket free.
“We didn’t engage gospel artists. Rather, we funded the mass choir to the tune of about N600, 000,” said Babatope Ilesanmi, national coordinator, Ido-Ekiti for Christ Ministry.
But a Ghanaian event planner who pleaded anonymity said he pays between $40, 000 to $60, 000 to bring Nigerian A-list gospel artists from Nigeria to perform in Ghana. He also disclosed that some B-list gospel artists charge between $10, 000 to $20, 000.
For instance, gospel artists like Moses Bliss, Mercy Chinwo could charge as much as $40, 000 to perform outside Nigeria. While some in the category of Ada Ehi could charge between $10,000 to $20,000.
However, there is no available data to support what gospel artists charge to perform in Nigeria – simply because fees are largely undisclosed, while many artists only receive honorarium to perform.
This was corroborated by another source familiar with the ecosystem who also disclosed that gospel artists in Nigeria receive honorarium just like pastors invited to minister in other churches.
According to the source, for those who charge, it usually depends on the individual artists – while A-list artists like Nathaniel Bassey, Dunsin Oyekan do not usually charge.
“When they are invited, they weigh if the host can cater for their band, logistics and more. So, if they know they’ll end up using their own money to cater for these, they might turn down,” he said.
According to the source, A-list artists like Sinach charged about $30, 000 about four years ago. “I believe 3/4 years ago, she should be charging as much as $30, 000. “In my last event at Eko Hotel, I wanted to bring Mercy Chinwo and her email response to me was 8M.”
The logic of crowds
Emmanuel Moses, human resource manager, Kuddy Cosmetics International, said having a mega praise concert is a good initiative geared towards uniting the body of Christ.
“I believe that this is good. Scripture says God inhabits the praises of his people. And we are told in the book of psalms to praise God with high sounding cymbals. So I personally think it’s good.”
However, Moses who is also a Lagos-based pastor expressed some level of reservation concerning the motives behind many of the mega praises. “I just have issues with the spiritual depth of the various music ministers who come to lead in worship and praise songs. I fear that some of the music ministers do this carnally.
“Some don’t have any relationship with God. I know because when I listen to some of their songs, I see people who just sing to please the flesh, they mix instrumentals of worldly singers with theirs, they use vocabularies used by ungodly musicians just because the vocabulary is trending and it appeals to the younger generations.”
According to Moses, mega praises are platforms created for worship, adding that the primary motive must stay relevant no matter the pressure of secularity. “And the essence of the praise or worship program is that it pleases the Master, our Lord. But with what I see; I see a lot of flesh and carnality.”
Gbenga Osinaike, publisher, ChurchTimes, said the church and crowd in Lagos are two sides of a coin. According to him, the ability to pull large crowds to fill a stadium or arena is often seen as a symbol of acceptance.
“First, it’s not about the church in Lagos. It’s about the nature of churches generally wanting to have large gatherings. It’s often seen as a sign of acceptance. Some churches believe if they have not attracted the crowd they are yet to start. Some even preach that until your church causes traffic jam, that church is yet to start.”
However, Osinaike said the crowd is neutral and should not be seen as a symbol of success or arrival in Christendom. “This is an unfair parameter for judging the sanity of the Church though. Secular artists for instance also attract crowds in their programmes.
“That said, I think the crowd in the church tells us either of two things. It is either the church is doing something right or doing something wrong,” Osinaike said.
He added that the crowd in Lagos is often a fallout of the desire by worshipers to have their needs met. “Many are bugged down by spiritual needs while some are bugged down by their material needs and they think the Church is the only place where they can get a solution.”
According to Osinaike, many churches have also positioned themselves as solution providers, which is why many of the worshipers throng the churches. “Some are just interested in catching fun, while many attend some of these churches out of curiosity.”
The Lagos-based publisher of a Christian focus newspaper also urged church leaders to be careful and not get carried away by the mixed multitudes. According to him, the crowd breeds all kinds of immorality and indiscipline.
Osinaike however clarified his position about crowd pulling for religious events in regard to its impact on the Church – but insisted it is a wrong parameter to judge the health of the church.
“Irrespective of the pull, it’s important to note that the crowd in many cases has a negative effect on the spiritual growth of a church. Jesus did not encourage the crowd despite ministering to a large number of people. He knew that what the crowd was interested in was having their physical needs met.
“It’s instructive to note also that many of the people who followed Jesus in the three and half years of his ministry deserted him at the end of his ministry. At the upper room the disciples were just about 120 which is a far cry from the thousands of people that followed Jesus in his lifetime.” Osinaike warned.
He added that music is usually one of the instruments used to attract a crowd. According to him, programmes like The Experience and the likes have employed the power of music over the years to reach the country’s growing youth population.
“And it has succeeded largely in bringing the crowd. The issue of their transformation is another thing entirely. One is not too sure there is real impact given the overall fallout effect of the events on the society.”
