The founder of a Celestial Church of Christ branch in Lagos State, Aderemi Dabiri, stated that the purpose of inviting Fuji singer Alabi Pasuma and street-hop artist Portable was to attract new converts.
“The clergyman conveyed this message in a video where he was seen addressing a delegation from the church’s task force who visited his parish for a discussion.
The white garment church faced significant criticism recently for including secular artists in its praise night event.
In clarifying the decision, Dabiri explained that the selection of the two artists aimed to reach out to deviants in society.
He noted that this method of evangelism had proven successful over the years, contributing to the growth of his church membership.
He said, “It is not our first time inviting guest artistes. We have been doing it without a problem and I can give you a series of instances. We cannot go where they sell palm wine or alcoholic drinks and ask them to accept Jesus Christ. If I don’t apply wisdom, they will hit a bottle on my head. That was why I thought of a way to bring them into the church.”
“I also noticed that there are some notorious boys who cause trouble in the community, disturbing the authorities and engaging in cultism. I wondered how can we draw their attention so that they would have a change of heart. We have gone to places where they are and they ended up beating us. Most of the members of my church are new converts and it was through that pattern that I converted them.”
In response to the concerns raised by the task force team regarding the ongoing controversy surrounding the development, Dabiri conveyed that he had no intentions of canceling the invitation. However, he clarified that he would address the artists’ excesses at the event, particularly those of Portable.
He said, “We will tell Portable not to dye his hair and he should not sing vulgar songs but to sing gospel music. We will also caution him not to dress inappropriately or climb the speakers.
“We will also warn him not to allow his boys to smoke here. We have invited close to 30 military personnel to man the event.”
The clergyman also called upon the global Celestial Church community to rally behind his vision, expressing confidence that his distinctive style of evangelism would bring pride to the church.