Aderemi Dabiri, the founder of a Celestial Church of Christ branch in Lagos State, explained that he invited Fuji singer Alabi Pasuma and street-hop artist Portable to draw new converts to the church.
The white garment church recently came under fire for including secular artists in its praise night event.
The cleric, Dabiri, explained in a video address to a delegation from the church’s task force that the decision to invite the two artists was made to attract deviants from society.
He emphasised that the adopted evangelism pattern had proven successful over the years, contributing to his church’s notable growth in 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.”
While criticising certain gospel ministers for perceived disrespect, Dabiri stated that he prefers to invite secular musicians to his events.
“Some gospel ministers are rude. If you talk to some of them, they respond rudely, but the day I called Pasuma, he sounded respectful on the phone and also agreed with my stance,” he said.
Addressing the concerns raised by the task force about the controversy, Dabiri affirmed that he had no intention of canceling the invitation.
However, he mentioned plans to curtail the excesses of the artists during the event, particularly focusing on 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 cleric earnestly appealed to the global Celestial Church community for support, expressing confidence that his unique style of evangelism would bring pride to the church.
