Rev. Fr. Chinenye Oluoma, a Catholic priest in the Abuja Archdiocese, has chastised gospel musicians who demand huge payments to perform in churches.
The debate over whether church musicians or gospel performers should be compensated for the services provided has existed from the beginning of time.
While many clerics hold that gospel performers shouldn’t charge admission fees because what they do is the work of God, gospel musicians contend that because songwriting and rehearsing are time-consuming tasks that must be completed in order for performances to be flawless, they too deserve to be paid appropriately. In some cultures, pastors are paid to preach.
Fr. Oluoma, during his recent sermon, decried how religious worship has become costly.
Citing Mercy Chinwo as an example, the cleric, in viral video, reteirated that the gospel singer charges N10M as performance fee in churches.
His words;
“We have made religious worship expensive. If I have to bring Mercy Chinwo to come here and sing, how much will I pay? She might charge 10 million naira. Then I will have to collect the money from church members to pay her.
These are the tragedies we have brought into the church; an artiste will come to the church to minister for 10 million or 5 million, that’s much. I’m not against paying her, you must pay her because you invited her”.
