“Hallelujah! Somebody bless the Lord with me right now,” the deputy leader of the choir, Oscar, gently spoke into the mic as he stepped onto the stage, the rest of the choristers following him.

Another Sunday in the Youth Church of the House of Mekadesh. Sly, as usual, was seated at the right side of the church that faced the podium, in the front seats with the rest of his colleagues in training. Praises and worship had been fabulous as usual, and the necessary announcements had been made. Now it was time for his favourite part of the service.

The song ministration before the sermon.

That lad Oscar had quite an anointing about him, and Sly was always delighted when it was his turn to lead a solo ministration. Of course, that was no shade to the others, but there was something about Oscar that always had him yearning for more. The lad knew how to usher him into the presence of the Lord.

“Anybody here love the name of Jesus?” Oscar asked, his free hand waving in the air. “Anybody here love the powerful name of Jesus, wave your hands with me, wave ’em, wave ’em… yes God, glory be unto Your name, Lord Jesus…”

The guy behind the keyboard started up the tune of ‘We Love Your Name’ by Jaye Thomas & The Cry, and the congregation murmured in excitement. The song had grown on them over the past month, and every opportunity to sing it was a grand one.

Sly’s heart swelled in anticipation of the song. Yes, any song that exalted the name of Jesus was a song worth loving.

“No other god can be called a father/no other god can be called a friend/no other god can be called redeemer/no other god is coming back again…”

The choir, led by Oscar, sang out passionately as the congregation joined them in the chorus. Sly, with his arms raised to heaven, belted out those beautiful lyrics as the atmosphere wasted no time in transforming into a hotbed of worship unto the Lord.

We love the fragrance of Your holy name/You came and brought us into the reign of grace…

Ten minutes of great worship it was while the choir ministered and the congregation joined them. Not a voice box in the hall was silent, virtually everyone was caught up in the flow of the song and sang along. Hands were raised, knees were on the floor, some lay prostrate on the ground… it was an awesome sight to behold, as the people of God gave their God His due.

“How we love You, King of Kings. How we love You, Lord of lords,” Oscar whispered softly into the microphone at the end of the ministration, his free hand in the air. “We love to bless You, Lord. We love to give You praise. Hallelujah, Lord!”

Sly was one of those who lay face flat on the floor. God, I love You, I love You, he whispered. How precious moments like these were! This was the period of the service he felt closest to the Object of his worship, and he was going to take advantage of every millisecond.

“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, somebody!” he heard Oscar declare before the footsteps off the altar.

The ministration was done.

He rose to his feet, clapping along with the rest of the congregation as the head pastor of the Youth Church made his way to the pulpit.

A dark-skinned young man in his late thirties, with a stout build and a full beard, Rev. Randy Ameyaw was one of Bishop Ario’s biggest fans. Having been born into the church, as his parents were one of the bishop’s first converts, this was the only church he had ever known. Growing up on the great respect he saw his parents harbour for him, he loved the bishop dearly and was more than ready to do anything for the man of God. When he was made a pastor, and was eventually appointed by Bishop Ario to take charge of the youth church, it was a dream come true.

What an opportunity to lead the youth of this great church to having the same amount of love and respect he had for the awesome bishop that changed his life and the lives of his parents!

“Hallelujah!” he boomed into the mic in his hand, his deep voice echoing through the hall.

“Amen!” the congregation responded.

“We bless the Lord for this day. We thank Him for His presence, and we thank Him for being in our midst and doing glorious things. Amen?”

“Amen!!”

Sly waited with bated breath. Now that some gratitude had been attributed to God, he knew what was coming next.

“There is a great man…”

The congregation began screaming their heads off, right on cue.

“A man who is the reason we are all here today…”

The yells of joy grew louder.

“He is the best gift God could ever give unto the body of Christ. The GREATEST soldier in the army of the Lord! Church, will you celebrate our only father, the one and only Bishop Ario Wells!”

The congregation yelled and hollered, running and jumping about.

“IF YOU’RE STILL STANDING IN THE SAME SPOT, THEN SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU! COME ON, GO CRAZY! GO MAD! GO INSANE FOR OUR FATHER!”

Hopping about in his standing place and clapping his hands, the look on Sly’s face would have one thinking he was fully with the craze in the church.

He wasn’t.

He didn’t mind showing love and appreciation for Bishop Ario. After all, this was a man of God he highly respected and revered, and was more than happy to thank God for his life.

The problem was, all this noise and demand for more noise carried a deifying vibe.

Almost like… Bishop Ario was deserving of a certain level of praise that only belonged to God.

And that did not make him comfortable. At all.

And this is where his zeal for service ended. At the sermon, which he knew was going to be centred solely on loyalty to Bishop Ario and Rev. Randy. With sprinklings of God’s name, just to make it look as Godcentric as possible.

How unfortunate.

***

“Okay guys, Pastor Kojo is coming. Let’s prepare ourselves.”

The voice of Jubilee Andoh got the group of pastors-in-training and church leaders in order. Previously chatting and laughing among themselves, they now sought to settle down as the lesson for the day was to be brought to them by the pastor.

Sly felt a slight churn in his stomach as Jubilee took her seat beside him.

There was no denying it: he still had the deepest of crushes on her.

A plump, moderately dark-skinned young lady with dimples and the brightest of smiles, Jubilee was the kind of girl that was easy to like. Aside from being such a pretty young thing, her love was Jesus was undeniable about her. Anyone who encountered her could not deny that this was a woman who absolutely lived for her Saviour.

She had joined the church about six months ago, and her passion for the things of God was plain to see. The leadership had thus wasted no time at all in getting her on board as a pastor-in-training. No doubt, they could see a great ‘Lady Pastor’ in her, and she ticked all the boxes for a future leadership position.

That was the issue, though. In all his interactions with her, it was plain to see that she was fully on board with the culture of the church, and saw nothing wrong. As far as she was concerned, everything going on in the church was on point, and those who had reservations were just Absaloms who had evil intentions for Rev. Randy and his men.

Peeking at her from the corner of his eye while Pastor Kojo came to stand before them, he quickly blinked and gave his head a slight shake.

Chale, if only she wasn’t an all-in girl. Coz she’s so beautiful…

“Pastors-in-training!” Pastor Kojo, the bald, bespectacled pastor, chanted before them.

They all raised their fists and responded. “We are Ario’s children!”

“Pastors-in-training!”

“We are Ario’s children!”

As Pastor Kojo began the lesson for this session, Sly found his attention split.

Half of it was on what the pastor said, which was basically a rehashing of all Rev. Randy had preached during the service. The various ways by which one could show disloyalty to the head pastor of the church, and the need to avoid them.

That had been the topic for about three months now, and inasmuch as Sly knew he had no business trying to dictate what the word for the church ought to be, he was feeling quite…

… dissatisfied.

Sure, the concept of loyalty was an important one. If the church was going to grow, everyone had to show some commitment to where they found themselves. There was a reason why he had chosen to join the House of Mekadesh; he believed his assignment in the Kingdom was connected to that church.

But all the sermons he had heard seemed to focus more on loyalty to a human being than on ultimate loyalty to God. And that was unsettling for him.

And as he sat there, listening to Pastor Kojo regurgitate the various displays of disloyalty, the unsettling feeling in his stomach was not calming down.

“Guys, listen. Me eh, when it comes to God’s will for my life, with regards to ministry, who I’ll marry, those sort of things, it is what Bishop Ario tells me that I’ll move with,” Pastor Kojo proclaimed proudly. “That’s how it is. Look, you need to pray to God to reveal His will for your life through the set man of God over your life. I’m telling you.”

Many nodded, including Jubilee, who seemed to passionately agree.

Sly just sat there, watching him with a straight face, while he internally doubled over in astonishment.

He was still trying to reconcile the scripture about God not being unjust to forget one’s labour of love with the puzzling claim of Rev. Randy that leaving a church invalidated any good work one ever did. Now this weird claim was popping up.

What did he just say??!! I have to ask God to reveal His plan for my life through my bishop? How? Aren’t we supposed to be encouraging others to develop their relationship with God? Dear Lord, help me. Please, help me. Coz this… this just don’t sound right…

***

An hour and a half later, the teaching session was over.

As usual, Sly had more questions than answers concerning everything that had been taught, but he couldn’t open up about them where he was. After all, any sign of disagreement with the teachings of Rev. Randy would immediately be interpreted as disloyalty, and he’d immediately get roasted and treated like a Hitler clone.

So he simply said his goodbyes to those he was closest to, particularly one guy called Benjamin.

“Chale, Benji, I dey bounce,” he said to him as they shook hands.

“Sure, sure, chale. Me, I get cell meeting in an hour’s time, so me di33, I still dey,” Benjamin responded, a slight grimace on his face.

“Oh chale. The good old CRMs, eh?”

“Good old CRMs di33, good old CRMs. Chale, make we talk later.”

“Sure, chale. All the best.”

As he exited the Youth Hall, Jubilee and another leader followed behind him, busy in conversation.

“But that thing Pastor Kojo said about praying to God to reveal your purpose through your man of God is serious oo!” the leader exclaimed.

“Yes, and it’s very true. I’ve seen it somewhere in the Bible, I don’t remember where, but yeah, it’s a major truth. I’ll look for it and send it to you, but it’s something plenty people don’t know. The blessings that come with God revealing your purpose through your man of God, eh, it’s not a joke…”

“Mmmm, I see…”

As the leader and Jubilee continued to talk, Sly cringed.

It hurt to hear the cutest and sweetest girl on that compound passionately defend the weirdest claim he had heard that day. Surely she had to be kidding about seeing those claims in the Bible. Because even if Sly didn’t have every single verse in his head, he knew for a fact that there was no support for such a belief.

“Heavenly Father, abeg, help me out,” he muttered to himself as he quickened his steps to get as far away from the conversation as possible. “The way things are going in this church, I just don’t feel right in my spirit. Please, help me…”

Okay, we can now see why he’s hesitant. Looks like he’s in one of them kinda church communities…