Eastwood Anaba laments 'too much entertainment' in church

Reverend Eastwood Anaba, the founder of the widespread Fountain Gate Chapel, has observed with great worry the prioritisation of entertainment in church services.

"Many of our churches would die," Rev Anaba posited in a recent sermon circulating on social media, if music were taken out of their programme outlines.

"It would be like the oxygen support has been removed," he mocked. "And that is because the entertainment in our churches, sometimes, I think, is too much."

Rev Anaba recalled witnessing several "conventions" where about two hours would be spent on "one song after another, choreography and somersaulting and all that" without the preacher having a word with the congregation.

"If you remove the entertainment, what is left in these churches?" he wondered.

He argued that, unlike modern Christian centres of worship, places like "mosques, chop bars, restaurants, lorry stations" etc, knowing "exactly why they exist," stick to their respective primary purposes with very little distractions.

"Our churches, what's the purpose? Is the purpose entertainment?" he asked, answering, also, "No."

The respected pastor intimated he is not against singing in church. However, he worried, much of the singing in church services is not directed towards celebrating God in honesty but rather "is just entertainment" for the congregation.

"We've followed the entertainment until we've lost the power [of God]," the pastor and author bemoaned.

He also rebuked church leaders for laying aside the demonstration of the power of God among his people; "cleansing lepers, raising the dead, making the cripple walk," and rather favouring going to "church on Sundays for business as usual," which he explained as: "sing, dance, preach a nice sermon, pick up your collection or your offering, and then get out".

"The house of God is for healing, the house of God is for deliverance, the house of God is for miracles, signs, and wonders, and I'm praying for every one of these Fountain Gate churches, may the Lord make us miracle workers; people who are operating in signs and wonders, especially knowing many of our churches are in villages where there are no specialist hospitals, there are no big schools – the pastor must be the surgeon-general of that village," Eastwood Anaba declared.

The founder and CEO of Eastwood Anaba Ministries' sermon was premised on a text from Isaiah 5:12, "They have harps and lyres at their banquets, pipes and timbrels and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands."

Joseph Eastwood Anaba is a Pharmacy graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ashanti Region. In 1988, he left the Pharmacy profession in pursuit of fulfilling his divine assignment. His Bolgatanga-headquartered Fountain Gate Chapel was initially called Northern Deliverance in Tears Ministry, alias NINTAM. Nintam, in Frafra, means tears.

Fountain Gate Chapel emphasises love, compassion, and humility.