Encomium
The National Youth Affairs of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) will on March 2, 2015, write their names in the record books as they stage a 73-hour non-stop praise and worship programme to commemorate Pastor E.A Adeboye’s 73rd birthday.
The programme, tagged Marathon Messiah’s Praise, is an annual event which started in 2012, when the General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, clocked 70. A 70-hour non-stop praise and worship session was held to thank God for his life – each hour for each year of his life. This year, Daddy Adeboye (as he is fondly called) clocks 73, thus a 73-hour marathon praise will be held.
The programme is scheduled to hold at the Youth Centre Redemption Camp and will begin on March 2, 2015 (Daddy Adeboye’s birthday) at 2 pm and end at 3pm on Thursday, March 5, 2015.
ENCOMIUM Weekly spoke with Daddy Adeboye’s last child and Senior Special Assistant, Gbemileke Adeboye who spoke on the programme…
This is the fourth edition of the Marathon Messiah’s Praise. What should we expect this year?
I see it as an avenue for God to focus attention on a place for a long period. If you were somewhere and someone is hailing you, singing good things about you, you’d turn your attention to the person. In fact, you’ll like going there more than where people would abuse you. In that same view, if you look at what we are doing, it is praising God. Though it’s on behalf of the man of God, God’s focus will be in that particular place at that time. I see it as an avenue for anybody that has anything he wants to request from God to come because you can more or less guarantee that whatever request you make in that place and in that time frame, you’d get it answered by God.
Who are some of the artistes that would be featuring in the three days?
The Holy Spirit comes first, we can’t push Him out of the way. Overtime, we’ve had an elder, Ebenezer Obey, he was with us last year. Hopefully, he’ll be with us this year. All the top artistes that you know in Nigeria are going to be there. But then, we are hoping we’ll get more. I’m not supposed to say this but one of the artistes I would love us to have is Donnie McClurkin. I know he’s in Nigeria right now and we’ve had contact with him. We’ll try to bring everyone to come and praise God with us.
How much impact do you think this would have on gospel music in Nigeria?
We are hoping that each of the artistes that would come would sing at least one of his own songs. That way, we are not just singing the same songs over and over, we have an opportunity to showcase new songs and different artistes, as well as those that have the ability but have not been given a chance. This is an avenue for them to display themselves, and let people know what gifts they have.
How is this different from the regular praise concerts?
First, it is not a concert per se, it’s an experience. Concerts you pay to get in and you have to leave after a few hours. But this you don’t pay to come in and you don’t have to leave, you can actually stay for the whole 73 hours. It is definitely different, imagine that it is non-stop. No break! So, you’ll find a situation where one choir is finishing and the band or the instrumentalists will come in while the same team is playing. So, you’ll find a situation where I had my own band, but it would be someone else playing for me by the end of my ministration. That way, there would be no break. That’s why we can’t have comedians or people that have other arts, because we’d have to stop. But true worshippers would be able to keep blending and flow.
A little away from that now. What could be done to take over the music industry for God?
It’s step by step. First, I love music myself and I have realized that most people don’t like secular music per se, it’s the beat that draws them. That’s one of the things we are encouraging. We encourage artistes that would minister to produce their own music. Let it be something catchy, something that will make people actually want to dance, but with the right message. That’s the difference, the message that is being pushed. Most of the people that listen to secular music know that the messages are mostly negative, but that is what’s trending, that’s what makes you look cool.
