Some of these churches have population more than some countries.
The churches are not only dominating in Nigeria but also making global impact as well and there’s no way all that influenced can be achieved without the use of technology.
According to Wikipedia’s List of the largest evangelical churches, the Nigerian church occupies a dominant position in the world and is one of the most advanced organization in Nigeria when it comes to the use of technology and that’s the secret of their success.
In fact, the Nigerian mega churches is the only sector in Nigeria that can comfortably compete with their counterparts in advanced countries such as United States, Canada and Europe, our banking sector cannot compete, our military cannot, our industries cannot, our schools, etc.
This is because they embraced the use of technology with open arms and it paid off and in this posts I will write on some of the ways technology have made our churches some of the biggest in the world.
According to Wikipedia, When a church has more than 10,000 people who gather together, the term Gigachurch is used.
They are GIGACHURCHES !
1 .SATELLITE TV.
Before the reign of social media Nigeria churches have been investing heavily on TV technology. I remember pastor Chris Oyakhilome sharing a story with us, (the congregation) on how he celebrate his birthday in the early 90’s and the church gave him money to buy a car, instead he used it to buy a very expensive camera. That camera was how he started his television broadcasts which later expanded mightily.
Today he has 7 satellite TV networks including LoveWorld TV, LoveWorld SAT, LoveWorld Plus, LoveWorld UK, LoveWorld Nigeria, LoveWorld India and LoveWorld USA with worldwide coverage running 247.
Other churches have followed suit for example Emmanuel TV of Synagogue and so on.
2. INTERNET:
Before the internet evolved to the way it is today Nigerian churches already have websites which they’ve been been using for preaching and doing all other things. Back then, no social media, its just static websites.
Today, they have built online churches where you can stream live church programs via the internet.
3. Social media:
In the early days of social media, Nigerian churches/pastors were among the first to take advantage of the platform to share their messages and videos. Social media is the fastest way to spread the gospel.
Today facebook has over 1.5 billion active users, Twitter and other social media have been greatly use to reach countries they don’t have physical presence.
Some Nigerian churches have built their own social media platforms and submitted it to google playstore for people to download.
Nigerian pastors have flooded their videos on YouTube and people can watch their programs from any part of the world. Any church that’s not on social media in 2018, I don’t know how to describe that church.
4. Electronic payment:
This technology really have helped Nigerian churches a lot.
They’re able to get donations from all over to world to finance the gospel. Most mega churches today have ATM machines, POS, mobile Apps, etc right inside the church premises so receiving funds is never a problem.
Do you know other ways the church have taken advantage of technology in promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ ? Tell us in the comment section.