Pentecostals, one time, classified white garment assemblies on a Blacklist being called many negative names and haunted down by the Levitical Raymond Reddingtons. Today we see a number of worship leaders in Pentecostal circles practicing the tongues and chants from the CCC and C&S and slapping it on worship songs. Suddenly Dembe and Reddington are both MIA. (Sincere apologies to those who are not fans of Blacklist). It’s a trending trend now. Some call it tongues of Angels. Quite interesting. You know what I’m talking about even if you’re on this table. Don’t come down. Sit there. Let’s go to school briefly. By the way please give the CCC and C&S their credits on this one.
There are legit schools and communities, (I am not kidding), where young folks are trained in how to speak these tongues and chants, what to say and how to say, the tone to use and all. It was a shock discovery for me. If you listen you’d see they all sound alike. It’s almost like a script written that everyone just crams and pour. They all have that Arabic flavour. I listened to a music buddy of mine whom I’ve known for years release a song recently and it started with these chant. I was so shocked I bursted out laughing unconsciously. I was like why is this girl doing this? Won ti get babe yi sha 😂 (meaning she has been officially scammed)
I believe in speaking in tongues. I speak in tongues daily as a matter of principle. I schedule time for it. It has helped my spiritual life and my growth in the last 4-5 years more than ever. I believe in singing in tongues. I have written many songs that all began in an unknown tongue before interpretation came. I do not think by rule, singing in tongues should override singing in understanding. Each of them have their place in sacred music and personal worship. One shouldn’t substitute the other.
I believe every believer should sing and worship in tongues as much as they can. It can happen spontaneously but also when you don’t know how to worship or what to sing, starting in tongues can be a way to lead you into what to sing and say. However caution has to be brought in when in corporate worship, that is, leading others to worship publicly at concerts, worship meetings and church gatherings. At times I see people abuse it. When a worship leader, due to lack of adequate preparation and depleted song bank compels the audience at an imaginary gun point to tongues until they get a song to lead the audience in. Worship leaders know this. They know when its real and when it’s an adulterated Davidic Scam.
Before I digress let me go back to my starting point. I think lots of young folks are being hoodwinked into thinking what makes a song, sorry a sound like we all call it now, spiritual is the minor scale (natural, harmonic or melodic) a song is on and the crammed tongues they now force on it. It’s become a formula now. So you find all emerging worship leaders practicing the language and tone of this tongue and its becoming a trend. God still gives songs that are not on Minor scales. This is something you won’t find with Elders in the ministry. There’s a reason. They have learnt balance.
We need to be careful not to go to extremes. People have to be taught God’s word and not gimmicks. Adopting certain tongues or chants is not the pass code to the supernatural. NOTHING WRONG WITH TONGUES or UTTERANCES as inspired by the spirit but that’s it- they have to be inspired by the spirit. Every trend including this unconsciously packaged tongue and chant will go away like all trends do and many who have built their careers and ministries on them will be left pants down. I’ll explain this better in my workshops and books.
When leading worship publicly, we need to be careful not to overdo things. I attended a concert one time when the artiste came up to lead worship and as she got on stage she just started roaring and shouting into the mic without even giving the audience time to build up. We felt attacked. She told us not wait for a song and we should use our prayer language. The back ups too were screaming into the mic from the moment they got on stage. I had to switch off from that so I can focus on God and not be a critic. With all that, it still took a while before the audience caught up.
There is no formula to leading worship and praise, only PRINCIPLES. This generation needs to be taught that loudness and brashness doesn’t always equal a move of the spirit. Somethings are great for your secret place worship and when you are on stage to sing, moderation in all things is necessary. Noise doesn’t mean revival or that GOD is there. Silence also doesn’t mean he is there. God moves in anyway he decides. Let’s separate our emotions and personal preferences from God’s move.
I say no to fake tongues and chants. I say no to writing down tongues and cramming to use. I say no to writing down chants and formally or informally schooling people on what to say and the dynamics of the tone to use. I condemn capital or small letter tongues or whatever its called nowadays. I condemn apostolic tongues, Pentecostal tongues and Greek tongues or whatever name its now called.
This conversation is ongoing. This is NOT table shaking. Its teaching the nations the proper way of doing things. And I boldly stand in my office to do that without fear.
(Excerpt from my upcoming book on Praise and Worship)
I am Tommy Tush (Facebook)
The one and only Tall MD wey dey worry Music.
