How Nathaniel Bassey’s Hallelujah challenge impacted corporate worship in Nigerian churches
Nathaniel Bassey should be tagged as the foremost Christian influencer in Nigeria.
Way before Pastor Bolaji’s Next Level prayers, Jerry Eze’s What God Cannot Do Does Exist morning prayers and way before Covid-19 forced us to have Sunday service online – there was the hallelujah challenge started by gospel artiste and pastor, Nathaniel Bassey.
The Hallelujah Challenge was a one-month praise and prayer session in June 2017 from the hours of 12 am to 1 am on Bassey’s Instagram live. Over 68,000 people from around the world joined his live.
While outsiders looked at it as a frivolous waste of time, adherent to the Christian faith poured in day after day.
The Hallelujah challenge was so successful, there was a hallelujah carnival and a hallelujah medley, a collection of popular songs sung during the live sessions.
Bassey is an unrefuted trendsetter in the gospel scene because he was one of the first people to start live religious gatherings (minus live stream of church sunday services) over the social media as opposed to a building – and it worked.
Bassey proved that God is everywhere and the gathering of his people online is as powerful as a physical gathering.
You would recall earlier this year, Nathaniel posted a picture with the word ‘Jesus’ written in red on a white background, and it trended everywhere on social media.
Many people changed their displayed pictures and posted them on their statuses. It was a religious movement unlike we have ever seen before.
Critics raged that posting a picture of saying ‘Jesus’ doesn’t actually do anything, but the movement soared above their criticism.
Here is why #Jesus is trending…
Gospel minister, Nathaniel Bassey started the trend “#Jesus” and urged his followers to do the same on their social media timelines. His post reads in part “…Let the world ask what is going on. and we’ll tell them – Jesus is going on!” pic.twitter.com/aXhMZDA1fo
— Pulse Nigeria (@PulseNigeria247) June 7, 2022
In the throes of this, Nathaniel has announced via his Instagram that the Hallelujah challenge is back on the 17th to 26th October. It is tagged, ‘show your instrument of praise.’
Will there be a massive turnout as it was in the past? Even though live YouTube streaming are popular right now, will live streaming of gospel musicians on social media platforms increase in popularity after it? We look forward to seeing the impact of this year’s hallelujah challenge.