Do You Attend Prayer House

Do You Attend Prayer House? You Should Read This

by NwanyiAbia
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By Nnenna Joseph

Ndi Uno Ekpele, known as prayer houses have become one of the offshoots of the religious sector in Nigeria. A sector steaming with new trajectories daily has incorporated prayer houses into its fold. There are 16,3 00 churches in Nigeria according to wikipedia 2019, apparently this number of worship places is not enough for worshippers to attain their deeper level of communion with the divinity.

This gave rise to what is known as prayer houses (uno ekpele), a gathering of a group of persons who feel the need to pray fervently and deeply outside their church services on sundays. These prayer houses or ministries as otherwise called are usually set up by an individual who declares it non-denominational and goes ahead to fix prayer days which occur weekly. A full day dedicated to praying.

This arrangement has been around since the early 90s, however its increase in the 2000s is overwhelming. In christian dominated regions in Nigeria, every street likely has a prayer ministry. The number of members range from 10s to thousands depending on a number of factors which we will discuss below as characteristics of prayer ministry.

Prayer ministries in Nigeria are characterized by the following simple identifications.

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Prosperity and Solution Oriented
An Igbo adage says “A toad does not run during the day for nothing” Most of the people who decide to extend their worship time after sunday service to include during the week, do so to extend their prayer time for a pressing problem. These problems range from women who seek marital settlement, women who want children, people who pray for financial breakthrough, sick people, people who are suffering various misfortunes eg: a lady who said people in her family do not live past age 45 especially the men for generations.

These are the predominant issues commonly found in prayer ministries in Nigeria. The question is why would a sick person go to a prayer ministry instead of a hospital, why would a lady who wants a husband go to a prayer ministry instead of increasing her social engagements to where she will meet potential suitors. The answer is simple, the core purpose of prayer ministries is their prosperity preaching and their solution packs.

Prayer ministries boast of having solutions to every problem- EVERY. They preach prosperity, once you step in, they make merchandise of the Gospel. They claim to have divine calling from God wherefore, if they pray for you, you will receive instant prosperity and solution, but you see, it has to cost you an arm and a leg, God’s gift is not free, they say. Therefore you have to sow seeds by way of offerings- usually outrageous sums to secure your prosperity and solutions.

On the brighter side, some testifiers say they got their answers after the prayer communion and seed sowing. This is what distinguishes the ministries with members in tens from those with members in thousands. The championier’s ability to produce results, when he prays for the numbers in terms of healing and prosperity among others.

Non-denominational
As pointed out above, these ministries are non-denominational. They do not have any recognized church they are affiliated under. The convener might have a church he/she worships on sunday but the ministry in itself welcomes all christians from every church. It is important to note that this establishment is not peculiar to any gender. The number of men who own these ministries is equally proportional to the number of women who own theirs too, however, the number of women who attend these ministries to the number of men is inversely proportional.

Prophecy and Miracles
A little prophecy here and there is one of the major spices of the establishment. They readily prophecy for their members and these prophecies are mostly spiking in their approach. For instance a woman who is seeking to have a male child is likely to receive a prophecy that a relative or friend of hers has used charms to prevent her from having a male child.

The striking thing about these prophecies is that it constitutes a large percentage of seed of discord planted in most families. With the proliferation of these ministries, steady dishing out head-jamming prophecies, one can imagine how many family members are pitched against each other.
It is important to note here that sometimes these prophecies are accurate, a larger number of times they are built on guesses and information gathered about the prey. There are some of these conveners who are genuine and are used by divinity to pass messages otherwise known as prophecy.

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Miracles are a huge part of the ministries, this singular factor can change a ministry from 20 members in week one to 500 members by week 4. Nigerian christians are eager for miracles. They want the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the barren to bear children. Any prophet that can achieve this instantly becomes a demi-god.

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Unprinted investigations have shown that in a bid to give miracles to retain members or gain new ones, these prophets delve into dark spiritual magic that can get their members hypnotised and cause an illusion of the solution to their problems. Imagine seeking a solution from God from a supposed prophet of God only to get duped, or hypnotised, or involved in juju, even though their intentions are good. Some of these victims are people who would have never otherwise gotten entangled with diabiolic powers with clear conscience.

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Deliverance
As an unspoken rule, the ministers or prophets claim to equally have the ability to cast out demons, madness, and its likes. They recieve patients who have defiled psychiatric procedures and subject them to their own healing process. At the time of this report, we didn’t find anyone who was healed. We found people who were dehumanized in despicable forms by the prophets who claim these are the processes to restore their sanity.

Economic Implications of these Establishments
These ministries are held during work days, between Mondays to saturdays. In the early 2000s, some of these ministries in Aba, Abia state held their meetings mostly on Wednesdays. This was always evident in the market, as many stalls and shops were under lock and key because almost 40% of sellers and buyers would have gone to pray.

This reduces productivity, prayer is an important part of our lives as christians, however, locking up your means of livelihood every week to go and pray for prosperity from the place that is locked is yet to make sense.

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On the brighter side, the owners of these ministries have attained a level of trust from their members, who have fulfilled the qualification criteria above gain handsomely. The offerings and seeds sown at the ministry is usually tangible. Oftentimes, a few months into ministry, these men/women buy flashy cars and live flamboyant lives while their members who are being prayed for prosperity, continue to dwindle.

Social Implication
Hope is a prized asset in today’s society when conversations about mental health are ongoing. These people who go to these prayer houses keep hope alive and that is what matters. The minister gives them hope false or not that their lives will improve and they cling unto that.

It is a good social space as they do not defy any government or societal order. It can serve as a support group for persons with various issues. Its social importance includes the networking opportunities it provides for its members. It also provides an opportunity for entertainment to keep the minds of the flocks busy.

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