Why Alpha Hour will not Fail

 

 

In February 2015, nine members of the Moment of Glory Prayer Army, MOGPA, including a pregnant woman and a child died when the vehicle in which they were traveling in was involved in a fatal motor accident.

The accident occured when a sprinter bus rammed into a Hyundai Bus on a section of the road on the Kusa Scarp near Fomena, in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region

The nine members were returning to Obuasi and Cape Coast respectively after attending an All Night prayer summit organized by MOGPA, at Abrankese near Jachie in the Ashanti Region.

MOGPA led by its founder and leader Prophet Oduro Gyebi had started what he termed “Midnight Hot Prayers” which undoubtedly became an instant hit and was transmitted live on over 10 radio stations across the country.

For most Christians like myself who followed the MOGPA prayer meeting, what we needed was to tune our dials to any of the radio stations transmitting the live broadcast of the MOGPA prayers.

For some, it was not enough joining the prayers sessions on radio. They needed to be part of the In-Person meeting, hence took the ardours task of traveling to Kumasi to join the prayer sessions. MOGPA by then was not transmitting on any social media platforms and even if they were, it wasn’t as popular as they are today. So if you had a testimony you wanted to share about a breakthrough or miracle in your life as a result of the midnight prayer session, your best bet was to go to Kumasi.

And on days there was no light, it meant no midnight hot prayer session unless you chose to pray on your own.

The Kusa Scarp accident was a rude awakening for many Ghanaian on MOGPA. Many labeled Prophet Oduro Gyebi as a false prophet who had used the lives of his members for blood sacrifices to grow his church, whilst others questioned the rationale behind traveling all the way to Kumasi to be part of a prayer meeting when you equally have a church nearby you can pray with.

The brouhaha saw a decline of the MOGPA Prayer meetings and it’s eventual death.

The reemergence of another midnight prayer meeting this time with Alpha Hour was greeted with a great deal of skepticism. Many labeled it as another MOGPA that will eventually fail. But after more that a year in operations, Alpha Hour will not fail and here is why.

1. Alpha Hour unlike MOGPA has leveraged on the power of social media to reach thousands of Ghanaians in their various homes. You don’t need to be present for any in person meeting in most instances unless it’s announced that there will be a special All Night Prayer session. So there’s no traveling, nothing. You don’t need a radio set to be part of the prayer sessions. With just your phone, you can be part of the prayers. You don’t need also to be part of Pastor Elvis Agyemang church to be part of the prayer sessions. Perhaps the major concern of the church is how to ensure that it has strong internet connectivity and it’s social media pages are protected from hackers

2. Pastor Elvis Agyemang is a young pastor whose church has been in operations for about 10 years now. Compared to other churches, it is safe to say, Pastor Elvis Agyemang church is a young church. And for a country where majority of it’s population are youthful, Pastor Agyemang comes across as a pastor who appeals to the youth. He shows no opulence in his style of dressing and for anyone with the Spirit of Discernment, can easily see that this is a man with a certain Grace of God upon his life. What Pastor Agyemang has done over the past few years is that he has revived the prayer life of many young people. Many Christians already believe in the power of prayers and praying at midnight, but many are lost as to what to pray about. Pastor Agyemang’s prayer topics are situated in context and has helped many to sustain an hour of prayer when at first, five or 15 minutes would have sufficed

3. Almost every church has copied Pastor Agyemang’s Alpha Hour style to propagate the Gospel of Christ to the world. During last year’s Greater Works, ICGC adopted the midnight prayer sessions to encourage it’s members to pray. Makers House has “Command Your Morning” which starts from 5-6.30am. It is a nice way of saying, just in case you forgot to pray at midnight, don’t start your day without God.

4. Almost every church in Ghana and around the world are streaming their services online. It’s more like a competition as to who will get the most views. But the point is, churches are taking advantage of the power of social media to propagate the Gospel of Christ. Even if Pastor Agyemang decides to stop Alpha Hour today, which I doubt and God forbid, there’s no way pastors like Dr. Michael Boadi Nyamekye of Makers House Chapel will stop command your morning or ICGC during this year’s Greater Works will not encourage it’s members to pray at midnight. As a matter of fact, there are so many pastors who will latch on the opportunity to start their midnight prayer sessions should Pastor Elvis Agyemang decide to stop his.

Christians believe in the power of giving. Many give their monies as seed offering to attract a certain favour from God, whiles others do it out of love, and for others too a sense of duty. Over the years, questions have been asked whether the monies given to the church are indeed for God or for the pastor and what does the church do with all the monies it receives. These questions are sometimes valid considering the fact that some pastors live very opulent lifestyles.

But the church like any business entity or the home needs money to run it’s operations. Have you considered the cost of streaming online an hour daily for everyday of the year. How about churches that broadcast on radio and TV. Do you think it’s for free and have you asked yourself how much it’s costs to run a one hour program on radio and TV.

Just in case you don’t know, for mega churches like ICGC, the pastors are not the only ones being paid. The instrumentalist, media team etc all receive monthly salaries. They are paid or given something similar just like any other professional in their area of expertise in the corporate world. Even for smaller churches, members are given tokens as motivation to help keep the work of God going.

Again, have you considered the cost of running water per month, light bills, toiletries the church will have to buy, cleaning services etc. These things all cost monies. Imagine I invite you to my church and you visit the washroom and the toilet bowls are filled with fecal matter and the pungent smell of urine and flies have taken over the washrooms, what will be your impressions? Those condemning the Christians for using their monies to support the church will be the first to report how bad the church washroom is.

Even though the gospel of Christ is free, it costs money to spread it across.

Every weekend the average Ghanaian spends not less than 200 cedis partying with family and friends, going to clubs, soliciting the services of prostitutes and hooks ups and engaging in sports betting, and are cool with it. Afterall it’s their money and they decide how they want to spend it.

But when a Christian decides to use his money to support the church, there’s an uproar with questions like is the money for God etc. No! The money is not for God. That cleaner who works for a cleaning company, who perhaps is an unbeliever and has been contracted to clean a church needs to be paid a monthly salary. The money you question whether it is for God will be used to pay him or her. And the list goes on. you can add yours.

Truth be told, a lot of churches are struggling to make money to even pay their light bills and rent. Christians fold dirty one cedi notes and put them in the offering baskets as their offering. Perhaps that’s all they have. Perhaps, they have not fully understood the principle of giving. And a pastor who has not truly been called by God and even those called by God, out of frustrations will use all manner of gimmicks to take monies from their members.

Church is hardwork and it requires monies. God uses man to bless man. And for the church of Christ to grow, it requires kingdom givers. Just like your corporate offices have air conditioners, the church also need same so it’s members will be comfortable.

So stop the attacks on Alpha Hour. In fact the attacks against the church is much ado about nothing. Just like a sex leak that become the topic of discussion for a week or two, this too shall pass.

Alpha Hour has come to stay and for those of you wishing, scheming and praying to see it’s collapse and hoping it becomes another MOGPA, know this, that even if Pastor Elvis Agyemang decides to stop Alpha Hour today, God is raising a generation of men and women who will not relent on their mandate and will go all out to do Alpha Hour, Midday Hour, Brunch Hour, 3pm Hour, After work hour and so on and so forth.

And for the naysayers, if you care to know to know, why not spend sometime reading through the comments session of any episode of Alpha Hour and you will be amazed at the miracles and breakthrough God is using Pastor Elvis Agyemang and his team to achieve

So far as the are souls to be won for the kingdom and the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force, we who have the mandate of God upon our lives to transform lives and win souls into his kingdom will not relent.

Indeed the harvest is many and the labourers are few.

God bless you all

By Eric Curtis Howard