Media personality and entertainment pundit, MC Yaa Yeboah, has criticised Bishop Dag Heward-Mills‘ recent remarks that church musicians should not be paid for their services, arguing that skilled instrumentalists deserve fair compensation for their work.
Yeboah’s comments, made during a heated discussion on United Showbiz, came in response to the bishop’s viral statement declaring that paying church musicians is “absolute nonsense.”
While she acknowledged that some musicians may serve voluntarily due to divine calling, Yeboah insisted that those who have invested time and resources into mastering their craft should be paid, especially if their contributions aid in worship sessions and help retain members.
“It is very funny how pastors and other men of God always find a way to downplay the importance of music in their churches. For many pastors, the church is a business enterprise. They are managing the faith of the congregation for a fee. That is how I see it.
“So, if you are an instrumentalist and you know that whatever you’re doing is taking away a chunk of your time and your pastor tells you that whatever you’re doing is not even important and you don’t even deserve pay, run away from that church with the speed of alacrity because your pastor is robbing you of your livelihood,” she said.
MC Yaa Yeboah further questioned why pastors receive financial support while musicians are expected to work for free.
“What Bishop Dag Heward-Mills decides to do with his church is his own business. But there are many talented instrumentalists who are still living hand to mouth because they have been told they are not supposed to make money from whatever they are doing.
“There are some churches in this country where the pastors don’t pay rent, or their children’s school fees, or what they will eat. The church pays for everything. That is why in Rwanda, the directive was given for pastors to have a steady job before going into ministry,” she added.
Yeboah also took aim at what she described as the commercialisation of churches, suggesting that many pastors treat congregations as business ventures.
“If the GRA audited Ghana’s churches, they’d find many pastors whose only ‘job’ is church work,” she claimed.
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