Everyone is called to praise God and sing praises unto Him, but not everyone is called to be a gospel musician. Not everyone is called to join the choir in his church, but everyone is called to sing praises to God on his own or in the congregation of the righteous. This is the general call to all righteous men to praise God with all the gifts at our disposal, but

Numbers 18:21-23 "And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service, which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.
"Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
"But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance."

Every work of the priesthood is sacred and reserved for those called of God to do it. You must be convinced that God has called you to do the work of the priesthood, and that your part is the singing of the gospel. That is Gospel Music. The difference between the call of the Levites and the Gospel Musician of today is the difference between the old and the and pigeons, but in Christ Jesus, an eternal sacrifice to our God, goats, and pigeons, but in Christ Jesus, an eternal sacrifice has been made.

Similarly, our God is no more dealing with one nation, Israel but now a spiritual Israel, made up of spirit-filled individuals from all nations of the world as His congregation. So anyone He has given the gifts to sing and play music can offer himself to Him to be consecrated and sanctified by Him for this special duty. You must offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him.

There are many ways of receiving God's call. God could call us through visions, dreams or revelation

Do not assume that because you can sing, you are called. Everyone must sing His praise but not everyone must be a priest. Standing to lead congregations in His worship and praise is a specialised office belonging to those He has called to do this service. Find out in prayer and fasting which office He exactly wants you. It is not singers alone He calls to serve Him in gospel music. He also calls instrumentalists. Those who will serve Him as arrangers, producers, and managers are also part of the priesthood. So producing all forms of music other than gospel is not an office given by God. If He calls you to serve Him in gospel music, then you are restricted to gospel music.

If you want God to receive your praise in those songs you are singing, then separate yourself from unbelievers who use their music to encourage illicit relationships, who instead of singing the praises of God, sing the praises of men. How can you call yourself an Evangelist of Christ, when you are also the producer, song writer, or back-up singer or instrumentalist of songs that encourage men to lust after other people's wives, coveting their neighbours children? God forbid.

You must dedicate yourself to His services, and a crown of glory awaits you when you will meet Him to render account of your stewardship. You must understand that your call to service is unto God and not unto men. You are to encourage men to praise God and thereby draw them closer to God. Singing men's praises is not gospel music. Changing God's music composed by others into music for men's praise is serious blasphemy.

A lot of gospel musicians today sing songs they love to sing rather than songs Jesus loves them to sing. He will achieve His own purpose. His purpose for humanity is to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. You cannot sing songs whose lyrics the people cannot understand. You are trying to give an impression of a "foreign" artiste and your audience end up not understanding the message you are trying to convey to them. That is not what is expected of a disciple.

Jesus Christ came down to the level of the audience, giving them His messages in the tongue they could understand. It was only when He wanted to hide some facts from them that He spoke in parables. And when the crowd had gone, He interpreted His parables to His disciples. They must know the truth, so that "the truth will set them free".

When making up your mind about singing a song to an audience, your first consideration should be the effectiveness of your songs to this particular audience, not how much you love the songs you want to sing. Does this song minister to the people I want to sing? Will they understand the lyrics of the song? Are they educated enough to understand the language I am singing? These are the questions you must ask yourself before you decide on the song you want to sing.

It is not how "classical" you sing, but how much attention people pay to your message that matters. When you lift Jesus up, then He will draw all men unto Himself. That should be your target; the drawing of men unto Jesus. Let the world have their own standards. We have our own standard, and it is written in the Bible.

You are singing in an assembly where 90% of the crowd speaks in Ibo as their primary language of communication. But you are used to listening to gospel music produced by English-speaking Americans. Many will not even pray before the program, and if they do, was it the Holy Spirit who led them to sing an English song composed by an American who has lived all his life in America, to an audience predominantly Ibo who have never left the shores of Nigeria? An audience of people who have since they were born only listened to Ibo songs made by Ibos.

How can you be effective, when you, an Ibo boy, is attempting to sing like an American, who's English they don't understand in the first case? Even you are handicapped because you have never lived in America. Americans did not train you. The musicians backing you cannot play this music the way the Americans play it. They don't have the equipment the Americans have. And the same thing applies to every tribe you are ministering to.

Unless it is impossible, you must attempt, first, to minister to them in the language they will understand best. If you cannot use their native tongue, then use the one they understand best which you are proficient in. You can prepare for that program by learning choruses in their language, sing those choruses first, before you take to unfamiliar languages. You would have caught their attention.

No wonder, you soon hear the "local artiste" has released a cassette for which an initial order of one hundred thousand (100,000) is made and an advanced royalty of one million Naira (N1, 000,000.00) is paid to the artiste. You want to say it is the devil's fault or "unbelievers don't like Gospel Music" or those defeatist reasons ineffective Christians give.

No, brother, it is not the devil; it is not unbelievers, but you, that must be blamed. Ask yourself, "Am I a disciple?" A disciple will count the cost before he embarks on any project (Luke 14:28). What are your considerations? To sing like an European? A foreigner? Or to communicate my message in this assembly that I am facing today?

In an attempt to sing "for the international market" many musicians have ended up not being able to communicate with their church members. When your church members cannot hear nor identify with what you are singing, how can people in the town where you are living hear your message? How much more your country? No wonder an artiste goes into the studio with simple, common choruses, and everybody wants to have a copy. Communication is the key to effectiveness in Gospel Music. If common, yet to be recorded, choruses will be effective, why don't you contact the owners of such choruses and use them in your next album.

Jesus Christ, himself, gave us the formula in Acts 1:8. I call it "Systematic Evangelism" But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Receive power from God, and then sing your message to your church members, your countrymen (there are several tribes or countries in Nigeria alone) and then go to the neighbouring tribes or countries, before attempting the uttermost parts of the earth.

In Nigeria, apart from our native languages, we have the Pidgin English, which is understood by a larger community. There is even a way you speak English that educated people will not understand you. And when you sing in English, you must learn how to sing every word for communication effectiveness. Do not eat your last letter of every word. It is an essential skill you learn during voice training. If your choirmaster is competent, he would be able to teach you. If he is not, then find a competent teacher. Your phonetics must be effective.

You must acquire all necessary skills to make you effective. This is how to be a good disciple of Jesus Christ. You want to pass His message across to others. This is your commission. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" it is not to go and show you can sing like a European. Had it been you could really sing like a European, play music like a European, the Europeans would have been buying your music.

God had never been able to make a mistake. He could not have mistakenly made you a Nigerian and intend for you to start your ministrations among Europeans. You were intended to start with Nigerians, who will, on their journeys abroad, carry your music abroad. All the Nigerians who have been invited to sing abroad were introduced to the foreigners by Nigerians who made contact with them. After all, that is how we heard foreign music, liked them and started to patronize them.

We must follow our master's instructions. Let us be effective in our surrounding first. After all, how many Nigerians who sing in "Oyinbo" have you heard much about outside Nigeria? Be a disciple; be disciplined in following the master's instructions.

Before you choose to serve Him, and that is what you should do, you must count the cost. And you must be a disciple if you want to serve Him as a gospel artiste. Many were musicians in the world, and they think that alone qualifies them to be Gospel artistes. If you do not add the qualities of a disciple to your skill, you will fail as a gospel artiste. More than one thousand (1000) gospel records are produced in Nigeria yearly. You need God to bring your own out of the pack. His condition for success is discipleship.

A disciple who must be effective for Christ must not be ashamed of Christ, or of His gospel. Anywhere you are invited to sing, even if it is at the shrine of idol worshippers, you must preach the gospel of Christ only in your music. They, who invited you, know you are a gospel musician, so they should not take offence if you do that which you normally do.

I have seen people, not those who invited my wife to sing, ask her to sing their praise, sometimes they would say it this way "give us music that is danceable" or "give us lively music". They are deliberately trying to make you ashamed of gospel music. It is not mere human speech. The devil is behind it. He wants to intimidate you. His purpose is deceitful. You must resist him and he will flee from you.

During such encounters, we have stood our grounds. Many of such people still invited us back. Sometimes we made contacts with others at such programmes. It was on such a date that we met the lady who bought us our first bus. God will stand by those who do not deny Him. Jesus Christ says in Matt. 10:32,33. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my father, which is in heaven. He will even deny you before the angels of God, whose, business is to minister unto you, a saint

It amounts to denying Christ, when you a gospel musician, abandons Christ, the embodiment of your music, and starts to praise men. Or, worse still, music that were inspired by Christ, composed for Christ, you recompose them for men. Where the song was written that "Christ is my lover" it becomes "so and so is my lover". You have demeaned Christ and that is a terrible act, more so, from a servant of Christ. What can make Evangelist, or is it Rev. So and so begin to praise men? Is it money? The love of money is the root of all evil. You must desist, forthwith.

This is what is responsible for your present lack of effectiveness. If you repent, God will cause an increase in your work for Him. Do not use any trick in glorifying men. Stick to the meaning of the profession you profess. You are a gospel singer. Sing only the praise of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. You are His royal priesthood.

Do not get lost in the euphoria of your fame and acceptance. The people before you while you are ministering are not to dictate to you. It is the interest of your master, Jesus Christ, who sent you that matters more than them to whom you are sent. This is your opportunity to share with them the word of life which they also need. Do not let them go without the word of life, which will also give them the liberty they also need.