Joke Evangelists on the altars?

A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats - Charles H. Spurgeon

The way some church leaders are turning their churches into cinemas and handing over their alters and pulpits to comedians gives a great cause for concern.

These pastors invite comedians to perform in church during their birthdays, church anniversaries, or special programs. Members of such churches, obviously influenced to like it, appear to really enjoy those performances.

Indeed, they are a direct replica of their leaders; why wouldn’t they enjoy it?

Two questions readily come to mind: Has the church finished preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God that it would now offer itself to these ‘joke evangelists’?

Do the church members enjoy ministrations on salvation like they do during these joke performances?

The end-time church has a lot of catching up to do in terms of spiritual growth; it is difficult for the average Christian to overpower the average witch without the support of his pastor.

That, obviously, is a disgrace not only to those members but to their pastors too.

In Matthew 17, when a certain man appealed to Jesus to heal his son of lunacy because his disciples were unable to deliver the boy, Jesus was obviously not happy.

“Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus on your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on, the boy was well.” (Matt. 17:17 MSG)

A generation with no sense of God. That was how Jesus described his own disciples, who were unable to cast out demons. Unfortunately, this generation appears to be even worse than that of his disciples—no sense of God. Just religion!

Jesus showed his unhappiness by rebuking his disciples for failing the test because he taught them over and over without having to pay comedians to come to their meetings and make them just laugh.

This generation of Christians is indeed perverse, not focused and so cheap that it rather loves to import things from outside the church to entertain the members.

How this demand for these people, whom I call joke evangelists, is speedily gaining acceptance in the end-time church, especially in West Africa and the United States of America, should be of great concern to all well-meaning followers of Christ.

Dual Lifestyles:

These people are actually ‘influencers’ in society. But their height of influence goes only as far as where they perform. The more these comedians are accepted in the church, not as souls won for Christ but as guest performers, the greater their levels of influence.

Now church members also begin to see them as stars and are influenced by them.

These are the same people who advertise for alcohol, and aphrodisiacs and, more recently, are strongly contributing to the deep penetration and acceptance of the numerous betting companies.

These are the influencers the church leaders of today are offering their pulpits to when their members are falling away rampantly and miserably when souls are perishing.

Is this not the time pastors should be thinking of intensifying the spirituality of their church members? What do the performances of these people do to the spirituality of the members except quench it with a wet fertilizer sack?

This write-up is not against making people laugh, since laughter, they say, is medicine. But it should not be at the expense of the altar of the Lord. Who says we cannot be entertained by the Holy Spirit and would have to import entertainers into the church?

Even more sadly, there are pastors who deem it fit to invite circular musicians to perform for them and their church members on their birthdays. How pathetic can the end-time Christian be? Entertainment is for the satisfaction of the flesh. The only thing that satisfies the spirit, and by extension, the soul, is the communion of godly persons. As to why the church is comfortably exchanging godly ministry for circular entertainment, it should alert us to the nearness of the end.

This is what the Bible says about it: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”* [2 Timothy 4:3–4 KJV].

Worse situations in America:

Earlier in 2024, a well-known pastor of what they call a megachurch in America chose to entertain his church with hip-hop music. What in Christ’s name was he thinking?

Another one that is quite annoying to me is the pastor of Crossroads Church in Ohio, USA, who organized a “Super Bowl Sunday sermon” in his church. Apart from the several follies they displayed on the day, the head pastor and one of his associates used the Bible as a football and kicked it off the stage (not qualified to be called alter).

The senior pastor, Brian Tome, is quoted as saying, “We believe the church can and should be fun.”

So while watching them denigrate the altar of God by turning it into a football field, I asked myself: And you found kicking the Bible off your altar as the best way to make church fun? Mercy!

If these occurrences in the church, which are sadly becoming too rampant lately, are not making you cringe, then the need for intercession is even stronger than I thought.

Most leaders of the endtime church are obsessed with having a megachurch but aren’t ready to take up the spiritual responsibilities of getting it. So they decide to rather adopt worldly strategies to gain and keep the members.

Dear Christian friend, it is high time we added these comedians who may not even know Christ but come to the church for business as usual and pastors who are busily importing worldly acts into the church to our prayer lists.

The jokes on the pulpit are becoming one too many and give cause for concern to any well-meaning follower of Jesus Christ.

Fellow believers, we are in the last days, and believers in Christ shouldn't be ignorant of Satan's schemes.

There are many worldly and satanic philosophies that are contrary to the teachings of the Word of God. Today, most of these are perpetrated through seemingly 'harmless' songs, jokes, discussions, photos, videos, quotes, etc. Unfortunately, many Christians are spreading these ideas unknowingly and ignorantly.

If we refuse to concentrate on the pure Word of God and consciously spread ideas that have godly, scriptural underpinnings, Satan will use us as his public relations officers while we know nothing about it. I pray the Holy Spirit makes us discerning. Amen.

James Appiakorang is a pastor with House of Faith Ministries Worldwide and Director of Mercy Train Missions Ministry.