Over the years, we have seen numerous awards come and go. From the prestigious
Groove Awards that took over the country by storm, to Mwafaka Awards, Xtreeme Awards
which seemed to have faded away over time to the most recent HTA Impact Awards and FEMA
Awards which are freshly on the scene. While the intention behind awards system is
appreciating gospel artists , giving them a platform where their talents and hard work can be
recognized, appreciated and celebrated, do they bring an element of secularism in the gospel
industry? Moreso, do they make the gospel ministry into an industry?
An award is a special recognition of someone because of their personality or impact
they have brought into a certain field. Awards have been used even in the workspace and in the
school system to improve and encourage high performance. Humans tend to work harder when
there is an incentive at the end of a heavy task or duty. Basic human psychology has classified
our work rate as more desirable and better results seem to be achieved when an incentive is in
place.
Where does the problem arise in awarding people? Humans have the vulnerability of
focusing on the award rather than the purpose of the work they have been appointed to do.
Indeed this was the shared feeling among the clergy and some of the music listeners in
between 2012-2018 when award shows were at their highest peak in the country. Releases of
albums and tracks seemed to target the awarding systems rather than season people were
going through and what the Holy Spirit wanted to minister through song. It has even been
analyzed that majority of the mainstream gospel groups split the year a certain prestigious
award did away with the category Group of The Year. Whether the groups had internal issues or
wanted to split because of different visions in life, is a mystery. The only coincidence noted was
the year all those mainstream groups broke coincided with the scrapping of The Group of The
Year category further adding claims of gospel musicians focused on awards not the main
purpose of their calling.
Complaints about awarding systems falling vulnerable to hype over anointing also
became a major issue. This is because most artists who ended up on blogs and T.V. interviews
did so because of scandals that were trending more than they did for their music. This resulted
in more marketing of their songs as artists who sung without any “clout” chasing would have
their music on little rotation and limited media interviews unless they were already a household name.
This brings us to the fact that most awards depended on the fans’ choice rather than
anointed ministers of the season. While favor with people can show favor with God, that is not
always the case. A clear example is when Israelites wanted to have kings like other nations
while God intended for them to have priests lead them ( 1 Samuel 8). This led them into
destruction eventually as some of the kings made terrible choices that went against God’s will
for His people.
Back to awards, does that mean popularity can blind us to assume one is
anointed yet they are not God’s intended minister of the season? This is a very controversial
topic as having some awards under some musicians’ belt would increase their rotation on
mainstream media and shows/ministrations called for. So just how important are awards for
gospel artists? Do they do us more harm than good or are they simply beneficial for recognizing
outstanding talent and work ethic. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but my hope would be
that God is pleased with our worship through music so that people do not applaud a minister
their entire life only to get to judgement day and be told that they were doing lip service like
the Pharisee’s with their hearts far away from the real purpose of worship, God. Mathew
15:8,“These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away from me.”
Conclusion, awarding system is okay so long as they do not compromise our focus and
become an idol, which is an extreme obstacle to true worship.