Church, IT firm develop worship app

A parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God has launched a live worship mobile application to expand its worship module.

An IT firm, E-knowvate Solution, will manage the mobile application for the parish — Tabernacle of David – located in Ajah, Lagos State.

The mobile development, called TOD mobile app, will foster a live broadcast of the parish worship, including other features such as access to the ministry’s special services like prayer request, counseling, live parish member chat and group task participation, among others.

The parish said the application would serve both home-based and overseas members.

A pastor in the evangelical department of the parish, Philips Otomori, said TOD is a mega church and because of its membership spread, the ministers in the church thought it needful to make gospel of the parish worship and other services available globally.

Otomori said that with the advent of mobile phone, which is now rampant, “it is important to allow the entire church activities such as sermons, run on both audio and video platforms.”

This, he said, “would easily help absentee members view or listen to the sermons at their own free time.”

The Managing Director of E-knowvate Solutions, Muyiwo Alawode, commended the parish for taking the step, saying, “Churches in Nigeria have since become formidable forces within the society.”

He said, “They have seen the opportunity whereby beyond using mobile platform for businesses, the churches of Christ can benefit from the global mobile outreach which is currently spreading like fire across the world.”

Alawode stated that the app, being new effort by the church, was to reach members of its congregation, carry out follow-up on converts and create encouragement for messages that can actually help their spiritual developments.

He said that the essence of the TOD mobile app is that, “it serves as an evangelical tool to reach its congregation within and outside its environs.”

He said, “Part of the corporate philosophy of E-knowvate Solution Limited is to continuously identify various verticals within its space and see how it could actually use mobile technology platform to deliver value and optimise processes for businesses towards creating improved engagement for their customers and products in market.”

In the same vein, the Marketing Manager, E-Knowvate Solutions, Mrs. Ayomiku Ojeyomi, said that with the invigorated pace of evangelism, technological advancement and human mobility, the church in effectively carrying out its work of evangelism had to respond more radically to the management of the parish growth in discipleship.

“It also has to follow up new converts beyond the traditional approach of one-on-one visitation,” Ojeyomi said.

She said that today’s church members needed timely information on church programmes, events and sub-group meetings in order to actively participate and network.

She noted that her organisation’s technology tool, “which is flock-care mobile application, would offer overwhelming benefits to churches’ leaders and administrators who subscribe to it.”

Meanwhile, clerics, including the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Rev. Adewale Martins, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama and others have charged the new Lumen Christi Television Network with standing for the truth, equity, justice and progress.

The clerics gave the charge in Lagos, on Monday, to mark the commencement of the operations of the network as the first private cable television network to broadcast mainly Catholic doctrines.

Pledging the support of the Catholic Church to the station, Martins charged the network to help in upholding the core values of the Catholic faith to ensure obedience to God’s commandments.

He promised that the Catholic Church would support the station in its goal of nurturing the faith of many people around the globe, and commended the founder, Prince Robert Olagunju, for his initiative.

The archbishop advocated the establishment of additional television and radio stations to generate employment for the teeming populace.

He called on the Federal Government to set up an agency that would regulate the programmes and content of broadcast stations owned by religious bodies to guard against abuse.

In a speech, Olagunju described the station as a manifestation of his dream “to do something big to express the universality and uniqueness of the Catholic Church.

“Lumen Christi Television was ordained in heaven. It is by divine grace and providence that I happened to be the labourer, who brought it to reality.’’

He said that the station would operate round the clock, disseminating mainly Catholic contents to viewers across Africa, Europe and parts of Asia.