Christian Musicians Ministering With Secular Artiste Mentality.
A Lamentation Over Ghana’s Gospel Music
(A Historical, Prophetic, and Pastoral Narrative)
Once upon a time, when the fire of the Gospel burned bright in Ghana, our pulpits thundered with redemption, our hymns were drenched in Scripture, and our songs were vessels of truth.
From the Psalms of David to the chorales of the Reformation, from Wesley’s hymns to the missionary echoes that crossed the Atlantic into our soil, church music was never entertainment but proclamation—doctrine clothed in melody, theology sung in harmony.
But alas! Today I weep as Jeremiah once wept over Zion: “The sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the bride and the bridegroom, shall be heard no more” (Jer. 7:34). For in truth, Ghana has no Gospel artiste today.
The Gospel and Its Song
The Gospel is not a trifling tune but the eternal good news: the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the promise and incarnation of the Messiah, His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and His soon return (1 Cor. 15:1–8; Rom. 10:9–17).
Any song that is void of this sacred narrative is but noise—a cymbal without love—unworthy of the name Gospel.
The Psalms set the pattern: they sing of creation (Ps. 8), of Christ’s sufferings (Ps. 22), of His kingship (Ps. 2; Ps. 110), and of His victory (Ps. 118). Jesus Himself testified: “Everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).
If David, Asaph, and the sons of Korah sang of Christ before Bethlehem, what excuse have our so-called gospel artistes after Calvary?
The Historical Foundations
1. The Basel and Methodist Roots (1828–1930s)
The Basel Mission arrived in 1828 with Scripture and song. Their hymnals—Asɔr Ndwom in Twi, Ga, and Ewe—taught Ghanaians to sing their faith. The Methodist Church soon followed with its own hymnbook, embedding doctrine into melody. Choirs and brass bands became catechisms in sound.
2. The Pentecostal Beginnings (1930s–1960s)
In the 1930s, raw Spirit-born choruses arose from prayer camps, revival tents, and crusades. They carried no studio polish, but they carried heaven’s weight. In 1960, Professor Kofi Abraham emerged as Ghana’s first public gospel artiste, bridging revival choruses with professional albums.
3. The Golden Era (1970s–1990s)
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Ghana experienced her golden age of Gospel music. Out of revival fire came psalmists whose songs were sermons in sound:
Prof. Kofi Abraham – the theological psalmist.
Bishop Michael Mensah Bonsu – the evangelist’s trumpet.
Rev. YABS – the fiery preacher in song.
Evangelist Kusi Berko – the soul-winning minstrel.
The ROPS – Pentecostal chorus pioneers.
Tagoe Sisters – revival’s harmony.
Daughters of Glorious Jesus – timeless harmony born of the Pentecost Choir.
Rev. Dr. Esther Nyamekye – prophetic psalmist.
Jane & Bernice – the voices of feminine revival.
Their songs came from pulpits, prayer chambers, and Scripture. They discipled, they exhorted, they evangelized. They sang not to entertain but to exalt Christ.
The Decline (2000–2025)
The new millennium marked a grievous turning point. From 2000 till date, there has not been a single full-Gospel album in Ghana. The Ghana Music Awards—never recognizing the true pioneers—crowned Prophet Seth Frimpong as “Best Gospel Artiste.(with ‘Me Huri So’ fame)”
That moment symbolized the surrender of Gospel music to the entertainment industry.
The pulpit too declined. Preaching shifted from theology to theatrics, from the cross to cash, from redemption to rivalries. Garbage in, garbage out: shallow sermons bred shallow congregations, and from such pews arose artistes without Gospel.
Thus, the Church exchanged her psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19) for motivational anthems, colloquial jingles, and celebrity-driven choruses.
The Financial Idolatry
Today, many who call themselves gospel artistes function with a secular-artist mentality. They demand contracts, fees, and awards. They crave celebrity, forgetting that ministry is grace, not performance (John 3:27). The Church fuels this by auctioning singers like commodities.
But Gospel music cannot be bought or sold. True psalmists sing as prophets, not performers. Paul cried, “Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16). Should not our singers echo the same?
The Prophetic Irony
Were Professor Kofi Abraham, the Tagoe Sisters, Rev. YABS, or the Daughters of Glorious Jesus to release their Gospel-saturated songs today, many churches would reject them.
Congregations would not stream them. Pastors would not endorse them. For eternity is absent from our appetite, and Christ is absent from our chorus.
Thus, Ghanaian Gospel music today is as John saw: “a beast with horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon” (Rev. 13:11)—innocent in name, but carnal in voice.
A Call to Return
Hear, O Church in Ghana: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jer. 6:16).
Restore the Psalms.
Reclaim the hymns.
Write songs from prayer chambers, not from industry contracts.
Let our music be sermons, our choruses catechisms, our hymns discipleship tools.
For Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). The Gospel has not changed, and neither should its song.
Final Benediction
I, Rev. Emmanuel Boachie—
Country Director, Awesome Bible College;
President, Centre for Biblical-Historical Christianity Defence;
Head Pastor, Souls’ Pasture Church, Kumasi—
lift this lament as a trumpet.
May Ghana repent and return to the Gospel in song, lest the stones rise up to sing what we have silenced.
