“We overestimate music,” Pastor Josh Laryea has observed.

“We’ve made it appear as though a church cannot grow without music. It’s a lie.”

Taller Dee, host of Journey to Heaven, on No.1 FM, 105.3, had asked about the role of Gospel music in spiritual growth.

Furthermore, Pastor Laryea challenged the popular notion among pastors that: “You have to have quality machines; you have to go and poach a praise and worship leader; hire instrumentalists, and until you have it, your church will not grow.”

To buttress his point, he said “for over seven months,” he had his church singing without music.

“The bandsmen were there but I made them sit down,” he added. “I said, ‘Let’s test it and see’. And we all realised we overestimate [music].”

The Kharis Centre International leader and musician bemoaned, “Sometimes we act as if when a Gospel musician comes to your church to sing, your church will grow overnight.”

On the contrary, he noted, “people can follow him and come and right after he is done, they will go” and “if they stay, they’ll cause problems”.

The singer-songwriter observed “in the Charismatic church, the music plays like 65 per cent of the service, giving the musicians even more time than the pastor”.

Overtime, he added, the musicians have come to wrongly believe “they carry the church even more than the pastor”.

“This mentality we all grew up with is what brings the arrogance, opulence, and belief that we [musicians] build and sustain the church,” Pastor Laryea noted.