Diary of a Church Boy

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E20)

Owwteebee and a friend begin an interesting conversation on radio.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E21)

Owwteebee and Rozay continue an interesting conversation on radio.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E03)

We explored the practice of taking sermon notes in church - which I observed we now mostly do on our mobile devices and I presented as a social habit which can have profound and extended impact in the lives we lead.

I still document my thoughts and the ways I feel about them. In fact, in the light of recent sexual violence incidents which has made media rounds in my country Nigeria, I’m going to end this episode with my thoughts on rape - especially since it happened recently in a church.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I keep my promise from last episode by sharing why I still document my thought and the ways I feel about them.

Let’s do this.

Diarying’ can become a keystone habit - a small but significant routine that can transform other aspects of our lives. I found that those skills I acquired from the practice of taking notes in church are portable; I now use them - somewhat unconsciously, when documenting other areas of my life and here’s some of the benefits I find in this.

I find it to be uplifting.

I was driving back from a production meeting I had with clients in a town about an hour and a half from the one I resided in, when suddenly I realized a truck was heading straight at me.

A few moments later I was forklifted out of a nearby ditch where I’d been hit into. The car was wrecked beyond repair but I came out unscathed. Still in a state of shock, I lifted my eyes, saw a kite flying up in the sky and got teary-eyed, realizing I’d just been given a second chance at life.

‘I’m a kite that flew against the wind of adversity,’ I later wrote in my diary. ‘I’m that bird that missed the fowler’s snare. Yes I was made to overcome and fly against the wind of adversity.’ Writing about experiences like this inspire hope. They’re very uplifting and you should empower yourself with this.

I find it to be cathartic.

I write down my concerns; things that bother, frustrate and drain me. There’s a relief that the very act of harnessing those thoughts and transferring them in words to a medium brings. It feels to me like ‘casting my burdens’ on a piece of paper or now on my mobile note taking app. In fact, I literally take those notes to the place of prayer during quiet time. And what’s more I can be brutally honestly when venting this way without the limitations of people’s opinions and judgements. Venting on my diary is very cathartic and you should try it sometime. With note taking apps now that accept voice notes, this make it even easier.

I find this liberating.

As I alluded to in the first episode - which you should check out by the way, there are certain subjects that were awkward to express in church circles. What’s sad is that we can transfer this to our everyday lives and never express our opinions and reservations on certain issues. For instance, I worked and served for a few years in my church as ‘pastor’ for discipleship and media production but I never liked to be referred to by that title.

Don’t get it twisted though, there’s nothing wrong with it; I just didn’t see myself as a pastor - that’s not what I wanted to be known for. And every time I expressed that? I got the look. “Once a pastor, always a pastor,” I’d be told. “I’m not a pastor,” I’d likely reply. No Sir. I didn’t think that being a pastor was the only dignified way to serve God and humanity. I still don’t. I am inspired differently and I have other passions.

“By me shall all the families of the earth be blessed - and by me they shall bless themselves,” another version of that scripture explains. I’m Out-to-Bless! and I don’t have to do that on a church podium. So my diary became my platform for emancipation. “I work in the pastorate now but I’m not a pastor,” I would write to remind myself. There are

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E02)

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I’m sure with this intro, you’re curious to know what this is about! Well, let’s get to it.

‘Diarying’ (if there’s a word like that) has been my thing. I have always loved putting down my thoughts for as long as I can remember. And now that I’m doing that on this podcast - those that have to do with church-life and faith, I may as well share why I’ve made this my thing.

Here’s a typical moment that we were likely to have in a church service - that’s a meeting where Christians gather to worship, feed their minds with the Word of God and are empowered for daily Christian living.

A preacher, usually after announcing the title of his or her sermon or reading a scriptural text will ask the people gathered to pull out their writing materials and take sermon notes. Yes, putting down our thoughts in writing - ‘diarying’ as I choose to call it here, is a practice that is very much encouraged in church circles.

I grew up accumulating piles and piles of books filled with sermon notes over the years so much so that at a point, I found no need to buy devotionals any more - those are journals intended for use during another Christian practice known as ‘Quiet Time’ - that’s Christianese for an apportioned daily time of meditation and prayers.

I would go back to my sermon notes from years before and use them during this time of reflection and prayers. I realized this was the only way I would go back to them. What was the point of writing those notes, anyway, if I was never going to go back to them.

This gave this practice some purpose and became the reason why I gave myself fully to it, knowing it had value beyond being merely a social habit. Listen, the insights I got from those documented thoughts during times of meditation and prayers have sparked some of the most profound perspectives I’ve had in life.

And my point? Documenting thoughts, ideas and experiences is a form of self expression that can have profound impact in the lives we lead. This used to be done on physical books but as we progress gradually to a paperless society, it is now mostly done digitally on mobile devices.

I asked a couple of friends to share their experiences and they did!

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I’ll take a break here. See you when we return.

This episode of ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is supported by Nelson XP - a graphic designer and concept digital artist. Nelson digitally painted the picture of me that’s on this podcast art and is open to commissions. See episode notes for his contact details and other information.

So despite such challenges as the ones we just heard, which I’d like to hear your opinions on by the way, I still document my thoughts in diaries. This podcast, as a matter of fact, is a digital audio diary of exactly that - my thoughts, ideas and experiences of church-life and faith, laid out in ways that you hopefully will relate with.

I’ll share with you on the next episode how I’ve extended this practice in empowering ways to other facets of my life. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and loved ones and consider supporting on Patreon.

See you on the next one!

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E09)

The reality of our common humanity is that our wellbeing is interconnected; a virus from across the globe has shattered our collective illusions of safety and radically disrupted our sense of normalcy.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we pick from the last episode here exploring church-life during the Corona virus pandemic.
Let’s get to it.

In the 14th century (precisely between 1346 and 1353) history has it that an epidemic known as the Bubonic plague hit humanity hard and eventually killed up to 60 percent of Europe’s entire population at the time.

In one writer’s comparison, people were asked to isolate with friends and family and gather in the evenings to eat, drink and tell each other interesting stories - that would be our equivalent of Netflix and chills today.

I read in another account that abandoned houses fell into the ground and were covered by grass and earth, leaving only the church behind. In fact it is said that if you were to see a church or chapel alone in a field, you’re most likely looking at an image of the remains of one of those lost European villages.

My point with this is that this has happened before. The New Living Translation of a relevant verse states it aptly; “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). But what will remain of the church in our case and how, alluding to our discussion in the last episode, do we think about the church - as the body or Christ gathered or otherwise?

It is amazing that when the phrase ‘new normal’ is used recently, we are most likely referring to how we are learning to live, cope and survive the realities of this present Covid-19 pandemic. This, it is predicted, will continue for a while and will not be easy for both Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s a reality we have to learn to live with.

But as the lockdown and curfews are gradually relaxed, we cannot afford to throw caution with the wind. Earlier denials by leaders - religious and political, has put us all at risk and many people - Christians and non-Christians, have died from this already. So the Christian exceptionalism that I see around is not the path to tow right now. Being a Christian does not automatically exempt or make us immune for this virus.

And what is it about gathering together that makes us abandon common sense even with such near and present danger as is the case during this pandemic? Respondents had this to say:

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Listen, let’s not be stupid. God will not be mocked by our idiocy. Let’s follow prescribed rules for hygiene and social engagement so we can stay alive and be part of the spiritual arc this side of history. For real, the earthly reality of this pandemic regardless, God is still in control. He is sovereign and is providentially working out His redemptive plan even in all this craziness.

That’s all I’ll say for now.

This podcast is a digital audio diary of my reflections on church-life and faith and you’ll find links to its transcripts on each episode’s show note. ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is listener supported and you can support for a dollar or its equivalent every month on Patreon through the link also on this episode’s show note.

If this was recommended to you and you like the content, please subscribe, rate and review on your preferable podcast app. That will help us reach more people. Follow @diaryofachurchboy (that’s one word) on Instagram and feel free to send your voice note contributions via direct message.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E07)

First bonus episode of Season 1.

In past episodes we’ve laid a conceptual background, as it were, by discussing ‘diarying’ in the way that I framed it and who a church boy is.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and here’s a bonus episode before we move on to other things.

A respondent in the last two episode observed that serving in church seems to be the way to validate one’s commitment and devotion to the Christian faith. He also noted that this places committed young Christians - labeled as ‘Church Boys’ (or Church Girls) under the pressure of living up to projected standards of perfection.

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I’ve been in church and church circles long enough to relate with the perfectionism that exists across denominations and persuasions and my response is that this preoccupation with efforts aimed at moral perfection belittles the grace of God.

As integrated as service is to spiritual development, it can also be a distraction to the relationship that Christianity is meant to be. We cannot earn right standing with God because of our commitment to church or church activities or even with our piety and good works. Right standing with God does not depend on our achievements or merit.

“God saved you by His grace when you believed,” a New Living Translational of a relevant scripture states. “And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 New Living Translation)

And as to moral perfection, God is not an angry retributive being waiting to punish humans for every deviation from His mark of perfection. This view of God stems from faulty theology handed down by zealous Christian leaders. And, yes, it is possible to be sincerely wrong.

In the Bible instruction to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is, the word translated ‘perfect’ would actually be better translated as ‘complete’. We are admonished to find completion in God rather than strive for moral perfection that is unattainable.

This penchant for the self righteousness that we find in church circles reinforced by expectations projected on committed Christians is counter to God’s plan. Spiritual maturity, which is what we’re called to, is a process of ‘becoming’ like God.

Holding oneself up to excessively high standards and basing one’s self worth on ability to measure up to them traps us into the pressure of performance and can lead to feelings of anxiety, emptiness and even depression.
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To every church boy or girl, every Christian man or woman, I share my dairy entries - past and present, here so if you’re where I’ve been or currently am at, you’ll know you’re not alone. Oh you’re not alone.

There’s many of us and so find comfort in the reassurance that you’re are not mad or crazy. You may be different but there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with you. You may have your struggles but so do I. We all do, as a matter of fact, but are all engaging imperfectly in our sanctifying fight against our human nature.

For as far back as we can trace in history, God has been transforming the world using imperfect people in imperfect situations and circumstances. If you allow it, God will - through the truth in His word, sanctify you in your mess and empower you to empower others. “I will bless you,” He says “and you will be a blessing.”

That’ll be all for now.

This podcast is a digital audio diary of my reflections on church-life and faith. On this transcript - which you will find a link to on this episode’s note, there’ll be links to resources referenced here.

Remember to subscribe to this on your preferable podcast app. Follow @diaryofachurchboy on Instagram, and if you enjoyed this episode share it with someone and consider supporting th

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E05)

Owwteebee discusses who a ‘Church Boy’ is.

Driving with friends to check out equipment on a production set, I brought up this podcast and the fact that I was thinking about an episode on the concept of a ‘Church Boy’ (and by extension - ‘Church Girl’).

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I’m about to share some of the discussion I just mentioned with you. But before then, some preliminaries.

How do you find out who someone really is? We ask them - that would be my ready answer. Assumption is the lowest level of knowledge - if you know me, you know I say that a lot. Why assume - especially when you can get answers directly.

However, we may not have the requisite proximity or rapport to exact such answers. So we check out what they’ve put out about themselves. We can ‘Google’ them or check out their bio pages on the world-wide web and social media.

The thing with this is people usually put out the best version of themselves out there. The good book nailed it: “Many a man will proclaim their goodness but a faithful and trustworthy man, who can find?” (Proverbs 20: 6).

So we likely will fall back to checking out their personality traits, hobbies and interests, beliefs and values, spiritual and religious affiliations, sexual orientation and group memberships, culture, race, ethnicity, and so on. Truth be told, this is what we do actually.

We aggregate these mostly unfounded observations, come up with a construct of who we think people are and label them with a word or phrase - positive or negative, that categorizes these individuals. This is the case with ‘Church Boy’.

A ‘Church Boy’ according to the Urban Dictionary is a man who, first, has dedicated his life to Christ and, secondly, loves the feeling and joy that Church brings. Let’s deal with the dedication but in this episode. The explanation gets more interesting when you ask people about this. I did!
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So labels set expectations which affect behavior. People labeling Christians as ‘Church Boys’ (or Church Girls) may not realize it but these tags set certain standards for those labeled which they are somewhat obligated to conform to and this leads to pretentious behaviors which brings to mind lines from Oscar Wilde: “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

I’ll take a break here. See you when we return.

So labels reflect what we think about people. And beyond that, they set expectations which affect the behaviors of the people we label. They feel the need to live out this image of perfection that has been projected on them. But as Christians, we are not called to perfectionism - we are called to maturity; spiritual maturity.

“Perfectionism’, Anne Wilson Schaef wrote, “is self-abuse of the highest order. “ It dehumanizes us, equates our value to our performance, our identity to our usefulness and our beauty to our presentation.”

We’ll continue on the next episode.

This podcast is a digital audio diary of my reflections on church-life and faith. On the top of this transcript - which you will find a link to on this episode’s note, there’s a ‘Send-Me-Your-Thoughts’ tab. Please feel free to use it.

Remember to subscribe to this on your preferable podcast app. Follow @diaryofachurchboy on Instagram, and if you enjoyed this episode share it with someone and consider supporting this work on Patreon.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E04)

Owwteebee applies ‘diarying’ to a topical issue.

I find that ‘diarying’ is a responsible thing to do. The ability to respond to topical issues in the one of the methodical senses I shared in the last episode can open us to insights and perspectives that will leave us self aware and empowered.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we’re about to get practical on this one. Let’s get on to some applied ‘diarying’.

In the last episode, I shared part of a recent diary entry that I documented as I thought about and around a rape incidence that happened in the premises of a local church in my country - Nigeria. I made quotes out of some of the statements that I put out, posted them on social at the same time the episodes were released and boom - a flood of responses and reactions began to come in.

This confirmed a key critical success factor that I’d set for this podcast. My intention is to share my reflections on church-life and faith first in ways that are relatable and second in the hope that the perspectives shared here will facilitate our espousal and championing of needed changes.

The feedback I got shows that this is relatable. That encourages me. And please let me use this opportunity to thank you for listening, supporting (I got new patrons this week) and contributing to this podcast. It make the time and effort put in to get this out worth the while. Thank you.

While, for ethical reasons, I cannot publish the specifics of some of the reactions I got, they sure got me thinking about threads that seemed to run through most of the sexual violence incidences that has happened - especially in church and amongst church people.

The first thread I observe is ‘cover up’. I stand to be correct here but there almost always seems to be an effort to cover up these atrocities. If you live in my country - Nigeria, a case or two may pop up in your mind as you listen to this.

The second thread I observe is ‘cancellations’. Offenders are most likely to be ‘canceled’ in the sense that they are boycotted and not supported. Relationships with the ‘fallen’ are severed and their cultural cachet revoked as punishment for their unacceptable behavior.

My respondents spoke to this:
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My concern with both threads is that there are executed in ways that are not graceful; cover is insensitive to the victim and mercy is mostly not extended to sexual offenders in ways that should be identified with church-life, in the true sense of it. No wonder David said: I’d rather be punished by God whose mercy is great than fall into human hands.

However, considering our attention economy, in a few week or months at best, we would have moved on to the next trend. Allow me to recommend a way that we can we think meaningfully about the ‘rape culture’ that is plaguing us. I believe that we can make sense of this pervading menace in ways that we can curb its spread.

I’ll take a break here and explain when we return.

This episode of ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is supported by Nelson XP - a graphic designer and concept digital artist. Nelson digitally painted the picture of me that’s on this podcast art and

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What is this?Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E01)

Our test episode was ‘This is It’! but what is this about?

Owwteebee here this beautiful day, on my way back from a morning walk - I do this as often as I can to think, to pray or just to clear my head - and I guess on-going to record my podcast.

This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I’m about to breakdown what this is all about.

Let’s do this.

So I put out the test episode, post links to it on my WhatsApp status and Nora hits me up - Nora is a friend from church, and she’s like...

So I thought, you know what? I might as well put out what ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is about as an opener.

What is this?

‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is a weekly podcast. And here, I - OtoObong Ekpenyong will be reflecting on church-life and faith, in ways that I hope you can relate with.

How did this happen?

I actually had to think about this. I think this is a culmination of a few things. In retrospect I realize that growing up in the church space, I had conflicts and questions.

There were times when I had clashes of opposing feelings, needs, interests, opinions - and things of sorts. And it seemed as if there was an unwritten code, a non-verbal agreement, that certain things could not be voiced or expressed.

Fast forward to me being a storyteller and wanting to tell stories. I decided that this is what I want to do with my life - recount the experiences of real people. And what better experiences to begin with than mine!

Listen, occurrences and events leave impressions on people that only they can recount in certain ways. Trust me, you have stories that only you can tell in ways that can empower people in very unique ways. And so do I and I hope to explore those experiences here in ways that you probably will relate with.

Why am I doing this?

Stories are a fun way for people to understand and appreciate cultures - and the culture here in review is church-life! Yes, church life IS a culture with everything that comes with it:

It has its language - ‘Christianese’
It has its religion - Christianity
It has its cousine - The Word of God
It has its social habits - on don’t get me started on those
It even has its art - Christian music, Christian movies, oh come on!

So I can say I’m doing this for the culture in the hope that people can get to understand church-life and appreciate it in a way that they can respect it.

Where is this going to be?

‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is going to be available on your preferable podcast app. And if its not there yet, please head to Instagram @diaryofachurchboy and follow the page. Clicking on the bio link will take you to the hub where all the episodes will be hosted.

When is this going to be?

‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is intended to be a weekly podcast. New episodes will be published, so help me God every Sunday 17:00 hrs - that’s 5:00pm WAT.

So yeah: ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is an episodic Society & Culture Podcast where I Owwteebee will reflect on church-life and faith, doing this for the culture in the hope that people can get to understand church-life and appreciate it in ways that they can respect it.

Remember to subscribe on your preferable podcast app, and follow @diaryofachurchboy on Instagram. And if you enjoyed this episode please share it with someone.

See you on the next one!

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E11)

Usually a still or moving image with a catch phrase that portrays a particular concept or idea and is spread on social media platforms on the internet, this trend is undoubtedly a cultural entity that replicates, evolves and is passed from person to person.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we begin an interesting discussion on this episode with memes.
Let’s get to it.

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Memes can take a variety of forms and are equally used in a stunning variety of ways. They are a free form of entertainment that help us unwind as we scan through social media posts and, as one writer rightly observed, distract ourselves from troubling and disturbing news feeds.

What gives them the catchy factor that makes them go viral easily is that they are inexpensive to create and contain what I’d call ‘culture-conscious’ humor. What’s more, this digital trend is a great conversation starter and this ripples its effect in fields way beyond the social media platforms they are first introduced.

I met up with a friend at a sport club (so you’re likely to hear people playing lawn tennis in the background of our conversation. Please excuse that. Diana-Mary is many things: a teacher with, as she puts it, a nose for child development, a farmer but (more significantly) a broadcast journalist whose journalism can hardly be separated from her activism. I brought up the subject of memes and this is how our conversation went:

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We’ll continue in the next episode.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E12)

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we pick up from the last episode on this interesting conversation we had about memes.

Here we go!

“The powerful thing about internet memes,” Meredith D. Clark, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia said, “is that people can take them and add to them or transform them in ways that they make sense for the online communities that they’re a part of.”

For real! I find it interesting that, in our case here in this podcast, we went from discussing memes as art and a reflection of societal concerns to the polarization of values in a godly relationship [Hushpuppi and Sam Adeyemi! Really?], to a bit of social exchange and more. Take a listen:

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Let’s continue with the conversation as it was, and the reactions as more people contributed to discussion.

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And speaking of Church Girls being taken over by others, I must add here also that there are genuine concerns about ... uhh... the hustle level of Church Boys.

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I’ll hinge my parting words on a Message Bible rendition of a principle I find relevant here: “... In all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point” it says. (2 Corinthians 10:12 The Message Bible). No two relationships are the same; what’s desirable to the goose may not necessarily work for the gander. And listen, I’m speaking to our need for and dependency on the wisdom of God for what’s best for our relationships in particular.

But this much I can say; clarify your values and do well to declare, discuss and test them in the relationships you build - not with undue sense of entitlement but always with the big picture at heart and the humility that comes with teachability. Hold on to what is right, let go of what is not and the Good Lord will perfect all that concerns you. That’s all I’ll say for now.

If this was recommended to you and you like the content, please share it with someone else! Subscribe, rate and review on your preferable podcast app so that we can reach more people. Follow @diaryofachurchboy (that’s one word) on Instagram and feel free to send your voice note contributions via direct message.

See you on the next one!

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E10)

Owwteebee features Diary of a Trendy Mum.

So you’re wondering, ‘Diary of a Trendy Mum’ on ‘Diary of a Church Boy’? Well, yes, it’s a collaboration of diaries on this one.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I’m about treat you to another dose of applied ‘diarying’.

Let’s get to it.

How many hats does a mother wear? My mother (of blessed memory) sure wore many - that I witnessed first-hand and for a lot of young aspiring women today, juggling these roles as they go about everyday life can be daunting - to say the least.

Take a look at our society today. Mums have to be everything - caregivers, nurturers, enforcers, empathizers, playmates, planners - and these are broad categories! Mums, if you ask me, are unsung heroes worthy of eulogy and we shouldn’t wait till Mother’s Day to celebrate them.

But as daunting as these roles are, there are amazing women out there who reserve their rights to choose the roles they want to embody, juggle them effectively and efficiently and still lead fulfilling lives! My friend Roseline who I future in today’s episode is one of these amazing Mums - and a trendy one at that.

Roseline is a long-time friend. The story around our friendship is beyond the scope of this episodes subject matter but I’ll drop some pointers. She’s married to my childhood friend and covenant brother and I was the best man at their wedding. Our friendship has come a long way and we’ve watched and encouraged each other grow through the different milestones.

Let me allow her introduce herself briefly before I go on:

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Trust me, she’s as pleasant as she sounds and has been speaking about living intentionally for as far back as I can remember.

First published as a series of posts on her blog - ‘Diary of a Trendy Mother’, Roseline’s book serves doses of inspiration, humour, life hacks and creative perspectives on motherhood. You will find within its pages, an engaging easy-to-read compilation of stories sourced from everyday life experiences.

On how ‘Memoirs of a Trendy Mum’ came to be? This is what she had to say.

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In the first and introductory episode of this podcast, I stated that occurrence and events leave impressions on people that only they can recount in certain ways. I reminded us that we, individually, have stories only we can tell that can empower others in very unique ways. Well, here’s a case in point and this is what Roseline has this to say in this regard.

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I’ll take a break here and continue when we return.

This episode is supported by ‘Diary of a Trendy Mum’ a blog that provides doses of inspiration and sets to build a community of women who are intentionally supporting each other and deliberately enjoying their roles as wives, mothers, mentors, business professionals, et cetera.

Get your copy of their latest offering ‘Memoirs of a Trendy Mum’ by clicking on a direct link available on this episode’s show note. If you preorder now (that’s before the official launch day of July 24, 2020) you’ll get complimentary book - ‘Memoirs of a Trendy Mum’ Holiday Special.

Go ahead, scroll up and click now.

https://trendymother.com.ng/ebook

So yeah! She may not have realized it at the time but, the way I see it, Roseline was inspired and empowered by her experiences so she could empower us all with this work that she’s put out. She was blessed so she could be a blessing. She is - intentionally so, and you should be too.

This podcast is a digital audio diary of my reflections on church-life and fa

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E08)

Trying to make sense of the concept of a Church Boy (or a Church Girl by extension) in episode 5, we found - according to the Urban Dictionary, that this is a person who, first, has dedicated his or her life to Christ and, secondly, loves the feeling and joy that Church brings.

We spent the next few episodes considering an aspect of this dedication - namely involvement in church and church activities, and its attendant assumptions and pressures.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and I thought we should consider the second part of that definition; the bit that has to do with feelings and the joy that church brings - especially in the light of this Covid-19 pandemic.

Let’s do this!

I love the feeling and joy that Church brings - and, according to the Urban English Dictionary, that makes me a Church Boy. There’s no shame in that; I embrace it and I’m sure there a lot of us out there that share this sentiment and will embrace this identity too.

But since March of 2020, we’ve been battling a virus that is changing the way we live our lives individually and collectively. This Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted established ways of doing things and church experience even hasn’t been the same. But before we get into that, let me acknowledge some of my concerns here - well, more like confess some of my fears.

As the experts - virologist and epidemiologists, are learning on the fly and sometimes making what I’d call honest mistakes about this novel virus, it was really disconcerting to me to realize that we are forced to adhere to safe practices not so that less people get the virus but so that we can spread out the numbers of people that get it per time.

If you’ve heard of ‘flattening the curve’, that’s the fancy phrase for what I’m talking about. Our social freedom, as it were, is curtailed so that we are not overwhelmed with too many cases than we have the capacity to deal with per time. Now in a country like mine where the medical infrastructure and systems are what they are (and that’s me playing safe in the way I phrase this), you can excuse my fears.

The Corona virus pandemic has also forced us to redefine and reevaluate somethings. For instance, I see that it has forced us to redefine love as active vs. passive. Love, commonly viewed from the standpoint of what one does to show it, must also now be seen from the standpoint of what one does not do to show it.

I stand to be corrected but we are now learning in this season to appreciate the truth that it is much more loving to wave from afar than to shake hands, hug and kiss. It is more loving to stay away from people than to visit.

Speaking directly to the feelings and joy that church brings, we are also forced to redefine if the church is the body of Christ gathered or individuals called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God’s redemptive truth (as it cannot be both now - at least not in the way it used to be).

Church-life, before now, has basically been an embodied in-the-room experience. We had to dress up and show up in order to experience the praise and worship, the preaching and teaching sessions, the corporate prayers and so on! I asked a couple of people what they missed and their post-covid outlook on this. Take a listen.

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One thing is sure, things are not the way they used to be. It’s a new normal right, that we have to deal with and most of that will have to do with rethinking what we’d held on to for so long.

We’ll continue on the next episode.

This podcast is a digital audio diary of my reflections on church-life and faith and you’ll find links to its transcripts on each episode’s notes. ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ is listener supported and you can support for a dollar or equivalent every month on Patreon through the link also on this

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E13)

Once in while things come into our life space (in this case a song) that reveals our theology and, in my opinion, what we are empowered enough to confront.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we begin a conversation about music and a currently trending song.

Let’s get to it.

Music is one of my favorite things in life generally. The thing is I like what I like and can’t really say that I’m adventurous about discovering music and artists. That’s one of the values in Adaora’s podcast for me.

We went on an evening walk and talked about music - gospel music, with some side notes of course. Her podcast is Music and Side Notes and you can listen in wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s how our conversation went.

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We’ll continue on the next episode.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E14)

An August 13 New York Times article describes his relationship with God as a way to channel his instincts which, according to the writer, stray combative.
This is evident in a ballad he released end of July, that already has more than a million views on YouTube and has landed him his first two placements on Billboard’s genre sales chart.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we continue the conversation we had about Tobe Nwigwe’s ‘Try Jesus’ on the last episode.
Let’s do this!

Let’s pick up from reactions about the song and take it from there.
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And back to my conversation with Adaora:

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I stated when I introduced this discussion in the last episode that certain things come into our life space and reveal what we are empowered enough to confront (or disempowered to tolerate). Wrong biblical interpretation of the ‘turn-the-left-cheek’ scripture has, in my opinion, disempowered Christians to tolerate injustice that we should not.

This scripture is not suggesting that we become docile in the face of mistreatments as prove of our adherence to Christian tenets. No! That would be unduly reading in Christian Pacifism - the theological position that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith, to the text in a way that disempowers us to be taken advantage of.

Context is everything; we cannot pull this verse out of the entire text and impose our meaning on it. Read the entire passage, please, and pay attention to the running principle here. Turning the left cheek, gifting your inner garment to someone who spitefully takes your outer garment, these all point to intelligent ways of engaging the cultural context to resist oppression.

And that’s what Tobe and Jabari did with ‘Try Jesus’. Yeah!

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That’ll be all on this for now.

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Diary of a Church Boy (S01 E06)

Owwteebee continues discussions on who a ‘Church Boy’ is.

In the last episode, we began exploring the concept of a ‘Church Boy’. Our discussion threw up the fact that this label reflects assumptions projected on young committed Christians whose lives literally revolves around church and church activities.

Owwteebee here. This is ‘Diary of a Church Boy’ and we continue that discussion here

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Did I mention that I grew up as a church boy? Oh yes I did and if you follow this diary - you’re sure in for a ride! This once messed-up little man was raised in an Orthodox Church and I’ve grown my spiritual muscles, as it were, (however small the biceps) in two Pentecostal churches till date.

So believe me when I say that there’s a critical unlearning that needs to happen in the church space and part of my reasons for curating the thoughts I do here on this podcast is to spur and facilitate that unlearning through storytelling.

The fact that we are called believers does not mean that we should believe everything that is spewed at us from pulpits. “Only simpletons believe everything they are told! The prudent carefully consider their steps.” That, by the way, is straight from the Bible. (Proverbs 14:15 New Living Translation).

So permit me to address the elephant right here. I ended that last episode with it but it’s well worth reiterating: As Christians, we are not called to perfectionism - we are called to maturity; spiritual maturity.

Perfectionism - a doctrine holding that moral or spiritual perfection is attainable, is a trap. It is a compulsion to live up to projected standards in our desire for acceptance and fear of rejection. The Contemporary English Bible rendition of a verse states this aptly: “People are trapped by their fear of others.” (Proverbs 29: 25 Contemporary English Bible).

I agree with Anne Wilson Schaef. “Perfectionism” she wrote, “is self-abuse of the highest order.“ It dehumanizes us, equates our value to our performance, our identity to our usefulness and our beauty to our presentation.”

And let me straighten this out here: This is not a call to abandon the pursuit of excellence. No. What I’m saying is that refusal to accept standards short of perfection belittles the grace of God. And Grace is the antidote for perfectionism.

God speaking: “My grace is all You need. My power works best in weakness. So now I’m glad to boast about my weakness,” the Apostle Paul wrote, “so that the power of Christ can work through me.” (2 Corinthians 12: 9 New Living Translation) And my diary spin on this: “I embrace my humanity so I can experience His divinity.

I rest my case.

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