In Filipino culture, the term kengkoy refers to someone who behaves in a clownish, exaggerated, or foolish manner, often to gain attention or provoke laughter. While lightheartedness has its place, kengkoy carries a deeper warning when it enters the realm of faith. When sacred spaces are reduced to stages and spiritual leadership turns into a performance, we cross a dangerous line. What was meant to be holy becomes hollow. What was meant to point to God begins to revolve around personality. And what was meant to carry truth becomes entertainment.
The pulpit is not a stage. It is not a comedy bar. It is certainly not a playground for personalities. The pulpit is a conduit for God’s message. It is sacred ground where truth must be proclaimed with fear, reverence, and clarity.
Yet in many churches today, the pulpit has been reduced to a platform for performance. Some pastors and preachers act more like entertainers than messengers of the Word. They crack jokes. They exaggerate gestures. They rely on being kengkoy to hold people’s attention, as if the power of the Gospel depends on punchlines.
This tendency does not stop at the pulpit. It has also crept into ministries across the church. Youth services become game shows. Worship teams become concert acts. Bible studies turn into comedy sessions. In the name of relevance and engagement, some ministries have traded substance for spectacle. Instead of forming disciples, they produce fans.
This is not harmless. It is harmful. Especially in the Philippine context, where many first-time attendees in Christian churches come from more traditional or solemn worship environments. They come seeking depth, meaning, and a real encounter with God. What they often find instead is noise, gimmicks, and theatrics. They expect to experience worship, but what they see feels more like a religious variety show.
Let us be clear. Joy belongs in the church. Laughter is not a sin. But when the need to be liked becomes greater than the call to be faithful, the church loses its way. When jokes drown out Scripture, and when showmanship overshadows substance, the pulpit stops serving God. It starts serving ego.
And the people suffer for it.
Entertainment may fill seats, but it does not fill souls. It may grab attention, but it does not change lives. Churches that chase applause may grow in numbers, but not in spiritual depth. We were never called to impress. We were called to preach Christ. Crucified. Risen. Returning.
Church leaders must stop hiding behind the excuse of “engagement.” The problem is not that people are bored. The problem is that the message has been watered down. We are not called to compete with social media influencers or stand-up comedians. We are called to be heralds of truth.
The pulpit is not a platform for applause. It is a battlefield for souls. What is at stake is not popularity. It is eternity.
God is not kengkoy. He did not send His Son to entertain the world. He sent His Son to die for it. That truth is not light. It is weighty. And the way we handle it, especially from the pulpit and in ministry, must reflect that.
Because the pulpit is not ours. It is God’s. And it must be treated with the reverence it deserves.
