Loghema Was Never Meant to Become a Business
Loghema was never supposed to be a business.
There was no startup plan. No pitch deck. No market research telling me there was an opportunity here.
It started with one uncomfortable Sunday in my church.
Like many church media teams, we were constantly trying to keep up with everything happening during the service.
The pastor calls a scripture — someone has to find it and put it on the screen.
He makes an important point — that same person may be trying to type it.
At the same time, you're following the sermon, managing the presentation, watching for the next scripture and making sure the congregation sees what they need to see.
One person. Several things happening at once. And the service isn't going to slow down for you.
Most Sundays, we somehow made it work.
Then came the Sunday we didn't.
The Sunday That Started Everything
My pastor called out a scripture during the sermon.
We were trying to get it on the screen.
He called it again.
We still hadn't displayed it.
Then he called it again.
By the time we eventually got there, he had already moved on.
He was frustrated.
And right there in front of the church, he said:
“Church, pray for the media team. We need help.”
I don't think I've forgotten that moment.
If you've ever served on a church media team, you probably understand why.
Everyone sees the screen.
Everyone is waiting for that scripture to appear.
And when it doesn't, those few seconds feel much longer when you're the person sitting behind the computer.
But what people don't always see is everything happening behind that screen.
You're searching for the scripture. You're trying to type sermon points. You're following the pastor. You're managing the presentation. You're trying not to miss what he says next.
That Sunday was embarrassing.
But when I got home, the embarrassment turned into a question:
Why does it have to be this difficult?
Surely there had to be a better way.
Not a faster media person.
Not someone who could somehow do five things at once.
A better system.
I Went Looking for That System
I started searching.
I wanted something that understood the reality of a live church service. Something that could help us respond almost as quickly as the pastor was speaking.
I couldn't find what I was looking for.
And eventually, I thought:
What if I just build it myself?
Not for thousands of churches.
Not for 50 countries.
Not to start a company.
Just for my church.
I simply wanted the next Sunday to be easier than the last one.
So in November, I built the first prototype of what would eventually become Loghema.
We started using it.
And my media team loved it.
For the first time, something that had always felt unnecessarily stressful started to feel a little easier.
Then someone from another church saw it.
They looked at what we were using and essentially said:
“We need this in our church too.”
That was when something changed for me.
Maybe this wasn't only our problem.
Maybe media teams in other churches were dealing with the exact same thing.
Then I Made One Video
I'm not really the social media type.
But I decided to make a simple video showing what we had built.
I posted it.
And somehow, people found it.
The views started climbing.
10,000.
50,000.
100,000.
Then 200,000.
Eventually, hundreds of thousands of views.
But the numbers weren't the part that surprised me most.
It was the comments and messages.
Media teams saying, “We need this.”
People tagging their pastors.
Pastors sharing it.
People sending the video to their churches.
Church after church seemed to recognise the same problem we had been struggling with.
What I had built because of one uncomfortable Sunday was suddenly travelling far beyond our church.
From Our Media Desk to Churches Around the World
Today, Loghema has been downloaded thousands of times across more than 50 countries.
I still find that difficult to process sometimes.
Because somewhere far away from the church where this started, there's a media person sitting behind another computer using something that came from our own frustration.
A pastor calls a scripture.
The media team doesn't have to scramble the way we used to.
The scripture appears.
The congregation keeps following the message.
And the service simply moves on.
Most people in that congregation may never even notice.
And that's exactly the point.
The technology shouldn't become the moment.
It should help the moment happen.
We Were the Media Team
As Loghema grows, this is something I never want us to forget:
We didn't stand outside the church and guess what media teams needed.
We were the media team.
We've felt that pressure.
We've searched frantically for scriptures.
We've tried to type while listening to what the pastor is saying next.
We've watched everyone waiting for something to appear on the screen.
And we've experienced the embarrassment when we simply couldn't keep up.
That's still at the heart of how we build Loghema.
Behind every feature is the same question that started all of this:
How can we make serving easier so technology gets out of the way of the message?
Loghema has become much bigger than the little tool I built for my church that November.
But the reason we're building it hasn't changed.
We're still building for that person behind the computer.
We're still building for that pastor who shouldn't have to interrupt the flow of a sermon because the presentation hasn't caught up.
And we're building for the congregation that should be able to focus on the Word without being distracted by what is happening on the screen.
So if your church uses Loghema today, thank you.
Every church that uses it, every media team that sends us feedback, every pastor who recommends it and every person who tells another church about it has become part of a story I never planned.
A story that started with one difficult Sunday and one simple thought:
There has to be a better way.
That's how Loghema began.
And we're still building that better way.
With gratitude,
Ibiyemi Oluwatobiloba
Founder, Loghema