Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God has numerous converts who are potentially capable of changing the course of imbecile leadership plaguing the nation. This church with estimated membership of about 12 million is the most populated pentecostal fold in Nigeria and history beckons on them to use their numerical strength and spiritual resources to effect a change in the mediocre administration of Nigeria.
Pastor Adeboye, a former teacher and lecturer in mathematics from the University of Lagos and Ilorin was among the first set of academia in Nigeria to become disciples of the then ‘church ratist’ Pentecostalism. Then from the early seventies to the early nineties to be a Pentecostal is akin to being an outcast. Families prefer a drunkard in their fold than a Pentecostal. Pentecostalism was associated with non-violent but radical trait of Christianity where the convert loses taste for the things of the world, fashion of the world, music of the world etc.
During my own time, my father had to drive me out of the house in 1986 because, according to him, I failed to genuflect before the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I had to live from church hall to queer places until my elder brother came around from his postings and temporarily normalized the situation. My school fees and pocket money were constantly withheld and I was treated with contempt as a religious rebel. Such was the fate of Pentecostals till Archbishop Benson Idahosa of Church of God Mission and Pastor Joe Anwuzia of Zoe Ministries made Pentecostalism fashionable.
Pastor Adeboye was among the people who gradually led the migration from extremist Pentecostalism to moderation. This was coupled with various testimonies of creative miracles like healing of blindness, lameness and other incurable health condition under the power of God which used to be hallmarks of his conventions then.
The emergence of Archbishop Benson Idahosa, Pastor Joe Anwuzia and Prophet Gabriel Oduyemi birthed the introduction of prosperity into the Pentecostal fold. Pastor Adeboye believes in prosperity, preaches prosperity, healing, salvation and spiritual maturity.
Adeboye runs a loose administrative structure which gives his pastors the freedom to exhibit their peculiar spiritual gifts of prophecy, healing, teachings, worship or a combination. The Redeemed pastors are not perpetually in fear of frequent transfers like their Living Faith counterparts.
In terms of pastoral allowances, Redeemed pastors receive more pay than other structured Pentecostal churches perhaps except Winners Chapel. During our time, pastors are sent to a field with a horn speaker, mat, stove, huge Bible and Matthew Henry’s Commentary and a member to house the new work in his apartment. The pastor were to use his ‘God of Elijah’ anointing to bring down the rest of the chairs, instruments, place of worship, members etc, or face hunger and starvation. The Redeemed Christian Church of God will have none of it. They equip every branch with minimum requirements including migrated membership to enable the new branch start up with less friction.
In terms of sermon delivery, the Redeemed style is simple and devoid of logical sequence and revelational word craft associated with Winners Chapel. Messages in Redeemed Church is delivered with high level of simplicity; devoid of intellectual flair that one begins to wonder what a professor is doing in that environment. Bible students are not excited about their message pattern, they view it as too simplistic, however, the cohesive families like relationship in their fold beats that of any Pentecostal fold in Nigeria and have held the church together like a rock.
In terms of organization, the church is second only to Winners Chapel. In terms of worship, it towers above many Pentecostal churches. In terms of hierarchical structure, it has the most disciplined hierarchical order. A district pastor with 100 members in his parish takes precedence over a parish or area pastor with 5000 Congregationalists such that the parish pastor must surrender pulpit at the presence of the district or any other senior pastor. This is just to ensure discipline and order. They have low turnover of pastors as you will see those who started with Pastor Adeboye still in the fold.
The daily devotional ‘Open Heavens ‘is the most incisive daily devotional in circulation. It showcases the teaching ministry of Pastor Adeboye .The Redeemed Camp has a sitting capacity of over four million and during conventions and Holy Ghost Congress the visitors exceeds the number. Pastor Adeboye possesses unusual grace. During Holy Ghost services people run to the altar arena in response to alter call, before he finishes counting one to ten, yet one cannot pinpoint the highpoint of the message that drew such crowd of sinners out for repentance.
Pastor Adeboye have influenced pastors all over the world , the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church, David Oyedepo refers to him as his ‘father in the lord’, same goes for many other pastors. Newsweek Magazine in 2008 named him among 50 most influential persons worldwide. Pastor Adeboye has built a solid institution of religion, having all administrative and managerial effectiveness in place including the Redeemers University. With a membership of over eight million it is time for the Redeemed Christian Church of God to move to the next level.
Nigerian Politicians have discovered through their astrologers and soothsayers that a lot of power circulates within the vicinity of Redemption Camp and they tend to misuse the open door policy of Pastor Adeboye by tapping from his grace and anointing without abiding by the tenets of faith. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the Redeemed Camp more than thrice especially when he was faced with travails, yet by the time he was through with his eight years tenure, he invented ‘do or die’ brand of electoral fraud which further shot Nigeria into infamy.
President Jonathan had visited the place twice and on each occasion was given the podium. During the 2012 Holy Ghost Congress he climbed the podium and lied that he has not made up his mind on 2015 presidency. Two weeks later, his sycophants and bootlickers spread his posters all over Abuja and shortly afterwards he taught the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amechi, lessons in subordination, by sponsoring attempts to remove him as the Chairman of the Governors Forum for not falling behind his second term ambition.
Therefore, Pastor Adeboye should extract promise of good governance from all these mischievous politicians parading around the camp ground. This is to ensure that they do not get elected through the assistance of prayers and yet turn round to oppress the masses and the church with corruption, injustice, extra judicial killings, electoral fraud and poverty.
The followers of Pastor Adeboye should come out of hiding and praying and lead in the transformation process of Nigeria. Redeemed members have collected enough anointing and impartation from their leader. The nation is in search of reformers who can take strategic positions in the civil service, the banks, security agencies, political parties and use their spiritual knowledge, anointing and grace of God to institute righteousness and good governance for the benefit of the common man. The follower-ship of Pastor Adeboye is in the best position to lead the change. With a church population estimated at about 12 million and a balanced array of Biblical exposition, spiritual exercise and zeal, it is time to utilize these advantages in the quest for a new Nigeria. Another one.
The Redeemed members should rise up from slumber and use the spiritual resources at their disposal to checkmate evil in the armed forces, economy, politics, business and other sectors of the ailing nation. The Bible says in Romans 8 vs 19 that ‘’.For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Where are the sons of Pastor Adeboye, they should wake up from slumber , stop hoarding and storing anointing, rather, they should release those already collected for the purpose of transforming the fraudulent leadership plaguing the nation or else be counted as another wasted generation of spiritual followership.
