The Nation Newspaper

Tag: RCCG

  • Keep hope alive, Adeboye charges

    Nigerians must never give up but remain confident of divine intervention, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has charged.

    He spoke last week at the dedication of Lagos Province 36, Jesus House in Ajao Estate, Lagos.

    Adeboye said the nation cannot achieve greatness without prayers.

    According to him: “No matter  what our past was or our present condition that looks so depressing, we must never give up as God is still able and powerful to turn things around as we pray in faith to him alone.”

    The cleric, who shared wondrous testimonies of divine protection, providence and preservation, said: “God has never changed; what He did in times past, He is still able to do the same today as we put our trust in Him.”

    He further charged Christians to continue preaching the gospel “because the challenges of insecurity, economic hardship, fear and despair ravaging the world can be taken away when we lift up Jesus Christ and tell of the story of redemption everywhere we go.”

    The Pastor- in- charge of Lagos Province 36, Pastor Tunde Netufo, who was full of gratitude to God for the successful completion of the building, said: “what we are witnessing today is the faithfulness of God to us as a parish, province and the Redeemed Christian Church of God in general.”

    He recalled that the church on a three-storey building collapsed on October 7, 2011 with no life lost after an inferno.

    Though it was sealed off, he expressed gratitude to God the building was reopened for the reconstruction.

    He noted that although the journey has been rough and tough God has proved His faithfulness.

  • RCCG dedicates Edo headquarters

    The general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has dedicated the provincial headquarters of the church in Edo State.

    The Pastor in Charge of Region 13 (PICR), Pastor James Dagunduro, performed the ceremony on behalf of Adeboye.

    The event attracted leaders and workers in the church as well as the Esama of Benin Kingdom, Sir Gabriel Igbinedion, who donated the land on while the building christened divine pavilion was built.

    Dagunduro applauded the contributions of all members in ensuring the successful completion of the building through the help of God.

    He said: “As we dedicate this church today our message is that all the members will get their lives dedicated to God because if their lives are not dedicated to God we will discover that all their services will go in vain.”

    The Pastor- in- charge of the province, Pastor Adedapo Oluwaniyi, described the feat as wonderful.

    He said: “It has taken long to dedicate the church because you know that to get funds was somehow difficult but thank God that He intervened and things began to fall in line.

  • ‘Why I killed my father at RCCG camp’

    ‘Why I killed my father at RCCG camp’

    Twenty – one years old Tolani, Ajayi, has given an insight into why he killed his father,  Charles Ajayi(SAN), stabbing him repeatedly with a kitchen knife and also cutting the  man’s throat with machete.

    The  300 level student of Department of History and International Relations of the Redeemer University(RUN) Ogun State, said he was driven by a  fit of anger to slaughter his father last Thursday inside the Redemption Camp along Lagos – Ibadan Expressway.

    His father’s remains were recovered in a nearby bush at Canaan land Street  within the RCCG  Camp, in a box, where Tolani dumped them after he had hacked the man to death.

    But on Tuesday at Eleweran, the Headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force, Ogun State Command, the lad who admitted that he was into drugs at a time, said substance played no part in the lethal attack, and begged his mother and siblings to forgive him for what he did.

    Narrating how the incident  happened to reporters, Tolani said it has dawned on him that unless providence helps him, his end is “inevitable.”

    “I have sent some people to talk to my mother that I am sorry. I have talked to my sister,  my mother is still grieving, I want to give her time. It may be spiritual, I have asked for forgiveness.

    “I tried those drugs myself, I might have had it from my friends, but I tried it myself. I was not under the influence of any drugs, the action was not a planned one.

    “The incident happened  around 1:00 am . It was  anger that led me into this. My father just bit me repeatedly with his teeth. There was an argument between us and I stood up to him. He beat me with a stick and bit me with his teeth. Just the two of us were at home, my mother was in Abuja.

    “We live in Abuja. I school in the camp and he came for a programme. My school was on break so I went to meet him.  We were meant  to go back to Abuja together, then the incident happened and here I am now.

    “My father went to the kitchen and fetched a wooden spoon. He used it to beat me repeatedly and I tried to defend myself, then he bit me on my shoulder and I got angry. I used normal  small kitchen knife, later, I used cutlass to attack him. I regret the action.

    “There is no way Nigerians can help me, I am going to face my judgement. I am meant to pay for what I have done. It is not as if I am ready, it is something that is inevitable, something that is going to happen, I am just waiting for the time.

    ” It is not about church, I attended  the church activities regularly while in school. I don’t miss church throughout this semester,  I never missed church for once,it is not about the church,but only God knows why,” Tola said.

  • Winners emerge in God’s Children’s Got Talent

    Winners emerge in God’s Children’s Got Talent

    AFTER weeks of exciting musical displays across over 1000 parishes in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States, winners of the God’s Children’s Got Talent, a programme organised by RCCG, Apapa family, have finally emerged.

    Held at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, thousands of attendees, comprising sponsors, media partners and families, watched 50 performances before a panel of five judges decided the winners.

    While presenting the final prize to the dancing duo, Egere Great and Ekeh Samuel,Pastor Idowu Iluyomade, Head of Apapa family, explained that the mission of the project was to provide a credible platform for the celebration of talents in God’s children.

    “God’s Children’s Got Talent was borne out of a desire to identify and nurture the diverse talents available in children across the Province. We are delighted that multinational brands have identified with this project,” he stated.

    The event, which had ministrations from popular Gospel act, Frank Edwards and singing sensation, Nneka, also had foremost music and media personalities as judges.

    Judges at the grand finale included Joke Silva; Sir Emeka Nwokedi, Director of the Muson Centre; Wole Oni; Nikki Laoye and Femi, Creative Director, Spirit of David Dance Group.

  • Church holds 30-day vigil

    The annual 30-day vigil of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Covenant of Peace parish, Ikorodu Lagos commences from June 30.

    It holds at the church’s auditorium at 38/40 Lowa street Jumofak Bus-Stop, Ikorodu-Lagos with the theme “while men slept.”

    The host, Pastor Olaitan Aromolaran, in a statement assured participants will witness the grace and intervention of God.

    He added that marital failure, evil covenants and satanic yokes will be broken at the event.

  • Adeboye supports extension of emergency rule

    Adeboye supports extension of emergency rule

    THE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has thrown his weight behind the proposed extension of emergency rule in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

    Adeboye spoke with reporters at the special prayer and thanksgiving session for traders in Nigeria.

    The service attracted thousands of traders, owners of small and medium scale enterprises and captains of industries.

    According to him, the state of emergency rule in parts of the north should stay until members of the Boko Haram sect are arrested and their sponsors punished under the law.

    Adeboye said that the ongoing insurgency in parts of the north, which he said has some backup within the system, must be addressed for victory in the war against terror.

    The respected preacher, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Administration and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odesola, said: “Our problem in Nigeria is that there are people who don’t want to say the truth and I’m very positive that those fomenting the trouble have a back up within the system.”

    Adeboye condemned the abduction of the Chibok girls.

    He stressed: “There are many enemies within the system. Some people know where the children are and it looks like a calculated attempt to destabilise this current administration.

    “It is high time we identified the perpetrators of the abducted girls in Chibok and let the law take its course so that others can learn.”

    He also called for the removal of the immunity clause for executive political office holders.

    Adeboye argued:  “I support the immunity clause to be removed or reduced so that we will be able to allow the law to work and there will be no sacred cow.”

    He challenged Nigerians to remain at peace with one another no matter their religious, tribe or language differences.

     

  • ‘Many souls are searching for God online’

    ‘Many souls are searching for God online’

    Pastor Tayo Adebola is a senior pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on how he is reaching more souls via online platforms. Excerpts:

    In what ways are you affecting the work of the kingdom?

    As the whole world knows, my father in the Lord and the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Daddy E.A Adeboye, is passionate about spreading the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. To support this vision in my own little way and as the Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded us to preach the gospel all over the world, we’re inspired to come up with the idea of “e-gospel rendezvous“

    What is e-gospel rendezvous?

    If you look at our current dispensation, we are almost becoming an e-generation. There is e-commerce, e-book, e-banking (where you can do virtually all banking transactions in the comfort of your room). The church is the regular place where we Christians meet to worship and fellowship with our God but you discover that the pressure of life and job’s demands have kept (unwillingly) some from having contacts with God regularly.

    Rendezvous means a favourite meeting place. Some bankers, press men, medical doctors, etc, because of the demand of their jobs can’t even attend Sunday church services regularly, let alone midweek services. The concept is that you can still access Jesus and be ministered to despite your tight schedule via internet-enabled devices like laptops, iOS, window, android and smartphones.etc

     

    How does it work?

    Matthew 21:15, Mark 11:9 and John 12:13 talk about Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He rode upon an ass/colt to tell the people of Jerusalem your king has arrived at last. In this generation, one of the ways Jesus will ride to the heart of the people is through the internet-enabled devices.

    The devil had manipulated this platform for long, but now Jesus has taken over. It is not everyone that can afford LCD/Cable TV to watch various inspiring gospel programmes but virtually seven out of 10 people have phones and so it is a good avenue to access the saviour Jesus

    What are the unique features of this platform?

    We have e-word, e-counselling and e-prayer.

    Is this equivalent to a conventional church?

    Not at all, because nothing can take the place of regular church meetings, but this platform complements the church in reaching out to the unchurched and those whose demand of office disallows from regular fellowship.

    As long as you own an internet-enabled device, Jesus is within your reach but such must still identify with a local church.

    There are so many online ministries. What makes this stand out?

    This is a 24-hour online arrangement where people are being attended to instantly. After attending to requests, we follow up.  If there is need for our presence at your request, we do so.

    How is this service accessible?

    Our website is www.mercyseat4allnation.com) to access all our contents free. People only need a functional e-mail address to sign up to our webmail. We are also on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and others.

    What is the future?

    Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the famous Facebook, started it as a common room social platform in his school days. Today, Facebook has become a world phenomenon. I’m trusting God to make  ”e-gospel rendezvous” become a world platform for signs, wonders, deliverance, healing, testimonies and ultimately where people embrace the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ via all internet-enabled devices of all categories.

    What will you say to other ministers who still consider the internet the devil’s toolbox?

    I will say that the devil never created anything. Everything in this world was created by God, but when we demonise technology, the devil takes over. We should all bombard online platforms with the gospel so that the world can hear about Christ and be converted. Staying aloof is a disservice to the body of Christ and the gospel. There are some that will never come to church. They are thirsty and seeking for God online. When we reach them, we would have spread the gospel.

  • How youth can succeed, by Adeboye

    The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God, (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has advised youth to be visionary, diligent, hard working and fear God to succeed in life.

    He spoke last Sunday at the special thanksgiving and prayer service organised for students by the RCCG, National Headquarters, Throne of Grace, Ebute-Metta Lagos.

    The service with the theme I will Excel brought together thousands of youth drawn from across the country.

    Adeboye said there are immense opportunities and possibilities for young people who will dare to dream big and work hard towards actualising their dreams with godly principles.

    He noted there are many youth shortchanging themselves by trading away their God- given talents and opportunities because they lack foresight, vision and goals for themselves.

    He cited Joseph who started early in life with a dream and goal to excel and became a savior through dint of hardwork and focus.

    According to Adeboye: “The life of Joseph is a lesson for every one of us as he took a decision that no matter the condition, he would work hard and would not sin against God as he walked up to the top of the ladder in life.”

    He bemoaned laziness, idleness, lethargy, and short cut syndrome that characterize contemporary youth, stating “we would continue to sit at the back side of life when we undermine the place of hard work, honesty, and the fear of God in all that we do.”

    He added: “I have decided that I am ready to offend the whole world as long as I will not offend God. It is never fun to offend God. If you want to follow the crowd, you will end up in perdition with the crown.”

  • The Kneeler-in-Chief

    The Kneeler-in-Chief

    IN 2011, Dr Goodluck Jonathan was elected President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Before then, and through what Nigerians mischievously termed the doctrine of necessity, the same Dr Jonathan had in February 2010 become Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Notwithstanding the dispute surrounding the 2011 elections or the cowardly invocation of the doctrine of necessity instead of doing the right thing, Dr Jonathan was in both cases effectively Commander-in-Chief, not Acting President. Barely eight months after that amazing interpretation of Section 145 of the 1999 constitution, Dr Jonathan was himself reinterpreting the meaning of Commander-in-Chief in a church.

    In October 2010, our Commander-in-Chief was at that year’s Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Holy Ghost convention, where he blissfully and joyfully knelt before Pastor Enoch Adeboye for prayers. The faithful, we learnt, were touched by his zeal and humility. Good. For after all, no one could have suggested he stand to be prayed for. But if the meaning of his kneeling was not lost on him, he would have realised that at that great moment of self-effacement, he took us all, secular and non-secular alike, to our literal knees before a non-secular authority. Surely, the God that hears openly also hears privately. So, why the open show of piety?

    But if the faithful think Barometer is just being irreverent, well, two Fridays ago, the president proved his great urge to go on his knees has little to do with religion or prayer. To him, kneeling is as religiously important as it is culturally meaningful. During his recent two-day visit to Katsina State, the president found time to visit the household of the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua. Citing the age of his host, he once again succumb to gravity by kneeling before the former president’s aged mother. Again, willy-nilly, 170 million Nigerians accompanied Dr Jonathan on his knees. If he was propelled by his love of culture to kneel, he ought to know there is also a presidential culture that clothes the office he occupies with prestige and mystique that abjure kneeling. For crying out loud, the presidency is the highest in the land, and both old and young ought properly to courtesy before it.

    And if his propensity to kneel was activated by his gratefulness to the late Yar’Adua’s for elevating him as a sidekick in the presidency, he also ought to have known that majority of us deplore the appalling process that brought him to office, a process indecently manipulated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Yar’Adua. If no one else will, I must strenuously dissociate myself from Dr Jonathan’s propensity to kneel when the spirit seizes him. I remember how in 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte disallowed Pope Pius VII from crowning him emperor at the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Not only that, to emphasise the separation of church and state, he ensured that while the pope entered the church from one side, he Napoleon entered through the other side of the Notre-Dame.

    When next Dr Jonathan practices his kneeling frenzy as Kneeler-in-Chief, let it be known by all and sundry that Barometer stood erect beside him in recognition of the fact that the presidency of Nigeria, notwithstanding the country’s many afflictions, kneels before no one. Indeed, if care is not taken, when Dr Jonathan finally meets the Queen of England, whom he has just honoured for leading our colonisers, he could be so awed by her presence that he would go beyond kneeling to hug her butler.

  • Pray for compassionate leader, Tinubu urges Nigerians

    Pray for compassionate leader, Tinubu urges Nigerians

    Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central District) has urged Nigerians to pray for a leader with compassion.

    She said attributes lacking in our present leadership are compassion and the fear of God.

    Mrs. Tinubu said Nigerians should not wait until the country hits a brick wall before going to God in prayers, urging everyone to ask God for mercy.

    She spoke at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Harvest House Parish in Jabi during the third edition of the Abuja Success Summit, 2014, themed: “Attainment”.

    Mrs. Tinubu said: “Some of our leaders are competent, but they lack compassion. All over the world, compassion is needed and we have to work on that.

    “We do not have to go to church to have compassion for one other. We need to go on our knees and ask God for mercy, so that in 2015, God will choose for us someone that will give us peace. It is said in his words that God’s gift will make a way and not give us sorrow. There is a lot of sorrow in the land now.”

    Other speakers at the summit were former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon; former Chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Dr. Chris Kolade and former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

    RCCG General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye, represented by the Pastor-in-charge of the Harvest House, Muyiwa Adebayo, said the success summit is a form to tell youths that success is not achieved through deceit but God’s backing.

    He said: “The speakers we invited are men and women of great courage, who have made it in life. We have seen great potentials in them. In all they said, they made us realise that they did not succeed on their own but with the help of God.

    “We are celebrating today because they know and worship God and recognise him in their success stories. Every one who wants to succeed must seek God’s help.”