Arrowhead Of Nigerian Pentecostalism The Redeemed Christian Church Of God, 1952 2005

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‘Arrowhead’ of Nigerian Pentecostalism: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, 1952-2005

Olufunke Adeboye

Dept. of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos,

Akoka, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

Tel. No. 234 1 5454891 Ext. 1349

funks29adeboye@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract

This is a historical study of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), an indigenous and fast-growing Pentecostal church in Nigeria. The recent explosion in the church is presented here as a response to both local and external stimuli. The ingenuity of the church leadership is further reﬂected in the way it appropriates crucial moments from its collective past as a means of keeping the establishment mobilized. On the whole, the RCCG presents an interesting ambivalence. On one hand it tries to distill a distinctive religious ethos, while on the other hand it epitomizes the diﬀerent nuances in Nigerian Pentecostalism. The implication of this situation on the internal stability of the church is further probed in this study.

Keywords

Pentecostalism, Churches, Religion, Nigeria, RCCG, Church Growth

Introduction

The Nigerian Christian landscape within the last ﬁfty years has been characterized by a lot of transformations. The most remarkable of these has been the Pentecostal explosion of the last ﬁfteen years, in which the Redeemed Christian Church of God (hereafter RCCG) has featured most prominently. Generally, the origin of Nigerian Pentecostalism could be traced to the 1930s, and since then the movement has experienced uneven growth, namely, a gradual spread from the 1930s, a lull in the 1960s, a charismatic renewal in the 1970s, and an explosion in the 1990s. The RCCG, which was established in 1952 operated within this background and some of its own internal structures and orientation were distilled as responses to local stimuli emanating from the Nigerian Pentecostal community in particular,

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and from the wider society in general, as well as from global Pentecostalism with which it shares a common spirituality.

This paper situates the RCCG phenomenon primarily within the wider context of Nigerian Pentecostalism, and tries to account for the growing pop- ularity and rapid expansion of the church vis-à-vis other organizations within the Pentecostal landscape. It examines the doctrines and ‘spiritual culture’ of the church as well as its strategies for expansion. It highlights the ground- breaking advances of the RCCG and how these have inspired other Pentecos- tal missions. The paper argues that the strength of the RCCG primarily lies in its visionary leadership, which not only responds promptly to transformations in the wider society but also keeps the church establishment mobilized by invoking aspects of its past (i.e. the prophecies of the founder) as guidelines for its future. The paper concludes by discussing the public role of the RCCG in Nigeria.

The idea behind this whole exercise is not just to provide a history of the RCCG, but also to present it as an epitome of the Pentecostal explosion occur- ring in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world, namely, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, with some degree of inﬂuence from North America. The paper is divided into four parts. The ﬁrst examines the development of Nigerian Pentecostalism. The second and third parts examine the origin and growth of the RCCG respectively. The last segment concludes by assessing the impact of the church on the nation.

The Development of Nigerian Pentecostalism

The development of Nigerian Pentecostalism did not proceed evenly, but was marked by challenges and revivals, as is generally characteristic of Pentecostal origins. Many scholars, notably J.D.Y. Peel, Matthews Ojo and Ruth Marshall-Fratani have written on the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria.1 While the emphasis of Peel is on the movement’s Aladura ante-

J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura: A Religious Movement Among the Yoruba (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1968), Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington, USA: Indiana University Press, 2000); M. A. Ojo, “The Contextual Signiﬁcance of Charismatic Movements in Independent Nigeria”, Africa, 58:2 (1988), 175-192, “The Dynamics of Indigenous Charismatic Missionary Enterprises in West Africa”, Missionalia, 25:4 (1997), 537-561, “Indigenous Gospel Music and Social Reconstruction in Modern Nige- ria”, Missionalia, 26:2 (1998), 210-231, “The Church in the African State: The Charismatic/Pen- tecostal Experience in Nigeria”, Journal of African Christian T ought , 1:2 (1998), 25-32, “Deeper

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cedents, Ojo and Marshall-Fratani have accented its various manifestations and impact on the socio-political life of the nation. Three distinct phases could be identiﬁed in the development of Nigerian Pentecostalism. The ﬁrst phase covers the origin of the movement in the 1930s and its growth up till the 1960s. This period witnessed interactions between indigenous Pentecostal forms and foreign denominational Pentecostal churches from the USA and Britain.

The ﬁrst appearance of Pentecostalism in Nigeria appears to have been in 1930/31 when the leaders of the Aladura revival made contact with the Apos- tolic Church, a British Pentecostal body.2 The Aladura movement had started in the early 1920s as a result of the longing in certain Christians for spiritual fulﬁllment and reawakening which the mainline churches could not oﬀer. In the words of E. A. Ayandele, “by and large, the adherents of the Aladura are not fresh converts from paganism, but deserters from the orthodox and Afri- can churches from which they had derived no religious satisfaction or spiritual consolation”3 Meanwhile the Aladura movement had also interacted, in the mid-1920s, with the Faith Tabernacle of Philadelphia, U.S.A., which Peel curiously describes, not as a Pentecostal body, but simply as an ‘American Sect’. This characterization of the Faith Tabernacle by Peel might have been due to the fact that the latter denounced speaking in tongues, which was a principal feature of Pentecostalism and emphasized instead, it’s other attri- butes, namely, belief in Biblical inerrancy, prayers and divine healing.4

The major Aladura bodies included the Cherubim and Seraphim founded around 1925, and the Church of the Lord established in 1929. Most of the founders of these churches were individual prophets who claimed to have seen

Life Bible Church of Nigeria” in P. Giﬀord (ed.), New Dimensions in African Christianity (Ibadan: Sefer Books, 1993), 161-181, “The Charismatic Movement in Nigeria Today”, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 19:3 (1995), 114-118; R. Marshal, “Pentecostalism in Southern Nigeria: An Overview” in Giﬀord (ed.), New Dimensions in African Christianity, 8-9, “Power in the Name of Jesus: Social Transformation and Pentecostalism in Western Nigeria Revisited” in T. Ranger and O. Vaughan (eds.), Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth Century Africa (London: Macmillan, 1993), “God is not a Democrat: Pentecostalism and Democratization in Nigeria” in P. Giﬀord (ed.), The Christian Churches and the Democratization of Africa (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), 239-260, “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism” Journal of Religion in Africa, 28:3 (1998), 278-315.

Peel, Aladura, 105.

E. A. Ayandele, “The Aladura among the Yoruba: A Challenge to the ‘Orthodox Churches’” in O. Kalu (ed.), Christianity in West Africa: The Nigerian Story (Ibadan: Day-Star Press, 1976) 386.

Peel, Aladura, 63 and 65.

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heavenly visions, received divine revelations or a divine call to preach the gos- pel.5 The major emphasis of the churches was on the eﬃcacy of prayer hence the name Aladura (practitioners of prayers) by which they were known. The Cherubim and Seraphim, for instance shunned the use of traditional medicine and of modern doctors. T eir faith was wholly in God through fervent prayers.

The contact of the leaders of the Aladura movement with the doctrines and practices of the Apostolic Church, which they found agreeable, led to a warm relationship between the two. The result of this was the emergence of a group of churches distinguished by the practices of “tarrying” for the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, as well as by a concern for eﬀective prayer and visionary guidance and of a more spontaneous African style of music and worship.6 All these were not new to the Aladura movement; they were indeed the original Aladura hallmarks. What the Apostolic Church connection did was to rein- force the basic tenets and inclinations of the Aladura and to give such a more ‘modern’ twist. This was the heritage of churches such as the Christ Apostolic Church, whose founders; D. O. Odubanjo, I. B. Akinyele and J. A. Babalola had interacted with the Pastors of the Apostolic Church. In 1939, these indig- enous leaders ﬁrst named their church the Nigerian Apostolic Church, and later in 1942 changed it to the Christ Apostolic Church.7 By this time, the church had become fully Pentecostal, with its emphasis on miracles and heal- ings, speaking in tongues and other wonders. The Aladura movement subse- quently proliferated and multiplied under various names.

As indigenous churches were springing up in the Pentecostal mould after 1931, more denominational Pentecostal churches from the USA and Britain were spreading into Nigeria to establish branches. Such missions included the Assemblies of God (1940), which became very popular in the Eastern part of Nigeria, the Full Gospel Apostolic Church (1949), the Apostolic Faith, and the Foursquare Gospel Church (1955). It was during this period that the RCCG was established as an indigenous, Pentecostal church in Lagos. How- ever, by the end of the 1960s there appeared to have been a lull in Pentecostal expansion in Nigeria.

Examples of such prophets are Daniel Orekoya, Joseph Babalola, Moses Orimolade Captain Abiodun and Josiah Ositelu.

Peel, Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba, 314.

Peel, Aladura, 111-112.

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The second phase of Pentecostal development in Nigerian roughly covered two decades, namely the 1970s and the 1980s. This period has been analyzed by Mathews Ojo.8 According to him, the period saw the emergence and growth of charismatic movements in Nigeria, which derived their origin from the worldwide spread of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements from North America and Britain in the 1960s. He locates the movement within the cam- puses of Nigerian tertiary institutions and identiﬁes college students and uni- versity graduates as its leaders. The emphasis of the movement, in Ojo’s words, was “the Pentecostal doctrine of baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues as a means of revitalizing the lives of Christians and restoring vitality to Christian Churches”. Some salient issues come out of Ojo’s analysis. First, the movement was not peculiar to Nigeria. Anderson and Larbi have corrobo- rated this assertion.9 Second, a new elite of graduates, whose identiﬁcation with the movement seems to have enhanced its social rating, led it. T ird, its doctrinal emphases were not diﬀerent from those of the ‘older’ Pentecostal movement. A major diﬀerence identiﬁed by Ojo between the two is that “while the charismatic movements are trans-denominational, the Pentecostal move- ment is distinctively denominational”.10 Since this distinction is neither a doc- trinal or theological matter, what the 1970s witnessed should be seen primarily as a reawakening in the previous Pentecostal tradition. No doubt the agency had now been taken over by younger, more educated folks; there was some continuity with the older, or what we might here call ‘classical’ (denomina- tional) Pentecostalism. Ojo indirectly acknowledges this when he writes “. . . the Pentecostal movement never had so great an impact until its entry into the institutions of higher learning in 1970”.11 This implies that it was the exist- ing Pentecostal movement, which became transformed upon entering the University and College campuses, producing a ‘hybrid’, or what could be described in Biblical idiom as ‘old wine in a new skin’. So, rather than present the 1970s experience as an entire novelty, it should be regarded as a ‘renewal’ or ‘reawakening’ in the local Pentecostal movement, established in the 1930s. British and American inﬂuence had always been a factor in Nigerian Pentecos- talism as noted in the discussion of the ﬁrst phase above, and therefore should

Ojo, “The Contextual Signiﬁcance”, 175-192.

A. Anderson, “Evangelism and the Growth of Pentecostalism in Africa”, Paper read at the Africa Forum, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, 11 April 2000, 10; E.K. Larbi, Pente- costalism: The Eddies of Ghanaian Christianity (Accra: Center for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, 2001), 295-296.

Ojo, “The Contextual Signiﬁcance”, 176.

Ibid.

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not be seen as a completely new development. Moreover, the prominent, indigenous leaders of this renewal had, at one time or the other, been in con- tact with some of the Pentecostal leaders of the ﬁrst phase such as S.G. Elton.12 The point being made, therefore, is that the ‘charismatic’ movement described by Ojo was not so distinct from the preceding Pentecostal wave. The doctrines were essentially the same. What diﬀered were the methods and agency of this second phase.

Apart from campus ‘Fellowships’, and Ministries led by graduates, other Pentecostal churches also sprang up during this period such as the Church of God Missions led by Benson Idahosa (early 1970s) and the Christian Pente- costal Mission led by O. Ezekiel (late 1970s).13 The Deeper Christian Life Ministry of W. F. Kumuyi established in 1973 as an inter-denominational ‘Fellowship’ later blossomed into a full-ﬂedged Church in 1982.14 While some of these ‘second-generation’, Pentecostal leaders such as W. F. Kumuyi and others in the trans-denominational fellowships presented a ‘holiness’ message (the hallmark of classical Pentecostals), which emphasized perfection, strict personal ethics and Biblical inerrancy, others such as Benson Idahosa were already beginning to embrace the ‘prosperity gospel’.

Meanwhile, relations between the Pentecostal churches and the mainline denominations on the one hand, and with the Aladura churches on the other were characterized by tensions. Pentecostals openly criticized mainline churches for their ‘coldness’ and ‘apathy’ while the former also accused them of ‘sheep stealing’. The Pentecostals condescendingly described the Aladura as ‘white-garment’ churches and labeled their leaders as ‘fake prophets’. T is ten- sion could also be seen as a generational conﬂict between older forms of Nige- rian Christianity and the newer Pentecostal generation. The latter was getting impatient with the complacency of the latter.

The third phase in the history of Nigerian Pentecostalism is the contempo- rary period, which could be dated from the early 1990s. This phase has wit-

RCCG sources also speak of a mentoring relationship between J.A. Akindayomi, founder of the church, and W.F. Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry in the early 1970s. RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50, 1952-2002 (An oﬃcial history published by the church) n.d. 15.

For details of these Fellowships and their activities see Ojo, “The Contextual Signiﬁcance”, 180-189 and, “The Charismatic Movement in Nigeria Today”, International Bulletin of Mission- ary Research, 19:3, (July 1995), 114-118.

A. Issacson, Deeper Life: The Extraordinary Growth of the Deeper Life Bible Church (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990), 109; Ojo, “Deeper Life Bible Church of Nigeria”, 161-185; M.A. Ojo, “Deeper Life Christian Ministry: A Case Study of the Charismatic Movements in Western Nigeria”, Journal of Religion in Africa, 18, (1988), 141-162.

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nessed the ascendancy of what has been described as neo-Pentecostalism, which is the emergence of indigenous, new Pentecostal churches, which emphasized the ‘Faith Gospel’ characterized by teachings on prosperity and healing. This ‘faith gospel’ has been traced to American Preachers such as Ken- neth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, E. W. Kenyon, A.A. Allen and John Avanzini. It came to Africa through the literature of Kenneth Hagin, T. L. Osborn, Oral Roberts, and through the evangelistic crusades of preachers like R. Bonnke. Its ﬁrst principal exponent in Nigeria was Benson Idahosa whose ministry had a close relationship with Oral Roberts.15 T is Pentecostal dispensation appeared to be more liberal and ‘convert — friendly’ than the pre- vious one. The new believer was not expected to shun the ‘world’ in the manner of the earlier Pentecostals, but to navigate through it to acquire the best it has to oﬀer. Tese new churches adopt modern marketing techniques in their evangelism. Large billboards, television and radio broadcasts, printing of reli- gious literature and lately online technology are all used in addition to the traditional ‘face-to-face’ evangelism. Some of these new churches have also taken over and appropriated public spaces hitherto considered unconventional for worship purposes. Such spaces include stadia, cinemas, theaters, confer- ence halls of hotels, nightclubs, school rooms/halls and shopping malls. T is has produced a chain reaction in the pluralistic religious landscape of the nation. T ere is now a gradual ‘Pentecostalization’ of numerous mainline churches (such as Baptist, Anglican and Methodists) just as the Catholic Charismatic movement is becoming increasingly popular. But more remarkable is the fact that even Muslim youth groups in southern Nigeria are becoming ‘charis- matic’ in order to save their members from being ‘enticed’ by Pentecostals. For instance, the Nasir Llahr Fathi (NASFAT), a Muslim group with nationwide branches now organizes night vigils, prayer camps, fasts, and prescribe rituals similar to those of Pentecostals. More research is still needed on such Muslim ‘charismatic’ groups. Furthermore, the ambivalence of the Pentecostal leaders in promoting materialism through the prosperity gospel and at the same time denouncing the corruption of the ‘world system’ has made them to be described as ‘religious entrepreneurs’.16 On the one hand they condemn the world for its hedonistic pleasures and pursuits while on the other hand they preach pros- perity, and even adopt typical entrepreneurial techniques and aggression of the marketplace to promote themselves.

Giﬀord, African Christianity: Its Public Role (London: Hurst and Company, 1998), 39-40. 16

Ibid. 39.

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The leaders of these new Pentecostal churches are young, upwardly mobile, and well-educated professionals. Examples of the new churches are Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (1989), Sword of the Spirit Ministries (Christ Life Church, 1989), Christ Embassy (1991), Fountain of Life Church (1992), House on the Rock (1994) and Daystar Christian Center (1995). Not only are new churches emerging at this time but older Pentecostal churches are also expanding. For the Deeper Life Bible Church, the 1990s saw a proliferation of branches. Prior to 1990 there was only one branch of the church in each town or city. But in 1990 each church was ‘decentralized’ into numerous branches called ‘district churches’.17 The Winners’ Chapel (founded by David Oyedepo in 1983) also moved its headquarters from Kaduna to Lagos in 1989 and began to establish branches in major urban centers in Nigeria.

Perhaps, a crucial factor in the Pentecostal explosion of the 1990s was the message of hope and power oﬀered by those churches in the midst of the hardships created by the military regimes of General Gbadamosi Babangida (1985-1993) and General Sanni Abacha (1993-1998). The Structural Adjust- ment Program of the Babangida regime and its attendant inﬂation and impov- erishment of the middle and lower classes, coupled with the violation of human rights, state-controlled violence and insensitivity to human suﬀering, which characterized Abacha’s rule brought untold misery to the average Nige- rian. Vast numbers subsequently turned to Pentecostalism for solace, empow- erment, miracles, and ‘breakthrough’ in their individual lives. Thus the Pentecostal churches have positioned themselves to meet the existential needs of the people by proclaiming a “holistic gospel of salvation that includes deliv- erance from all types of [social and spiritual] oppression like sickness, sorcery, evil spirits and poverty”. This, according to Anderson, has met the needs of Africans more fundamentally than the rather spiritualized and intellectualized gospel that was mostly the legacy of Europeans and North American mission- aries”,18 preserved in what Nigerians call the ‘orthodox Churches’.

The Origin of the Redeemed Christian Church of God

The RCCG was founded by one Josiah Olufemi Akindolie. He was born on July 5, 1909 to the family of Eleyinmi and Olaokuobi Akindolie of

Ojo, “Deeper Life Bible Church”, 182. 18

Anderson, “Evangelism”, 7.

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12, Odo-Alaﬁa Street, Ondo in southwestern Nigeria.19 Olufemi’s parents were worshippers of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and warfare. They did not send him to school but apprenticed him to a master blacksmith in Ondo. He later qualiﬁed as a professional blacksmith and sometimes aug- mented this trade with farming, which was then the mainstay of the local economy. In 1927, at the age of eighteen, Olufemi was baptized at the Anglican Church, and it was probably at that time that he adopted Josiah as a mark of his Christian identity. Four years later, he left the Anglican Church to join the Cherubim and Seraphim (hereafter C & S) Church at Ondo. The C & S had been introduced to Ondo in 1927 and most of its initial congregation comprised former members of the mainline Churches in Ondo. In fact, Peel records that the Iya Egbe (matron) and Baba Egbe (patron) of the ﬁrst Ondo C & S were Christiana Olatunrinde and G. O. Fajiye respectively. Both of them had been lay leaders in the St. Stephen’s Anglican Church Ondo.20

Josiah joined the C & S because of the truth of the Word of God, which was expounded and the healing powers demonstrated there. According to him:

. . . . . . then, the Cherubim and Seraphim was very good because it stood on the truth. The church then did not add or subtract anything from the Word of God. I was very glad and joyous that I found what my heart needed.

. . . . . The Cherubim and Seraphim Society did not subscribe to the use of medication. If somebody was ill, he/she was prayed for and the Lord healed the person.

He thus immersed himself wholly in this Aladura Church. It was not sur- prising therefore that after some years in the C & S, Josiah was reported to have ‘heard’ the ‘Call’. Ready to fulﬁll the Call, he left for Ile-Ife in July 1940.22 At Ile-Ife, he joined another C & S Church at Igbo-Itapa. The C & S movement had earlier been established in Ife in 1928 by one J. O. Famole, who had joined it at Ibadan.23 It was at Ife that Josiah married his

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 8.

Peel, Aladura, 80-81.

J.O. Akindayomi, quoted in RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 8. 22

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 9.

Peel, Aladura, 79.

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heartthrob, Esther Egbedire. The two of them again left for Lagos in 1941 and joined yet another C & S Church at Ebute-Metta, where their marriage was solemnized by one Prophet Onanuga in charge of the branch.

It was in the above church that Josiah actually attempted to actualize his ‘Call’. His ﬁrst step was to ‘seek directions from God’. This took the form of daily prayers and periodic fasting in the church. The implication of this was that Josiah had no time to work and provide for his family. Serving God to him meant relinquishing his secular vocation. His wife thus had to bear the brunt of providing for the family. To make ends meet, Esther worked as a porter in the local market, sold ﬁrewood and did other menial jobs.24 T is personal conviction of poverty as a form of consecration was later reﬂected in the early days of the RCCG. It was also at Ebute-Metta that Josiah began to ﬂex his spiritual muscles as a man of prayer and as a prophet.

From 1947 to 1951, tension began to build up between Josiah and the authorities of his local C & S Church. The ﬁrst issue had to do with his grow- ing popularity and increasing follower-ship, much to the envy of the older prophets within the fold. Secondly, Josiah too began to disagree with the C & S leaders on some of their practices. One issue on which Josiah did not see eye-to-eye with them was the idea of visiting the grave of late Prophet Moses Orimolade (founder of the C & S movement) at Ojokoro area of Lagos to settle pastoral disputes and to determine church appointments.25 T is ancestor veneration was a traditional Yoruba practice, which implied the con- tinued inﬂuence and interaction of departed ancestors with the world of the living.26 As Josiah’s group of followers grew bigger than what could be accom- modated in his house, he got another venue for their activities at 9, Wil- loughby Street, Ebute-Metta.27 By this time the leaders of the C & S could easily see that he had his own plans. This was the prelude to his exit from the C & S in 1951. He consequently concentrated his attention on the new group, which became known as the Ogo-Oluwa (Glory of God) Society.

It was also

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 10.

Ibid. 11.

O.E. Alana, “Traditional Religion” in N.S. Lawal, M.N.O. Sadiku and A. Dopamu (eds.), Understanding Yoruba Life and Culture (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press Inc., 2004), 72-74.

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 12.

Interview with Pastor J.A. Akindele (son-in-law to Josiah Akindolie-Akindayomi, and an Assistant General Overseer of the RCCG) at the national Headquarters of the church, Ebute- Meta, Lagos on June 17, 2002.

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around this time that Josiah changed his surname from Akindolie to Akin- dayomi, probably as a mark of a new beginning.29

Ogo-Oluwa Society

The nucleus of the Ogo-Oluwa Society was made up of twelve men who had followed Akindayomi from the C & S Church. They were Messrs Fakunmoju, Makun, Adekoya, Padonu, Olonode, Fadiora, Ilenusi, Okuwobi, Fetuga, Adefeso, Adefunwa and Matiluko.30 The other members of the fellowship were men and women of the lower middle class (e.g. clerks in government departments and staﬀ of the Railway Corporation, which had its headquarters at nearby Oyingbo), and others from the lower class. The common denominator among them all was a thirst to know more of God, and more importantly, to have a better life socially and economically.

A main pillar of the society was prayer, and they did a lot of this in their daily meetings. T is was an Aladura heritage. T ey also studied the Bible together. One of the doctrinal emphases of the society was the issue of restitu- tion according to which individuals upon conversion, had to amend their past sins and mistakes. Akindayomi took the lead in this by laying a personal exam- ple. As a C & S prophet, he had married three wives, and one of them left him. So by the time the Ogo-Oluwa Society was formed, he had only two wives. He therefore put away the junior wife, sticking only to Esther his ﬁrst wife.31 He also tried to restitute in other areas of his life where he felt he had cheated oth- ers. With this personal example, it was relatively easy for other members to follow suit, and before long the doctrine of restitution became an important pillar of the society. This was meant to serve two purposes, namely, to give the individuals carrying out the restitution a clear conscience before God, and secondly to enhance their social relations and ultimately, their evangelism with their fellow men. However, an unresolved issue in the case of marital restitu- tion, for instance was the emotional trauma of the alienated woman and her children. While this doctrine was clearly not an Aladura one, it belonged more

Akindayomi means ‘bravery has not made me to be mocked (by my enemies)’, while Akin- dolie means ‘bravery has found an abode here’. For a biographical sketch of this man see Olu- funke Adeboye, “Akindayomi, Josiah 1909-1980” in Phyllis Jestice (ed.), Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia Vol.1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2004), 29-30.

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 12-13

The inter-denominational, charismatic movement of the 1970s later popularized the doc- trine of restitution.

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in the realm of Pentecostal teachings, which suggests that Akindayomi might also have been exposed to such inﬂuences.32 R.C.C.G. sources are reluctant to admit this link, but traces of it could be gleaned from what is admitted on the transformation of the Ogo-Oluwa from a prayer group to a full-ﬂedged church.

The Pentecostal link seemed to have been with the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa. This is because the ﬁrst name acquired by the Ogo Oluwa Society when it eventually transformed into a church in 1952 was the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, Nigerian Branch.33 Later, it became the Apostolic Faith Mission of West Africa.34 Tese names indicate that not only was the group exposed to the inﬂuence (and teachings) of the AFM, but that conscious attempts must also have been made to merge with the bigger church. However, the arrangement did not last. According to RCCG sources, the overtures for the merger came from the Apostolic Faith Leaders, and that the union later broke down because Akindayomi did not have the consent of God on the matter.35 Contrary to this is the position of Pentecostal historiog- raphy in Nigeria, which postulates that it was common for newly established indigenous churches to seek alliance with foreign Pentecostal missions for sup- port and international exposure.36 The alliance probably failed because the terms were considered unfavorable by Akindayomi. Moreover, he claimed that God did not approve of the merger. His church was to remain indigenous and independent of any foreign control.

The story of how Akindayomi eventually came about the name of the Redeemed Christian Church of God is narrated in contemporary RCCG cir- cles as follows:

One day, in a vision, God gave Josiah — fondly known to the members of the RCCG as ‘Pa’ Akindayomi — the name of the Church he was being mandated to begin. T ough he could not read nor write, in the vision he saw what he thought were strange symbols appear on a wall. He was instructed to copy down what he saw, which he painstakingly copied onto a wooden board. He took the board with him to the home

O. Olubiyi, “The Search for Identity and the Perfect Name”, Redemption Light, 7:7 (August 2002), 7. (The Redemption Light is the oﬃcial mouthpiece of the RCCG.

Ibid.

Interview with Pastor J.A. Akindele previously cited. See also O. Olubiyi, “The Search for Identity”, 7.

Ibid.

Marshall, “Pentecostalism in Southern Nigeria”, 15.

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of some of his relatives in Lagos who read out the name: Redeemed Christian Church of God.37

This presumably took place around the same time that the Apostolic Faith connection was being severed. The RCCG thus started out with a ‘divinely’ orchestrated identity. It was also during the vision cited above that God was said to have foretold the future of the church, namely that the RCCG “would spread to the ends of the earth and would still be serving faith- fully when the Lord returned to the earth in the Second Coming”.38 This prophecy, or ‘covenant’ as it is called in contemporary RCCG leadership circles, has provided the bedrock upon which not only Akindayomi, but also his successor, Enoch Adeboye, has built the church.

The Growth of the Redeemed Christian Church of God

The growth of the RCCG could be classiﬁed into three successive phases. The ﬁrst covered 1952-1980 during which period the founder, Josiah Akindayomi laid the foundations of the church. The second phase could be dated from 1981 to 1989. During this time, Akindayomi’s succes- sor attempted to re-engineer the church in response to stimuli from the Pentecostal community in particular, and the wider society in Nigeria. The third phase is the contemporary period from the 1990s till date. This period has witnessed an expansion and explosion in the RCCG, which have made it the fastest growing Pentecostal Church in Nigeria today, with about 7,000 branches nationwide.

The Foundation Years, 1952-1980

The period saw the establishment of other branches of the RCCG in south- western Nigeria. The ﬁrst Church, which took oﬀ at 9, Willoughby Street, Lagos, soon became the focal point from which other branches were birthed. This was the headquarters of the mission, and as it expanded, it was relocated

E.A. Adeboye and E. Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works” in C.P. Wagner and J. T ompson (eds.), Out of Africa: How the Spiritual Explosion among Nigerians is Impacting the World (California: Regal Books, 2004), 206. For a slightly modiﬁed version of the same story see RCCG, “History of the Church”, http://main.Rccg.org/main.htm (cited on July 10, 2003). See also RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 4.

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 207.

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to Cemetery Street, Ebute-Metta. The very ﬁrst branch that came out of it was the Somolu church, located at 33, Market Street, Somolu Lagos, and headed by one Pastor Orundun.39 Other branches were later established outside Lagos in Ondo (1954), Oshogbo (1961) and Ibadan (1967), all in southwestern Nigeria. Akindayomi, in founding these branches adopted the C & S method of conducting preaching tours. In ways reminiscent of the hinterland campaigns of Moses Orimolade and Captain Abiodun of the C & S, in the 1920s and 1930s, Akindayomi regularly took groups of committed members with him to prosecute such evangelistic campaigns.40 The converts made during such meetings were constituted into a branch of the RCCG in their local community. While Akindayomi was on the ﬁeld, the headquarters at Ebute-Metta was run by a succession of resident Pastors, the ﬁrst among whom was I. B. Akinlenbola.41 Together with other educated Pastors such as Pastor Olonade, the ﬁrst Secretary of the mission, he was able to set up an eﬃcient bureaucracy for the mission.

The doctrines of the RCCG during this period combined Aladura and Pen- tecostal features, which included holiness, prayers, speaking in tongues, Bibli- cal inerrancy, belief in miracles and healing and the manifestation of other charismatic gifts such as visions and prophecies. Fasting was also encouraged in the church. In addition, the church had the practice of ‘tarrying for the spirit’ just as was done in the Apostolic Faith Mission. Furthermore, the prac- tice of crying out in prayers earned the new RCCG the name of Ijo Elekun (the weeping church). T roughout this ﬁrst phase, the RCCG was known for its emphasis on strong personal ethics and dislike for materialism.42

By 1980, when Akindayomi died, the RCCG had about forty branches, mostly in southwestern Nigeria. It had not spread into the eastern and north- ern parts of the country yet. Two major problems plagued the church in this ﬁrst phase of its development. One was the poverty of its members. T is indi- rectly meant that the church remained poorly funded. The other was the issue of splinter groups, which incidentally was not peculiar to the RCCG, but has been a major challenge facing the Pentecostal movement generally. Several prominent leaders in the church have had cause, over the years, to break away and establish their own ministries or churches.

Interview with Pastor J.A. Akindele, previously cited.

Peel, Aladura, 73.

Interview with Pastor J.A. Akindele, previously cited.

Interview with Pastor Ayodele (he had joined the RCCG in 1954) at his residence on the Redemption Camp on September 10, 2002.

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The Consolidation Years, 1981-1989

The 1980s were very signiﬁcant in the history of the RCCG. During this decade, Enoch Adejare Adeboye, who succeeded J. O. Akindayomi as head of the church attempted to consolidate the foundations laid by the latter. But more signiﬁcantly, Adeboye consciously strove to situate the church within the prevailing Pentecostal milieu in Nigeria. This he achieved through a gradual re-engineering of the church. However, he did not start oﬀ on a smooth note. His immediate challenge upon assuming oﬃce was how to deal with the hostility of ‘older’ members of the Church who felt he was too young and inexperienced to lead the church.43 Moreover, many felt intimidated by his academic qualiﬁcations — a doctorate degree in Hydrodynamics. He had been a lecturer in the University of Lagos, Nigeria before assuming the leadership of the church. Also, he had joined the church in 1973, only eight years before his appointment as the overall head.44 All those considerations further fuelled the tension, which took time to defuse.

After he had overcome this initial hurdle, he now settled down to the task of re-engineering the church. This was at a time when the Nigerian Pentecostal movement was led by University graduates, with students playing active roles in it. The membership base of the RCCG thus needed to be expanded to include these educated elite, while the issue of the poverty of the church was also to be addressed. But before the expected membership could be attracted, some aspects of the RCCG ‘culture’ also needed to be reformed. First, the wor- ship style was liberalized. Modern musical instruments were introduced to make the services more vibrant as people could now dance and express them- selves freely in worship. Secondly, church programs were also systematized. The weekly Bible study became known as ‘Digging Deep’, while a separate prayer meeting/miracle service was instituted, called the Faith Clinic.45

However, the most revolutionary innovation was the establishment of what became known as ‘Model Parishes’ to attract young professionals and mem- bers of the upper middle class. In the words of Adeboye, “these are local assem- blies geared toward reaching educated professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders in government and politics”.46 This was deemed necessary because “prior to this (time), the church was made up largely of the poor and the uneducated”.47

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 28-30

“Living for God and His Purpose” (Cover story, n.a.), Redemption Light, 7:2 (March 2002), 34. 45

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 32.

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 209.

Ibid.

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The time had now come to make the church respond to stimuli from the gen- eral Pentecostal movement, which had transformed itself into becoming more ‘elite-friendly’. The ﬁrst of the model parishes was established in Lagos in 1988.48 It was a huge success. Not only did it attract the target membership, it even did so rapidly, sooner than expected. Consequently, the model parish began to spread in Lagos, and it was introduced into other urban centers in Nigeria with equal success. T rough the model parish, many people became members of the RCCG.

A typical model parish was headed by a young professional. The worship centers were tastefully furnished, while there was also a band that was fully equipped with modern musical instruments. The language of the service was English. As the model parish proliferated, accommodation was sought in places hitherto considered unusual for churches such as cinemas, nightclubs, theatres, hotels and schoolrooms. As the model parishes multiplied in the 1990s, they ﬁtted perfectly into the neo-Pentecostal movement. This made the older generation in the RCCG ranks to be critical of these new parishes, which they saw as promoting permissiveness. The mode of dressing and general com- portment of the members of the model parishes diﬀered from those in the older parishes, which were now dubbed ‘classical’ parishes. In any case, the leadership insisted that the same message of holiness was being preached in all the parishes. Moreover, there were regular convocations in which all the par- ishes, both classical and model, came together such as the monthly Holy Ghost services and were there exposed to the same teachings by E.A. Adeboye. How- ever, it appears the diﬀerence in orientation between the two streams of par- ishes is becoming more pronounced. The model parishes are tilting more to the ‘Faith Gospel’ while the classical still cling to the ‘holiness’ message. Again, there appears to be an accentuation of class-consciousness among the mem- bers of the two streams. The concept of the model parish thus seems to have accidentally promoted an institutionalization of class diﬀerences within the church. This is ironical because the church should generally be a leveler of social statuses and not highlight class diﬀerences among worshippers.

The leadership of the RCCG seemed to have realized this contradiction because in the mid-1990s, another vision of a ‘Unity’ parish was conceived to harmonize the two previous streams.49 The ﬁrst unity parish took oﬀ in 1997 and has been multiplying since then, thus forming yet a third parallel stream

RCCG, Glorious Dawn, (Program Pamphlet for the Inaugural Service of Headquarters State 2 of the Redeemed Christian Church of God) August 22, 1999, 1.

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 38.

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instead of serving as a melting pot for the other two streams. Despite the fail- ure to resolve these contradictions, the model parish has remained the fastest growing unit of the RCCG.

Other means have also proved eﬀective in the expansion of the church. Most of the individuals who pioneered the spread of the RCCG into the northern parts of the country in the 1980s were southern members in dias- pora. Tese were staﬀ of trading ﬁrms such as the G.B. Ollivant, of construction companies, of government corporations such as Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), who had been transferred to the north at diﬀerent times. T ese indi- viduals took it upon themselves to pioneer RCCG parishes, most of which began in their living rooms. T ey subsequently acquired larger accommoda- tion for the church once the number of worshippers increased and contacted the national headquarters of the church to send trained pastors to take over the parishes. Instances like this could be found in Ilorin, Kano, Sokoto, Nassar- awa, Minna, Zamfara, Bauchi, and other northern states.50 Similarly, RCCG members participating in the compulsory one-year national service called the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were instrumental in the establishment of RCCG parishes in their communities of primary assignment. Examples of this could also be found in Port-Harcourt, Jos, Gombe and Katsina.51 The annual ‘Lets-Go-A-Fishing’ program was also designed as an outreach or evan- gelistic crusade for all parishes. The converts made during such crusades were constituted as new parishes of the RCCG. The great explosion in the church however came in the 1990s.

The Explosion Years, 1990-2004

A major factor responsible for the explosion described in this section is visionary leadership. The nineties, for instance, were characterized by peri- odic declaration of the goals of the mission by the leadership. These goals, encapsulated as the mission statement of the church, were made available to all the parishes. These were:

• To make it to heaven.

• To take as many people to heaven as possible.

Ibid. 55-79. 51

Ibid. 63-64, 77-79, 81.

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• To make holiness a lifestyle.

• To plant a church of the RCCG within ﬁve minutes of every home worldwide.52

Of all these goals, the last one, which had to do with church planting, has been pursued most vigorously. Parishes of the RCCG began to spring up in several urban and rural settings. However, the highest concentration has been in Lagos metropolis. By 2004, the church could count almost 7000 parishes in the entire country. Over 70 percent of this ﬁgure was concentrated in the southwest, while the eastern and northern parts of the country made up the remaining percentage. Lagos alone contains 44 percent of the southwest total.53 No other local Pentecostal denomination has been able to match this.

However, it is necessary to note that actual membership has not increased in the same proportion as the parishes. In 2002, total membership was approx- imately 700,000 people while the parishes were about 5,500. By 2003, the parishes had risen to almost 7000 while membership was about 750,000. T is represents a 27.3 percent increase in parishes and 7.1 percent increase in mem- bership. Meanwhile, the total membership is still less than one percent of the Nigerian population currently put at 138 million people. The average mem- bership per parish is 157 people for Lagos. Other areas in the southwest have an average of 70 while the north and east have 114 and 99 respectively.54 The picture thus emerges of a church that is heavily concentrated in Lagos, and with tentacles in many nooks and corners of major urban centers as it seeks to popularize the Pentecostal message in Nigeria.

The numerical weight that the RCCG lacked in overall membership, it gained in the massive, record-breaking attendance recorded in its inter-denominational programs. One of such programs is the Holy Ghost service mentioned earlier. This is an all-night prayer meeting that takes place at the international head- quarters of the RCCG called the Redemption Camp with an average atten- dance of over 500,000 people.55 The Holy Ghost service has spread outside

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 208. Lately, a ﬁfth goal has been added to the mission statement, which is ‘to have a member of the RCCG in each family in every nation of the world’.

Tese ﬁgures were compiled from the Annual Report of the RCCG for 2003. During the 52nd annual convention of the church, which took place in August 2004, the leadership announced the growth rate of the RCCG in Nigeria to be 4 new parishes per day.

RCCG, Year 2003 Annual Report.

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 215.

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Nigeria to South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark. Several healings and miracles are reported during such ser- vices.56 T ere is also the Holy Ghost Congress, which is an annual event at the RCCG.57 It attracts participants from countries outside Nigeria. In 2003, over 50 nations were represented at the Congress, which was estimated to have cost $10 million to put together.58 T ough the Congress has been described as a ‘celebration of worship’, several people come there to receive miracles.59 Aver- age attendance at the Congress is put at 6 million people.60 Another of such interdenominational programmers is the annual Convention of the RCCG, which now lasts a whole week on the Redemption Camp.

T ere has also been an intense move to attract members of the upper class to the RCCG through several specially designed programs. One of the minis- try arms of the church active in this regard is the Christ the Redeemers Friends Universal (CRFU) established in 1990.61 Its goal is to spread the gospel to the people in the upper echelons of society, namely, the technocrats, power elites, business moguls etc “to create a forum for (them) . . . to mix together in the love of God”.62 The evangelistic activities of the CRFU take the form of din- ners, seminars, musical concerts and breakfast events in choice hotels and high-class entertainment spots at no cost to the invitees. Tese activities are, in fact, very similar to those of the Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship Interna- tional, an interdenominational and international Pentecostal fellowship of professionals and society elites. In addition to this, the church also at a point organized annual pilgrimages to the Holy Land — Israel — for these high-class patrons. Such pilgrimages were personally led by E.A. Adeboye.

A monthly publication of the RCCG, called the Redemption Testimonies documents the most outstanding miracles.

It is said that E.A. Adeboye got the inspiration for the Holy Ghost Congress from the activities of pro-Abacha youths led by one Daniel Kanu and his ‘Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha’ campaign, in which 2 million youths reportedly marched in support of Abacha’s bid for self suc- cession in Abuja in 1998. Adeboye was said to have told his followers that if 2 million Nigerians could march for an earthly ruler, then he too would mobilize at least 4 million people to worship God at the Congress (then called Holy Ghost Festival). The result was astounding. Over 6 mil- lion people were said to have attended the ﬁrst Holy Ghost Festival at Lekki Beach in Lagos in 1998. T isday (Lagos), April 15, 2002.

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 215.

J.L. Grady, “Nigeria’s Miracle”, Charisma, May 2002, 41.

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 215.

O. Bankole, “Christ the Redeemers Friends Universal (CRFU): The Vision” in O. Bankole (ed.), The Trees Clap T eir Hands (Lagos: El-Shalom Publishers, 1999), 61-63.

Ibid. 62.

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However, given the recent violence in Israel vis-à-vis its relations with Pal- estine, the annual pilgrimage has now been replaced by a leisure cruise across the Caribbean. The maiden cruise took place in June 2004 aboard a vessel called ‘Paradise’ on a seven-day western Caribbean trip from Miami Beach in the USA. Of the 2,040 passengers aboard the ship, the RCCG group num- bered 154.63 The trip, which cost between $1300 and $6000 per participant, (depending on the type of accommodation preferred by individual partici- pants) featured Bible studies, prayer meeting, musical concerts and other Pen- tecostal activities put together by the RCCG group. The trip attracted the high and mighty in the Nigerian society — industrialists, members of the political class, a traditional ruler, senior civil servants, a wife of a State Governor, and other top shots — while all its ‘spiritual’ ministrations were coordinated by Adeboye. While this type of cruise has no parallel in Nigerian Pentecostal circles, it is a common feature in North America where Pentecostal preachers like John Hagee, Jesse Duplantis, T.D. Jakes, and Creﬂo Dollar, among others, have made it a regular feature of their programs. Moreover, all these and other similarly targeted programs of the RCCG have produced cordial (but unad- vertised) links with the ruling elite in Nigeria. While most of these political elites are reluctant to declare themselves as full members of the RCCG, they are nonetheless sympathetic to the aspirations of the church when help from such networks is required.64

A major area in which the RCCG has made itself relevant to the travails of the Nigerian society is in the provision of social services. The failure of the state to meet the basic infrastructural and social needs of the populace has given religious organizations such as the RCCG, and other NGOs in civil society the opportunity to provide alternative measures. The Christ the Redeemer’s School Movement (CRSM) of the RCCG has 44 schools, both primary and secondary, located in diﬀerent parts of the country.65 A university has also been sited at the Redemption Camp called Redeemers University

Daily Independent (Lagos), August 4-8, 2004.

T ere are several examples of this rapport. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Olusegun Obasanjo (a Baptist) and his close aides have been attending important programs of the RCCG such as the Abuja Holy Ghost Service in June 2002, and the Lagos Holy Ghost Congress in December 2003. Similarly, after Obasanjo’s electoral victory in May 2003, E.A. Adeboye led other Christian leaders in a T anksgiving Service for the President at the State House, Abuja to mark the beginning of his second term in oﬃce.

T. Ogidi, “CRSM Celebrates 5th Redeemer’s Day”, Redemption Light, 9:1 (April 2004), 40.

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(RUN). It admitted its ﬁrst set of students in October 2005. In the area of health services, the RCCG has over 50 primary health centers called “Mater- nity Centers” distributed all over the country to cater for the reproductive health of women and child welfare.66 Two of the model parishes in Lagos run modern hospitals.67 An orphanage is also located on the Redemption Camp.

In addition, the RCCG has joined in the national campaign against HIV/ AIDS, cultism among youths and crime. The Redeemed AIDS Program Action Committee (RAPAC) oﬀers free counseling and support for AIDS vic- tims.68 The 1990s saw an unprecedented upsurge in occult activities in the nation’s higher institutions resulting in gang wars and bloodbaths that left many students dead. This became an issue of great concern to parents and government alike. Several solutions were proﬀered by the public, but the lead- ership of the RCCG decided to conduct Holy Ghost services on the campuses of these institutions, preaching against the evil of cultism and praying for peace on the aﬀected campuses. Students who renounced their membership of the cults were reportedly exorcised of the ‘violent demons’ and other ‘evil spir- its’, which moved them to engage in such dastardly acts.69 T ere is also a reha- bilitation center in Lagos for drug addicts managed by the Christ Against Drug Abuse Ministry (CADAM), while other centers also attempt to reha- bilitate prostitutes (commercial sex workers), ‘area boys’ (street urchins), and other social miscreants.70

The sheer scope of all these activities suggests that there are a lot of resources at the disposal of the RCCG, which in turn has further enhanced its expan- sion. However, speciﬁc ﬁgures cannot be quoted because ﬁnancial reports are

B. Akinwande and E. Ikenga, “RCCG Maternity Center: House of Miracles”, Redemption Light, 4:8 (September 1999), 22; O. Olubiyi, “Babies: Easy and Safe”, Redemption Light, 5:5 (June 2000), 6.

Adeboye and Eskor, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 211.

Interview with Pastor (Mrs.) Laide Adenuga, RCCG, RAPAC Coordinator, published in Lifeway, 3:3 (July-August 2003), 38-39; Olufunke Adeboye, “The Redeemed AIDS Program Action Committee” in T. Falola and M. Heaton (eds.), Traditional and Modern Health Systems in Nigeria (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006) 13-36.

O. Olubiyi, “The Great Ife Crusade: Where T ousands Turned to Jesus”, Redemption Light, 4:11 (December 1999), 39, 47; O. Olubiyi, “Sermon in the Rain at University of Ibadan”, Redemption Light, 5:1 (February 2002), 6.

R. Afolabi, “CADAM Launches Appeal Fund”, Redemption Light, 2:12 (January 1997), 24; A. Akinremi, “A Drug Addict Becomes Jesus Addict”, Redemption Light, 7:10 (November 2002), 27; B. Akinwande and T. Ogidi, “Transformed by Jesus: Ex-commercial Sex Workers Take on New Life at RCCG Rehabilitation Home”, Redemption Light, 9:4 (May 2004), 19-22.

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not published but a rough idea could be gleaned from the following descrip- tion of some of its holdings. The RCCG operates four banks, one of which is called Haggai Community Bank, the strongest community bank in Nigeria. Its Jubilee Investment Corporation has gradually metamorphosed into a mort- gage bank. The church also operates a travel agency and controls over 60 per cent of the importation of blank audio-visual tapes and CDs in Nigeria with which it produces and markets the sermons of E.A. Adeboye. In addition, the RCCG owns a satellite television (the Dove Media Group) with headquarters in Texas, USA, with Dove Vision as its major subsidiary. Its Nigerian arm is represented by the Trumpet Internet Television (TITV), which oﬀers a bou- quet of television channels and high speed (satellite download) internet ser- vices. It claims to be the ﬁrst and only company to oﬀer both television and satellite internet service in West Africa. This Dove Media is run as a public liability company into which members have bought. The RCCG also has a printing press that produces its literature, while its oﬃcial organ is the monthly Redemption Light. The overseas missions of the church also possess vast prop- erty. For instance, the North American outreach of the RCCG recently acquired about 500 acres of land in Floyd, Texas, on which it proposes to build a Redemption City comprising: “a 10,000-seat sanctuary, two elementary school-size lecture centers, a dormitory, several cottages, a lake and a Christian- theme water park”.71

A third world Pentecostal church with which one could compare the RCCG is the Brazilian Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), also indigenous, founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro by a civil servant named Edir Macedo who was then 33 years old.72 The UCKG presently has a little over 2000 branches in Brazil with a membership of about 4 million people in a nation of 165 million people. The total resources at the disposal of the church are estimated at $400 million. Its assets include “a television network (Rede Record de Televisao, with thirty channels and considered the third largest in Brazil), about thirty radio stations, publishers, recording studios, a newspaper,

Scott Farwell, “African Church Plans ‘Christian Disneyland’”, The Dallas Morning News , July 17, 2005. For a detailed study of the North American outreach of the RCCG see Olufunke Adeboye, “Running with the Prophecy: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, North Amer- ica, 1992-2005” (paper presented at the Africa Conference of the University of Texas at Austin, USA, March 25-27, 2006).

A.R. Oro and P. Seman, “Brazilian Pentecostalism Crosses National Borders” in A. Corten and R. Marshall-Fratani (eds.), Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America (London: Hurst & Company, 2001), 183.

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a magazine, a construction company, a furniture factory, a bank, a travel agency and a holding company, which administers all the church’s business”.73 The church preaches the ‘prosperity gospel’ as well as the spiritual warfare theology. It also participates actively in Brazilian politics.74 Its membership is however from the higher levels of the lower classes, and the lower levels of the urban middle classes. This diﬀers from the RCCG that presently has a mem- bership, which cuts across all the social classes. The majority of this appears to be from the urban middle classes. This has not always been the case though, as the foregoing discussion on the growth of the RCCG has shown.

The transnational activities of the RCCG are also part of the explosion of the RCCG being discussed. The ﬁrst transnational branch of the church was established in Ghana in 1981, and since then the church has spread into many nations of Africa and to other parts of the world. The RCCG is presently in over 50 nations of the world, 30 of which are in Africa.75 It however appears that RCCG parishes have thrived more in the U.K. and U.S. than in the Afri- can nations. In 2003, the African nation with the largest number of RCCG parishes was Ghana (43 parishes), followed by South Africa (33 parishes) and Kenya (25 parishes) whereas there were 127 parishes in the U.K. and 183 in North America.76 This could imply either of two things. One, that the parishes in the western world are a priority of the mission or, those African nations are not particularly receptive to the Pentecostal message or the RCCG brand. The ﬁrst assumption is not tenable because RCCG missions’ policy does not favor the West above Africa. In fact, the opposite is the case. The Church’s ‘African Missions Committee’, does not have a western version.77 This committee has the exclusive task of promoting and sponsoring RCCG missionary activities on the continent. The relative spread of RCCG parishes in the U.K. and U.S.A. might well be due to the liberal environment and the ﬁnancial strength of migrant Nigerians who fund such parishes. Moreover, the proliferation of Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, Ghana and the Republic of Benin, as well as

Ibid.

Ibid. In the Brazilian general elections of 1994, the UCKG elected 12 deputies while in 1998 it elected 28.

RCCG, International Directory, 4th Edition, 2002-2003. See also Olufunke Adeboye, “Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Nigeria” in A. Mary, R. Otayek and L. Fourchard (eds.), Entreprises Religieuses Transnationales en Afrique de l’Ouest (Paris: Karthala, 2005), 439-465.

RCCG, Year 2003 Annual Report.

O. Olubiyi, “African Missions Initiative: Building Lives and Communities for Jesus”, Redemption Light, 9:1 (April 2004), 29.

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the spread of the Assemblies of God in Burkina Faso attests to the fact that Africans are very receptive to the Pentecostal message.78 Also, the transnational activities of other Nigerian Pentecostal churches like David Oyedepo’s Win- ners Chapel on the continent shows that Africans indeed embrace the Pente- costal message of hope, empowerment, prosperity and healing.79 One must not forget to add that even the RCCG parishes in the U.K. and U.S.A. are predominantly made up of migrant Nigerian communities there, and of other Africans in diaspora.80

Finally, a major index of the expansion of the RCCG is the establishment of the Redemption Camp, and its subsequent growth. Although it started as a prayer camp located outside the hustle and bustle of Lagos metropolis in 1983, the Redemption Camp has now become a modern city.81 It has beautiful resi- dential quarters with streets named from biblical registers, a primary school, a secondary school and a university. It has several guesthouses, banks, supermar- kets, restaurants and a clinic. All these are in addition to typical church infra- structure, namely, four parishes of the RCCG, two auditoria (a large one measuring two by two kilometers, and a smaller one), a vast ground for open- air services, dormitories and several prayer facilities. A maintenance depart- ment ensures the smooth running of the Camp, while a security unit protects life and property. During the special programs of the RCCG, volunteers are recruited from the various parishes to assist the Camp personnel and also to control the crowd. To RCCG members, the Camp has become a ‘holy city’, and many of them in Lagos metropolis aspire to come and reside there. The idea of a ‘holy city’ could also be found in the Celestial Church of Christ, which has sacralized Imeko, where the founder Bilewu Oshoﬀa was buried. The major diﬀerence between the RCCG ‘Camp’ and the ‘Celestial City’ at Imeko is that while the former is residential, and has actually developed into a city (of about 20,000 inhabitants), the latter is preserved more as a pilgrimage center and holy relic. It only comes alive during the annual pilgrimages, when worshippers come from all over the country, and even from neighboring West African nations.

See the African case studies in Corten and Marshall-Fratani, Between Babel and Pentecost for details.

David Oyedepo’s African Gospel Invasion Programmed (AGIP), which took oﬀ in 1994, now has mission outreaches in 28 African nations.

The RCCG is still regarded largely as a ‘Nigerian Church’ in Europe and elsewhere outside Nigeria.

This is the focus of Bankole, The Trees Clap their Hands .

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Apart from its physical features, the Redemption Camp is signiﬁcant in several other respects. Socially, it is a melting pot in which an RCCG ‘cul- ture’ is being distilled. Diﬀerent streams of the church — classical, model, unity — regularly gather at the Camp to worship, which encounter fosters camaraderie at the personal, ethnic and national levels. Members from diﬀerent ethnic groups gather to worship at the Camp as they shed their ethnic goggles and see themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. Camp residents also enjoy some degree of ‘insulation’, which only a ‘holy city’ could provide against the usual tensions of modern society. The residential structures on the Camp, for instance, do not have the type of burglary-proof fences that have become a typical feature of Lagos architecture.82 Moreover; the Camp is also signiﬁcant for the transnational outreaches of the RCCG in another respect. As the inter- national headquarters of the RCCG, the Camp promotes trans-cultural and international exchanges during its holy convocations when participants are drawn from diﬀerent nations of the world. Finally the Camp embodies the ‘visions’ and ‘dreams’ of the RCCG. As the nucleus of the activities of the RCCG, the Redemption Camp is thus the theatre (physical space and institu- tional channel) where the ‘old’ RCCG prophecies are expected to be fulﬁlled.

Strategies for Growth

Several of the factors that promoted the growth and subsequent explosion of the RCCG have already been discussed. However, there is the need at this juncture, to examine two crucial strategies especially used by the leader- ship of the church ﬁrst in mobilizing the members and secondly in keeping the church dynamic. These binaries, on one hand emphasize continuity with the past, and on the other facilitate change from time to time. The end product is the juxtaposition of change and continuity, which in turn has ensured the internal equilibrium of the mission as well as making it responsive to prevailing circumstances.

The ﬁrst strategy is the use of the past as a validating force and as a mobiliz- ing tool for the present. Probably due to the ‘crisis’ that greeted Adeboye’s appointment as leader of the church in 1981, in which certain ‘older’ mem- bers considered him as being unsuitable for the oﬃce, there was the need for a viable means of carrying the people along after this initial dust had settled.

Cf. T. Agbola, Architecture of Fear (Ibadan: IFRA, 1997).

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The solution to this was found in the pragmatic appropriation of the prophe- cies of the founder, Josiah Akindayomi, which became known in RCCG cir- cles as a ‘covenant’ and, which was subsequently popularized through consistent narration to the ﬂock. According to the prophecy, the ‘church would spread to the ends of the earth and would still be serving faithfully when the Lord returned to the earth in the Second Coming’.83 What this means in practical terms is that the plans and reforms of the new leader should be seen as being geared towards the actualization of the old prophecy especially the bit about ‘spreading the church to the end of the earth’. The logic here is that before a church could successfully pursue transnational ambitions, it must necessarily consolidate its home base. Another implication of this prophecy is that the longevity promised the church (continued existence till the ‘Second Coming of the Lord’) could only be assured if internal crisis was not allowed to scatter the body. The past of the church was thus used to maintain internal equilib- rium in the present. It could also be said to have made the agency of the new leader ‘intelligible’ to his followers.84 Over the years, this strategy has proved very eﬃcacious. Not only has it instilled a sense of mission into the members, it has further legitimated the leadership as having a moral, in addition to a divine mandate. The commitment of the members is evident in the way they voluntarily serve the church, and the reverence in which the leadership is also held, attest to the eﬃcacy of this use of the past.

The other strategy has to do with the receptivity of the church leadership to novel ideas. Adeboye is particularly open to ideas emanating either from the local or international Pentecostal community. A few examples will suﬃce here. In 1977, four years before he became General Overseer, Adeboye, with the permission of Akindayomi organized a program called the ‘All Believers’ Con- gress’ at Ilesa from April 7-11.85 While this program was reportedly organized in reaction to the national Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), which took place in Lagos, and was considered idolatrous in Pentecostal circles, it nonetheless became an annual event after FESTAC had come and gone. How- ever, it is important to note here that the idea of a ‘Believers’ Congress’ (con- vened for whatever purpose) was not a novelty in 1977. The Pentecostal

Adeboye and Mfon, “Preparing a People for Great Works”, 207.

This is one of the uses of the past discussed in G. Graham, The Shape of the Past: A Philo- sophical Approach to History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 219.

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 26.

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movement on the campuses had been holding regular Congresses, which were hosted in diﬀerent parts of the country as from 1970.86 Moreover, it is not unlikely that many of those who featured in the earlier Congresses either as key participants or as resource persons later came to attend Adeboye’s Con- gress too since the leaders of the trans-denominational students’ movements circulated freely within Pentecostal circles and they maintained a strong net- work. Furthermore, it also appears that the Redeemed Christian Fellowship (RCF), formed in 1988 as a network of RCCG students in tertiary institu- tions, might have been inspired by the idea of the older interdenominational campus fellowships. However, the RCF, which started with an interdenomina- tional bias, is becoming more exclusive as only RCCG members can now attain leadership positions there.

Furthermore, the Home Fellowship system, which has become very popu- lar as the smallest unit of church activity in the RCCG, was adopted by Ade- boye from Yonggi Cho’s Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea.87 Adeboye had visited South Korea in 1983, and when he came back home, he intro- duced the Home Fellowship to his church. The result was impressive because many of the Home Fellowship centers eventually metamorphosed into par- ishes of the RCCG. Moreover, the Home Fellowship also enhanced evange- lism at the ‘grassroots’, and through it many people joined the church. All these examples show that the RCCG did not isolate itself from its immediate environment, neither was it oblivious to happenings in global Pentecostalism. It appropriated aspects of local and international Pentecostalism for purposes of growth while at the same time remaining focused on its own guiding vision.

Conclusion: The Impact of RCCG on Nigerian Society

The activities of the RCCG have had signiﬁcant implications for the eco- nomic, social, cultural, religious and political development of Nigeria. In these areas, the church has also exempliﬁed the growing importance of the Pentecostal movement in the nation. It is also important to note that many of the observations made here concerning the RCCG are equally applicable to other Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. Economically, the church has been able to oﬀer career opportunities to several young people within its ranks, not only

Ojo, “The Contextual Signiﬁcance”, 175.

RCCG, The Redeemed Christian Church of God at 50 , 35.

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as full-time pastors, but also as administrators, teachers, medical person- nel, technicians etc. Contrary to popular belief, most of these individuals are not ‘drop-outs’ but highly skilled professionals who have placed their services at the disposal of the church. The economic plight of the nation has made many of them to seek employment in the church following their inability to secure employment elsewhere. However, because the church does not have vacancies in all their speciﬁc specializations, many end up doing jobs diﬀerent from their lines of expertise. This development is not peculiar to the RCCG or to Nigeria. In fact, it is a general trend in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Giﬀord places such professionals, who seek employment in the church in the same category with those in NGO employment. According to him, these groups are “not creating wealth but essentially redistributing or channeling aid funds, almost as a comprador class of pastors and development oﬃcers”.88 While one may not totally agree with this characterization, the fact still remains that the church does provide an alternative for professionals in search of employment. This is without prejudice to those who claim to have received the “Call”.

Nevertheless, those who found themselves in the church as part of its per- sonnel have beneﬁted tremendously from the additional management skills they have acquired in the course of their duties. In other words, the RCCG, like other large Pentecostal establishments has served as a further training ground for its own personnel. The experience garnered here is similar to the tuition oﬀered in Business schools and management institutions. Due to the bureaucratic structure and sheer volume of activities/transactions taking place in a church like the RCCG, an average pastor or lay leader is exposed to situ- ations of managing resources and men, conducting business meetings, work- ing to meet church targets and to accomplish set goals, learning to be proactive, and carrying others along, among other things. Most importantly, all these are done with a deep sense of commitment, because services rendered in the church are ultimately interpreted, in biblical idiom as having been done “unto the Lord”. This sense of commitment, coupled with leadership, managerial and economic skills are vital requirements in the development of a modern economy. Harvey Cox has also identiﬁed similar factors in Korean Pentecos- talism in explaining Korea’s economic success.89 This might represent a great

Giﬀord, African Christianity, 345.

H. Cox, Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (London: Cassell, 1996), 234-236.

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potential for Nigeria and it is hoped that as the Pentecostal community expands, its economic impact on the Nigerian society will be more pro- nounced. But given the religious plurality of Nigeria, part of which is a formi- dable Muslim presence, it is doubtful whether Pentecostals would ever attain that numerical preponderance necessary for the actualization of this economic potential on a national scale. This implies that their economic impact is best appreciated at the microcosmic level.

The courting of the ruling elite and business moguls by the model parishes, the CRFU and other allied units of the RCCG also has additional economic implications. First, the increasing numbers of such individuals has contrib- uted immensely to the material base of the church. Secondly, younger mem- bers of the church also have opportunities of promoting their careers through their church connections with the highly placed ‘brethren’. Senior managers, directors and political oﬃce holders have been known to assist other mem- bers to secure jobs thus expanding their own clientele too within the church establishment.

We have already considered the social role of the RCCG. However, its activities in this regard only represent a drop in the vast ocean of needs, which the nation has. But when considered together with the eﬀorts of other Pente- costal churches such as Benson Idahosa’s Church of God Missions and David Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel, it could be seen that in addition to the mainline denominations, which have been active in the provision of social services (especially education and health) since the late nineteenth century, Pentecos- tals too are now responding to the social challenge created by the failed states of Africa. The Church of God Missions, for instance, has the Word of Faith group of schools, which provide primary and secondary school education in over 100 locations in Nigeria. This is in addition to the Benson Idahosa Uni- versity located in Benin City. The church also has a Medical Complex in Benin, established in 1989 in partnership with the Oral Roberts Ministry of the USA. The hospital, which has branches in other cities and rural communi- ties, provide services in Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sur- gery, Dentistry and Ophtamology.90 Similarly, the Winners Chapel, which claims staﬀ strength of over 2000 people, runs the Gilead Medical Center, a hospital facility located in Lagos, with a branch in Kaduna; Faith Academy

For more details see the website of the church at http://cogm.org

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(a secondary school), a primary school and the Covenant University, among several other projects.91

The cultural impact of the RCCG is varied. The cultural symbolism of the Redemption Camp as a ‘holy city’ has already been discussed. This makes the RCCG, just like other Pentecostal churches, a cultural repository where a ‘born-again’ culture, with its own denominational nuances are distilled and diﬀused as members move from place to place, and also through modern com- munication networks. The dynamism of the RCCG has also been highlighted in the way it responds to new circumstances and ideas. Furthermore, in terms of its impact on traditional culture, the RCCG is not diﬀerent from other Pentecostal organizations, which disparage African culture by demonizing sev- eral of its manifestations and practices. It tries to reorder society by taking over some of the roles of traditional institutions such as mediating in marital arrangements, (monitoring courtship, arbitrating in troubled homes) while at the same time encouraging ‘restitution’ (especially marital) for those aspiring to leadership positions in the church.92

The youths in the church are also given ample opportunity to aspire to leadership positions. Most of the pastors are young persons in their prime, whose major qualiﬁcation in not their age but availability coupled with zeal. This cultural shift is signiﬁcant when one considers the fact that traditional African societies were ordered according to the principles of seniority and gen- erational hierarchies. Women are also being encouraged in the RCCG. In 1998, the church gave full clergy rights to women. T ereafter, they were ordained as ‘full’ pastors (prior to this, they could only attain the position of ‘assistant pastor’) and empowered to administer the Holy Communion, con- duct burial services and carry out other pastoral duties just as their male coun- terparts. Today, there are female Parish pastors, Area pastors and even, Provincial pastors.93 However, no woman has been admitted into the seven- man Governing Council of the church yet. This means that as far as overall policy making is concerned, the men are fully in charge in the RCCG.94

Furthermore, the RCCG has succeeded in carving a niche for itself within the keenly contested religious space in Nigeria. It has gradually emerged as a

See the website of the church at http://winnerscanaanland.org and that of the Cove- nant University at http://covenantuniversity.com

Cf. Giﬀord, African Christianity, 347.

A Parish pastor oversees a single church of the RCCG; an Area pastor coordinates a group of parishes while a Provincial pastor administers a large group of Areas.

O.A. Adeboye, “Breaking through Gender Barriers: Religion and Female leadership in Nigeria”, Journal of History and Diplomatic Studies, 2 (2005), 160.

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pacesetter in Pentecostal circles where others are adopting many of its features and activities such as the idea of a prayer camp doubling as a ‘holy city’. In addi- tion, other Pentecostals and even members of mainline Protestant churches patronize RCCG Bible Colleges, training institutions (such as the School of Missions), primary and secondary schools. Moreover, the leadership role of E.A. Adeboye is widely acknowledged by other Pentecostals. A past leader of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Adeboye enjoys the respect of younger Pentecostal preachers who look up to him as a role model. The annual Holy Ghost Congress of the RCCG, for instance, apart from its international appeal, is gradually becoming a gathering of leading Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria, who come to minister along with Adeboye.95

However, all the advantages brought on the RCCG by its prominence have not produced any direct impact on the politics of the nation. The church does not mobilize electoral support for politically inclined members, though it encourages the general congregation to exercise their civic rights by voting during election times. This is also the attitude of several other Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, which only become politically conscious when there is a perceived threat from Muslims.96 This is unlike the example of Brazilian Pen- tecostals. Since 1986, the Assemblies of God and the UCKG have been play- ing important roles in Brazilian politics. Tese churches have ﬁelded their members for electoral contests and supported other Evangelical candidates. Brazilian Pentecostal pastors actively mobilize electoral support for members, and sometimes such support is ‘divinely’ buttressed by prophecies.97

In terms of individual political impact, Nigerian Pentecostal leaders (includ- ing Adeboye) are not known for boldly airing their views against government. The only exception was the late Benson Idahosa, and more recently Pastor

A notable exception to all of these is W.F. Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Bible Church, who does not attend any of these programs. Meanwhile Folu Adeboye, wife of E.A. Adeboye also convenes an annual meeting, instituted in 2001, for female ministers and the wives of all leading Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria. The response to this meeting has been impressive, which further proves that the RCCG enjoys the conﬁdence and respect of many Nigerian Pentecostal leaders.

Rev Chris Okotie of the Household of God, Lagos is an exception to this. He ran for the Presidency during the last elections in April 2003, but he lost.

P. Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press, 2001), 29. See also Olufunke Adeboye, “Pentecostal Challenges in Africa and Latin America: A Comparative Focus on Nigeria and Brazil”, Afrika Zamani, 11&12 (2003/2004), 136-159.

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Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos.98 Majority of the Pentecos- tal preachers prefers to pray than to criticize the ruling elite for their wrongdo- ings. The most volatile critics of government have been leaders of the mainline churches: Olubunmi Okogie (Catholic Cardinal of Nigeria), Matthew Hassan Kukah (Secretary of the Catholic Church) and Bolanle Gbonigi (a retired Anglican bishop). This brings to mind the public involvement of several Cath- olic bishops in parts of Francophone Africa (Benin Republic, Togo, Congo and Zaire) in the late 1980s.Anglican bishops in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia have equally been vocal in their criticism of oppressive governments in the 1990s.99 T ere is thus the need for Nigerian Pentecostals to create a public role for themselves, which goes beyond social work by engaging actively and pro- actively in politics. T ere is however, a sense in which the RCCG, like other Pentecostal churches, might be said to have contributed indirectly to the devel- opment of democracy in the nation. By exposing members of diverse ethnic background to one another under the same religious umbrella, the church has indirectly fostered democratic virtues like tolerance, respect, moderation and compromise. But this should not be overemphasized. Tese virtues need also to be consciously applied to Pentecostal relations with the religious other.

Ruth Marshall-Fratani has identiﬁed this non-compromising stance of Nigerian Pentecostals in their relations with Islam coupled with their determi- nation to “win Nigeria for Jesus” at whatever cost, as a major challenge to the peace and unity of the land. She makes much of the fact that the Pentecostal identity has been politicized, and seems worried about the way in which Pen- tecostals have demonized Islam and the implication of an equally aggressive response from Muslims for the unity of the nation.100 While one agrees with the necessity for peace and the elimination of religious violence, there is the need for a more historical approach to the debate in order to have a proper understanding of the issues concerned. T ere is a long history of Muslim vio- lence against Christians in northern Nigeria. Pentecostals have only recently begun to respond indirectly to this threat when it became clear that the state (which for a long time was controlled by the Muslim north) was not willing to

Idahosa was also reported to have supported the Abacha regime during the international indignation that greeted the latter’s execution of Ken Saro Wiwa. The Guardian (Lagos), Decem- ber 16, 1995.

Giﬀord, African Christianity, 21-22.

100

R. Marshall-Fratani, “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism” in Cor- ten and Marshall-Fratani, Between Babel and Pentecost, 96-104.

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provide any lasting solution to the problem. Moreover, there is no indication that Pentecostals intend any physical elimination of their religious adversaries. Pentecostals insist, in typical biblical parlance, that they are engaged in ‘spiri- tual warfare’, and that the weapons of this warfare are not physical because they are not ﬁghting ‘ﬂesh and blood’ but spiritual forces. Again, this uncom- promising attitude is neither peculiar to Nigerian Pentecostals nor is it a recent development. It has only been made more evident by the recent Pentecostal mastery of media technology. The intention here is not to absolve Pentecostals of the need to be more tolerant, but to emphasize that the burning issues in contemporary Nigerian religious politics are not just structural but also historical.

Finally, this paper has demonstrated that despite the fact that the RCCG is an indigenous church, which claims to be self-suﬃcient, with no international aﬃliations, it nonetheless responds to external inﬂuences by transforming itself from time to time. This also accents the role of external factors in the development of Nigerian, and indeed African Pentecostalism. The impact of the local environment on the history of the church has also been discussed. To a large extent, the RCCG could therefore be described as being paradigmatic of Nigerian Pentecostalism. Its internal structures and doctrines reﬂect the major nuances in the Pentecostal movement, namely, the conservative, moder- ate and liberal, replicated in its classical, unity and model parishes respectively. This also accounts for its theological ambivalence: the attempt to weld the ‘holiness’ tradition with the ‘faith gospel’. While Adeboye has been able to personally maintain a humble lifestyle to prove that the two theological tradi- tions need not be mutually exclusive, many of his subordinates (especially those in the model parishes) have not been able to maintain the same balance. While this might be seen as another aspect of his maturity and integrity, it raises great concerns about the theological consistency of the church. To remain an arrowhead, the church necessarily has to retain its cutting edge, which stands the risk of being jeopardized by any crisis of theology or internal instability.

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