Redeemed Christian Church starts 66th annual convention

Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has promised “great manifestations of God’s power and grace” upon the lives of participants at the church’s 66th Annual Convention.

The convention, which began on Thursday with a Ministers Conference, formally starts today and runs till Sunday. The theme is “Dominion.”

Already, streams of participants from around the world have been pouring into the Redemption Camp, which according to the estimation of Mr Adeboye, during the monthly Thanksgiving Service of the church on Sunday, was almost half full.

He advised participants not to miss it because it will be one of a kind. Giving a background of the theme, he said, “Dominion was God’s original mandate for mankind at Creation: for man to dominate, to rule, to control, to subdue; to be fruitful and to exercise authority on earth.

“However,” he said, “man lost the authority to rule and dominate when Adam and Eve fell; and became subject to all manner of failures, sickness and oppression.

“But thanks be to God, who made a way for us to regain lost power and authority through Jesus Christ, who became for us the Author of Salvation.”

Recalling God’s mandate to mankind to be “fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it,” he said God wants us to be successful, prosperous, abundant, rewarding, productive.

But Mr Adeboye charged that if we want the reward that God desires, then we have to operate the way God operates.

He reiterated this at the Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, when he showed from the Lord’s Prayer that all power belongs to God – “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”

Then he said that to dominate in all areas of life – spiritually, financially, socially and politically, – we have to tap into that source of power, which is Jesus Christ.

According to a statement from the church, the weeklong convention that will attract millions of worshipers from across the world will hold for the first three days at the Old Auditorium within the Redemption Camp, and move to The Arena, the new auditorium at Simawa, for the remaining three days.

Events for this year’s convention will include the ordination of Deacons/Deaconesses, Assistant Pastors and Pastors as well as graduation of newly trained officers from the mission’s Bible College to assist the nurturing the growing number of entrants to the church. There will also be group and special seminars.

Each day, the convention will start at 8 a.m. and end with a plenary session of sermons late into the night, sometimes spilling over into the next morning

Apart from the millions of people at the Redemption Camp, thousands more will participate through viewing centres across the world. The church has strong presence in over 195 countries.

The 66-year-old church, which was founded in 1952 by Josiah Akindayomi, started at 9 Willoughby Street and remained there until they were able to acquire a piece of land at the present site of the Headquarters of the church at 1-5 Redemption Way, Ebute-Metta, Lagos (formerly 1a, Cemetery Street).

In the early 1970s Mr Akindayomi, who Mr Adeboye calls my Father-in-the-Lord, started to look for an educated successor, who had been spiritually revealed to him, but who was not a member of the church yet.

He eventually found Mr Adeboye, a mathematics lecturer at the University of Lagos, who joined the church in 1973.

From 40 parishes, including the headquarters parish, in 1981, RCCG has spread to over 195 countries. There are at least 732 branches in the UK and Ireland.