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This is According to Premier Newspaper
ALL is not well inside The Redeem Christian Church of God at the moment and many reasons are to be adduced for this.
The main topic these days among hard-core church faithful in the hugely influential Pentecostal denomination has been the succession crisis in the church caused by the recent retirement of some top pastors believed to have reached 70 years of age or thereabout.
Another issue which seems to have sent tongues wagging is the decision by the church hierarchy to replace such retiring leaders with their own kinsmen or family members thus snowballing into a lot of undercurrents and waves of resentments.
Yet another issue said to have raised a lot of dust in the church was when a member of the founder’s family, Abiodun Oluwakojo wrote a petition which was widely circulated on the internet over the affairs of the church. He had accused the church leadership of lacking in transparency and not continuing in his grandfather’s ideals but in order to douse the tension generated by the media blitz the church mandated a certain Pastor Titi Akindayomi-Adewale, a sister to the complainant to tell the world all was well and that the young man probably had problems in understanding the church administration due to communication gap.
The succession battle inside the church got to head recently when at the 60th annual convention of the church tagged ‘Come Up Higher’ the General Overseer was said to have ordered the cancellation of the interpretation platform for his regular Biblical analysis when preaching his sermons. One f the interpreters whose identity the church keeps shielding as at press time was alleged to have been caught with substances said to be chars to harm the man of God.
This is the second time a fetish attack has been made on the church’s G. O. by assailants whom the church continues to shield from public scrutiny for reasons best known to them. The recent narrow escape of the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye from the wicked hands of yet another assassin within the church is a huge testament to the fact that all I not well in the church or how well can somebody describe the poisoning of the drink of the clergy by an insider recently.
Pastor Adeboye by all estimation has done exceedingly well since he ascended the leadership of the church in 1981 as he has led the church to establishing over 20,000 branches worldwide, with a membership of at least six million strong family worldwide.
Named one of the 50 most influential personalities in the world by famed journal, Newsweek, Adeboye though not mentioned by Forbes in the same mould like his Friend Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church Worldwide in terms of net worth on account of his modest lifestyle is believed not to be far behind in wealth himself.
For example, Dove Media, one of the prime investments of the church is worth not less than N3billion. The church is the proud owner biggest ecumenical auditorium in the history of real time corporate gospel anywhere in the world and this is worth a mouth-watering sum of N7.7billion. It is believed that there is a member of the church in every household around the world.
The church has a huge financial war chest of not less than a billion in foreign currency aside from several key assets ranging from schools, hospitals, real estate assets, media facilities just to name a few.
Investigations by The Premier on the matter showed that informed church leaders who know more about the crisis are not willing to talk much to the press for fear of being persecuted in the church yet the problems persists.
Pastor Enouch Adejare Adeboye when asked on who will succeed him when he finally answers the home call or goes into retirement insists on not using conventional formula for his selection. His words: “The man who will succeed me is still a baby Christian; he is still at the drinking parlour”, Adeboye had said, thus fuelling suggestions that highly respected Pastor J. T. Kalejaiye who is the Church’s General Evangelist may not quality for the plum gospel seat.
What further seems to have increased the stakes in terms of power tussle in the church is the recent elevation of Dare Adeboye, considered by many to be a spiritual upstart who fits into the bill of his father’s description.
When asked about his wife, he responded swiftly with encomiums to the delight of any woman. Adeboye says: “There is no woman like my wife; she is a friend, companion, co-labourer and intimate confidant. I cannot imagine life without her and I recall that I met her through a friend”.
This sentiments is not shared by fellow church members who loath their General Overseer so much to the extent that one of the Pastors was said to have poisoned his orange juice drink recently with the aim of killing the highly spiritual 71 years- old clergy, who was said to have placed curse instantly when the plot was revealed to him spiritually. The evil man was said to have confessed his sin later.
It is not known as at press time if the attempt on the life of the man of God has been reported to the Nigerian Police but feelers suggests that if nothing is done on the matter there is more to come from The Redeem Christian Church of God very soon.
An elder in the church who is still a virile member of one of its parishes in Lagos told The Premier exclusively in Lagos that a lot of Christian faithful irrespective of denomination should pray for the future of the church as the crisis could actually destroy the good foundations laid by founder, Late Reverend Akindayomi.
Accordingly to him, were it not for God’s divine hands on Pastor Adeboye, the church would have collapsed by now due to the intense politics in the affairs of the church administration.
He bemoan the huge influence Mrs. Folu Adeboye, the wife of the General Overseer has on her husband much to the disadvantage of conventional wisdom especially on serious matters that affects the leadership of the flock. “She is the one that calls the shots and if you wish to profess career wise as a Pastor in the church then you have to dance to her tunes. She has been busy sacking all those influential pastors who are above 70 years old but some of them have equally asked the General Overseer to go into retirement to stem the tide of dissent in the church but he insists that he cannot be asked to leave as it was God that appointed him while he was the one that appointed the other pastors into their respective roles in the church.
“The most painful issue has been that of the Pastor in charge of the Dallas, Texas administrative region in the United States. He was the one that helped to plant all the churches there and today he has been swept aside. I recently met with him and he said he was very disappointed at the way he was shoved aside from the church business and was replaced with the G. O.’s niece; the man even has a house which he uses to accommodate Pastor Adeboye anytime he was visiting the very powerful Texas District of the Church.
“He employs people working in the mansion and pay from his own pocket yet he has never complained and despite what has happened, he insists that the place will be reserved for the G. O. Recently, when he was removed from the position he holds in America as the most influential leader, he was on a visit in Nigeria and was not even aware of the changes until much later.
“During a recent church service, Daddy Adeboye gave him a gift of around N5million in an envelope but he humbly turned it down as he does not need it since he is an extremely wealthy man. He told me that he normally gives N20million annually during Christmas period as gift to Pastor Adeboye and he has been doing that for the past 20-25 years without a break”, our sourced told The Premier.
Another source who is member of the church said that he did not have any problem with the love the G. O. have for his wife but he should never turn a blind eye to genuine complaints from members of the church. He also pointed out that the decay which was now been noticed by all was first discovered by him in 2002 as he saw people from Ijesha tribal stock being placed in positions of public trust in the church.
He pleaded with the church leadership to insist on the use of spiritual inclination on taking vital decisions rather than mere human understanding like the present situation which has attracted criticism over how not to handle gospel administrations by those in a position to know.
Senior Pastor, Latter Rain Assembly Church in Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, himself an ex-member of The Redeem Church on why he left, he revealed in an online interview that he left due to intense politization of spiritual matters.
Pastor Bankole Solomon who resigned as a Pastor in the church in 2010 wondered why the G. O. could go to the extent of abusing his divine powers by allowing corrupt politicians to desecrate the holy pulpit in the church just because they want to be seen as friends to those in the corridors of power.
