Richard Adeyinka Alaba Emmanuel as the name goes on his Facebook wall reveals he has just finished a reaseach work on Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. In a post recently on his wall, he gives a summary of some of his findings. Find below
Pastor Adeboye: Life Lessons from him
I just finished and submitted a scholarly paper on Pastor E. A. Adeboye, the G.O. of RCCG. As I researched into him and his journey in Redeemed Church as a non-member, I discovered four critical things that serve as life lessons to me. Let me share some of them. In saying them, however, one or two things may appear negative, but I am not saying them to rubbish RCCG or Pastor Adeboye. I am simply a researcher with an open mind. Let me also say that I discovered many theses and scholars articles published either on Pastor Adeboye or RCCG in many universities around the world. So some of what I say here are in the open.
Lesson One
Education has no substitute. It never promises you wealth and fortune in Naira and Kobo. But it promises a different life. Pastor Adeboye got to RCCG when he was already a Senior Lecturer with a doctorate. That already positioned him first to be closer to the founder and become his interpreter and a few years later replace him when he died as the G.O.
The lesson here for me is: get an education or learn a skill/trade. It is good to have one when you don’t need it than to need one when you don’t have it.” Assuming Pastor Adeboye did not have an education when the founder died, that opportunity would have passed him by. It is simply a case of opportunity meets preparedness. Like we were taught in Boys Scout, Be Prepared!
Lesson Two
When the founder of RCCG was excommunicated from C&S Church, 12 people followed him to start the new church. Together they built the church to 40 parishes in South West with only poor and uneducated Yoruba as members. In fairness, that was a lot of work put in there. But not enough to take the church higher than it was. Now, why did the founder find Dr Adeboye worthy to replace him and not any of the 12 loyal members who followed him to start the church? The answer is the lesson for me.
It appears to me, the 12 loyal members never developed themselves beyond the level they were when they were building the church and as such, could not offer much going forward when the founder wanted more. Dr Adeboye simply offered more. Life is about inventing and reinventing yourself wherever you are.
When you find yourself somewhere, look for how you will add value to yourself and to the place, whether it is where you work, live or worship. Because the 12 members and the older ones could not offer much more, the founder could not entrust them with the future of the church. Take the decision. Improve yourself. Reinvent yourself. Make yourself relevant. Position yourself for opportunities. They won’t tell you they are coming!
Lesson Three
When you find yourself leading, don’t be afraid to take big decisions. Do not leave the growth of your life or your company or that of your family members to chances or prayers alone. When Pastor Adeboye took over RCCG as the G.O., the church was only in South West with poor, largely uneducated as members. Although the founder had the vision that his church would one day spread to every corner of the world, that membership could not get it there. Vision is nothing without the right strategy. The founder had a vision, but Pastor Adeboye had a strategy.
He designed and executed the right strategy that moved the church 40 Parishes in South West 40,000 parishes in 198 countries. Despite opposition from older members of the church, he wasn’t afraid to create “Model Parish” system and rename the 40 existing parishes under “Classical Parish” system. The classical parishes still maintained its membership of poor and uneducated people with church business in Yoruba. The Model Parishes attracted educated and rich elites as members.
When the two systems did not achieve the desired results, he collapsed them into the third system he named “Unity Parishes”, which landed the church where it is today. It has to be said that while the founder frowned at accumulation and display of wealth by church members, Pastor Adeboye favoured and deliberately courted educated and rich members. Before Pastor Adeboye, the church was only run on donation from members as the founder disallowed payment of offerings. Pastor Adeboye;’s strategy has worked for the church.
Lesson Four
Like Major Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s CSO said, 99% loyalty is no loyalty. Loyalty must be 100%. There is no question that Pastor Adeboye has been loyal to RCCG and its founder with whom he shared a special relationship. Any other person could have branched out after the death of Reverend Akindayomi to start his own church. Many pastors in Nigeria have done so. But chances are that if he had done so, he may not have nurtured his own church to this height.
Richard Emmanuel
As a matter of fact, of the Pentecostal pastors of his generation who are still living in Nigeria, Pastor Adeboye is the only one who is not a founder. But he didn’t mind serving RCCG and he has done so with everything he has got. The journey was not easy. The success was not sudden. He was not afraid to take a long, hard journey. But he is here, still standing, still succeeding with RCCG. Today as you work, take that job as your own. Be loyal to those who have given you the opportunity to showcase your talent. There is no quick fix. Roads to success are usually long and hard. Do not sit down and expect success to fall down from heaven. Work. Work. Work.
1 comment
Good principles there from Richard Emmanuel, on Daddy GO, Adeboye, on growth, prosperity, progress, in one’s personal life and career as well as in church administration. But then it does seem to me that the principles are purely humanistic with no provision or acknowledgment made about the Divine factor. If personal development, total devotion, loyalty, good education and strategies were all the principles that were at work in the selection of Pastor Adeboye as the General Overseer of RCCG, and the extra-ordinary growth of the church, where then is the part played by the Divine? Basing the result of a research of this nature on the experience of one man may be acceptable in the theological world, but definitely not in the rigorous world of the academics. While the life principles pointed out by the researcher may be good in motivational speech, they are definitely not all the time true when it comes to Divine selection and election. Think about the miraculous budding of Aaron’s rod. If the testimony given by the Founder is anything to go by then Adeboye’s ascendance and success as the GO of RCCG has more to do with the Divine rather than the humanistic factors and principles outlined by the researcher. The GO has said so himself in many fora. Anytime he says so he is not just trying to be ‘humble’, but stating the truth the way it is. The research we should be interested in is the one that shows that all those who broke away from their mother church or vision of the original Founder of a church or ministry, failed. Or, all those who remained and showed 100 percent loyalty to either their Church or its Founder, like Adeboye has done, succeeded like he is doing today.