History of The Redeemed Christian Church of God
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was started in 1952 by God through his servant, PA Josiah Akindayomi.
PA Akindayomi was born July 1909 in Ondo State of Nigeria. He joined the Cherubim and Seraphim church in 1931.
He became married in 1941 and continued to worship with the Cherubim and Seraphim Church. He felt persuaded to leave the church in 1952. He started at Willoughby Street, Ebute-Metta Lagos, a house fellowship called, the Glory of God Fellowship. Initially, there were nine members but before long the fellowship rapidly grew as the news of the miracles that occurred in their midst spread.
Pa Akindayomi also had a vision of words that appeared to be written on a blackboard. The words were “The Redeemed Christian Church of God.” Amazingly, he could not read or write but was supernaturally able to write these words down. In this visitation, God also said to him that this church would go to the ends of the earth and that when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in glory, He would meet the church. The Lord then established a covenant with Pa Akindayomi, synonymous to the Abrahamic covenant in the Bible. He said that He the Lord would meet all the needs of the church in an awesome way if only members would serve Him faithfully and be obedient to His Word. It is upon this covenant that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was built.
Thus, the Redeemed Christian Church of God was born in 1952, destined by the Lord Himself to take the world for Him. The church continued to meet at 9 Willoughby Street until they were able to acquire some land thereby witnessing a relocation to the present site of the Headquarters of the church at 1-5 Redemption Way, Ebute-Metta, Lagos (formerly 1a, Cemetery Street), Nigeria.
Sometime in the early 70s, God had spoken to Pa Akindayomi about his successor. The Lord told him that this man who was not a member of the church then, would be a young educated man. Thus when a young university lecturer joined the church in 1973, Papa was able to recognize him in the Spirit as the one that the Lord had spoken about in the past. This man, Enoch Adejare Adeboye who was then a lecturer of Mathematics at the University of Lagos soon became involved in the church. He became one of the interpreters translating Pa Akindayomi’s sermons from Yoruba to English. He was ordained a pastor of the church in 1975.
Papa was preparing to meet his Creator. He sent for Pastor Adeboye and spent several hours sharing with him details of the covenant and the plans of the Lord for the church. Even though a year before this, the Lord had revealed to Pastor Adeboye that he would be Papa’s successor, it was still too difficult for him to fully contemplate such an awesome responsibility.
Since 1981, an open explosion began with the number of parishes growing in leaps and bounds. At the last count, there are at least about 2000 parishes of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria. On the International scene, the church is present in other African nations, In Europe and In the United States of America, also in the Caribbean states of Haiti and Jamaica. Today, God is still doing marvellous deeds through the RCCG worldwide. One of the well known programmes of the church is the Holy Ghost service, an all night miracle service that holds on the first Friday at the Redemption Camp, Km 46, Lagos-lbadan Expressway, Nigeria. The average attendance at these services is half-a-million people. The Holy Ghost Service also holds in London quarterly and is known as the Festival of Life