TheCable

On the second day of its 2022 national convention, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) ordained over 15,000 clerics, comprising 10,584 deacons and deaconesses and 4,424 assistant pastors.

The ceremony, which was supervised by the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, was held at the three-million-seater old auditorium of the Redemption Camp, now renamed City, at Mowe, on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on Tuesday.

In keeping with the tradition of the church, the clerics were presented to the general overseer for prayers by Pastor Joseph Obayemi, the outgoing national overseer of RCCG.

The ordination by laying of hands was handled by the assistant general overseers of the church.

While the several deacons and deaconesses were ordained by the laying of hands, the assistant pastors were ordained by the laying of hands and anointed with oil.

In a short ordination sermon, Pastor Joseph Olaiya congratulated the church on its 70th anniversary, and advised the newly-ordained clerics to go out and enforce the jubilee that Christ made available to all, through prayers and continuous preaching of the gospel.

The plenary session, which usually headlines each day of the convention, kicked off around 7pm with prayers, followed by songs of praise from the sophisticated band of the church with modern musical instruments and the mass choir of over 2,000 members.

The thrill in the packed auditoriums (the old and the new) continued with a spectacular, richly choreographed performance of children in a parade, coordinated by the wife of the general overseer, Pastor Folu Adeboye.

They did so well that they earned the promise of the general overseer, who prayed for them, to lay hands on each of them at the end of the service. Until the church’s membership grew into millions, it was Pastor Adeboye’s practice to lay hands on each member of the congregation at the end of a service.

The high point of the day was his sermon, titled ‘Born Free’.

Likening, the freedom provided in a season of jubilee to the life of a baby, the general overseer said babies are born into total freedom and cared for. Babies, he said, eat without worrying where the food is coming from; dress without worrying about the source; and travel without bearing the cost. They also have divine defence or protection.

“However, as they begin to grow, they lose some of these privileges, and by adulthood, they have to fend for themselves,” he said.

“Like babies, when you are born again at salvation, you are born free and with a new beginning, which is one of the components of jubilee. To be born again means you can have all you have lost restored to start afresh, with a new name. Indeed, the day you are born again is a great day of jubilee.

“As a new born in Christ, God provides for all your needs, as well as being your Protector. As a newborn, you exhibit traits of a child in your relationship with God. For example, when you praise Him, it is done dedicatedly, without distraction. You also surrender completely to Him; and you are easy for Him to carry.

“It is the child God carries that He blesses; and as He carries you, He carries all your problems – nothing to worry about. When we are born again, we rely completely on God. We are not alive because we worry, but because God is taking care of us.”

The revered pastor, who punctuates his sermons with testimonies and the word of knowledge (prophecies) he receives for God to share at the pulpit, also explained sad moments in people’s relationship with God.

According to him, those are moments we backslide and lose the status of babies in God’s sight. He also listed some features of a backslider: In that state, you begin to worry about many things; you find it difficult to forgive people, oftentimes pretending to do so; your faith in God wavers and you harbour doubts about His Almightiness; then you become a hypocrite, pretending to be a true Christian when you are not; and you become a liar, despite the warning that liars will be kept outside the kingdom of God.

Recommending solutions to backsliding, he said there is the need for us to fact-check from time to time, whether we are the same children of God as on the day we were born again.

“And if we are not, there is the opportunity to have a new beginning by running back to God,” he said.

After that, he made the altar call for salvation, and hundreds of people went to the altar to give their lives to Christ.

Considering the size of the congregation on the second day of the convention, more seats may be required by Friday, when attendance peaks.

At the time the sermon started, 25 babies had been born at the medical facilities in the City — 15 boys and 10 girls.

See photos below.