Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye
is unarguably Nigeria’s most influential and most-respected God’s General ,born
March 2,1942 at Ifewara in Osun State to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Moses
Adeboye, the young Enoch grew up lacking most of the exigencies of life. He was
raised in a very poor family but his parents, in the midst of their abject
poverty, still tried so hard to give him education. His family was so poor that
the acquisition of an umbrella, at a point, in their family history, brought so much celebration to them.
Enoch, for the first time,
in his life, wore a pair of shoes at 17.Meaning,he never had the luxury of
putting on a pair of shoes, until he was
17.Today,the boy, who had never worn shoes, is at present, leading the most popular
church in Nigeria. His education became ailing and was full of struggles. But
with God and the unflinching support of his mother, Mrs. Esther Adeboye, he was
educated up to the university level, graduating at the age of 25.
The awaiting-pastor Adeboye
attended St Stephen’s Anglican Primary school, for his primary education. He
later proceeded to Ilesa Grammar School, and from there he gained admission
into University of Nigeria, Nssuka. He was also a student at the University of Ife
(now Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Lagos respectively. The fact
that he attended school under a difficult situation did not dwarf his academic
performances, as he was always a brilliant chap from primary to University
level. What the young Adeboye lacked in finances, God replaced for him with
outstanding brilliance academically.
With an M.Sc in
Hydrodynamics coupled with a Ph.D in Mathematics, the gentle and soft-spoken
God’s Servant started his teaching career at Oke-igbo/Ifetedo Grammar School,
where he taught Mathematics and thereafter moved to the Lagos-based Anglican
Girls Grammar School. He, shortly afterwards, lectured at the university of
Ilorin and University of Lagos. His highest aspiration then was to become Africa’s
youngest Vice-chancellor. However, this was not to be, as God had a far better
highest ambition for him: becoming God’s general. He got to the Redeemed Christian
Church of God, through the invitation of his uncle, Rev. Chris Fajemirokun,
while trying to get a solution to a particular problem. The Redeemed Church of
God was founded in 1952, was being led by an illiterate reverend, Rev. Josiah
Olufemi Akindayomi, the founder.
However, Pastor Adeboye
was not discouraged by the founder’s illiteracy as he felt, to a great extent the
presence of God in the congregation that was being led by a stark illiterate of
Rev. Akindayomi callibre. It was at the church that Pastor Adeboye heard that
if one refuses to repent of one’s sinful ways, one will end up in hell on judgment
day. Based on this, he made himself available when there was an altar call. He
wasted no time in reconciling himself to his Creator, by renouncing his old ways,
to be to shape his life, to be an unprecedented example in the contemporary
Christendom. He became born-again on 29 July, 1973.
The God’s general who
symbolizes utmost humility and simplicity, acknowledged God in everything he
did and was in the church, he labored so well to preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in his words and deeds. He was also conducting Lunch Hour Fellowship at
the University community. He became an ordained pastor of the RCCG on the 14th
September, 1975, alongside four others. He later became an official English
Language interpreter to Rev. Josiah Akindayomi, whose preachings were purely in
Yoruba. He later succeeded the church founder, when the founder joined the
heavenly choir, in 1980.Pastor Adeboye was ordained the General-Overseer of
RCCG in 1981.Therefore, resigning his job as a university don to become a
full-time pastor. At the age of 38, Pastor Adeboye became the leader of the
church, a development that left many elders of the church in utter amazement. Pastor
Adeboye, the epitome of humility and simplicity decided to jettison the chalk for
a more sophisticated tool: the microphone, for the rest of his life. Truth be
told, Pastor Adeboye has changed the face of Christianity in Nigeria and the
world over. He has positioned RCCG in the world map, as Nigeria’s most popular
church and one of the world’s fastest-growing church denominations. Pastor
Adeboye name is a household that tingle the ears wherever it is mentioned, in
any part of the world that made him to be named by Newsweek Magazine as one of
the fifty most powerful people in the world in 2008.
Pastor Adeboye, a
typical example of grass to vineyard servant of God, introduced the Model
parishes in Nigeria and first Friday monthly Holy-Ghost Night. On the 18th
December, 1998, he organized the first Holy-Ghost Festival, tagged “Lekki 98’’,
with a record attendance of millions of worshippers. Hundreds of thousands of
people have accepted Christ under his ministration of this moderate and
quintessential man of God. The Redeemed Christian Church of God, which has
transformed its Redemption Camp, located along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to a
town of its own with every infrastructure, is a city that boasts of 7,000
parishes in over 90 countries of the world. Anyone that refers to it as another
Vatican City will not be far from the truth.
Pastor Adeboye is
widely known as ‘pastor of pastors’-the name that explains his accommodating
nature with other men of God all over the world, especially in Nigeria. Most
pastors, either have their roots in him or he is their spiritual father. Prominent
among them is the Living Faith founder, Bishop David Oyedepo, who Baba Adeboye
once described as his greatest and closest spiritual son, hence the presence of
Pastor Adeboye, at Shiloh 2011,justified their existing cordial relationship.
Pastor Adeboye is
married to his ebullient wife, Pastor Foluke Adeboye, who also looks more like
her husband and equally took after him, in virtually everything: humility soft-spokenness
and simplicity. They both got married in 1968 and are blessed with children, who
are also raised to tow the Christian line of their parents.Pastor Adeboye, for
his numerous spiritual exploits, was conferred with a national honour of
Officer of the Order of Niger (OON).
Observing happenings
around him, he cried to God to inspire him with the spirit that may see way to
true greatness: that he may not be selfish in seeking academic honours and
thereby forget that his main objectives in life is to make lighter the burden
of his fellow men.
Pastor Adeboye’s
Redemption Camp, has over the years, become a Jerusalem of sorts to prominent
individuals both from within and outside Nigeria, especially Nigerian political
office-holders, who always storm the Camp for prayers. President Goodluck Jonathan
was spotted more than once, at the camp, before the 2011 general elections.
Pastor Adeboye started
life on a very sad note, having being born into a family that grossly lacked
every necessity of life. But, he later became great when he found his purpose
in Christ and accepted Jesus. He is often described as gentle, calm, wise, moderate,
simple and humble and as somebody, who hates undue publicity and flamboyancy,
can always be trusted for his words and deeds.
While describing Pastor
Adeboye, recently at a public presentation of
Pastor Adeboye’s book, entitled Enoch Adejare Adeboye at 70:The Story
Behind the Glory, Dr. Olumide Ekanade, who represented the dean, College of
Humanities, Redeemers University, Prof. Jide Osuntokun, described Pastor
Adeboye’s life as an ‘open book’. He continued by saying, the book covers the
extreme poverty that surrounded the Adeboyes that when their father acquired an
umbrella, it was a call for celebration, and the then younger Adeboye’s resolve
to live a different life from that of his family at a tender age.’’
Brethren, it is our
greatest pleasure and uncommon privilege as this newspaper makes its debut today,
to present to you, one of the world’s most influential servants of God; a God’s
general whose ''Let Somebody Shout Halleluyah'', has become a trademark in the
Nigerian Christendom, the humble servant of the Living God, the simple preacher
of the Word, moderately-dressed and soft-spoken preacher-(Pastor)Enoch Adejare
Adeboye! Let somebody shout halleluyah!
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