In his bid to expand the mission of the church, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye was personally involved with the design and distribution of church flyers and posters around the United States town of Detroit, where the first RCCG parish was set up in North America.
Revealing this and other details was Pastor James Oladipo Fadele, the church’s senior pastor in North America, during an interview to commemorate his 50th birthday.
According to Fadele, the first parish in North America was established on the prompting of Adeboye during one of his visits to the United States.
The parish Winners Chapel, in Detroit, Michigan, was set up in 1992. Not only did Adeboye mandate Fadele to start the parish, “he backed up his faith and determination with action by joining me in making the fliers and posting banners in Detroit.”
Adeboye had hinted in the past that, in the early 90s, he tried asking several RCCG members in the United States to “start something” without anything done until he mandated Fadele.
Now the RCCG has over 300 churches in the United States and Canada.
Fadele and Adeboye grew up in the same compound, in Ifewara, Osun State.
He stated that Pastor Adeboye “inspired and mentored me to study Mathematics. His favorite word then was ‘how is your Maths?’ He joined the church before I did and became one of my ‘bible study leaders’ until I came to the United States to study.”
Fadele, said, he hopes that the church would grow and impact “the whole North America” and by the time pastors would have retired, and settled, they would “be well taken care of; that the pastors can look back and thank God that they had pitched their ministry tent with the RCCG.”
Fadele, who retired from United States automaker, Ford Motors, as a Senior Design Engineer to concentrate on developing the RCCGNA, added that he hopes in the future”my children, by His grace, would have also grown, settled in their careers and live in strong Christian homes.”
He said his prayer was to finish well and, according to Acts 24:16, “maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men;” and paraphrasing Phillipians 1:20 that “my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, I will not put God to shame, not put the church to shame and will not put my family name to shame.”
Fadele, as Chairman of the RCCG Board of Coordinators in North America, has charge over 300 parishes.
According to him, there is progress in the projects at the United States Redemption Camp and the church would be holding its second convention this year at the camp. Before now, the RCCG holds its North American conventions in hotels and convention centres.
Quoting from (1 Cor. 4:15), the RCCGNA Board of Coordinators’ Chairman, said the General Overseer is no longer just a brother to him or just the Evangelist ‘who has put fire in my bones,’ but “My father in the Lord indeed. For though ye have 10 thousand instructors in Christ, yet have we not many fathers.”
FADELE came to the United States in 1982 after winning a state scholarship to attend the Western Michigan University.
He now holds two Bachelor’s degrees from the Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
He also has a Master’s degree from Wayne State University, Detroit in 1990 and an MBA from Lawrence Technology University, Southfield Michigan in 1993. He attended Bible College at Birmingham Bible Institute, Birmingham, United States.
On the significance of turning 50, Fadele said: “at 50, any wise man will be conscious of heaven and heavenly pursuits. I am also very focused because I know the visions and goals in my life.”
A thanksgiving service is being organised by RCCG churches in the US and Canada to mark Fadele’s golden jubilee on April 20 at the United States’ Redemption camp in Floyd, Texas.
