Pneuma 29 (2007) 24-58 www.brill.nl/pneu

‘Arrowhead’ of Nigerian Pentecostalism: Th e Redeemed Christian Church of God, 1952-2005

Olufunke Adeboye Dept. of History and Strategic Studies, University of , , Yaba, Lagos, . Tel. No. 234 1 5454891 Ext. 1349 [email protected]

Abstract This is a historical study of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), an indigenous and fast-growing Pentecostal church in Nigeria. The recent explosion in the church is presented here as a response to both local and external stimuli. The ingenuity of the church is further reflected in the way it appropriates crucial moments from its collective past as a means of keeping the establishment mobilized. On the whole, the RCCG presents an interesting ambivalence. On one hand it tries to distill a distinctive religious ethos, while on the other hand it epitomizes the different nuances in Nigerian Pentecostalism. The implication of this situation on the internal stability of the church is further probed in this study.

Keywords Pentecostalism, Churches, Religion, Nigeria, RCCG, Church Growth

Introduction The Nigerian Christian landscape within the last fifty years has been characterized by a lot of transformations. The most remarkable of these has been the Pentecostal explosion of the last fifteen years, in which the Redeemed Christian Church of God (hereafter RCCG) has featured most prominently. Generally, the origin of Nigerian Pentecostalism could be traced to the 1930s, and since then the movement has experienced uneven growth, namely, a gradual spread from the 1930s, a lull in the 1960s, a charismatic renewal in the 1970s, and an explosion in the 1990s. The RCCG, which was established in 1952 operated within this background and some of its own internal structures and orientation were distilled as responses to local stimuli emanating from the Nigerian Pentecostal community in particular,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157007407X178238

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and from the wider society in general, as well as from global Pentecostalism with which it shares a common spirituality. Th is paper situates the RCCG phenomenon primarily within the wider context of Nigerian Pentecostalism, and tries to account for the growing pop- ularity and rapid expansion of the church vis-à-vis other organizations within the Pentecostal landscape. It examines the doctrines and ‘spiritual culture’ of the church as well as its strategies for expansion. It highlights the ground- breaking advances of the RCCG and how these have inspired other Pentecos- tal missions. Th e paper argues that the strength of the RCCG primarily lies in its visionary leadership, which not only responds promptly to transformations in the wider society but also keeps the church establishment mobilized by invoking aspects of its past (i.e. the prophecies of the founder) as guidelines for its future. Th e paper concludes by discussing the public role of the RCCG in Nigeria. Th e idea behind this whole exercise is not just to provide a history of the RCCG, but also to present it as an epitome of the Pentecostal explosion occur- ring in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world, namely, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, with some degree of influence from North America. Th e paper is divided into four parts. Th e first examines the development of Nigerian Pentecostalism. Th e second and third parts examine the origin and growth of the RCCG respectively. Th e last segment concludes by assessing the impact of the church on .

Th e Development of Nigerian Pentecostalism The development of Nigerian Pentecostalism did not proceed evenly, but was marked by challenges and revivals, as is generally characteristic of Pentecostal origins. Many scholars, notably J.D.Y. Peel, Matthews Ojo and Ruth Marshall-Fratani have written on the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria.1 While the emphasis of Peel is on the movement’s Aladura ante-

1 J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura: A Religious Movement Among the Yoruba (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1968), Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington, USA: Indiana University Press, 2000); M. A. Ojo, “Th e Contextual Significance of Charismatic Movements in ”, Africa, 58:2 (1988), 175-192, “Th e Dynamics of Indigenous Charismatic Missionary Enterprises in West Africa”, Missionalia, 25:4 (1997), 537-561, “Indigenous Gospel Music and Social Reconstruction in Modern Nige- ria”, Missionalia, 26:2 (1998), 210-231, “Th e Church in the African State: Th e Charismatic/Pen- tecostal Experience in Nigeria”, Journal of African Christian Th ought, 1:2 (1998), 25-32, “Deeper

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