Nigerian Pastor E.A Adeboye, his wife Foluke Adenike with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet Museveni at State House. COURTESY PHOTO.
By Aaron Sseruyigo with Agency report
In celebration of Pastor E.A Adeboye’s 80th birthday, Christian leaders and gospel musicians in Nigeria and abroad, launched a campaign aimed at winning millions of souls in 80 days.
The leaders said the initiative is a birthday gift to the influential preacher they believe has dedicated the major part of his adult life to soul winning.
Pastor Adeboye, the General overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, founded 1952, turns 80 today, March 2, 2022.
With Church branches in over 197 countries, the pentecostal preacher and church planter, revealed earlier that he received a prophecy in 1961 that he would travel across the world. He was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential people by Newsweek magazine (2009) and New African magazine (2019).
‘What God is doing in Nigeria, He’ll do in Uganda’
During his 3-day visit to Uganda in 2019, Pastor Adeboye delivered a national address to church leaders at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala, the capital, shortly after meeting the President Yoweri Museveni.
He challenged Christian leaders not to work in isolation and stop calling “what belongs to God your own.
“When you begin to hear a minister say; my church, my ministry, my organisation, then know there is something wrong,” Adeboye admonished, charging: “so my first appeal to all ministers is that from this moment on, you stop calling what belongs to God your own.
“The reason why many of us are not seeing progress, we are not praying. We are taking God for granted. We have prepared a good sermon, we know all the theology, we know all the gymnastics, we can jump up and down, we can quote Hebrew and Greek, but there are few results. Why? Because we leave the owner of the church out. You must put Him first, through prayer,” he said.
Continuing, Pastor Adebode maintained that many pastors go to the altar without praying. “They feel they know what to do. No, you don’t know what to do, you don’t know the problems of the congregation. You must pray,” he added.
Speaking on: “I will build my church”, Pastor Adeboye said: “What God is doing in Nigeria, He will do in Uganda. I want the Almighty God, in a couple of years, to raise up ministries where millions of people will gather here in Uganda.
“There are some people who believe that if a church is going to grow big, you must lower the standard. That you must allow any kind of thing to happen. That kind of Church God is not going to build,” the preacher said.
“Long ago when I was a young minister, people told me, ‘the problem with you, your standard is too high’ I said, “the standard is not mine, it is the standard of God.” They told me, “if you lower the standard your church will grow.” I said; no! Not every growth is a healthy growth. The growth I want, is the one brought about by God. Stand strictly on Holiness, because God is Holy. If you want to build a Holy church, He will help you build it,” Adeboye told Uganda Church leaders.
The conference was attended by President Yoweri Museveni’s daughter, Patience Museveni Rwabwogo. Popular church leaders present included Apostle Alex Mitala, Apostle John Bunjo, Pastor Robert Kayanja and wife, Jessica Kayanja, Pastor Irene Manjeri, Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga, National co-ordinator RCCG – Uganda, Pastor Ezekiel Kolawole Oladipupo and many others.
Adeboye noted that contrary to popular beliefs, The Redeemed Christian Church of God has seen growth even after keeping the standard high and insisting on sanctification.
“We keep on growing, because God is building a church. When we pray that we want revival in Uganda, we are talking of a revival of holiness, a revival of purity, closing down of bars because people are no longer drinking alcohol… When the devil comes against the Church that is built on the foundation of Holiness, he will have the Almighty God to deal with. Light shines in darkness and darkness cannot overcome it. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church of God in Uganda,” he said.
Pastor Adeboye thanked President Museveni for keeping peace in Uganda adding that it was the role of Christians to have influence in all facets of life including their wellbeing.
