THE REDEEMED CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD
HEAVEN'S GLORIOUS EMBASSY, INC.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR

The following The first step that Pastor E.A. Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, took in 1988 towards the expansion of the church was to create what he called “Model Parishes”. Each model parish was to encourage the young educated, the unchurched, young executives, all and sundry, to feel free to come to church “just as they were”, and in their own neighborhoods. Contrary to expectations at the time, they did flock into the church by the hundreds.

The first “Model Parish”, established in a high- brow area of Ikeja of Lagos State, Nigeria, grew very rapidly. Ten years later, many of those who had become “Workers”, “Ministers” and Pastors or Assistant Pastor in that church were Bankers, Professors, Lawyers, Engineers, Medical Doctors, Entrepreneurs, and other successful professionals from all walks of life. Among them was a group of young professionals working for various oil companies, and they discovered that they were often in Dallas, Texas, for projects that sometimes lasted anywhere from two weeks to two years at a time. They requested that the church should start a parish in Dallas, Texas because they did not want to be cut off from the peculiar mode of worship of the church while away from Nigeria. The Pastor of the Model parish in Ikeja at the time , Pastor Ayo Adeloye, having consulted with the General Overseer, therefore came to Dallas, Texas, in October 1994 and started a small fellowship with twelve of these professionals who were then in Dallas. Pastor Ayo Adeloye registered the business name (The Redeemed Christian Church of God), and returned to Nigeria at the end of October, 1994.

One of the members of the Ikeja Model Parish was Dr. Ajibike Akinkoye, former lecturer of Modern European Languages at the University of Ibadan who had become the Cofounder and CEO of a flourishing group of corporations in Lagos was blessed with international opportunities.

It was in the midst of the business expansions that Dr. Akinkoye was pursuing that he received a call from Pastor Adeloye, to come and oversee the new fellowship in Dallas until a substantive Pastor could be appointed. He was available because of the relatively flexible nature of his business schedules. Pastor Akinkoye arrived in Dallas, Texas, on November 4,1994.

full details of the colorful first decade of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Heaven's Glorious Embassy in Dallas, Texas, turn to the full page. ..>> NEXT