Faith & Community
Landmark
Enoch Adeboye
born 1942
Built the Redeemed Christian Church of God into a global network
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A mathematics lecturer who took over a small Nigerian church in 1981 and turned it into one of the largest church networks on earth, present in more than 190 countries.
Enoch Adejare Adeboye holds a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Lagos and was lecturing there when he became general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in 1981. The church then had a few dozen parishes and preached almost entirely in Yoruba.
He changed both. English-language services opened it to the whole country and then to the diaspora, and a deliberate strategy of planting parishes — the stated aim being a church within five minutes of every person — produced a network now present in more than a hundred and ninety countries.
The Redemption Camp on the Lagos–Ibadan expressway is the scale of it made visible: a permanent settlement with its own housing, schools, clinics and power supply, and an auditorium built for crowds counted in the hundreds of thousands. Its Holy Ghost Congress draws gatherings among the largest regular religious assemblies anywhere in the world.
He is among the most influential people in Nigeria by any measure, was named by Newsweek among the world's most powerful people, and is unusual among Nigerian pastors of his standing in the restraint of his personal style.
He changed both. English-language services opened it to the whole country and then to the diaspora, and a deliberate strategy of planting parishes — the stated aim being a church within five minutes of every person — produced a network now present in more than a hundred and ninety countries.
The Redemption Camp on the Lagos–Ibadan expressway is the scale of it made visible: a permanent settlement with its own housing, schools, clinics and power supply, and an auditorium built for crowds counted in the hundreds of thousands. Its Holy Ghost Congress draws gatherings among the largest regular religious assemblies anywhere in the world.
He is among the most influential people in Nigeria by any measure, was named by Newsweek among the world's most powerful people, and is unusual among Nigerian pastors of his standing in the restraint of his personal style.
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