By Sam Eyoboka & Olayinka Latona

TO effectively cope with the challenges of rapid expansion, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, yesterday, ordained 2,435 assistant pastors to assist the church leadership manage the growth. The figure which is slightly higher than last year’s figures is drawn from various formations of the church across the globe. Last year, the church ordained 2,402 assistant pastors.

General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, simply pronounced his blessings on the ordinands by declaring: “I ordain you assistant pastors in the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the name of God the Father, in the name God the Son and in the name of God the Holy Spirit. By this ordination, anything you bind on earth, will be bound in Heaven and anything you loose on earth, will be loosed in Heaven….”

In a short exhortation, Rev. Joe Olaiya of the Living Faith Foundation, Kaduna, congratulated the new ordinands, charging them to always remain steadfast in the Lord by identifying with the Pauline ministry in the Bible.

Speaking on what he titled; ‘The Apostle Paul: The vision and pursuit of Apostle Paul’, Olaiya emphasized the need for all Christians including the newly ordained assistant pastors to be Heaven focused as Apostle Paul shelved all other pursuits to focus all his attention on the need to know Christ more and the power of His resurrection.

According to him, many ministers of the gospel today re afraid to go home to their maker, “because probably there’s no home to go back to. Not until the Bible has much more value than your physics, economics, political science or any other subject, you have not started and your ordination is in vain.”

Olaiya maintained that those who have know of the scriptures have been known to rule the world around them. Paul said I want to know Him and the power that can bring life to a decomposing body and it comes alive, stressing that instead of Paul pursuing his career in Bench, he opted to preach the gospel.

”My brothers and my sisters, money is good but let me tell you, it is a distraction because you may gain all the wealth in the world which amount to nothing if you go to hell. My God says He will supply all yours needs in your journey,” he noted, pointing that none should be bitter whenever they get transferred to other parishes leaving the millionaire friends they had made in their former parishes.

Do you know how many millionaires that are waiting for you in the next station?” he said, enjoining the new assistant pastors to always pursue the things that are of eternal value.