Source: BBC
By Jason Margolis
The Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in Nigeria in 1952, and is now spreading across North America
For centuries, European and American missionaries have gone to Africa to spread the word of Christ. That trend is now working in reverse, with a Nigerian minister in Texas who plans to build churches as numerous as Starbucks coffee shops.
Drive an hour north-east of Dallas, and you will find yourself staring off into a barren, flat horizon. One out-of-place building rises above the landscape: a 10,000-seat auditorium.
It is the centrepiece for the Redeemed Christian Church of God in North America, a Pentecostal movement that started in Nigeria in 1952.
It is one of Africa’s largest and most influential Christian movements, claiming more than five million followers worldwide, mostly in Nigeria.
Pastor James Fadele, who runs the Church in North America, said God told the Church’s leader Enoch Adeboye that its North American headquarters would be founded near Dallas – but not where, and not when.
“We want to plant churches like Starbucks,” says Pastor James FadeleThen, Fadele said, a white man in Texas had a vision.
“God told him, ‘The land doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to a group of church people,'” Fadele said. “‘When you meet them, I will let you know who they are.'”
Fadele, a short man with a booming voice, said a few Redeemed Church members were eating at a local restaurant when they were approached by the white man.
The man told them God had asked him to buy a patch of land, but that the Church was the owner.
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Categories: Americas, CHRISTIANITY, United States
It reminds me of a story: Once upon a time I was Finance Director in Nigeria. My Secretary (male) was a very devout Christian. Every morning before starting work he copied the Bible by typing some pages. (Sometimes I had to remind him that it was now the turn of him writing my letters…). One day he came to the office with suit and tie and a suitcase. He was agitated walking in and out of the office. In the end he told me that he was disappointed in me. He said that an angel came to him in a dream and told him that I would be having a ticket for him to America and he was going to ‘spread the gospel in America’. I told him that next time he was going to sleep he should tell the angel in the dream to give relevant instructions to me also …
Rafiq,
You doubted the man because he did not proclaim himself to be a prophet. If angels were to speak to you first before your believing what you are told, then you should not believe in Muhammad because no angel has told you that he spoke or appeared to him in the cave or anywhere else.
The islamic encyclopedia has an entry on ‘wahiyy’ which is said to be revelation including communication through angels.
In one of his books Ghulam Ahmad, your founder, questioned why muslims should not practice ‘prophecy’, whatever he meant by that. My understanding of prophecy is God speaking to man through man.
If you believe in wahiyy or prophecy,as your creed holds, then you should have believed what the man told you without waiting for any angelic confirmation.
the vital signs of a religion or faith are two. live relation with God and undeniable arguments. And I regret to say from these symptoms, Christianity is a dead religion.