The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Divine Revelation Parish, Liverpool, United Kingdom, celebrated its 17th years of existence in 2023.
The celebration titled: “His Banner over me is love”, The guest speaker of the day Pastor Gustaf Du Plessis of International Church admonished the members to love, adding that what the parish is today was out of love shown by the Parish Pastor and his wife.
Pastor Du Plessis emphasised that the church should be a warrior of praise, pointing out that praising God is the heart of thanks giving .
“Our weapon is that we should be a warrior of praise and show love in action and practical without that we are hypocrites.
“We should love God and people sincerely not by mouth but from the bottom of our heart, though it is not easy to love, although there are some funny attitude among some church members but that shouldn’t make us to stop loving”.
He encouraged the Parish to intensify its relationship with God and admonished the youths to beware of lust after the things of the world.
Meanwhile, the Area Pastor of Divine Revelation and Pastor in Charge, Jacob Olufemi Oluwabiyi, ascribed the 17 years of the parish this far as a huge task which can never be described as a smooth seal.
Pastor Oluwabiyi hinted that the word smooth or easy was not what the church went through and as a matter of fact the journey was filled with ups and challenges; the days of weeping, pains and disappointments were greater than the days of smiling and laughter and indeed that is the evidence that God is in this business.
“The word smooth can never withstand the things we ‘ve gone through, it was never smooth, it was filled with ups and downs and difficulties. The days of weeping, pains and disappointments were more than the days of smiling and laughters but in all that is the evidence that God is in this business.
“Our father in the Lord, the General Overseer Pastor E.A Adeboye told us in the school of discipleship that once you are a disciple, you are noted in ‘hell’. Those are the indicators to tell us that indeed we are doing the work but it was never smooth from dat one, 6th of August 2006 till now”.
The clergy who also narrated other challenges they encountered said moving from one place to another in searching for a place to worship affected the increase of the members whereby some of the members stopped attending church service.
According to Oluwabiyi, the parish has some whites and caucasians in the past but they could not continue with us because of the way of worship.
” Being a new church, own part of worship was what they couldn’t identified with. They left while some still stayed for awhile but there is always challenge, we can not hide it even though we tried to be politically correct the white and black it was huge challenge then and being a new church we could not retain them, but thank God for the conference and seminars, now we are more knowledgeable, we know exact what to do and to ensure that everyone is inclusive or feel belong in the assembly”.
Pastor Oluwabiyi emphasised on God’s goodness since the beginning of the operation of the parish and thank his wife for being there for him, adding that she has been a pillar of support”.
