Every birthday is significant but some are more significant than the others. That is why the holy book emphasises the need to learn how we ought to number our days (Psalm 90:12). The more significant birthdays are rightly called landmark birthdays. Milestone birthdays such as 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 are significant. These milestones mark significant life transitions, such as becoming an adult or entering a new decade.
According to current United Nations data, as of 2024, approximately 1.9 percent of the world’s population is aged 80 years or older.
It is therefore appropriate to term every birthday above the age of 80 as a landmark. Apart from being the second oldest of the well known leaders of the pentecostal Christians in Nigeria, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has rightly earned his reputation as an elder who has ruled well.
In view of this feat of being among the less than two percent of the oldest people in the world, the excitement that heralded the 83rd birthday celebration of Pastor Adeboye was worth it. It is gratifying that the celebration of the 83rd birthday of this humble global achiever and much loved spiritual leader was celebrated daily for at least 83 days and 83 hours with global praises, worship sessions, prayers and crusades before his birthday on March 2nd, 2025. Through the global platform of REACH4CHRIST Initiative of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, many soul winning and Christian Social Responsibility activities were also executed. The activities covered crusade grounds, markets, schools, hospitals, correctional centres, technology and hoods where street people live and ply their trades. It is clear that the 83 days of community impacting activities that preceded the landmark birthday of Pastor Adeboye have pushed the boundaries of the Church in Africa in the following ways:
● A shift from inward ministry to outward ministry
● More Emphasis on cooperation instead of competition
● A deep yearning for individual and corporate revival.
● An urgent need for burden evangelical bearers and outliers in the marketplace, on the streets, in government.
● An urgent consideration of the activation of the consecration and promotion of gospel ministers immersed in the works of the five fold ministry in the body of Christ.
The hearts of many Christians are no longer burning with holy fire in Nigeria. Our nation needs men and women who have encountered Christ afresh on the road to Emmaus. There are too many people in today’s church who blab about making heaven today. Yet their behaviors and multitude of words show that they have sacrificed humanity on their self-made altar of ecclesiastical voguishness.
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Nigeria, nay the world, is in dire need of more Christ like ambassadors manifesting peculiar gifts of evangelists, prophets and teachers who have pentecostal fervour beyond the flavour we now perceive everywhere. It is high time the pentecostal churches in Nigeria embraced subsidiarity as the directing principle of their Kingdom engagements. In Acts 6:4, the apostles said: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word.” This was a strong pointer to subsidiarity in the early church.
Subsidiarity is an organising principle that underscores the need for matters not to just be handled by a centralised authority. Rather, there should be a devolution of responsibilities to multiple levels of organisation and not just at the centre. No individual person or group is equipped to do all things well like Jesus (Mark 7:37).
Attention should be paid to areas of comparative advantage. While the existing church structures should not be shoveled away, new ministry expressions should either be created or be encouraged to spring up. The God who raised Paul after Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles is still an intentional God. He does not waste His grace by endowing people to preach His gospel to the same people in the same manner and language!
The reality of the shifting generations from baby boomers, to Generations Y, Z, Alpha and the projected Beta respectively demands specialisation in the strategic approach of Churches and related Ministries.
The mother churches should be raising kingdom workers endowed for different aspects of the kingdom work as outreaches. Even among the denominations, attention should be focused on certain areas of ministry. We need specialisations in the areas of soul winning, discipleship, TV missions, diverse aspects of Christian social responsibility, Christian training, marriage and family life, the marketplace, governance and the likes.
Embracing subsidiarity will be more cost effective and highly productive for the body of Christ. Some otherwise gifted men and women who are limited to the pulpit in their respective churches may find joy in deploying their gifts where they will see immediate to long term results through transformed lives.
The inequitable creation of opportunities and the allocation of resources partly explains why most servants of God gravitate towards the centre. The more courageous ones opt to create their own centre by starting new Churches or ministries when they can no longer find their relevance in Jerusalem.
For the pentecostal movement to truly play its prophetic role in orchestrating a national rebirth in Nigeria there is a need for the various component churches to reorganise their multifarious resources around core areas of ministry beyond the walls of the Church.
In 1 Corinthians 7:20 the Scripture admonishes us that: “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” The celebration of the landmark 83rd birthday of Pastor Adeboye, and the inspiration it has aroused in many servants of God who are still very far from the finishing line according to the Gregorian calendar, should lead to the opening of a new Vista for a more harvest inclined kingdom strategic plan.
Happy landmark 83rd birthday to Pastor Enoch Adejare.
● Dr. Adeduro is the author of: OBALENDE: A Nation in Motion and Billionaire Goes To Calvary, and President of the Pastoral Mentorship Academy.
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