Pastor Femi Adebiyi, Assistant Pastor, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Lagos Province 49 of the RCCG, is also the Coordinator of the Redeemer’s Men Fellowship(RMF) in the Province. Adebiyi speaks on the RMF mandate. Who is a member of the Redeemer’s Men Fellowship of the RCCG and what are the objectives? Every married man in the RCCG is a member. But just recently, we were told that men in the age bracket of 70 years and below are entitled to the Fellowship membership as long as they are married. The primary objective is to create a rallying point for the spiritual growth of men in the church. Women have social clubs. Men have social clubs. But when you look at the church, women are more fused, they are more bonded, they relate better. That is not so for men. So we have had what we called Blessed Men; we have had Fountain Heads; we have had Excellent Men as the Fellowships for men before. But what the General Overseer of the RCCG is saying now is to let us have a Fellowship of men under a new name, RMF, who are also members of those old Fellowships but now reprogrammed and refocused to achieve the purpose of spiritual growth and the spread of evangelism. Under the new arrangement, the emphasis is on pastors in the church coming strongly into the felloship. The reason the Blessed Women’s Fellowship thrives in the church is because the pastors wives are their leaders. The setting is that in every Parish, every Zone, every Province, there is a women leader who works with the pastor–in-charge’s wife. Of course, the pastor- in-charge’s wife provides the direcdtion and drives the vision as provided by the church. So the success of the women’s Fellowship derives from the fact that it has part leadership in the pastor’s wife. But what you had in the men’s Fellowship was that the pastors stood aloof. They didn’t associate and identify with the men’s Fellowship. But the thrust of the new dispensation is that all pastors who are married are expected to be active members. So its like new blood is being injected into the Redeemer’s Men Fellowship. You said the group’s membership is restricted to married men 70 years and below. It thus means Elders are excluded. There was this seeming, I don’t want to call it rivalry, misconception. When we had the Fountain Heads, some Elders who are men beleved they had no business with them. So we had this dichotomy. But the clear definition now is that if you are 70 and below, you are a member of the Redeemer’s Men Fellowship. The message is that before you are an Elder, you are a man, married. And, therefore, your allegiance, your commitment to the men’s group is also of necessity. So, we expect that the old rivalry, the old dichotomy, the old misconception is gone. Even if you look at the Blessed Women’s Fellowship, Elders who are women are active members. But it was not the case with men who believed ‘we are Elders, we are not Fountain Heads’. I understand the reason Elders who are men don’t want to belong to the RMF is because of the financial commitment. The commitment is double-paying to the Elders Fellowship and the RMF. What are you doing to take the message to the various churches and convince the Elders that being part of the RMF is of necessity? Under the new regime, we have the Chairman and executives of the RMF at the national level. There is a similar level of officials at the regional level. Under this new arrangement, the good fortune is that there is a structure; we have the Chairman and the Coordinator at the national level for the group who are pastors. There is a similar structure at all levels – Regions, Provinces, Zones, Areas, Parishes. Apart from the Chairman and the Coordinator, there is a President and his executives at all levels. So, in Lagos Province 49, we have the Chairman and the Coordinator as well as the President and his exco. The Chairman is the Provincial Pastor, while I am the Coordinator. From among the men, there is a President and his executives. The people carry the message to the grassroots. In our Province, for instance, the President and his cabinet have been visiting the Zones and Areas under our jurisdiction, taking the message to them, and encouraging them to carry out the new vision. As we have the Provincial Board, so we have the Zonal Board,the Area Board, the Parish Board. The driver of the downscaling of the information is the leadership of the RMF at the various levels. We understand the G.O. is actively involved in this new vision.To what extent is he involved? The G.O. is the driver of the new vision. He is the chief driver, the chief visioner of the RMF. He inspired the change. The current Chairman of the Board at the national level is a Regional Pastor. The current Coordinator at the national level is also a pastor. At Province 49, the Chairman is the PP while I am the Coordinator. So, at every level, we have strong leadership. So, how is Lagos Province 49 keying into the RMF vision? As soon as the new vision unfolded, we told the Pastors-in-Charge of the Zones to identify men who will constritute the Provincial Board. They did and we constituted the Board. We are among the early movers of the RMF vision in Lagos. Our Provincial Board has gone ahead to inaugurate seven out of the nine Zonal Boards and visited the Zones as well. I have assurances that the remaining two Zonal Boards will be inaugurated shortly.
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