Pastor Tola Odutola and his wife Pastor Kofo Odutola: quit Redeemed Church
By Abankula
Pastor Tola Odutola, one of the most prominent pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, in the United States has broken away from the church.
Odutola, who is the senior Pastor of Jesus House Baltimore, told his congregation on Sunday that he was leaving the church after 30 years of service.
He is leaving with his wife, Kofo, who is also a pastor of the church.
Odutola cited lack of care by the church leaders.
The church, with headquarters in Nigeria, was founded in 1952.
In a viral video, Odutola said his church would now run independently.
In a statement that would worry the Pastor Enoch Adeboye-led church, he said there are other pastors following him out of the church.
He also said he anticipated he would be demonised for his decision.
His announcement to the congregation on Sunday was met with standing ovation several times.
Watch the video:
According to the website of Jesus House Baltimore, Odutola was a Chartered Accountant at Peat Marwick, KPMG in Nigeria. He was also at DHL as Treasury Controller and Business Development Manager before being called into full time ministry.
“In addition to being the Senior Pastor at Jesus House Baltimore, Pastor Tola is the Regional Pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCGNA) North America Region 9. (NAR 9).
“He also was the founding chairman of the Redeemer’s Leadership Institute (RLI). RLI is the Leadership arm of the Redeemed Christian Church of God North America (RCCGNA) which provides continuous training for Religious Leaders worldwide.
“Pastor Tola is the Chairman of Alpha Leadership Conference (ALC), an organization charged with promoting and teaching leadership skills to all people of all nations.
“He consults, mentors and coaches Pastors, speaks regularly at Leadership Conferences, Churches, Corporations, Minister’s Conferences, Seminars and other Leadership Development Opportunities”.
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41 Comments
Revelation 21:8, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 22:12
May the Almighty God take Control in Jesus Name. Amen
If Baba Adeboye does not fix RCCG before he passes on, RCCG after him will be a total disaster. Church should be made simple, and they need to stop those elephant projects at Redemption camp that make no impact on members.
Make your branch Pastors very strong cos they are the first and closest points of contact. RCCG has lost standards in choosing Pastors and how they run their branches. That’s why they are not making impacts in our society. The more they are getting closer to their RCCG branch every 5-mins-walk vision, the more the crime in Nigeria. Do they have people evaluating for them? I believe the purpose of the Church is to superimpose Kingdom principles on society. Doing that should reduce crime, corruption, stealing, etc. Unfortunately, it’s otherwise in Nigeria. So, we need to be evaluating based on that. If my members make up 70% of a company and we got a report that 90% of people working in that company are corrupt, that should tell me most of my members are just coming to Church to catch fun.
Yes, they have a strong upright man at the centre but 70% of their branch Pastors are not up to it at all. I prefer strong branches and weak/average centre. Many members won’t meet Baba Adeboye till they die. The only thing a Church branch should owe the central is following their doctrines. Any financial obligations should be free will.
I left RCCG as far back as 2008 when I saw how branch Pastors are suffering all in the name of Camp/central projects, like buying of jets, building Universities, building large auditoriums.
Very well stated Sir/Ma ! Refreshing to read the truth once in awhile. I just exited out of RCCG church myself and not looking back. The branch I was attending, refused to evolve with the times. I was the same recycled message every Sunday. Needless to say, spiritually, I was not growing. I was more of an obligation for me going to church, instead of going there because of God. I had to re-evaluate and decided to move on.
What changes have taken place in your life where you went? New messages, new bibles, new doctrine? Your presence while you were there should have made the church evolved but you were probably lukewarm. Jesus is still the same message.
This is something serious and there must be something mental about it.
This is hard to believe.How are the mighty fallen!
living a RCCG don’t make you a fallen y all ,I believe the church is YOU not the building or an Organization.
Everybody dey hustle in this world … You cannot take a hustler’s hustle with no waya
With all due respect, I must inform you that this post of yours is incomplete and VERY misleading. First of all, this is just an EXCERPT of the clip and certainly excluded the background he gave at the beginning as well as his concluding statements. It’s totally UNFAIR to share just part of the story and include an equally inaccurate caption, esp since most of your followers won’t bother researching further and would go ahead to insult the man based on what your caption and incomplete post, led them to believe. I AM a member of JHB and have attended since 2004, and also attended branches of RCCG (Victory Parish in V/I, etc) while growing up in Lagos; so I’ll say I’ve attended Redeemed since about 1995 or so. I know Pastor Tola is a GREAT man and if you watched the entire clip, you’d realize that the conditions the RCCG North America headquarters gave the pastors here was in my opinion, an “ungodly” and inconsiderate one and thus SEVERAL RCCG pastors (including those in DC, NJ, other parts of MD, etc), decided NOT to sign and instead become independent entities. You can’t have someone go start off a branch with zero assistance/resources to begin and then they struggle with their families, eventually find a location, rent out spaces and then raise funds or take loans to build a church, grow it over many years and even decades and all of a sudden you now want them to sign and hand over ALL the assets they’ve acquired for the branch but then leave them ALL the liabilities to deal with themselves. Such decisions should’ve been made, shared and agreed upon from the beginning. Plus, suddenly requiring that all RCCG NA churches be listed under the same EIN number, would mean that if one branch ever got cited or sued for something, then they ALL get affected for no fault of their own. So my point is IF you’re gonna share a story, then at least do the due diligence of researching it in detail and tell it as it actually happened, so as not to paint him and the other branch pastors badly. Plus, No pastor “followed” him to break away, they all have minds of their own and equally made their own decisions whether to stay or leave. That’s all
God bless you for this clarification.
They used the “rccg” brand to grow big now they have left. This is not new for most branches od the church being run outside Nigeria.
Lol he should have started his church with his own brand and see if he would have grown this big. Most Nigerian immigrant upon landing in a foreign look for the nearest rccg, not the mearest Nigerian church.
Also it was not “his” money that was used to build the church. It was people who gave offerings and tithes that helped him to reach where he is.
The brand rccg is too big and problem like this will always occur especially for the branches outside Nigeria.
oh my.. you nailed it.. shalom
Thank you for pointing out that the news and clips of pastor Odutola exit from the RCCG was posted half way. What about the genesis of the whole story.
I am a member of RCCG and a minister. Most of RCCG churches overseas are in the names of individual pastors when they are building or mortgaging. Even when the work is completed or when mortgages are fully paid some pastors believe that the church property is their own. What happens if they die. These church auditoriums are made possible with members donations.
This is why the governing council decided that all such buildings ownership be regularised and for the ownership to read RCCG. Forms were sent out to each of the Pastors to fill out With ultimatum given for this to be done. I personally considered this move as a right move. After all The General Oversea did not say change the documents to my name. RCCG is a religious organisation and it should be made possible for full time Pastors to be transferred after a reasonable time at a location / post.
Pastor Tobi Odutola is one of the few who considered a church property belongs to him by refusing to sign. Most of his church members who are clapping do not even know why he left.
His act is an act of disobedience and greed.
I love this RCCG is not a one man Church. Whatever you do as a pastor you do for God. God rewards. Adeboye cannot reward you enough but God can becos it is The Redeemed Christian church of GOD not ADEBOYE!
What really bothers me about Pastors breaking away is why they leave with the assets of the church they were serving? It doesn’t seem right to me. God used them to get all those things for the church why not leave those things behind if they believe God called them out from the church they were serving and believe that He will do more for them. Someone mentioned Tony Rapu. He left but did not carry RCCG assets with him and today God is using him tremendously. Also Pst Ighodalo did not carry RCCG assets on his way out. Every man should be free to obey the call of God but as far as I’m concerned stop going away with what belongs to your former place of work. Eternity is worth more than physical assets , money and power. God can require any man’s soul at any time. These are my own thoughts only.
The assets belong to Jesus House, Baltimore, not RCCG. And they remain with JHB and the work of God continues undisturbed.
I take back my words. I’m sorry. I was corrected that the way the American government views churches are like franchise and that the assets/church are registered in the name of the Pastor. Meaning its different from what obtains in Nigeria. This means what i said is wrong in the light of this. Im so sorry.
What you said in the first place was right. If churches are a franchise. You purchase a franchise with some arrangements. What time was the franchise agreement paid to RCCG?
Pastor Tola and JHB worked for everything and now RCCG wants to take it, That’s modern day slavery. I have been a member of Apapa Family RCCG for years, but what is wrong is wrong.
After all it is a business, so one can break off at one’s volition to pursue other business goals. Maga must always pay.
Licence withdrawn, franchise ended!
Seeing how attached these churches are to money, it always makes me wonder when I hear someone leaving what would be other peoples dream job to take up pastorship of these churches, it must mean that they see greater opportunities for more dough !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just speaking my mind
I don’t have a problem him leaving the church. Let’s be truthful, it is lack of the light of truth that is making him go with the church property. He lacked wisdom. It is simple, if u are the light, go anywhere, people will follow u and before u know it God will draw ur people ur way. One day he will understand he should have done better.
I’m not in the habit of assessing the decision of people in matters relating to their choice/change of religions because I sincerely believe that this should be personal to individuals.
A very long time ago, one of my long time friends who got a job at the Lagos State Inland Revenue Service immediately after our youth service together in Ondo state in 1980 came to me one day and told me he had resigned so as to join the RCCG full time. I tried to persuade him to have a re-think but he was adamant so I left him alone. Since then, I have concluded that since religion is a personal issue, it’s better not to interfere with people’s choices. As adults, they are responsible for their decisions and all we can do is to wish them well in their endeavors. No more, no less.
Can I just start by saying this is my Pastor and i am absolutely proud of this decision. But sir, it took too damn long. I have despised RCCG but loved you and the church i grew up in that i was okay if you thought it was okay. The things i have seen working closely with RCCG pastors irks me so much that i could not stand working at Festival of Life DC. I hated the way people played God and made life so difficult. I hated the way the leadership of the church showed their hate for the blessings evident at JHB. i mean, we own a hundred acres in God’s own country? who the hell are we? At some point we all gotta consider the common denominator. Pastor Ighodalo, Peter Balogun, Tony Rapu and many more have left and God has not stopped blessing and growing their ministries.
Without a doubt God will pick up this new chapter and blow minds. You think JHB was on point under RCCG? Wait to see what God has in stock for us.
I wish every JHB member a huge congratulations. This is worth a celebration.
According to your statements, you said, ” I hate the way the leadership of the church showed their hate for the blessings evident at JHB.”
But I want ask you questions. With the spirit of hatred in towards that ministry, do you think that you are a child of God? Do you think that you know God? Are you not one of those bench warmers who will from church go to hell? I need your answer please for clarification. Thanks
When will people wake up and see just GOD! We erect idols all in the name of Christianity and we don’t even notice when God left. The Church belongs to the people! God built the church for His glory and for the care of his people. Is that people just don’t read their bibles or hear God? The head of the Church is Jesus Christ period! Any entity that claims otherwise is not of God. People open your spiritual eyes and ears and focus on God, not man. There is only one mediator between God and men and His name is Jesus Christ.
He did not break away from RCCG but from God. Please pray for him and his followers for God’s mercy. A giant has fallen.
God does not dwell in the house or church build by man.He leaves in the hearts of men and true believers.
He broke away from the traditions and doctrines men. He was called and sent by GOD and not by men. Apostle Paul broke away from the heavy ha.des leadership of Peter because he assumed he walked with JESUS physically while Paul never met JESUS. But see how relevant ans successful Paul was in ministry. Sometimes it is better to fly alone and fulfill your destiny and please than to get sidetracked and derailed with the traditions of men. Well done Pastor Odutola! Shine and soar
He left a bondage and a modern day slavery…..Pray for wisdom and do more research.
I have been to that church and my friend’s children attend their school. It’s not today he has left the Redeemed Church. The signboards, vehicles etc stopped bearing the name Redeemed for over a year now. It’s fraudulent to say they are breaking away. They have broken away a very long time ago.
I saw that before now…Great catch..
Because he announced it today does not mean he broke away today naau, from his explanation there has been a lot of back and forth and he knew he has disconnected spiritually long before he announced it. And that’s okay. It is not the day the divorce is final that couples live apart, the signature is only mere formality.
Please try to be kind and objective as this must have been a very tough decision for a grown man to make after 30years of scandal free service
Gone to make his own merchandise of belly to use the name of Jesus Christ to feed himself and his family with out giving spiritually blind followers peace light and unbelievable power as Jesus Christ promised and gives those who locate him?Spiritual blindness rules in peoples lives and people talk because they have mouth not knowing the spiritual implications of what they talk>EXAMPLE THE CHURCH> How many people in churches are able to see spiritually what and how their pastor/prophet or general overseer look like spiritually?hence it is your right to see spiritually who is leading you to spiritual JESUSCHRIST?spiritually speaking many of them are devil incarnates if only you have the MANTLE, the LIGHT to see how they are in the spirit with that LIGHT which JESUS CHRIST used and said i am the light of the world?if we were you i would seek that particular LIGHT which is right available near you if you would ask for it?There are Two powers available to Human beings ie spiritual power and political power and you must be genuinely empowered spiritually before political empowerment and many who attain political power do not have genuine spiritual empowerment with the true LIGHT the MANTLE of he that made the spiritual law and the power that be giveth?we reveal mystery to human beings of the world.BEHOLD In the kingdom of Jesus christ that has come every body is a suspect until the world of justice,the light,the mantle ,the power that be and he that made the spiritual laws clears you,no matter how you pretend to be good or to know JESUS CHRIST AND DONT FORGET it is only at night that we know who is who on the earth and beyond?and those who understand the spiritual know what we speak ,we speak life and power and they are spirits and non can challenge the authority as this is not about i see am well well prophesies of so called prophets and pastors this is accept the truth or perish and thats the authority and power and we are also open to confrontation as we have declared that the kingdom of real JESUS CHRIST has comeback and you shouldnt forget the consequences of vain challenge/confrontation because this is highly spiritual:we tell you once again descendants of prophets of baal are still in existence¬ all prophesies are from God of justice they are using prophesies to make merchandise of their bellies ,even native doctors give prophesies as well and it comes to pass so do not be deceived humans?as usual only time will tell who is who but why not look before you leap>>>John 6,60-68
I am sure thousands will come here to castigate him, now that he is no longer under their GO! This is a wake up call to pentecostal churches to cater for their pastors. If a man of high profile can be talking of lack of care…..what will those pastors in villages and small towns be saying?
The gospel must continue, no one has the monopoly of it. Breaking off from a name doesn’t mean breaking off from God. Some mighty men of God today broke off from somewhere.
From Anglican church .
Occasion like these calls for prayers than the talks, let God alone handle these.. He sees and knows the very end right from the beginning
True Talk. The Pastors Should Be Taken Care Of. The Olden Days Slogan That Members Will Take Care Of You If You Are Anointed Or Graceful. Many Members Are Challenged, It Is The Church That Is Carrying The Burden Of Many Due To Failed Government. Many Pastors Are Suffering Silently In All Ministries / Church In Nigeria & Africa. Secondly, Most RCCG, MFM Pastors In America Lifestyle Are Not Encouraging . A Family Who Went To Live In America Were Sending Their Tithes / Seeds To RCCG ( ) In Nigeria, When Asked Why, They Said Most Of The Pastors There Are Just Enjoying Themselves With People’s Money. They Will Prefer To Help The Poor In Nigeria And Be Confident Their Sweat (Money) Is Spent Wisely. Many Of Them Need To Repent (A Pastor In USA Confirmed It) Our Belly Should Not Be Our Priorities. 99% Of Their Members Are Nigerian Also. So What Impact Are They Even Making Over There. Heaven And Hell Is Real. Also Remember Hebrews 9 :27.
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