Adeboye Dedicates Mega Auditorium In United States

NIGERIA'S image got a big boost in Dallas, as a leading Nigerian church dedicated a multi-million dollar facility, which is expected to become one of the biggest public event centers in the country at completion.
Pastor E. A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God dedicated the first phase of an RCCG auditorium, which can seat 10,000, in Greenville, off Dallas in the state of Texas, where the church's headquarters in North America is based.


Called the Welcome/Pavilion Centre, Pastor Adeboye thanked God for the success of the project, and prayed that when people visit the camp, they will find solutions to any challenges they face.

The news of the dedication is being celebrated in several U.S. media outlets, including Dallas Morning News, the leading newspaper in Dallas, Wall Street Journal Online, Greenville Herald Banner and about 100 other U.S. media outlets.

The focus on the building is partly because it is expected on completion to become bigger than the current biggest public event facility in Dallas, the Dallas Cow Boy Stadium, which seats about 80,000. Besides, the construction of the auditorium was accomplished in one year.

According to Pastor James Fadele, the Chairman of the RCCG in North America, RCCGNA, the auditorium will seat one million people when eventually completed.

Earlier plans were to build the facility to seat 100,000, but at the dedication last Wednesday, Fadele, the former Senior Ford Design Engineer and US business owner announced that the church would now proceed to turn the auditorium into a 1,000,000-seater facility.


In a story titled, "Redeemed Christian Church of God dedicates $15.5 million Pavilion Center", the Dallas Morning News in its report earlier this week described the project as another proof of the RCCG North America's "ever expanding Redemption Camp."

Narrating how the location was selected, the paper, which is among the top ten U.S. dailies, added, "It was on a drive to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that the Holy Spirit revealed his plans to Pastor E. A. Adeboye. The Dallas-Fort Worth area, he was told, would become the North American headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. That was about 25 years ago, church officials said, when the Pentecostal Holiness denomination, based in Nigeria, did not have any churches in the U.S."

Continuing, the report added, "After growing vigorously, the last couple of decades, opening more than 50 churches in North Texas, another big piece of Adeboye's vision was realised Wednesday. The church dedicated the $15.5 million Pavilion Center at its ever-expanding Redemption Camp, which sits on 800 acres of prairieland in the Hunt County town of Floyd, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas."

Altogether the RCCG has over 700 churches in the U.S. and Canada and adjoining countries in Southern America.
Pictures of the building adorned several local media in Dallas including a front-page blast in the Greenville Herald Banner.

But it is not only the US media that is celebrating the church's impact in the U.S., the Governor of the State of Texas, Rick Perry, and other local officials also sent congratulatory messages to the church.
Several U.S.- based religious leaders and preachers also graced the event, including Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, Pastor Gregory Meeks, Pastor Stephen Ratfod, and Dr. James Sturdivant.

Before now, RCCGNA had been developing the almost 800 acres of land it acquired in the location, making it the biggest landowner in the locality. The church has a conference center and administrative building, including a 1000-seater hall.

The church also has a number of houses on the property already including two proto-types of residential buildings that would be built on the property by willing church members who will not have to pay for the land. There are also official residential houses on the camp, before Wednesday's dedication of the 10,000 seat auditorium.