Our Vision is to Develop Visionary Youths for a new Nigeria that will be models in our offices, houses and churches. The RCCG was founded by Pa Josiah Akindayomi who came from Ondo State in the western part of Nigeria. He was born in 1909. He grew up as an idol worshipper but he later converted to Christianity out of a yearning to know “The God who created the earth and everyone on it”. He was baptized in 1927 in the Church Missionary Society (CMS). He joined the Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) church in 1931 because he was not fulfilled as a Christian in the CMS. While in the C & S church,he said a voice told him that “You will be My servant”. Since this was not his intention, he ignored the voice and went into business ventures for seven years. During this period, all of his businesses ventures failed. This broke him completely. He finally yielded to God saying, "Lord, I will go wherever you want me to go." He asked for signs to confirm that this was indeed God's call. The confirmation came through the Bible passages of Jeremiah 1:4-10, Isaiah 41:10-13 and Romans 8:29-31. He continued to worship with the Cherubim and Seraphim. In 1947, he started to become concerned that the church was departing from the true Word of God in some of its practices. By 1952, he felt totally persuaded to leave the church. He started at Willoughby Street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos a house fellowship called, the Glory of God Fellowship. Initially there were nine members but before long the fellowship rapidly grew as the news of the miracles that occurred in their midst spread.

Pa Akindayomi, who was an illiterate, one day proclaimed that he got a revelation from God about the renaming of the church the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which is now a household name in many countries. It is claimed that God made a covenant with Pa Akindayomi that is synonymous to Abraham’s covenant. He said that He the Lord would meet all the needs of the church in an awesome way if only members would serve Him faithfully and be obedient to His Word. It is upon this covenant that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was built. Thus in 1952, the Redeemed Christian Church of God was born. The church continued to meet at 9 Willoughby Street until they relocated to 1-5 Redemption Way (formerly 1a Cemetery Street).

Sometime in the early 70s, Pa Akindayomi claimed that God had spoken to him about his successor. He claimed that The Lord told him that this man, who was not a member of the church then, would be a young educated man. Thus when a young university lecturer joined the church in 1973, Papa was able,as was claimed, to recognize him in the Spirit as the one that the Lord had spoken about in the past. This man, Enoch Adejare Adeboye who was then a lecturer of Mathematics at the University of Lagos soon became involved in the church. He became one of the interpreters translating Pa Akindayomi's sermons from Yoruba to English. He was ordained a pastor of the church in 1975.

As Papa was preparing to meet his Creator, he sent for Pastor Adeboye and spent several hours sharing with him details of the covenant and the plans of the Lord for the church. Even though a year before this, the Lord had revealed to Pastor Adeboye that he would be Papa's successor, it was still too difficult for him to fully contemplate such an awesome responsibility.