A mass exodus may soon hit one of the world’s largest Pentecostal churches, The Redeemed Christian Church Of God, as its General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has suspended more workers who didn’t attend their last two National Workers Meetings held in October 2013 and May 2014, thus bringing the number to almost 10,000 now. The initial suspension which affected about 5,000 workers of the church who didn’t attend the National Workers Meeting held in the wee hours of Saturday, May 3, 2014, after the month’s Holy Ghost Service, at the church’s Redemption Camp, Km. 46, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Mowe, Ogun State, has now been extended to those who also failed to make the October 2013 edition of the same programme. This notice was contained in a memo sent to all parishes in the South Western zone of the church, comprising Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Delta States, through their Area Pastors on Sunday, May 25, 2014. Although the sad news got to some parishes late as most Pastors conveyed Daddy’s message to their affected members on Sunday, June 1, 2014. According to a YES INTERNATIONAL! magazine source, Daddy G.O, as he’s fondly called, mandated all those that missed the two meetings to proceed on indefinite suspension, which will make them inactive in all church’s activities until he decides otherwise. This action, warned additional sources, may lead to a mass exodus if it is allowed for too long. “There’s serious grumbling all over the place now. Some members of the church have been calling for Daddy G.O’s resignation and this might fuel the call further. We have seen strong members of the church who left the fold with a whole lot of Redeemed members due to one disagreement or the other to establish their own ministries and today they compete with The Redeemed Church in terms of congregation. Suspended ministers are also not happy and this may give way to secession. Pastors of some of the parishes are not even helping matters as they have relegated the affected ministers to ordinary church members.” The church’s annual National Workers Meeting which is a forum for all the workers in the church to meet with the leadership is compulsory. The South Western zone of the church, comprising Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Delta States, normally have their meetings at the camp for convenience and also whenever a circular is sent concerning such meetings. There was indeed an instruction from the office of the Special Assistant to the General Overseer, passed through the Pastors in charge of the Provinces, through the Pastors in charge of Areas, down to the Pastors in charge of Parishes, that any worker who knows that he/she would not attend the meeting should write to the General Overseer through their respective Pastors in charge of their Provinces. Daddy G.O also reminded those who attended the Holy Communion Service on Thursday, preceding the May 2014 Holy Ghost Service, that every pastor must ensure that his /her workers who have not taken permission should be at the meeting. The plan to suspend any erring worker was however not communicated. But at the end of the meeting, the move was agreed upon and Area Pastors were informed to pass the message across to all the absentee workers under their command. YES INTERNATIONAL! spoke with one of the aides to Adeboye, Pastor Olukunmi Oyewale, on Friday, June 6, 2014 concerning the matter and he had this to say: “I won’t be able to say a total yes concerning if this suspension may lead to mass exodus or not, because this is not the first time something of such has happened in the church. Greater issues had happened in the time past that were even reported that they were going to break the church, but Daddy assured us that the church is not going to break and so it has been since then. The only issue here is that the onus is now on the various Parish Pastors to know how to encourage the young converts and workers affected by the suspension. They (Pastors) need to work on them very well because as you have rightly asked, they might be under pressure to join other denominations. So, they need guidance on how to go through it, but as for the older ministers, they don’t need to worry about them because they might have witnessed situations like this in the time past and they know Daddy G.O’s stand on suspension.” The meeting which is usually held at the Redemption Camp of the church has been decentralized to make it easy for the workers to attend. Port Harcourt, Rivers State zone, covers all the workers in the Southern part of the country while that of the North holds in Jos, Plateau State. The Redeemed Christian Church of God started suspending absentee workers indefinitely since May 2003 to forestall indiscipline among its workforce, but the timing of this current suspension, our sources hinted, might lead to the mass exodus of disenchanted members.