The Prefatory Remarks Move in a Charismatic Christian Sermon

Cite this article as: Adeyanju, A. (2025). The prefatory remarks move in a charismatic Christian sermon. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 1(1), 125–137.www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i01.016

THE PREFATORY REMARKS MOVE IN A CHARISMATIC CHRISTIAN SERMON

By

Adegboye Adeyanju, PhD

adegboye.adegboye@uniabuja.edu.ng

Department of English, University of Abuja-Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines language use in the prefatory remarks of Pastor E. A. Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), focusing on their rhetorical, stylistic, and pragmatic functions in Nigerian Charismatic sermons. The objectives are to identify recurrent prefatory patterns and explore how these linguistic features sustain meaning and achieve the sermon's communicative and spiritual goals. Seventy-two Holy Ghost Service (HGS) sermons delivered between 2006 and 2012 were purposively sampled, and six sermons, three each from March and December services across 2006, 2009, and 2012, were selected for detailed analysis. Findings reveal that prefatory remarks serve as linguo-spiritual tools that engage the audience, mediate meaning, and reinforce the sermon's persuasive and performative effects. The study demonstrates that Adeboye’s strategic use of language in these introductory moves exemplifies the interplay between form, function, and theology in Pentecostal preaching, offering insights into the broader patterns of Nigerian Charismatic discourse.

 

Keywords: Prefatory Remarks, Nigerian Pentecostal Sermons, Rhetorical strategies, Holy Ghost Service.

 

1. Introduction

The study of sermon discourse within Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity has increasingly attracted scholarly attention in applied linguistics and discourse analysis. Sermons in this tradition, particularly those of Nigerian origin, are marked by a vibrant intermixing of spirituality, orality, performativity, and linguistic creativity. The Charismatic preacher assumes multiple roles as a religious intermediary, rhetorician, storyteller, and social commentator. This study examines the prefatory remarks move, a recurring rhetorical and pragmatic structure, in the sermons of Pastor E. A. Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), focusing on the linguistic, pragmatic, and performative patterns that constitute this move and their communicative, social, and theological functions within the sermon event.

In the Charismatic Christian context, a sermon is not merely a transmission of doctrine but an interactive and multimodal discourse event involving the preacher, the audience, and the divine. As Hans Malmström (2017) observes, preaching is inherently conversational and, while appearing monologic to an external observer, it involves complex layers of dialogic engagement between preacher and congregation, as well as between preacher and the divine. This dialogism is evident in Adeboye’s sermons, where the prefatory remarks mediate between divine inspiration and human participation. The preacher’s voice indexes both the authority of revelation and the immediacy of interpersonal communication, creating a linguo-spiritual performance.

Adopting a discourse-analytic approach grounded in pragmatics and genre analysis, the study examines how prefatory moves, through recurrent structures and functions, contribute to the macro-organisation of the Charismatic sermon as a genre. The analysis foregrounds the dynamic interplay between form and function, showing that prefatory remarks are essential to understanding how meaning, faith, and communal identity are co-constructed in Nigerian Pentecostal preaching. The findings offer insight into how linguistic form is mobilised to generate spiritual experience and reinforce institutional charisma. Ultimately, the prefatory remarks in Adeboye’s sermons exemplify how language functions as a performative resource for constructing a sacred world of meanings, transitioning the audience from the ordinary to the extraordinary and from the mundane to the transcendent.

Pastor E. A. Adeboye, widely known as ‘Daddy G.O.,’ is the General Overseer of RCCG, a megachurch headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with branches in 110 countries. Born on 2 March 1942 in Ifewara, Osun State, Adeboye overcame an impoverished childhood to graduate with a B.Sc. Honours in Mathematics from the University of Lagos in 1967, followed by an M.Sc. in Hydrodynamics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics in 1975. He lectured at the University of Lagos and the University of Ilorin before dedicating himself fully to ministry. Adeboye’s conversion to Christianity occurred in 1973 under the guidance of Rev. Josiah Oluwafemi Akindayomi, after which he was baptised, ordained, and became the English interpreter for Rev. Akindayomi’s sermons. Known for his humility, integrity, and pastoral care, Adeboye emphasises the power and glory of God rather than his personal achievements, leading a congregation of over 30 million in Nigeria and tens of thousands in other countries.

The Holy Ghost Service (HGS) is a central ritual event in RCCG, initiated under Adeboye’s leadership in 1986 and held annually, attracting massive attendance both in Nigeria and internationally. The HGS combines religious, social, and economic activities, including Praise Night, Holy Ghost Night, testimonies, prayers, musical performances, offerings, and altar calls. Adeboye’s sermons, positioned strategically within this structure, are deeply prefatory-oriented, incorporating oriki (praise chants), interactive exercises, testimonies, prophecies, and concluding altar calls, all of which function as linguistic and performative resources that frame the sermon, engage the congregation, and facilitate the mediation of spiritual experience. These prefatory elements exemplify the dynamic integration of verbal and non-verbal practices in constructing meaning and communal identity in Charismatic Christian discourse.

1.1 The Prefatory Remarks Move

The preacher’s preliminary remarks can range from the simple and direct to the highly subtle and intricate, depending upon both his need to delight, move, teach, or reform the audience. Generally, prefatory forms in sermons are constructed by the preacher from one vantage point but viewed from another by the audience. The sermon discourse may or may not have a section for General/Prefatory Remarks (GPR) which serves the communicative purpose of introducing the sermon, the preacher, as well as, perhaps, other purposes like announcement, providing some details, or offering some comments, etc. The GPR, when deemed expedient and feasible in a sermon, serves the same utility as the ‘front matter pages’ of academic textbooks, positioned before the contents pages, which are not part of the text. The front matter pages may include the following: foreword, preface by the editor, preface, acknowledgements and introduction. These sections as parts of academic textbooks, share the same communicative purpose in terms of introducing the book; they offer comments and promote the writers’ work. The sequencing in a textbook of the foreword, preface, acknowledgements and introduction may also vary. Given that there are no clear definitions in most dictionaries, it is not always clear, for instance, how a preface, foreword or introduction differ; the terms are often even used interchangeably.

In the RCCG tradition, the prefatory or general remarks are not peripheral but central to the sermonic structure. They frame the discourse, establish thematic coherence, and provide pragmatic transitions between worship, testimony, prophecy, and teaching. The prefatory remarks frequently include announcements, prayers, moral anecdotes, scriptural allusions, prophetic utterances, and interactive exchanges that serve to align the congregation with the divine message. Such rhetorical openings are performatively rich: they integrate narrative, exhortation, humour, and prophecy to construct shared belief and emotional communion. The preacher thus constructs a co-participatory world in which speech acts are both locutionary and illocutionary—words not only inform but also effect spiritual change.

Pastor Adeboye’s sermons at the RCCG Holy Ghost Services exemplify this pattern. His prefatory remarks frequently begin with seemingly ordinary announcements—birth statistics, greetings, or acknowledgements—but quickly move into spiritualized discourse that reinterprets everyday occurrences as manifestations of divine will. The rhetoric of numbers, for example, transforms statistical data on births or months of the year into numerological symbols of divine favour (“Triple joy! Triple promotion! Triple victory!”). Similarly, anecdotes, such as the “hunter and domestic animals” story, function as extended metaphors that caution against over-familiarity with spiritual authority while reaffirming divine omnipotence. These prefatory moves do not merely preface the sermon proper; they constitute a discursive frame that prepares the audience cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually for the sermon’s core propositions.

The study also situates the prefatory remarks within the socio-pragmatic context of Nigerian Pentecostalism, a movement characterised by its hybridisation of African oral traditions and global evangelical discourse. The Charismatic sermon inherits from African orature the use of repetition, call-and-response, proverbial allusion, and performative blessing, all of which function as interactional mechanisms. Adeboye’s prefatory remarks often deploy these devices to sustain audience participation and to bridge the sacred and the mundane. The preacher’s conversational stance (“Let me quickly tell you…”; “Lest I forget…”) fosters immediacy and intimacy, while his use of metaphor and parallelism evokes shared cultural schemas of respect, hierarchy, and divine reciprocity.

Furthermore, the prefatory remarks reveal the preacher’s rhetorical management of ethos and authority. Through strategic self-positioning—as “Daddy,” prophet, or humble servant—Adeboye constructs multiple personae that legitimise his divine authority while maintaining accessibility to his followers. His recurrent references to divine dialogues (“Daddy said…,” “God told me…”) reinforce his status as a prophetic intermediary. Yet, his use of humour and colloquialism (“Any cheque written in my name will be used for pounded yams”) humanises him and diffuses potential tension around sensitive topics such as finance or submission. Thus, the prefatory remarks are instrumental in the negotiation of power, trust, and spiritual authenticity within the sermonic event.

Material normally included in a preface section of the sermon consists of announcements, reasons for undertaking the sermon, the methodology, acknowledgements, and sometimes permissions granted for the use of previously published material, etc. The communicative purpose of General Prefatory Remarks is to make some announcements, to introduce the sermon, offer some comments, and promote the preacher’s work.

2. Data and Methodology

Through purposive sampling commencing from 2006-2012, seventy-two (72) HGS sermons were first selected. To further select prospective HGS sermons from the population, using an interval of every three years, thus, all the 2006, 2009 and 2012 HGS sermons were tabulated. Two HGS lists, one each for March and December, were drawn for each selected year. Every nth HGS sermon was then selected from each list. Finally, (3) March and (3) December HGS were selected for the period 2006 to 2012 to generate a sample of 6 HGS deemed appropriate to provide data that could be reasonably handled in this descriptive and exploratory study. The data set consists of 24 prefatory remarks, which were textually analysed. The sermon extracts were neither grammatically nor semantically ‘cleaned’ nor ‘corrected’, largely due to the HGS sermons being forms of ‘sacred texts. The linguistic framework adopted for the study is a concatenation of sociopragmatics and discourse analytical-oriented models by Burkean (1968) ‘‘A Rhetoric of Motives’’, Butler (1997) ‘‘Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative’’; Buttrick’s ‘‘Homiletic: Moves and Structures’’;and Cook’s (1989) Discourse.

3. Data Analysis

In excerpt 1, HGS1, the preacher ‘orders’ the HGS attendees born in March to rise to be prayed for. March is the third month, hence Pastor Adeboye’s verbal reiteration of the number (the month of Trinity) and his asking in the prayer that those born in March be ‘tripled’, experience ‘Triple joy!’ and ‘Triple promotion!’ and ‘Triple victory!’, leading to their ‘Triple breakthrough!’ Although Pastor Adeboye was also born in the same month, however, he uses a pragmatic-distancing strategy: ‘I didn’t know you were that many!’.

1. Pastor: Children of March, you can stand. We would like to pray for the children of March now. All those who are born in March, let me hear you shout Alleluia! (Alleluia!) I didn’t know you were that many! Father, I want to thank You for all of Your children who are born in March, the children that are born in the month of the Trinity. Tonight, on their behalf, I say accept our thanks in Jesus' Name! I’m asking that whatever you do for them may be tripled. Triple joy!Triple promotion! Triple victory! Triple breakthrough! Whatever they are as of today, before the end of this year, triple it, O Lord! and let them serve You with triple energy. In Jesus' mighty Name we have prayed!

In excerpt 2 below, the preacher subtly warns the audience against the ‘sin’ of ‘over-familiarity’ either with him as Pastor Adeboye, or the ‘‘anointing’ that he carries. To drive home this warning, Adeboye deploys a metaphor of a hunter who was taken for granted, with all the associated consequences, by the domestic animals. He, however, reasons that even if the animals will take the hunter for granted, they should ‘respect’ his ‘gun’. The hunter in the anecdote is the preacher, no doubt, and the Pastors, while the HGS audience is the domestic animals and the ‘gun’ is the ‘spiritual gifts’ with which Pastors of his likes are tremendously endowed by God. Socio-pragmatically, folklore and particularly humorous or light-hearted wit a functional tools for teaching morals in Africa and the use of elements of folklore in Pastor Adeboye’s sermon is stylistically significant.

2. Pastor: I told the Pastors, I said the elders have a saying that it is the domestic animals that have no respect for the hunter. Because they see him coming in and out among them every day, they ignore him. Because he’s eating among them, he’s sleeping among them, they have no respect for him. Whereas it is not the hunter that must be respected, it is the gun that he’s carrying. We live among you, we are ordinary people like you; we eat pounded yam like you; we are not asking anybody to respect us because we know we are nothing but we have a God, the Almighty God, the One who can do anything; the One from everlasting to everlasting - that is the One I want you to respect tonight; that is the One I want you to believe tonight because a word of prophecy has already come. If you had taken that one alone, if there is nothing else that happens here tonight (and a lot is going to happen) that one should be enough.

The moral and pragmatic function of excerpt 2 is: don’t take your pastor for granted, no matter how familiar you may be with him/her; respect the ‘God’ that he/she professes and represents. Excerpt 2 demonstrates that indirect speech acts as well as implicatures can be generated from anecdotes, narratives or stories.

Excerpts 3, 4 and 5 below are also sequentially excerpted from the same sermon as excerpt 2 above. While excerpt 3 is partly a testimony and partly an announcement, excerpt 4 is partly a ‘prophecy’ and partly an ‘announcement’. Both excerpts again demonstrate that implicatures can be generated from these acts.

3. Pastor: As of 7.30 pm this evening, the number of babies born during this Congress increased to 31, and the boys are leading seriously: 21 boys and 10 girls. Let the boys shout: Praise the Lord!!

Contextually, to the members of RCCG and its supporters, the Redemption Camp is a location where God manifests His dominion, a place where the kingdom of Heaven is reproduced on earth. The RCCG Camp is, therefore, the symbol of the valorisation of the church and it has become a place that God had earmarked for the church from the foundation of the earth. Consequently, God’s presence is believed to be felt especially at this site. The Camp represents an emotionally charged environment for the members of RCCG and others in search of miracles. It is a miracle centre of a sort. Pastor Adeboye says angels are present on the campground, so all women are urged by the pastor to cover their heads with a scarf or hat while there. Hence, the church keeps statistics of births in the Camp as a demonstration of the site’s renown as “the Shiloh of Nigeria”. As at 7.30 pm during the March 2006 Holy Ghost Service, the number of babies born was ‘31’, made up of ‘21 boys and 10 girls’. Thus, RCCG Camp Ground can be compared to Shiloh, where Hannah received the promised birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 1:9f). The implicature of excerpt 3 is: the RCCG Camp Ground is a refuge centre for women, both searching for “fruits of the womb” as well as for women who will supernaturally and effortlessly be delivered of their babies.

4.Pastor: My Daddy told me He was going to heal 144,000 people, and He did exactly that, so, I was emboldened to ask Him for tonight. ‘Daddy, how many are You going to heal tonight? ‘He said many’. I said ‘Forgive me, but how many?’ He said ‘you won't be able to count them; they will be a multitude’.If you are one of the multitudes that God will heal tonight, let me hear you shout 'Alleluia!' (Alleluia!)

The preacher informs the audience of a ‘private conversation’ with God in excerpt 4. And the motif of the RCCG Camp Ground as a miracle centre is also continued in the excerpt. Thus, the RCCG Camp Ground is a ritual space, a physical place and location invested with mystery and thought to be highly saturated with the presence of the sacred.

5. Pastor: For the sake of those of you who are coming for the first time during this Congress, let me very quickly tell you the thing we learnt on day one so that next year you will know you shouldn't miss any days. We talked about heaven. Heaven is a place where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no problems, even as the Bishop told us. We also said that Heaven is a person who makes a palace- a palace, because of the King who lives there, and that person came to earth in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that wherever you see Jesus moving, you know that is heaven moving there.Here we also learnt during the week that whenever heaven comes down, even though there will be a multitude of people, it is always an individual who gets a miracle!

The preacher adeptly designs and executes excerpt 5 above to ‘fill in’ participants who are probably new to the HGS performance, especially those who missed the first night of the performance. Those who are not watching the performance would, of course, not know ‘the Bishop’ who told the audience earlier in his own ‘micro-sermon’ that 'Heaven is a place where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no problems’. The implicature again in this excerpt is: to know who the ‘Bishop’ is, get the video of the performance, and do not miss the next year’s performance. But who is the ‘Bishop’? The motif of the ‘Bishop’ is also sociopragmatically carried forward in excerpt 6 below:

6. Pastor: When the Bishop was teaching, he said God should show us our own word in His Word. I believe that Isaiah 60 is the passage that God wrote for me. He is saying that I should arise, Adeboye shine, because your light has come and the glory of God has risen upon me.

Excerpt 6 again performs the function of an anaphor-backward pointing, to bring the audience to the performance proper.

7. Pastor: Thank you, Father. I told Daddy when He asked me some days ago, He said, "Son, how many people will you want me to heal on this particular Friday night?"It took me by surprise, I thought for a while, since this is the year 2009, I requested that Daddy please heal 209,000 people. He has told me just now that the healing has started.Right now, the healing is starting from the head, He is healing brains, He is healing eyes, He is healing the ears, and the healing is on the head right now. Thank you, Father!

The preacher informs the audience of a ‘private conversation’ with God wherein ‘He said ‘‘Son, how many people will you want me to heal on this particular Friday night?’’ and amazed, Pastor Adeboye’s reaction was: ‘I thought for a while’ and then his response to God was: ‘…since this is year 2009, I requested that Daddy will please heal 209,000 people.’ The audience is also subtly directed to ‘position’ itself for healing via projecting their ‘faith’ to claim the healing. The implicature is that God will heal 209,000 people at that HGS. The preacher, therefore, directs that the audience should be prepared for healing that has been guaranteed for as many as are willing to be healed, especially the selected group of 209,000 people. The move in excerpt 7 performs the function of an anaphor (backward pointing) in order to bring the audience to the performance proper.

8. Pastor: As at 7.30 pm, the number of babies born during the congress has increased to 21. The boys are still leading, 11 boys and 10 girls. Let the brothers shout hallelujah! And let the sisters shout glory!

The birth statistics carefully reeled off in Excerpt 8 by the preacher include the total number of children delivered at the Camp as of 7:30 pm; both male and female children are significant. These deliveries were accomplished at the Camp shortly before the preacher mounted the pulpit to commence the performance. The RCCG Camp is emotionally charged due to these statistics reeled off by Pastor Adeboye, and erupts in a rapturous applause and shouts of ‘Amen’. The implicature that is generated from the act here is: members of RCCG and others in search of miracles whether or not present at the performance must recognise and appropriate the powers behind the ministry of the preacher, the sacral power of the RCCG Camp Ground, as well as also use the statistics of miraculous deliveries provided as ‘points of contact’ to claim their own miracles.

9. Pastor: Lest I forget those of you who are born into the month of December, rise, let’s pray for you. Father, I commit your children born in the month of December into your hands. Twelve is a special number; you have twelve apostles, twelve gates leading to Jerusalem, and twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve must be special to you God; therefore, these children, every one of them make them special. As they are beginning a new year in their own lives, give them special miracles, special joys, special blessings, special promotions, special grace, so that they will be able to serve you specially in Jesus' mighty name, we have prayed. Congratulations, many happy returns!

Like in excerpt 8, Adeboye in excerpt 9 above ‘orders’ the HGS attendees born in December to rise to be prayed for and even personally wishes them ‘many happy returns. Pastor Adeboye verbally reiterates the number 12 due to December being the twelfth month. The ‘spiritual’ interpretation, according to the preacher, of the number 12 is because the number ‘Twelve is a special number’. The preacher then carefully lists why the number 12 is so very ‘special’ to Christian belief by adducing other relevant logical reasons as follows:

1. That Jesus had twelve apostles,

2. Twelve gates lead to Jerusalem,

3. There are twelve tribes of Israel.

Having used the lists above as logical reasons as proofs, Pastor Adeboye, then goes ahead to conclude that indeed ‘‘Twelve must be special to you, God, and consequently asks that God make ‘‘these children, every one of them, make them special. The implicature generated from the sermon act here is: ‘you must become a child of God’. The preacher also uses the phrase ‘lest I forget…’ to initiate the act and to demonstrate that, although very highly regarded, he is still very much human, and is prone to forgetfulness, like everyone.

10. Pastor: I want to give all the glory to God for all he has done since Monday till now and I want to tell you on behalf of my Daddy in Heaven; that you should fasten your seat belts because the next couple of hours is going to change your destiny forever.

The back reference to Monday in excerpt 10 is significant because ‘the entire performance was a week-long performance’. However, the ‘now’ was Friday of the same week, and it is the ‘icing on the cake’ performance. Every yearly month of March is the birthday anniversary celebration of Pastor E.A. Adeboye, and the fact of the HGS performance being his ‘birthday gift’ from God. Thus, the March HGS is both a significant personal as well as communal event that lasts for three days. The December event lasts for one week, and it is called the Holy Ghost Congress. The HGS is the Friday performance within the one-week Holy Ghost Congress. Pastor Adeboye’s most crucial performance is on the Friday of the Congress, and it is this Friday event he informed the audience, God promised him, He was ‘going to change destinies forever’. The preacher quickly moves to execute another GPR within the same sermon in excerpt 11 below.

11. Pastor: Let me make some announcement quickly because the moment we start, even I don’t know how the wind is going to blow tonight, all I know is that it is going to be a night never to be forgotten. December 31st, we will have our last Holy communion here at 7 pm. this will be followed immediately by the service of song, and that will be followed by the watch night service. January 4th 2010, we will have our first divine encounter, January 7th, we will have our first holy communion of the New Year and on January 8th, we will have the first Holy Ghost service of the New Year. It is not going to be on the first because even I want to spend first of the year with my family. So, the first Holy Ghost Service of the New Year will be January 8th and the theme will be “THEOMNIPOTENT GOD”, so I will be looking forward to see you with mighty testimony by that time.

The logic underlying each act in this GPR executed by Pastor Adeboye is justified and carefully explained. First, the preacher makes it known to the audience why it is important to interrupt the flow of the sermon to ‘make some announcement quickly’ and he also states why this interruption is necessary ‘‘because the moment we start, even I don’t know how the wind is going to blow tonight, all I know is that it is going to be a night never to be forgotten’’.

Second, the preacher outlines the remaining events of the RCCG calendar for 2009 as well as scheduled events for early 2010, to the delight of the audience, who respond mostly with clapping of hands.

Third, Pastor Adeboye also informs the audience, through adducing reasons, why it is imperative to have a good family life by having quality time with one’s family, in spite of ministerial commitment either as pastor or whatever. He further states that the Holy Ghost Service ‘‘is not going to be on the first because even I want to spend first day of the year with my family.’’

Fourth, the theme for the January 8th 2010, First Holy Ghost Service is also stated by the preacher: THE OMNIPOTENT GOD.

Fifth, a prayer, couched as personal invitation, was extended to all the members of RCCG and others in search of miracles, whether or not at the performance as well as those who recognise and appropriate the powers behind the ministry of Pastor Adeboye and the sacral power of the RCCG Camp Ground: ‘‘I will be looking forward to see you with mighty testimony by that time’’.

The preacher similarly uses excerpts 9-11 as a foundation to execute excerpts 12 and 13.

12. Pastor:.…whether the devil likes it or not, you will see the New Year! We will see the New Year!

Excerpt 12 will be termed a ‘prophecy’ or an ‘encourager’ move appropriately thrown in for stylistic effect and set off, preparatory to launching excerpt 13. Prophecy is basically a religious genre in the rubric of revelatory disclosures from the divine realm to the world of humanity and is thus an epistemic category of intermediation between divinity and humanity. Such other similar role labels for intermediatory functionaries include: diviners, shamans, mediums, or mystics. There is the assumption that prophecy was in existence throughout the various cultures of the world and that it even predates prophecy in Islam and/or Christianity.

13. Pastor: For those of you who are watching by the internet and the television all over the whole world, am sure you know that my prayers are with you and the testimony of that sister who was in London by this time last year; who logged in and was watching what was going on here in London and got her miracle, should encourage those of you who are watching from all over the world, that our God is not limited He can reach you wherever you are all over the world; I am joining my faith with yours; that you too will get your miracles tonight in Jesus name.

In excerpt 12 above, the move acknowledges the ‘virtual or online audience’ who are attending the performance in real time; although located in spaces very far away from the physical site of the HGS, the RCCG Camp Ground, Lagos-Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye also prophesied that they, too, will receive their own miracles. RCCG invests massively in and deploys cutting-edge new technologies of communication,including audio-visuals, Internet, radio and satellite television, which are vigorously reinforced by traditional media such as books, magazines, posters, handbills and tracts. Combined, these strategies and technologies enable the RCCG to broadcast live events to a global audience.

14.Pastor: 1On Monday, we talked about him as the King of kings and that the implication of him being the king of kings is that he controls all things. That he rules in the kingdom of men. 2On Tuesday, we talked about him as the Lord of lords and that the implication of that is that he is the one who makes things happen, and that except he makes things happen, they won’t happen. Unless he built the house, that labourer builds in vain. Unless he keeps the city, the watch man wakes in vain. 3On the Wednesday we saw him as the most high and that the implication of that is that he has the last word that He can overrule everyone else, but there is no one who can overrule him and that if he is your friend, you can be sure you will have the last laugh. 4Yesterday we saw him as the King of glory, we said the implication of being the king of glory is that he can make all things beautiful, make all things glorious. That is when he blesses, he adds no sorrow, when he heals; it is completely. When he conducts an operation, he won’t spill a drop of blood; he will not leave a scar behind. HGS4

Like in Excerpt 10, Excerpt 14 again foregrounds the December HGS performance as a week-long event. The preacher’s past and present reference to each day of the week, commencing from Monday and ending on Friday, is significant in that each day’s performance was thematically focused, constructed and delivered. The panoramic overview of the week-long HGS December 2009 performance provided by Pastor Adeboye serves two purposes. First, it helps to refresh the minds of the ‘old audience’- those who have been to all the performances. Second, it impliedly acts to spur both the ‘old’ and the ‘new audience’ into action: looking for and purchasing the sermons in their various audio or video formats.

The details of each day’s performance and the implications are as specified in Table 1.0 below:

Table 1.0 Details of Week-long HGS December 2009 performance and the implications drawn

Day	Theme of Performance	Implication drawn (or to be drawn) from the performance
1Monday	King of kings	He controls all things and rules in the kingdom of men
2Tuesday	Lord of lords	He can make all things beautiful, make all things glorious. When he blesses, He adds no sorrow; when he heals, it is completely.
3Wednesday	The Most High	He is the Almighty; all power belongs to him. He can uproot every mountain in your life from the foundation.
4Thursday	King of glory	He can make all things beautiful, make all things glorious. When he blesses, He adds no sorrow; when he heals, it is completely.
5Friday	Our God Reigns	He is the Almighty; all power belongs to him. He can uproot every mountain in your life from the foundation.

 

Thus, the details provided by Pastor Adeboye, in other words, the theme of each day’s sermon from the week-long HGS event performances and the implications drawn therefrom, become the premise that he uses to arrive at the logical conclusions that ‘Our God Reigns’.

15. Pastor: When I became General Overseer in 1981, people began to call me Daddy, and I was very uncomfortable with that title. I was only thirty-nine years old and, in those days, the popular thing is to call ourselves ‘brother’ and ‘sister’; everybody is a ‘bro’ or a ‘sis’. But when I wanted to complain, God spoke to me; He said a brother can wish you well, it is only a father who can bless, and then the blessing will stick. Today, I am seventy years old, I think am old enough to be called Daddyand the first thing I want to do tonight is that I want to give my father’s blessings to all those who call me Daddy. So, whether you are here or you are watching anywhere in the world, either by television, by internet or by radio, if you regard me as your Daddy, stand on your feet and let your Amen be loud and clear.

Pastor Adeboye, in excerpt 15, uses this GPR Move to achieve the following:

i. He informs the audience that he was a youth of 38 years old in 1981, when he became the General Overseer of the RCCG and that Christians of those days were simply known and addressed as ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’.

ii. His amazement, therefore, at being called ‘Daddy’ and his near refusal of such title by the adherents: ‘I wanted to complain…’

iii. God’s directive to Him via reasoning that whilst ‘a brother can wish you well’, however, ‘it is only a father who can bless and then the blessing will stick’.

iv. That by March 2012, he became 70 years old, and having also served as General Overseer of the RCCG for 31 years, NOW he had become a FATHER who can therefore ‘bless and then the blessing will stick’.

Using this GPR, Pastor Adeboye is, therefore, able to enact both a prayer (excerpt 16) and in excerpt 16, a prophecy to bring about changes in the world of the audience as below:

16.Pastor: 1 My father and my God, the father of all fathers, thank you that at last, I can stand boldly as a father to all these your children, and it is in your name that I am blessing them tonight. Every one of you who regards me as your Daddy, you shall be blessed. 2My God will take you higher than your dreams in Jesus' name, because My God will fight for you, you will enjoy victory without a fight, because My God will promote you; you will enjoy success without a sweat. 3 Because my God is the controller of heaven and earth, I decree from this moment, all the powers in heaven will come to your assistance. The resources of the earth will flow into you, beginning from this moment; helpers will seek you out to help you. 4Because my father in heaven will build a shield over you; destroyers will never come near your home again, because my God is the great provider; your hands will never be empty again, as there is water in the ocean, your anointing will never run dry. 5 As long as morning follows the night, you will enjoy the mercies of the Almighty God. My Father in heaven, the one who is the God that is more than enough, will from now on see to it that your joy will overflow. 6 Beginning from tonight, when you knock on one door, seven will be open unto you. 7Any obstacles that the enemy may want to put in your way will become stepping stones to glory in Jesus' name. 8Wherever you turn, you will find favour with God and favour with men and your children will be greater than you. 9 The Almighty God that I serve will answer all your prayers from now on. 10So, shall it be in Jesus' mighty name of Jesus I pray.

The preacher prays three major prayers:

1. That God shall bless everyone who regards Pastor Adeboye as Daddy, take him/her dreams higher in Jesus' name, that Adeboye’s God will fight for him/her, as well as that God will promote you; you will enjoy success without a sweat.

2. Adeboye also decreed that because God possesses all the powers in heaven, these powers will come to the audience’s assistance. And also, that the resources of the earth will also flow to the audience, beginning from March 2012, HGS helpers will seek each one out to help him/her.

3. Consequently, everyone will enjoy the mercies of the Almighty God. Beginning from that HGS, to everyone who knocks one door, seven will be open. Any obstacles that the enemy may want to put in their way will become stepping stones

The audience responds to each prayer item rapturously, with ‘Amen’, some clapping hands and others shaking their tambourines. The prayer is thereafter followed by a prophecy in excerpt 31:

17. Pastor: Daddy says, because you blessed them from the bottom of your heart, He said I have sealed it in.

In his seminal study entitled ‘Prophecy in Ancient Israel’, Johannes Lindblom provides a generic definition of the prophet as:

[A] person who, because he is conscious of having been specially chosen and called, feels forced to perform actions and proclaim ideas which, in a mental state of intense inspiration or real ecstasy, have been indicated to him in the form of divine revelations. (46).

Pastor Adeboye is generally held to be a ‘miracle maker’ and a ‘prophet in the mould of the Old Testament.’ Adherents of Pastor Adeboye eagerly expect and appropriate prophetic declarations from his sermons. As in excerpt 12, it could also be claimed in excerpt 17 that the flow of the prophetic inter-mediatory direction is from divine to human. Therefore, the initiative for the prophecy is divine. Pastor Adeboye is just being the vessel for this proclamation.

18. Pastor: Ten years ago, I called for people who would be my covenant partners, and several people volunteered. I said it would be for ten years, the ten years are over now, and many of them had asked, What’s happening? Are we going to continue? I told them I will ask God. When I asked God, He said there will be a new set and it will not be for ten years. He said, “Because those people were in covenant with you for ten years, I had no choice but to keep them alive for ten years”. He said, “You tied my hands”.And I remembered all the miracles that happened in the life of my partners, and I thank God for all the miracles, I thank God for all my partners, and I say, thank you for the past ten years. Now, the Lord says to me, the new set of partners will be for only three years. He said after three years, we can review. So, if you want to be one of my partners, your duties will be as follows:

i. You will pray for us every day, even if it’s only one minute; a very simple prayer ‘Father, strengthen your son, don’t let his anointing run dry, don’t let him fail you, let him finish strong. Four simple prayers: strengthen him, don’t let his anointing run dry, don’t let him fail you, and let him finish strong. That’s assignment one for my partners, even if it’s only one minute a day. Please, include us in your prayers.

ii. You’ll fast with us as we used to do. February, July and December. All you need to do is a day at a time, but if you can fast day and night continuously, then fourteen days alone will be enough. So, you’ll pray for us, you’ll fast, and then you’ll support the work we are doing financially.

iii. The new group, your support will be every month instead of every year, and there will be ten groups. So, you’ll be able to join at least one of the ten.

1. GROUP ONE: N100 a month.

2. GROUP TWO: N500 a month.

3. GROUP THREE: N1,000 a month.

4. GROUP FOUR: N5,000 a month.

5. GROUP FIVE: N10,000 a month.

6. GROUP SIX: N50,000 a month.

7. GROUP SEVEN: N100,000 a month.

8. GROUP EIGHT: N500,000 a month.

9. GROUP NINE: N1,000,000 a month.

10. GROUP TEN: N2000000000 and above for a month.

If you want to do it in Dollars or Pounds, they will show you everything on the screen. So, you pick whichever group you want to belong to. My advice is, come in at whatever level is convenient for you now, I trust my God that as He begins to bless you, you’ll keep on moving higher, and there will be people who will enter in group two or three today before this time next year, they will already be in group ten. So please, take one minute, you’ll write your name, your address, your phone number, and the group you want to belong to. When you’re sending the money, when you put it in an envelope, write on the back ‘Covenant Partner’. Write it on the back of the envelope so we’ll know into which account we will direct the money. If you’re writing a cheque, please write it in the name of The Redeemed Christian Church of God and then at the back, put ‘Covenant Partner’. Don’t write the cheque in my name. Any cheque written in my name will be used for what?

Audience response: Pounded yams

According to Hans Malmstrom, preaching essentially involves preachers and listeners engaged in some sort of conversational and interpretive activity with clear intertextual implications. The conversational dimension in preaching is not realised as a taking of turns to speak; rather, many approaches to homiletics view sermonic conversation as a process of two or more people understanding each other (80-99). While a sermon quintessentially can be perceived as monologic to an outside observer, however, in the words of Allen, preaching ‘‘involves voices in addition to the preacher and the congregation’’ (2). No doubt, preachers are usually the dominant party in the preaching communicative event, but no less active are also the deity about whom the preacher sermonises, as is also the sermon audience, which counts as dialogic members in the ongoing conversation.

By far the most elaborate GPR is excerpt 18 above in our sample. Pastor Adeboye is probably able to sustain the audience’s attention because the lengthy excerpt occurs immediately after a ‘prophecy’, excerpt 17, which itself comes before a prayer, excerpt 16. The GPR deals with financial support for the RCCG and specifically for funding the HGS performance. Using a tight logical structuring, Pastor Adeboye persuasively appeals to the audience for a further 3-year financial support onward from 2012:

i. He logically contextualises the present 2012-2015 ‘financial appeal or covenant partnership’ first by locating the period of the expiring support in terms of time dimension: ‘‘Ten years ago’’ i.e. 2002-2012, and

ii. Following the expiration of the ‘ten-year covenant partnership’, many supporters of the HGS had asked Pastor Adeboye whether they were going to continue, and since the preacher is in ‘tune with God’, he, in turn, has asked for the Will of God concerning the issue. Consequently,

1) God responds to Pastor Adeboye’s query thus:

2) ‘‘…He said there will be a new set and it will not be for ten years.’’

3) ‘‘…the Lord says to me; the new set of partners will be for only three years.’’

4) ‘‘He said after three years, we can review.’’

At the core of the GPR Move here are two acts that Pastor Adeboye enacts:

i. Appreciation to God and the HGS ‘covenant partners’ for their support: ‘‘I thank God for all my partners, and I say, thank you for the past ten years. He reminisces and then informs the audience that ‘‘… I remembered all the miracles that happened in the life of my partners, and I thank God for all the miracles.

ii. Pastor Adeboye directs as to the duties of the new 3-year partners (2012-2015) as follows:

a) Prayer:‘‘You will pray for us every day, even if it’s only one minute; very simple prayer.The simple prayer, however, bifurcates into prayers: strengthen him, don’t let his anointing run dry, don’t let him fail you, and let him finish strong. That is the prime prayer assignment for the new partners, even if it is only for one minute a day.

b) Fasting:‘‘You’ll fast with us as we used to do. February, July and December. Pastor Adeboye further illustrates how the fast may be successfully carried out: ‘All you need to do is a day at a time, but if you can fast day and night continuously, then fourteen days alone will be enough.

c) Financial support: The financial support called for by Pastor Adeboye is in Nigerian Naira and in ascending order, such that everyone could participate: ‘‘…your support will be every month instead of every year, and there will be ten groups. Thereafter, Pastor Adeboye illustrates in very simple terms how individuals may be able to join in support at least one of the ten levels. The calculation is done without jeopardising individual and personal comfort:

1. Group One: N100 a Month.

2. Group Two: N500 a Month.

3. Group Three: N1,000 a Month.

4. Group Four: N5,000 a Month

5. Group Five: N10,000 a Month.

6. Group Six: N50,000 a Month.

7. Group Seven: N100,000 a Month.

8. Group Eight: N500,000 a Month.

9. Group Nine: N1,000,000 a Month.

10. Group Ten: N2000000000 and above for a month.

Thus, on the hierarchy of needs provided by Pastor Adeboye to the audience, the first is prayer, then fasting, and lastly financial support. For Pastor Adeboye, the ‘ordering’ of each of the specific needs is equally very significant. The orders of the prayer are premised on what God should let happen (a) and (d) and/or what God should not let happen (b) and (c) as follows:

1. God should strengthen Pastor Adeboye,

2. God should not let Pastor Adeboye’s anointing run dry,

3. God should not let Pastor Adeboye fail Him, and

4. God should let Pastor Adeboye finish strong

Pastor Adeboye advises the audience to commence this partnership immediately and without prejudice as to choice of level or group of support: ‘‘My advice is, come in at whatever level is convenient for you now…’’ and he assures that ‘‘I trust my God that as He begins to bless you, you’ll keep on moving higher…’’.He finally ‘prophesies’ that: ‘‘… there will be people who will enter in group two or three today before this time next year, they will already be in group ten.’’ Following this advice to the audience, he seeks immediate compliance: ‘‘So, please, take one minute, you’ll write your name, your address, your phone number, and the group you want to belong to.’’

Because either within or outside the Church, financial matters are very sensitive, and especially since financial accountability issues are potentially controversial, Pastor Adeboye goes ahead to direct as follows:

1. For those paying via physical cash: ‘‘…when you’re sending the money, when you put it in an envelope, write at the back ‘Covenant Partner’. Write it at the back of the envelope so we’ll know into which account we will direct the money.’’

2. Those paying via bank cheque: ‘‘…If you’re writing a cheque, please write it in the name ofThe Redeemed Christian Church of God and then at the back, put ‘Covenant Partner’. Don’t write the cheque in my name.’’

The RCCG, as a charismatic organisation, has proven that transformation and localisation are dual processes of globalisation which mutually reinforce each other in subtle ways. The processes are intractably interwoven. The RCCG, under Pastor E.A. Adeboye’s leadership, has introduced a reverse process of exporting both its Nigerian home-brewed spirituality and the leader’s charismata worldwide, especially to the US and Europe, via the Holy Ghost services, audio and video tapes, books, ritual items such as handkerchiefs and holy oil, and religious personnel as missionaries, etc. Therefore, to encourage co-participation in the ‘harvest of miracles’ by the international community, Pastor Adeboye asserts that: ‘‘if you want to do it in Dollars or Pounds, they will show you everything on the screen. So, (you pick whichever group you want to belong to’’. To check the discourse flow and to progress with the sermon, after the GPR, the preacher throws in humorous exchanges, excerpts 19 and 20 below:

19.Pastor: If you’re writing a cheque, please write it in the name of The Redeemed Christian Church of God and then at the back, put ‘Covenant Partner’. Don’t write the cheque in my name. Any cheque written in my name will be used for what?

Audience response: Pounded yams.

The question ‘Any cheque written in my name will be used for what?’ evokes so much laughter, and in excerpt 20, Pastor Adeboye also laughs and concurs with the audience’s verbal response:

20. Pastor:Ah! Thank you, it will go for pounded yams straight.

Audience response: laughter

With the audience laughing heartily, the preacher now launches the directive:

21. Pastor: So, write your cheque in the name of The Redeemed Christian Church of God and then at the back of the cheque write ‘Covenant Partner’.

Thus far, we have seen that there is indeterminacy of borders in segmenting sermon acts within a move. The sermon is perhaps one discourse genre where, despite the seeming possibility of segmenting sermon acts and borders, either by change of activity, or by verbal or non-verbal special signals, it is impossible to state clearly where one act segment leaves off and another begins. One move may realise several acts, as in excerpt 22 below. Pastor Adeboye performs three different illocutionary acts (assertive, directive and commissive) within the same GPR move:

22. Pastor: My own duty is that I pray for my partners every day; not once a month but every day. And I promise you, my God who has been faithful to me all these years will be faithful to my partners also in Jesus’ name. He made a promise. He said all those who are lifting up my hands, He said as I rise, they will rise. So, you will rise with me in Jesus’ name. So, you’ll write your name, your address, your phone number, the group you want to belong to, and please drop it in the offering basket later on in the night.

1. Assertive: ‘‘I pray for my partners every day; not once a month but every day.’’

2. Assures them of God’s promised rewards to his ‘helpers’: ‘‘God made a promise, He said all those who are lifting up my hands, He said as I rise, they will rise.’’

3. Directives: ‘‘So, you’ll write ( apromisory note in) your name, your address, your phone number, the group you want to belong to, and to

4. Please drop it in the offering basket later on in the night.’’

5. Commissives: ‘‘My own duty is that I pray for my partners every day; not once a month but every day.

6. ‘And I promise you, my God who had been faithful to me all these years will be faithful to my partners also in Jesus’ name.’’

Excerpt 23 below, as a GPR, in the tradition of excerpts 9 and 14, continues the motif of the sacral character of the RCCG Camp Ground as a ritual site invested with supernatural powers, in this instance, for ease of delivery for expectant mothers. The deliveries were supernaturally accomplished and significant in that they occurred just shortly before the preacher mounted the pulpit to commence the performance.

23. Pastor: As at 7.45 pm, the number of babies born on this ground since the Congress started has increased to forty-one; the girls are still leading, but the boys are already catching up; we now have twenty boys and twenty-one girls. So, let the sisters shout, praise the Lord! And let the brothers shout Hallelujah!

The statistics provided by Pastor Adeboye include the total number of children delivered (41) at the Camp as at 7:45 pm: (20) male and (21) female. This is significant in that the Camp becomes emotionally charged due to this statistic and erupts in a rapturous applause and shouts of ‘Amen’. The implicature generated from the GPR Move here is: whether or not present at the performance, those who recognise and appropriate the powers behind the ministry of Pastor Adeboye as well as the sacral power of the RCCG Camp Ground, can also use the statistics the ‘miraculous deliveries’ as ‘prayer points’ or ‘points of contact’ to claim their various miracles.

Again, in excerpt 24 below, like in excerpts 20 and 22, Pastor Adeboye in this GPR combines four major motifs within the universe of the RCCG religious world to subtly ‘order’ the HGS attendees born in December to rise to be prayed for:

24. Pastor: Those of you who are born in December, you can stand on your feet so I can pray for you. If you are born in December, let me hear you shout ‘Hallelujah!’

The four major motifs within the universe of the RCCG are:

1. Within the RCCG’s universe of belief is perhaps the ubiquity of Pastor Adeboye and/or his photographs (also that of his wife, Pastor Folu Adeboye), which clearly would be second only to the Holy Bible.

2. The HGS (as other programmes of the Church), as a performance, is characterised by a degree of regularity and repetition. All RCCG programmes occur at fixed moments in the week, month or year. However, HGS is the single most popular RCCG event.

3. The RCCG Camp, as described by Ukah, was constructed as ‘‘a prayer camp and an exercise in the deliberate assertion as well as the insertion of religious presence and power in the social and cultural ecology of a people. It restructures the ritual dynamics of a region and attracts popular attention to religious worship (1).

Combined, all these play significant roles in the spiritual and social aesthetics of the RCCG. Therefore, both Pastor Adeboye and the Camp are gazed at with awe, reverence, inspiration and adoration.

4. Conclusion

This study has examined the Prefatory Remarks Move as a central rhetorical and communicative feature of the Charismatic Christian sermon, using Pastor E. A. Adeboye’s Holy Ghost Service performances as its illustrative corpus. Far from being a peripheral or decorative segment, the prefatory move has been shown to perform vital textual, pragmatic, and interpersonal functions that sustain the sermonic event. It frames the discourse, prepares the audience psychologically and spiritually, and reinforces the preacher’s authority through patterned interactional strategies. By combining narrative, testimony, announcement, humour, and prophecy, Adeboye transforms prefatory remarks into an essential component of sermon architecture, an interface between divine revelation and congregational participation.

Through the prefatory remarks, the preacher constructs a sacred communicative space where linguistic form and spiritual intention converge. Every utterance, whether an anecdote, a prayer, or a statistic, is invested with theological meaning. The prefatory sequences also mediate power relations between preacher and audience, re-legitimating authority while fostering a sense of communal identification. The study has revealed that these prefatory acts operate as ritualised discourse, enabling transition from the secular to the sacred, from expectation to fulfilment.

In broader terms, the analysis underscores the productivity of applying discourse-analytic and pragmatic frameworks to African Pentecostal sermons. It demonstrates how linguistic performance, deeply rooted in African oral tradition, becomes a tool for persuasion, revelation, and community formation. The Prefatory Remarks Move, therefore, encapsulates the dynamic intersection of language, faith, and performance in contemporary Nigerian Christianity. In recognising this move as both a linguistic and a spiritual strategy, the study contributes to the growing scholarship on language of religion, offering evidence that sermons, like all powerful discourse, derive their impact not merely from content but from the patterned, context-sensitive ways language is used to inspire, to instruct, and ultimately to transform.

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