Originally Published in Herald Banner
Each year, the Redeemed Christian Church of God has its annual convention of the Americas in Floyd, Texas, typically bringing 15,000-18,000 people from across North/South America and the Caribbean to the small unincorporated community.
The RCCG church is a globally fast-growing Pentecostal-based denomination that was founded in Nigeria in the 1950s, and its campus in Floyd includes an auditorium that can hold more than 20,000 people.
This year, though, due to COVID-19, the church’s convention (which began Wednesday and continued through Friday) was mostly virtual, with about 5,000 of the church’s faithful traveling to Hunt County.
“We have implemented all the COVID-19 protocol this year,” said Dr. Funmi Adeyemi, one of the pastors at the church’s campus in Floyd. “People had to get their temperatures checked before entering the auditorium, we had sanitizer set up everywhere, and we all wear masks. With fewer people, we have also spaced the chairs in our building out farther from each other.”