User:Wiikieman/sandbox

GCGT' ' God’s Children Great Talent ™ previously known as God’s Children Got Talent was birthed in the City of David Parish (Apapa Family) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God Lagos Nigeria in 2011. God’s Children Great Talent (GCGT) is an initiative focused on identifying and celebrating talents in young Christians. With a vision to build a global brand using talents to God’s glory and a mission to provide a credible platform for the celebration of talents in young Christians ^[1]

The maiden edition of GCGT in 2011 was run at Parish level with 50 contestants was a resounding success to the glory of God. The 2nd edition with over 100 contestants was also run on a Parish level at the City of David. The 3rd edition of the program held in 2013 was run as a Province wide program to include the entire Lagos Province 4 comprising 97 Parishes with over 800 contestants.^[2]

GCGT Season 4 took off with about 900 Parishes spread across Nigeria, UK and USA. Over 1,320 eligible applicants registered for the noble competition. The competition built momentum simultaneously in Nigeria, UK and USA. The peak of the Season was the grand finale hosted in Nigeria on 29 May 2014 at the Eko Hotel, comprising of qualifying contestants from all 3 regions including contestants from USA and UK. The discipleship programme introduced from season 4 has proven to be value adding as it enriches the overall experience of the contestants. The overall prize money was in excess of N22million including a grand prize of N5m, one year talent development and musical instruments for winners. A percentage of the prize money (40%) is paid in cash while the remaining percentage is kept in trust for education of the winners over a period of 5 years. For talent development we currently partner with Spirit of David, SPAN, Muson Centre, Masha Academy and other professional talent trainers, however there are plans in place to start GCGT Academy where talents can be continuously groomed and mentored through the discipleship programme. GCGT Alumni is an avenue where all winners continue to bond and all talents are followed up.^[3]

A decentralised model was introduced in Season 5 to touch more lives and achieve greater impact. GCGT widened its reach through all the eleven provinces in Apapa family to the suburb of Lagos and Ibadan. All Apapa family provinces with support from the central GCGT team, formed project teams and ran competitions from auditions to provincial finals. Countries in Europe, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland also joined. In Nigeria alone, over 1,800 contestants registered for Season 5. Contestants scale through the rigorous process to get to the provincial country finals. All winners from eleven provinces from Nigeria, regions in USA, UK and Europe came together on the 27th of May to hold a regional qualifier at the Incubator, Oniru Lagos to compete for 25 spaces at the grand finale. The grand finale held on May 30, 2015 at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island Lagos. There were over 5000 people including children celebrating our talents to the glory of God.^[4][5]

In 2015 after the conclusion of Season 5 which ended in May 2015 the organisers have decided to expand the age category from 5–19 years to 5–25 years with contestants to include children from other churches and parishes across the globe, not just the Redeemed Christian Church of God.