In recent years, the Deeper Life Bible Church has come to the attention of those who are curious about whether or not the organisation is beginning to revise its tenets in an effort to attract more sheep to the flock. Diademng’s Juliana Ajayi and Onyinye Okonkwo write on the developments and the controversies.
Most Nigerian Christians regard the Deeper Life Bible Church as one of the churches that place a high value on holiness, which is, of course, the foundation of the Christian race. And the denomination has to a large extent influenced many towards towing a defined direction in their spiritual lives.
One of such members brought up on Deeper Life doctrines is Zephaniah Joshua (not his real name), whose lifestyle on his university’s campus bears the full Deeper Life imprint. Joshua describes his church as one free of fraud and hypocrites.
However, Joshua has some reservations on certain Deeper Life matters or principles, one of such being about marriage. “Marriage restitution is still my headache with Deeper Life,” he said. I preached it on the altar, but I’m not convinced anymore.
“The suffering of the poor mothers who abandoned their husbands because they were not the first wife, the poor condition of their children and their mothers; as usual, the man can cope while silently praying for the return of the first wife who is doing well for her now husband and children somewhere unknown to this same man who allowed his wife to leave,” Joshua stated.
Interviews with some Christians in Nigeria, including members and former members of the Deeper Life Church, reveal that everyone has an opinion about the church, regardless of whether they have had a firsthand experience or not. These perceptions and convictions are usually about the Church’s ideologies and doctrines, which set it apart from the majority of Pentecostal churches in Nigeria.
Fortune Yomabasi, a Christian, expressed his observations concerning the denomination’s doctrines. “All churches have their own rules and doctrine, and after being exposed to a wide range of things, I find them to be true and honest, with all pure intentions and heaven-mindedness. Having checked them out scripturally too, they are not out of line. As an organisation, they have their specifics. Those specifics still do not drag people away from Christ, so I think they are doing just okay,” said Yomabasi.
Over the years, the Deeper Life Bible Church has established itself as a force in Nigeria and in other parts of the world. And to some extent, the church has garnered popularity among the youths on social media, where they have a hashtag – “DL Conversations,” to stir and encourage Christian Twitter (CT), to participate and follow Pastor Kumuyi’s teachings of the Bible.
Over the years, the Deeper Life Bible Church has established itself as a force in Nigeria and in other parts of the world.
Doctrinal Beliefs
Pastor W.F. Kumuyi founded The Deeper Life which started as a Bible study group, about 50 years ago. Its doctrinal beliefs include the following: the Holy Bible, the GodHead (Trinity), the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, total depravity, repentance, restitution, justification, water baptism, the Lord’s Supper, sanctification, Holy Ghost Baptism, redemption, personal evangelism, marriage (monogamy), rapture, the resurrection of the dead, great tribulation, second coming of Jesus Christ, Christ Millennial Reign and hell fire.
In some ways, it has been perceived that the church, which has historically been rigid in its adherence to doctrines, particularly in its religious services, has gradually embraced flexibility, particularly in recent years. Proof of this is endorsing the invitation of gospel musicians to minister in its crusades. For instance, when Nigerian gospel minister Dunsin Oyekan visited the church in 2022, both members and non-members had a lot to say about it. Considering Kumuyi’s body language a few years before now, such development didn’t exactly come out of the blue.
In a sermon delivered in 2015, Pastor Kumuyi declared that he would be abandoning some of the dogmas and practices that the organisation had established to guide its members in living moral lives. According to WF Kumuyi, these were not directly derived from the Bible but were nonetheless established to aid members in leading moral lives. He, however, saw them acting as obstacles to moral living. While speaking on the topic “The Word in a Transformed Believer,” he stated that most church traditions will be destroyed.
In a sermon delivered in 2015, Pastor Kumuyi declared that he would be abandoning some of the dogmas and practices that the organisation had established to guide its members in living moral lives.
Among them is the Marriage Committee. Addressing this issue, he said, “I said before that the marriage committee is an institution, a creation peculiar to Deeper Life. It is not in the Bible. We raised it just to help young people. We find that the marriage committee is not helping us anymore; it’s hindering us. It’s hindering the young people from doing the will of God and the young people fear the marriage committee more than they fear God. We knock off marriage committee because marriage committee is our own making, it’s not in the Bible. It’s for administration.”
“It’s our own making; it’s not in the Acts of the Apostles,” he said of the Women’s Ministry. Anyone who wants to sew a piece of cloth for others, like Dorcas, can do so without the help of a women’s ministry. Anyone who wants to learn how to make soap, cook, or do this can go to the nearest restaurant and learn; we don’t need a women’s ministry to do this. If you want to learn how to dye clothes, we don’t need a women’s ministry in Deeper Life; you can go to the suburbs in the area and learn that. We discovered that women’s ministry is taking us into the world, and we are exchanging and helping each other to know how to live like the world, dress like the world, marry like the world, and deal with your husband like the world, and we are taking the church back to the world, the ministry of women is our own creation. If it’s not going to help us, or if it’s going to hurt us, we cut it. Take my word.”
Kumuyi said: “Before I leave, I mean before I go, I am going to remove everything that I set up, that I thought will help Deeper Life and make us Holy, make us sanctified, make us deep, make us deeper. And I see that it is not bringing us closer together, so before I leave, I will uproot all of them and present you with a pure church. What am I afraid of? I can only be afraid of God’s judgment, so whoever responds, praise the Lord, and whoever reacts, praise the Lord. I can only be afraid of the judgement of God,” Kumuyi stated.
“Whoever will maintain that sanctification, Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, Whoever will have a backbone and be willing to stand faithful, sacrifice everything and bring to church to obedience to the word of God, that’s the kind of leader, God will raise up for Deeper Life after I am gone,” the Deeper Life founder said.
What Some People Think
The most recent reaction to Pastor Kumuyi’s teachings came in the form of a sermon in which a man claiming to be a church member accused the church of double standards and Kumuyi’s wife of being responsible for the change in the church’s philosophy.
His reaction came in response to Kumuyi’s lament that many Christians who don’t know how to interpret God’s word are driving people away from the church. Ushers were also warned in the sermon not to impose head covering rules on ladies, emphasizing that persistent coverings cause heat in the hair and emit odour.
His reaction came in response to Kumuyi’s lament that many Christians who don’t know how to interpret God’s word are driving people away from the church
He said, “Somebody is coming to our church for the first time. And she happens to be a lady not covering her head. We ask the person to cover her head before coming in. We don’t know whether the person does not even know God. We confront her out there before she even enters the church. We don’t know if she does not know how to pray or prophesy. But we impose rules on her.
“If I were the person, I would wonder what kind of church is this? If they treat me like a primary school girl, that will be my last time coming to the church.”
Change Is Constant
Kumuyi explained that women should cover their heads while praying or prophesying by quoting 1Corithians 11 verse 5 of the Holy Bible, which discusses the covering of the head for the female gender. He questioned why some church members would cover their heads for nearly 20 hours each day, claiming that many of them had rendered themselves unattractive through their outward appearance.
According to Kumuyi, the constant covering will cause “heat in the hair and it will emit odour.” Such, according to him, “put themselves in bondage because they never read the word.”
Many of the sisters who insist on wearing their hair covered may not even be praying in the church, he claimed. They merely assume they are safe because they are covering their heads.
“If I don’t tell you, maybe nobody will tell you. There are some wives who dress shabbily and are no longer attractive to the man. There are some single sisters who are not presentable,” Kumuyi stated.
Ebri John, who identified himself as a church member, reacted by expressing his displeasure with the way the church is being managed.
He emphasized how Kumuyi’s teachings from the early 1990s had changed and might have been influenced by capitalism and his new wife’s desire for financial gain.
John said, “I once loved and cherished this ministry. The General Overseer mentored my upbringing. But he changed completely after marriage to his second wife.”
He also mentioned the denomination’s policy thrust, which, in his opinion, has not accommodated the children of the poor, despite the fact that the poor are the largest contributors to the church’s finances through their meager means.
A former youth leader, who is currently one of the Young Professionals Forum coordinators, Adeyemi Haastrup, said that change is dynamic and that what is said while discussing change relies on the current topics of conversation. The General Superintendent, he said, is a very energetic man, which is one element that makes him unique.
“Our GS takes seriously the evolution of young people in the church, who are more diverse and dynamic. He’s doing everything to support and annex their inner spiritual strength to advance the growth of the church.
After all, these young, trained dynamic leaders are the future of the church.
We are in a digital revolution. Why people are saying that maybe Deeper Life has changed is because they are used to the old Deeper Life style, but now there is human relations and change,” Haastrup said.
Unlike Haastrup however, there are those with the impression that Kumuyi is retracing his steps, towards doing the needful, knowing he has erred along the way. And one of such individuals is Folashade Jonah Pontip who was a Deeper Life Bible Church member for seven years before leaving the church.
” Yes, I was misled. And I thank God I’ve seen the light. But there are so many out there that are still groveling in the darkness he created. So, he needs to help them understand things better, the only problem I have with it is that he doesn’t want to come out boldly to apologize to the people for leading them astray in the past. I believe his teachings in the past were borne out of ignorance and he now knows better,” she noted.
Pontip emphasized that the denomination was well known as a holiness church and had very strict rules concerning dressing especially for women. She noted that the women weren’t allowed to put on earrings, their hair had to be covered at all times, with long skirts almost to the ankles, zero makeup, and no hair attachments allowed. Many didn’t use relaxers on their hair. “By their looks, you would know them and everyone knew this was what was preached and enforced in the church,” she said. “So, I guess you can understand the shock and confusion, even the anger of most millennials who grew up at a time when deeper Life and their teachings were very popular and were used to judge many harshly now hearing Pa Kumuyi preach something completely different,” added Pontip.
Actually, the first signs of a change in stance happened many years ago but many saw it as a one-off thing. Pa Kumuyi had at one time in the late ’80s/early ’90s launched a campaign against Television, sending out fiery warnings to his congregation calling it “the devil’s box” and warning them against the “evil” of such modern technology. This teaching caused many members of his church to either dispose of theirs or never put them on, using them solely for decoration. But the church leader later changed his mind about televisions. but it is doubtful if he ever came out to restate his new stance on the matter to his faithful followers. Consequently, Deeper Life churches would later begin to use not just televisions but projectors to stream their services, a pointer to the fact that modern technology has its uses.
Although many perceive Kumuyi now appears to be backtracking on some of his past teachings about female appearances and dressing, millennials on social media seem bent on holding him accountable. If not for teaching it directly, then for allowing such extremism to fester in the church he founded and pastors to date in the first place.
Although many perceive Kumuyi now appears to be backtracking on some of his past teachings about female appearances and dressing, millennials on social media seem bent on holding him accountable.
A clip recently made the rounds on social media with Pa Kumuyi chiding his church ushers for forcing women to cover their hair before coming into the church and this has had people clutching their pearls in Shock!
And while many have been dragging Pa Kumuyi for contradicting himself and now teaching something different from what he and the church have been known for, some do not think his teaching has changed at all. One of them is Emmanuel, who was born into Deeper life Bible church and still attends the church to date. “I do not think his teachings have changed. However, the method of implementing the word of God is what he tries to address. For instance, he taught that women cover their heads in the church when newcomers (who open their hair) visit the church, they are made to wear head ties, such an act did demoralize visitors and stops them from coming, so he tells the ushers to stop the coercive method of ensuring women cover their hair when they visit. This is different from telling the women (old and new) that you can all leave their hair open henceforth,” said Emmanuel.
Others have come to Pa Kumuyi’s defence with claims that this has always been his stance on the matter, citing overzealous church leaders as the brain behind some of the strict rules members of the church are forced to adhere to.
However, valid as this may sound, Kumuyi has also been accused of standing by and not taking any strong action to curb their excesses when he has the power to do so as the head pastor which makes him culpable as silence can be taken as an endorsement.
While his defenders are hard at work building a solid defence for Pa Kumuyi who they think is being attacked, even though in reality he is only being held accountable for his actions or inaction, the majority of people speaking on social media are calling on him to publicly renounce his former teachings, admit he was wrong, and apologize to his members who those teachings may have adversely affected.
One of those echoing this sentiment is Folashade Pontip. “He should apologize and publicly admit that he was wrong,” she says. “Many homes have been broken because of his doctrines, and some people’s lives have been damaged permanently. It has done a lot of harm to my own family… For example two of my sisters are still there and they’ve somehow become my enemy because of the things I write, especially about Kumuyi. If he comes out to declare that he taught them in ignorance, they might also begin to see things for themselves. He needs to apologize. I don’t hold anything against him, but he should do the right thing” Folashade opines.
Emmanuel on the other hand had this to say; “I feel other aspects of the teaching should be broken down to ensure people who follow the leaders instead of the word of God are not misled. An example was the discouragement of the use of Television, while some people practically threw away their TVs, some people regulated the things they watched on TV. I do not feel deceived at all. I had a clear understanding of the scriptural requirements therefore; I was not bound by administrative laws. For instance, I can celebrate Mother’s Day even though the church does not,” Emmanuel said.
