By Banji Ojewale
Years ago Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, opened a chink in the curtains of the future he anticipated for himself. Preaching to a large congregation of local worshippers that also had an overflow of global online audience, he said he happily looked forward to a season when no black strands would remain on his head. It would be a glistening crown of white hair.
*Pastor KumuyiThe
revered cleric said he hoped that before then, by the Mercy of the Great Master
he serves, he would have succeeded in spreading the Gospel of Christ worldwide.
He is not ready to retire, he assured the assembly. But in very advanced age,
he would request the Deeper Life Bible Church to acquire a reclining chair for
him to enable him undertake more of searching the Scriptures, more of hearing
from Heaven and more of teaching the Word. As Pastor Kumuyi foresaw it, the
white hair has since landed, dominantly and decisively defeating the black.
Again, as he predicted, the Church the Lord used him to found is taking the message of Christ’s love to every corner of the globe, beginning right here in Nigeria and to other African countries, and beyond. What we haven’t seen is the chair. Will it be a cane seat? Or the steel version? Either way, many don’t expect the pastor to ask for it soon.
Hitting 80 on June 6, 2021, Kumuyi’s body language suggests that the chair must tarry. A well-known ‘defier’ and displacer of worldly protocols and norms to satisfy evangelism obligations, the pastor is given to reinventing the wheel many times over, whipping the ageing, aching, ailing outer man to bend to the promptings of the restless, resolute and rigid inner man.The
man of God is guided by a passage in the Bible: “The fire shall ever be burning uponthe altar; it shall never go out.”
So, at the moment, the chair to chain the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry to a sedentary life is itself condemned to an indeterminate future, giving Kumuyi ample liberty to travel nationwide and across the globe, his age and accompanying health concerns a scant consideration. Only recently in April this year, the preacher left his base in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, for the nation’s capital, to host a six-day crusade that covered the whole of the country’s northern swathe. He delivered sermons every day during the period, with the media reporting that large crowds congregated to receive blessings of salvation and such other Gospel bestowals as sanctification, power of the Holy Ghost and healing for diverse afflictions among numerous other benefits.
*Pastor Kumuyi and wife, Esther KumuyiKumuyi
takes after John Wesley, the 18th Century founder of the Methodist Church. He
has not only read a lot of the great English preacher’s books and sermons, but
also he has adopted his legendary stoicism. A biographer records that once,
Wesley sprained his ankle, an accident that disabled the Methodist leader. The
writer said John Wesley didn’t stay away from the pulpit on account of the
impairment. ‘’On Sunday,’’ he wrote, ‘’(Wesley) preached on his knees, because
he was not able to stand on his sprained ankle…On Tuesday (of the same week),
he was preaching, once again on his knees.’’
A feisty Kumuyi at 80
has a similar predilection for conquering limitations imposed by nature or
physical ailments, all to honour the call of his Lord. He is known to ignore
counsel from medics to observe long rests from preaching because of his age. If
he heeded them for a short span, he would stun them later with a comeback that
raised posers whether he was the same person who days earlier was deemed to
need intermission. He often did so, not because he contemned the experts. Not
at all. The point is that for preacher Kumuyi, the work for Jesus Christ is an
all-consuming force. It is like a juggernaut, against which nothing must stand,
whether it is ill health, age-related disability, lack, culture, career,
country, club, community or class distinctions. They must all give way to the
King and His Kingdom servants…or be crushed. Like Vladimir Kuts, the Russian
athlete of the last century, Kumuyi believes that ‘’It is impossible to talk
about limits where man’s capabilities are concerned…This power must…be
developed, by his life, by his experiences and by his training.’’
The clergyman confounds
those who hold the view that when you age, your abilities abate. In Kumuyi’s
cosmos there appears to be a reverse of that principle. Otherwise, he would not
at old age stand on his feet for one and half hours, preaching an assiduous
sermon laden with alliterations that make his audience wonder if he secretly
studied Literature in English and Stylistics after he was done with his First
Class degree in Mathematics at the University of Ibadan.
In his younger days in
the 80s and 90s, Kumuyi’s Bible Study every Monday was an hour-long affair. He
used to construct his teachings on a simple tripod. Although Pastor Kumuyi
still works around an arrangement of three points to draw out the innards of the
message, he has now brought upon himself the arduous task of marshalling three
more sub-points into each guiding point. So, at the end of the day, you have
twelve points, all offering a feast of masterly alliterations. You are torn
between watching out for Kumuyi’s literary jewels and absorbing his legendary
and scripturally informed interpretation of the Word of God. The point is you
need the two; so you can’t but be wholly attentive when sitting at Kumuyi’s
feet.
Professor
Tunde Opeibi of the University of Lagos exquisitely explains the laborious
technique of captivating your audience through an alliterative labyrinth in his
seminal book, Discourse, Politics and the 1993 Presidential Election Campaigns
in Nigeria. Opeibi writes: ‘’Although alliteration can be described as a
stylistic device…it is a strong rhetorical tool deployed to evoke emotions, get
attention and convey…messages in a more appealing and persuasive way. It is a
figure of speech because it often creates images and conveys meaning beyond the
string of words that make it up. When creatively and effectively modulated,
they can deepen meaning and enhance musicality.’’
Born
in Erin-Ijesa in Osun State on Friday June 6, 1941, Kumuyi relocated to Orunwa,
in Ijebu area in Ogun State along with his parents. He had his primary
education at St. James Anglican School, Orunwa, which was founded in 1908.
Young Kumuyi later moved on to Saint Michael Primary School, Owu-Ikija, in
Ijebu division of the sprawling Western Nigeria. His father enrolled him in the
pre-secondary Modern school system, but later withdrew the lad, leading Kumuyi
to gain entry into the famous Mayflower School, Ikenne.
Here
Kumuyi met the great Tai Solarin, the irrepressible founder and principal of
Mayflower. Kumuyi has described him as a ‘militant atheist’. Tai Solarin was a
humanist who had nothing to do with God. He taught his students to repudiate
Him, insisting that man was what he made of himself through hard work and
study. So he strove to lead Kumuyi into his world through three approaches:
atheism, discipline and dignity of labour.
After a
spell of conflict at the crossroads, Kumuyi finally disavowed his mentor’s
irreligion and embraced his ascetic and industrious disposition. These were two
virtues that came into contact with the more enduring control of the Gospel of
Christ which Kumuyi believed to become a born-again child of God on April 5,
1964.
The
journey since then has offered tumultuous concerns: expulsion from a
denomination, conflicting experiences in founding a ministry, losing a wife,
enduring the challenges an erring son posed, overcoming journey mishaps and
attacks, renouncing the riches of the world etc. But the quintessential Kumuyi
wouldn’t allow any of these life-threatening roadblocks to stop him. He says if
they didn’t hold back his Lord and the apostles, they dare not stop him also.
The
Church and the nation can’t celebrate Pastor Kumuyi at 80 without a takeout
from his life. As a leader of an institution, he gives his all, including his
life, to ensure its existence. He has forsaken lucre and all it
represents—power, position and popularity—to serve the organization selflessly,
such that he has become indifferent to personal or private property. That’s the
virtue Nigeria’s leaders lack, that has bred a citizenry whose god is
materialism, the unbridled pursuit of which has led to the criminal antisocial
activities all over the land. A society discovers its essence in its leaders.
If the leaders are apathetic to the welfare of the ruled, the ruled will throw
back apathy at its leaders and society.
Happy
Birthday, Beloved Pastor!
*Ojewale is a vetran journalist and writer (bmrtbo@yahoo.com)
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