Pastor Kumuyi’s Washington Trip And The Shifting Cynosure

By Banji Ojewale

In Washington DC, USA, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi of Africa is invited to lead the prayer and praise session as part of the ceremonies for the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47^th president of the US. The revered Nigerian evangelist is through after a delivery of 290+ words in 1 minute and 36 seconds. 

*Pastor Kumuyi, his wife, and American ministers in Washington 

Reporters also note that Kumuyi, Convener of the denomination-disavowing Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK, is the only Nigerian and African cleric asked to minister. There’s this observation, too: His assembly, Deeper Life Bible Church, DLBC, trashed all the prognoses of infant death made by religious pontiffs on account of its pick of unyielding holiness as its motto; it then went on to survive withering headwinds, internal and external, to position itself in the forefront of the push of evangelical Christianity from the Global South, rather than from its cradle in the Global North.

Kumuyi’s appearance on this internationally visible scene is being interpreted as a merited recognition of the great work he with his GCK has been silently and resolutely undertaking largely in several parts of the world. The brand has landed him in Asia and the Middle East, with projections for wider and penetrative cross-continental reaches to Europe, North America, and more of Africa, Asia and the rest of the planet.

But if the Washington audience wasn’t familiar with the 83-year-old preacher’s trademarks, he revealed them in his telegraphic prayer. Confessing God as the Epicenter of all of men’s affairs from generation to generation, as He operates through the Church, Kumuyi sought His full presence in the Church under Trump, in its leaders and at the political helm. He pleaded: “You (God) said upon this rock, You would build Your church…and You say the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it…Revive Your church, restore Your Church, and purge Your church so that there will be the holiness and the righteousness You expect for Your church, and the church will have a meaningful ministry in the government and America…Connect the church with the leader…Help the President… that the church will remain the church…and speak the truth to power…’’

Later, after meeting with US Congressman Robert Pittinger and such top faith leaders as Tony Perkins and Lucas Miles, Kumuyi summoned America and its leaders ‘’to walk in holiness and righteousness as precursor to renewal and revival,’’ adding ‘’We believe in the power of the Gospel to transform lives and nations.’’ An American cleric agrees. His country, he says, ‘’desperately needs the touch of this God’’ of absolute holiness Kumuyi has been talking about since he founded his assembly from a small gathering in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1973.

The Nigerian churchman represents the new whirlwind from Africa called the Global South Christianity which is returning man to pristine apostolic industry and its values. An analyst has said the content of the worship in the new move is identified by ‘’the honour given God… through (His) acts of salvation of spirit, soul, and body.’’ He also mentioned "passionate evangelism’’ as its attribute. According to a study by the Lausanne Movement, ‘’Christianity in the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America) is growing both qualitatively and quantitatively at a phenomenon in comparison to Global North (Europe, North America) Christianity…(In the former), the Bible is interpreted literally, trusted completely, and obeyed explicitly. The Bible is viewed as God’s Word to guide humanity in matters of faith and practice.’’

This is the pursuit of the evangelists of the Global South, now Heaven’s dart to dash the hopes of those attempting a roll-back to the New Agers Movement. But mankind left that era long ago, seeing it didn’t benefit us. It alienated us from the joy of affinity with our Creator. Indeed, it’s responsible for the slide of the Global North into a coven where sophistry and materialism are the peak of all human enterprise. Because there’s no faith in God, there’s also no belief in the Heaven He promises hereafter for those who count on Him and His laws. They don’t also accept there’s punishment waiting in Hell for those who dishonor His Word. They live by themselves, for themselves and of themselves. How then would they fear a punitive wrath on the way if they wouldn’t see beyond their dark tunnel?

Now Pastor Kumuyi, ahead of his US visit, published an article in the Washington DC-based Christian Post, where he advised American Christians to "deepen their trust in God for daily concerns’’. He wondered why they would trust Him for their eternity, but not for mundane cares of the hour. His op-ed contribution came with a question as the title, "If We Trust God With Eternity, Why Worry About Today?’’ After referring his American readers to Jesus Christ’s teaching that man shouldn’t overly fret about his life, Kumuyi said: "His (Christ’s) words call believers to a radical trust in God, one that transcends the daily affairs of our lives. Yet many of us struggle to heed His command…At its heart, worry is a failure to trust God fully. It is a subtle but powerful expression of doubt that whispers, "God might not come through…When we make God’s Kingdom our primary focus, the concerns of this world fade in comparison.’’

Unfortunately, the Western Hemisphere pulpiteers went to bed after bringing this liberating fire of the Gospel of Christ to the world. Upon returning to consciousness, they discovered that commodity Christianity had taken over, preaching ideologies of rabid prosperity instead of rational propriety, charisma, instead of character, individualism rather than integrity and frenzy worship instead of faith worship.

This is the reason mankind has been de-imaged from God. We no longer bear resemblance to the One Who formed us in His own Imprimatur. We now mirror materialism and all its ephemeral trappings dragging us into a bottomless sinking sand.

There’s no doubt that the coming together in Washington of the leaders of the two divides of the international Christian community would work in unity to restore Church purity and faith in the God Who insists that His creatures must come back to Him and fully cooperate with His laws in order to enjoy His peace again. And they have served notice that, as Pastor Kumuyi put it, they’re standing "together for faith-based dialogue to shape policies that uphold religious liberty and foster the growth of Christianity worldwide.’’

*Ojewale, a writer, mailed this piece from Accra, Ghana.