Kumuyi’s Bold Initiative To Change Society

By Banji Ojewale

Buried somewhere in the voluminous video vault of the Africa Independent Television, AIT, Lagos, Nigeria, is the recording of a rare live interview with Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM. Hosted in the late 1990s by the popular Kaakaki early dawn programme, Kumuyi responded to a bouquet of questions that led to even more answers and views about his ministry, the Deeper Life Bible Church God used him to found, his outlook on life, and the controversy over genuine Christians watching the Television among other vexatious narratives of the day.

*Kumuyi

Deep into the interactive session, the unexpected poser came from a caller: "Sir, I have observed that you’ve not at all quoted from the Scriptures as you addressed some of the questions. I can’t also see that you have the Holy Bible with you. Now, Sir, that seems somehow strange for a great man of God, who is expected to tackle every issue by reaching into the Word of God and turning page after page. But you’re not doing all that. Doesn’t add up, Pastor!’’ (Please note that I’ve taken a literary license to paraphrase and expand the question.)

Kumuyi At 83: Beyond The Preacher’s Cassock

 By Banji Ojewale

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor polite, not popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him he is right.  —Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) American churchman and civil liberties defender.

*Pastor Kumuyi and his wife, Mrs Esther 

In his book, An Outline of the History of the World, Herbert Abraham Davies relates the epic story of how a cleric put himself in the path of potential backlash to deliver ancient Rome from annihilation at the hands of an all-conquering army of barbarians. The predators were already in the regions of the Roman Empire; all the soldiers needed was an order from their leader, Attila the Hun, to move in and overrun Rome. From this she was saved, (so it was said), "by the earnest entreaties of Leo, Bishop of Rome, who entered Attila’s camp and warned him not to risk the vengeance of heaven by plundering the city, and the Hun leader was so impressed with the bishop’s sincerity and intensity of purpose that he withdrew his troops."

Kumuyi And Africa's Quest For Servant-Leaders

 By Banji Ojewale

Most of us agree with Chinua Achebe, Africa’s late literary colossus, that Nigeria’s chief post-Independence headache has been the challenge of leadership.

*Kumuyi 

He said in his 1983 book, The Trouble with Nigeria: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply a failure of leadership… The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are hallmarks of true leadership… Nigerians are what they are only because their leaders are not what they should be…’’

W.F. Kumuyi Abroad: Africa’s New Narrative

 By Banji Ojewale

 The West has no business sending missionaries to Nigeria; they can’t help us; they have lost Christianity…substantially…They are the ones who need us. We will give (the erring West) pastoral help…Africa is now the historical custodian of (true) Christianity. – Bishop Professor Dapo Asaju, former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo State, Nigeria.

*Pastor Kumuyi

As July of 2022 closed, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, was also closing a chapter that, according to some theologians, made his ministry somehow ‘insular and centripetal’, even if his messages, as we all know, have always been universal. At an event in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, Kumuyi drew our attention to a new point in his evangelical trajectory, when he formally launched the initiative he christened Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK.

What Public Officers Can Learn From W.F. Kumuyi At 82

 By Banji Ojewale

The international journalist, Baffour Ankomah of Ghana, is reported to have recorded the lengthiest interview session with Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM. As editor of the London-based New African monthly magazine, Ankomah ran voluminous portions of his encounter with the revered Nigerian churchman in October 2006, revealing more than a treasure trove of the life and times of Kumuyi.

*Pastor Kumuyi

The Ghanaian newsman said what he served the public, old and new takes on Kumuyi, was bereft of the trappings you witness between the intrusive reporter and his evasive newsmaker, between a predator and his potential prey, or between a dispassionate journalist and an equally disinterested figure. The reporter was intentional in his bid to secure an uncommon interview with an uncommon man. He got it, but at a price: he travelled with Kumuyi across West Africa, following and studying the man of God as he preached to hundreds of thousands of the poor and enthusiastic folk who wanted to benefit from his prayers and messages of salvation, hope, restoration, healing and deliverance.

Pastor Kumuyi At 81: Peeping Into The Years Ahead

 
By Banji Ojewale

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. –The Holy Bible

If you have forensically studied Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, through his one thousand and one books and sermons and you have also read everything about him in the newspapers, or if you have spent days and nights trafficking the internet to track him, there are two old ‘discoveries’ you’ll make again and again: the venerable cleric’s intrepidity to defy the odds for the sake of the Gospel of his Lord, Jesus Christ, and his endless search to uncover untrodden  grounds in evangelism. This man of God will dare death, devils, demons, destiny, disabilities and distractions to "seek…first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.’’

These twin preoccupations have profiled the DCLM founder since he became born again on April 5 1964. At 81 on June 6, 2022, he has behind him narratives of a man of flint who would dwarf obstructing giants of any hideous shape to proclaim his faith in every word of the Bible, even if it would take his life.

Once, in the United Kingdom for a course in October 1974, a maturing Kumuyi trashed the postgraduate programme he went for in London and dashed off to Birmingham to seek the power of the Holy Ghost he believed he needed for a result-yielding evangelical work. 

Pastor Kumuyi In Ogun State: Encountering The Potentates

 By Banji Ojewale

Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, isn’t a stranger in the club of men and women of weight and power in our society. Being himself a personality of position, presence and princedom, he is easily at home in the assembly of other lords, temporal or spiritual. But Kumuyi’s power is ecclesiastical, leaning on a lever outside him, outside man, outside this world.

*Pastor Kumuyi during a courtesy call on former President Obasanjo during the Deeper Life Global Crusade in Abeokuta, Ogun State...

So when he stormed Abeokuta, capital of Ogun, a state southwest of Nigeria, last week for the April edition of the Global Crusade series of his Deeper Life Bible Church, there was also a gathering of the galactic around him. In addition to the heavy presence of bishops, pastors, denomination founders, and Deeper Life State Overseers, the programme attracted top civil servants and politicians. The governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, was there with the top brass of his cabinet. On the last day of the crusade, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo showed up to complete the retinue of the high of the society who reported at the event.

Regenerative Agenda For The Youth

 By Banji Ojewale

"We must never underestimate the potential of our youths. Throughout history, God has called youths to rise up and change their world through the power of the gospel"

—William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry.

After a timidly truculent tea-cup turmoil triggered to truncate the recent Lagos IMPACT 2022 crusade of Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, leader of Deeper Life Bible Church, the event finally held to unexpected success and wild multimedia acclaim and coverage. The programme was planned to spiritually and psychologically reorient the youngsters of our age for a positive influence on society. 

But on account of those Kumuyi invited as ministering guests, the cleric and his church were pummeled, pilloried and pulled down. Those who launched the war argued that by summoning these personalities, the octogenarian man of God was enfeebling the brand the whole world has come to know for its legendary holiness stand.

Six Days With Kumuyi: The World At His Feet

 By Banji Ojewale

It has been claimed that an archetypal Nigerian politician’s perfect pastime is preying on poor people in their milling millions. When he invites the manacled, malleable and mesmerised masses to the campaign grounds, all the politician offers is a table of yet more death-dressed promises that drug his listeners to buy into his boast that he could construct concrete castles in the air. Opiated, ossified and overpowered, the citizens believe him and cede their loyalty to the vote-hunting orator: their world is trapped in the man’s bottomless pocket.

*W.F. Kumuyi 

Now, it isn’t inconsiderate to put a good number of some of our religious leaders in the same cage as those politicians, given the cognate experience in history and in our clime. They pull crowds to draw the world back to the age of Johann Tetzel, the 15th Century German friar notorious for raising money for a church building in Rome. He sold to the gullible people so-termed relics and souvenirs of departed saints like Peter, John, James, Paul etc. and claimed that if you possessed those items you were excused from temporal punishment for your sins. Supported by the Church leaders of the day, Tetzel called his merchandise, Indulgences. There is a tradition, disputed though, that Tetzel also held that these Indulgences could secure peace for friends and relatives who had died in rebellion to Heaven.