Four Bishops, 15 Pastors Resign From Winners Chapel


Saturday, March 3, 2007
ABOUT four bishops and 15 pastors have resigned from the Living Faith Ministries worldwide, popularly known as Winners Chapel, following the reorganisation carried out by its founder, Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo. This resignation, Saturday Tribune learnt, has caused ripples in the church, particularly among its leadership.

Among the first set of Bishops that resigned their appointment were Bishop Bolu Martins, supervising the Ibadan branch; Bishop Thomas Aremu in charge of Kaduna; and one Pastor Olorunda who was recently posted to Warri, but got transferred to Ibadan following the reorganisation.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the bishops and pastors who resigned did so following the decision to zone the activities of the church with effect from this year.

Before the decision was taken last year, the church operated on state level, with the state branches being supervised by bishops and pastors.

hough, most of the bishops were reported to have resigned on the grounds that they got the divine call to start their own ministries, sources told ST that it was their own way of protesting the reorganisation that would see them carrying out mainly administrative instead of ministering functions.

Under the new arrangement, the church will be divided into five regions with at least five states under each region.

Series of meetings were held in the last few days at the headquarters of the church in Canaan land.

In fact, when ST visited Canaan land on Thursday, the hierarchy of the church was still locked in a meeting.

It was learnt that such meetings had been a common feature of the church since the decision was opposed to by some of the bishops and pastors.

Sources, however, said that Oyedepo was still making efforts to convince the bishops and pastors on the rationale behind the decision.

Oyedepo said the new regime was to position the church for further growth in order to meet the vision of evangelising the country.

It was gathered that the acquisition of a new website by the church is also an indication of general overhauling of the entire structure of the church.

In the interim, the church has put in place an alternative measure to accommodate new pastors and possibly to elevate some to the position of bishops.