Why Bishop Oyedepo Sacked Over 40 Pastors ‘For Not Making Money’

Details have emerged on why Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church International, popularly known as Winners Chapel, sacked over 40 pastors.

Naija News recalls Peter Godwin, who claimed to be a former pastor of the church, had alleged that he was sacked for failing to make enough money.

According to Godwin, he was employed on the 28th of August, 2020.

According to the former pastor, he alongside forty of his colleagues were invited by the state pastor on July 1, 2021, and were all sacked over low income in their branches.

But speaking to Vanguard, a senior pastor close to the helm of affairs in the church who does not want his name mentioned revealed that the pastors sacked were pastoring rural churches which depend so much on the headquarters for funding rather than bringing in money into the church’s purse.

He said: “The Living Faith Church had the vision in the year 2019 to open 10,000 rural churches nationwide.

“By the close of the year 2020, over 80 per cent of these cottage churches had been built following a prototype designed and constructed by the church professionals. Then came the human factor.

“Ordinarily, pastoring in Winners Chapel had followed a pattern of training and discipleship since its foundation 40 years ago. However, in view of the massive recruitment to take charge of the new 10,000 churches, many who were neither spiritually nor morally prepared found their way into positions of authority as Pastors-in-charge.”

The source added that with good foresight, the church headquarters appointed seasoned pastors as Mission Inspectors to regularly visit, ministers and monitor these rural churches.

“A lot of the inspectors’ reports were damaging with ungodly acts such as abuse of grace, outright deceit, absconding from church while working full-time elsewhere etc.

“Ab initio, rural churches were never intended to be money spinners; rather, they are money guzzlers because the main church solely built, equipped and maintained both the church and its pastors-in- charge,” the pastor said.

He said the story in circulation about these churches not making sufficient income was therefore patently false and misleading.