Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, also known as Winners’ Chapel International, David Oyedepo, has warned against treating the church as a family business.
Speaking during a programme held by the church and monitored online by Church Times, the cleric said many charismatic churches collapsed because their leaders operated them as family business.
According to him, the Living Faith Church has a succession plan which is documented in a public booklet called mandate.
“In this church, the moment you’re 70 as the leader of the church, you step aside and select three people to be presented to the church council,” he said.
“The church council will pick from the three. But if they are not qualified the leader will be given another opportunity to present three people and afterwards step aside for the council to take over while they sort out the leadership issue.
“When your church becomes a personal property it is dead on arrival. Don’t call your children to ministry. If you do, you will frustrate their destiny. Let them be positioned where they belong.”
Oyedepo decried the unwillingness of preachers nowadays to go into streets to preach the gospel.
He said he had been holding open air crusades since 1976 and that in 1977 he preached to at least one person per day.
“How many men of my age and grace are on the streets today going from place to place preaching the gospel? And I am not interested in them coming to my church when I preach to them. I am interested in them coming to know the Lord and being rescued from darkness,” he said.
Oyedepo’s first son, David Jr, is the resident pastor of the church’s headquarters in Ota, Ogun State. His other son, Isaac, is the pastor of the church in Maryland, United States.
