Pastor Unegbu Victor-Wallace (Pst) former pastor in the Living Faith Church also known as Winners Chapel wrote an article titled, Shiloh without Bishop Abioye: Facts and Lessons; which is being circulated online.
However, a follow-up interview with him by Church Times gives a deeper insight into the politics of the retirement of Bishop David Abioye, the erstwhile pastor of the church who has since moved on to start his ministry.
Please find below his article, which was shared on his wall and currently being circulated online, and then an excerpt from his interview with Church Times.
Shiloh Without Bishop Abioye; Facts and Lessons by Pastor Unegbu Victor-Wallace
As soon as I learnt of the retirement of Bishop David Abioye, I patiently waited to see if he would show up in this year’s Shiloh. True to my expectations he didn’t .
I have read a lot of reactions from people on social media and offline concerning the retirement of Bishop David Abioye and his absence in Shiloh.
As a way of introduction , I joined the commission in 2003 and what endeared me to the commission was Bishop Oyedepo’s pure love for Jesus Christ. Though I may not agree with a lot of his teachings doctrinally but Bishop Oyedepo’s love for God is akin to the love a baby has towards his or her mother. I later became a full time pastor loosely referred to as resident pastor.
During my very short and eventful time as resident pastor I was privileged to pastor in Mbaise and Awomamna where I planted over 20 churches. I resigned from that position in 2011 for personal and revelational reasons. But still remained a member of living faith church where I served as pastoral assistant, a designation for ordained part time pastors.
Bishop Oyedepo suffered great persecution from resident pastors. It was so much that very trusted pastors showed the man ‘shege’. I recall in one of our one pastors’ meetings at covenant university auditorium, papa said during the period his wife was critically ill to the point of death, pastors were wishing her dead.
Most times what we see from outside does not reflect the reality in the inside. Papa from the actions of his pastor learnt the hard way not to trust anyone fully.
Now listen to me, you may wish to inquire from any resident pastor who had or is still pastoring in LFC especially those who were ordained at least 14 years ago. There two categories of pastors in Winners Chapel; Papa’s boys and Abioye’s boys.
Papa’s boys are those who have direct link to papa and are loyal to him whereas Abioye’s boys were those who are loyal to Abioye. I came into ministry as resident pastor ordained by papa himself in 2010. I came in with a pure zeal to serve God not knowing that there are internal political power play that goes on within the mix.
After the appraisal in 2010 ending, I was informed by a top official that I was among the top in my set, 2009-2010 set. I was told that by my appraisal I have been transferred to the Ihiagwa church, a church with over 1000 members and close to the Federal University of Technology Owerri meaning it’s a student area and as former SUG President of that School it was a perfect posting.
I waited for days, and weeks for my transfer letter to get to me, but it didn’t even when I had a verified knowledge of my transfer to Ihiagwa. Well to my surprise, the letter finally came and it read transferred to LFC Awomamna as Resident pastor 1 meaning the senior pastor. I felt bad but saw it as the will of God.
At Awommama, I planted 4 churches in less than 8 months. At a time, I pastored the entire 4. However, I struggled to adapt to the new reality which I saw in ministry. After struggling for some months, I decided to follow the trend and join the group that was holding sway which was the Abioye boys. Like magic, I started enjoying some privileges and love to the extent I was asked to pick where I would love to be transferred to.
I think Papa was very much aware of the Abioye boys’ thing and the great influence they commanded especially within the Nigeria church mission. They were the richest and were posted to branches that were strong financially. They practically frustrated most of papa’s boys out of the commission. But trust the wisdom in operation in the life of Papa, the old man has patience and is very tactical.
One day in another pastors’ meeting, Bishop Oyedepo announced that he was going to pattern the church’s succession plan after that of Kenneth Hagin. This implied that one of his two sons who had just joined the ministry would be his successor. That gave rise to the mandate!
The mandate went through a lot of reviews because some of these pastors were taking advantage of the content of the mandate to carry out some self-serving actions, as such the mandate at a time was suspended and subjected to very critical review.
One may ask, was Bishop Abioye aware of the existence of a powerful clique code named the Abioye boys? I think he is very much aware because whenever it is time for his birthday we were usually tasked to bring monetary gifts that was usually collated and sent to him including the names of the pastors and the church branch they pastor.
Bishop Oyedepo practically left the running of the church in Nigeria to Bishop Abioye and did not bother to know what was going on except for Canaanland Ota the headquarters. So Bishop Abioye held sway. However, Bishop Oyedepo haven decided to handover the church to Pastor David Jnr concentrated on tutoring the young man by himself in Ota and creating an enabling environment for the young man to command influence and respect among pastors.
These will not be possible if some of the old war horses who were with Papa were not shown the exit door, from the greatest to the least hence the retirement age strategy.
Well, before now it was believed that LFC Goshen Abuja was built by papa as a parting gift for Bishop Abioye. So the plan was to make him life resident pastor of LFC Goshen Abuja however, it was discovered that if Abioye is still in the system and David Jnr takes over, the young man would not enjoy the sovereignty to do as occasion serves him as the president of LFC Worldwide. Hence the difficult but only decisive decision to retire Bishop Abioye and Bishop Aremu though Aremu was just a co victim not the main target.
Whether you believe it or not, this decision came to bishop Abioye as a rude shock although his wife loved it because mummy has always been on the opinion that the husband should start his own ministry long ago time instead of doing a second fiddle to bishop Oyedepo. Little wonder it didn’t come to me as a surprise when Bishop Abioye floated a non-denominational outreach almost immediately after retirement. This outreach is likely to metamorphose into a full-time denomination in months or years to come.
But friends I think Papa didn’t do Abioye any wrong, papa transformed Bishop Abioye and gave him that brand that everyone refers to as loyal servant and lieutenant. Papa made Bishop Abioye one of the wealthiest pastors in Africa and I think Bishop Abioye is the wealthiest pastor or priest in history who does not own or run a private ministry worldwide.
In Winners Chapel, bishop Abioye was the defacto president of the commission and that retirement came to him like a coup masterly plotted and executed.
Let no Winners Chapel member expect to see bishop Abioye around LFC events except on some face-saving exceptions so that wrong impressions would not be sustained.
Never forget, organised religion is not the church!
What Unegbu told Church Times in an online interview
What is your faith background and how did you join Winners Chapel?
I was born and dedicated at The Apostolic Church TAC but later but joined my aunty to worship at the Assemblies of God Church at 3 Mustapha Street Olodi Apapa Lagos in 1987. That was how I became a member of AGC until 2003 when I joined Winners Chapel. It was the teachings of Bishop David Oyedepo that attracted me to Winners Chapel. I was also attracted by Oyedepo’s passion and love for God.
So how did you become a pastor?
I went through the regular training in the church and also had my first degree in 2007. Eventually I became a full-time pastor in the church in 2009. I resigned from full time ministry in 2011 from Living Faith Church in Awomamna, Owerri, Imo State for personal reasons. By then I was done with my masters programme. I then moved to Obinze where I served as pastoral assistant till August 2016 when I left Winners Chapel.
You talked about Abioye Boys and Oyedepo Boys in your article, did you meet Bishop Abioye throughout your stay in Winners? What gives you the impression there was such classification in the church?
I didn’t meet Bishop Abioye one on one but within the fold of pastors we were all aware of the classification; Abioye boys and Oyedepo boys.
The state pastor then, Pastor Ogbonyomi was among the Abioye boys. He was responsible for altering my transfer and changing it to LFC Awomamna a church with less than 100 members including children.
However, when I saw that if I continued alone without joining the trend I would suffer, I then started working my way into the heart of Pst Ogbonyomi.
Soon I became close to him and was even joining him for his specialized programme for mothers and fathers of nations which is a programme for those expecting the miracle of the fruit of the womb. It was then I knew fully the dichotomy.
During the birthday celebration of Bishop Abioye, we were told to give. Our names and amount and church branch were compiled and sent to Bishop Abioye.
I was the one who was handling the mail of Pst Ogbonyomi then so I was asked to compile the names. So, Bishop Abioye is aware that there was a group of pastors loyal to him specifically.
One would have thought Oyedepo boys would be more powerful since Bishop Oyedepo is the founder of the church?
Bishop Oyedepo left the entire operation of the Nigeria Church Mission to Bishop Abioye except Canaanland Ota. Bishop Abioye was practically in charge of all the churches. Also, as a man of wisdom Bishop Oyedepo did not interfere so much with the running of the churches in Nigeria because of the long-term trust he has for Abioye even till today. Hence the Abioye boys had upper hand. That is why it is easy for those who are his followers to have more ground than those loyal to Bishop Oyedepo.
Since you belong to the Abioye Camp and things were working for you, why did resign from being pastor and later left the church?
I left winners chapel on the instructions of the Holy Spirit. The instruction came through Hosea 13:13 (KJV) which reads, “The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.”
I was confused when the Lord gave me the scripture. I could not agree to the interpretation. And because I had started enjoying ministry. The privileges were coming, I was sure of getting transferred soon to my desired branch.
In fact, one day pastor Ogbonyomi in his office brought out a chart of churches and asked me where I would love to be transferred to? I told him to allow me spend more time in Awomamna that I have some targets to meet. But the truth then is that the scripture Hosea 13v13 which came to me as a marching order has taken over the whole of my being and I was already out of Winners Chapel. But I wanted to do it in such a way that Ogbonyomi would not stop me. So, the following week I brought my resignation letter to him, he looked at me angrily and didn’t say anything. One week passed he didn’t say anything.
So, one day I used his official mail because I had access, to forward my resignation letter to the mission’s headquarters in Abuja. So, when Ogbonyomi later called me to speak to me about my decision to resign and to convince me not to resign I told him I had already sent the letter to Abuja through his mail.
He was furious. Before then we had a program where Victor and Dele Bamgboye were invited as guests. On that day Ogbonyomi invited me to his office he told me he actually put up the program because of me to encourage me not to resign and have hope that soon I would enjoy. True to his words the entire programme and the teachings were more like custom made for me.
If my decision to resign was about me that programme would have made me rescind my decision but it had nothing to do with me. In fact, I was enjoying ministry and having no need to resign.
I was even planning for my marriage then and Ogbonyomi was surely going to support me with resources for sure.
The scripture, Hosea 13:13 (KJV) The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.” Kept ringing in my head
The interpretation I got from that scripture is that Winners Chapel was a place where children are birthed not where they grow to maturity. I disagreed with this in my heart until 2016 when it became very clear to me what the Lord was saying.
So, what became clear to you, how did you arrive at leaving the church finally?
I started reading and seeing scriptures differently from what I have been taught. Eventually I left the church in August 2016 to be precise.
I left Winners Chapel and joined Federal University of Technology, Owerri as an academic staff. I was lecturing at the department of Maritime Management Technology but I lost the job due to political issues within the school system. I was one time President of Students Union of FUTO so it was easy to get involved in politics when I became a lecturer. But that led to a number of things including being maligned. My appointment was terminated and till date the university keeps denying my right to appeal which is enshrined in the school’s regulations.
Presently I am into media and I work for the imo state government as media assistant. I had opportunities to start my own ministry but I lost interest in it, maybe hopefully God may revive it He so wishes.
Do you think Bishop Abioye should have left earlier than he did?
Bishop Abioye had envisaged that he would be allowed to become a life resident pastor of LFC Goshen without retirement. He had expected that the retirement clause would exempt him as it exempted papa (Bishop Oyedepo).
So, he didn’t have the premonition of retirement and from his own judgement it is far better to stay as life resident pastor of LFC Goshen until death comes than to set out for a new ministry
Do you suspect any bitterness between Oyedepo and Abioye as a result of Abioye’s retirement?
Of a truth the retirement came to Abioye as a rude shock! He never expected it! He felt really bad about it but for the sake of public image he won’t be seen or heard saying anything against the decision of papa to retire him
So, though he is not all together happy but certainly there is no bitterness at all. That is my honest assesment of the situation. The succession plan affected him. That is just life.
There is no way any of the old pastors will be around when the younger generation is set to take over the church.
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