By Kato Mivule | May 17, 2009
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/apostasy-watch/330-is-nigerian-bishop-david-oyedepo-bullying-ugandan-pastors.html
Ugandans got ‘invaded’ by a Nigerian Prosperity Gospel and Curse-Deliverance Czar, Bishop David Oyedepo, of course at the invitation of his branch Church in Kampala, The Winners Chapel. Bishop Oyedepo flew to Uganda aboard his own private Gulf Stream Jet and welcomed by throngs of his followers in Uganda.
Nigeria's Bishop David Oyedepo
Bishop Oyedepo however, found Uganda reeling back and forth at the news that Pastor Robert Kayanja, Uganda’s Prosperity Gospel guru had been accused of Sodomy and molesting a young boy, with a police case filed against Kayanja. Uganda’s Evangelical Church is undergoing a shaking and a divide between the Prosperity Gospel preachers and those who are calling for Sound Doctrine and Leadership Accountability.
It must be remembered that back in the 1990s Bishop Oyedepo caused controversy in Uganda when he opened up his Winners Chapel Church and had people line up and drink Olive Oil so as to receive the prosperity anointing and prosper in riches. Among the Oil Drinkers was Pastor Joseph Sserwada of Victory Christian Center in Kampala who led his church and followers to the Bishop Oyedepo’s conference and the Prosperity Olive Oil Drinking binge begun.
Pastor Joseph Sserwada
It was at that time, that Pastor Martin Ssempa of Makerere Community Church stood up and openly on National Radio Rebuked Pastor Sserwada and told him to stop drinking Olive Oil in search for material prosperity and wealth, as it was unbiblical and a heresy.
Uganda’s Evangelical Churches were shocked as no one in Uganda had heard any Pastor openly rebuke a “Powerful Anointed Man of God” like Pastor Joseph Sserwada. We thought that Pastor Martin Ssempa was going to drop dead and be cursed the rest of his life because our Pastors taught us then “never to touch the Anointed Men of God”.
Pastor Martin Ssempa
However, Pastor Martin Ssempa still lives to this day and is well and alive. My life never stayed the same ever since, I grabbed by critical thinking, reason, and intellect which I had cast aside in fear of “touching the anointed men of God” and decided I would never take the so-called Men of God at face value… The Ayedepo Prosperity Olive Oil drinking movement faded away.
Yet still Bishop Oyedepo flies to Uganda aboard in his private Gulf Stream Jet and is received with all pomp by his Ugandan Followers, after which he lashes out at genuine Ugandan Pastors who are calling for accountability, purity, and Sound Doctrine among Uganda’s Evangelical Church Leaders.
Is Bishop Oyedepo defending Pastor Kayanja????
In his conference in Kampala, Bishop Oyedepo castigated those who ‘speak against the servants of God’ and claimed that the Church in Africa had lost a decade because of infighting between Pastors…
“…He said that Christianity would disintegrate if religious leaders did not stop bickering. “The Church has lost her sense of stewardship and the role of transforming society. It has started disintegrating,” Oyedepo said, urging pastors to get back to the Bible truth instead of fighting one another. Quoting the Bible which says that Christians are the light of the world, Oyedepo said: “Anytime the Church stops shining, darkness will cover the earth.” For a decade, disputes have engulfed Born-again Christian churches, with pastors accusing one another of dishonesty and ungodliness. Today, prominent international evangelist Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral is struggling to uphold his reputation as fellow pastors, led by Solomon Male, accuse him of misconduct. Amid applause from thousands of believers who thronged the conference on Thursday evening, Oyedepo said it was not biblical to defame a servant of God…”
Sunday Vision, May 17, 2009: Church has lost sense of Focus
http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=7&newsCategoryId=125&newsId=681570
Bishop Oyedepo seemed to totally be out of touch with New Testament Scriptures and instead took on a ride with his populist comments among undiscerning Ugandan Evangelicals. Rather than call Ugandan Pastors to Sound Doctrine and Accountability, Bishop Oyedepo lowered himself to levels of simply playing Church Politics in order to throw support for his Prosperity Gospel comrade Robert Kayanja.
1 Timothy 3:1-3
(1) This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
(2) A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
(3) Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
Titus 1:7-11
(7) For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
(8) But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
(9) Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
(10) For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision:
(11) Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
Bishop Oyedepo seemed to conjecture that Africa’s dying and decaying Evangelicalism is a result of bickering among Pastors. Such thinking is not only simplistic but a form of escapism and deliberate ignoring of the duties of the office of a Bishop according to the New Testament, which calls for making sure the saints keep to Sound Biblical Doctrine.
Bishop Oyedepo forgets that he is supposed to contend earnestly for the faith that was delivered to the saints because false teachers and false prophets have with stealth entered the Church. Instead Bishop Oyedepo flirts around with the need of Pastors to return to Bible Truth after which he engages his audience in ‘Escapism Talk’, avoiding the Real issues affecting Uganda’s Evangelical Church and then he engages in ‘Positive Possibility Talk’ by casting his apocalyptic futuristic vision for the Church, a.k.a. his opinion about the future of Africa’s Evangelical Church.
Bishop Oyedepo should be ashamed of himself, why did he waste all his money and jet fuel to fly all the way from Nigeria to Uganda to simply engage in the “Don’t Touch the Anointed Men of God” Mantra? He should have simply sent handouts to Uganda to feed the poor with labels “Don’t Touch the Anointed Men of God” and his message would have been widely received.
Bishop Oyedepo did not even consider that the people he is trying to throw support for might actually be involved in Crimes of Child Abuse which could cause further embarrassment to his “global ministry”.
It is a shame that Bishop Oyedepo failed in his ‘Overseer’ Office to call for repentance, accountability, and sound doctrine among Ugandan Pastors.
Bishop Oyedepo should have been appreciating the efforts of the “small and little” unknown financially poor Ugandan Pastors who have been faithful to The Lord and His Word and have gone all the way to expose criminals in the Church and call for accountability among Ugandan Pastors and the need to return to Sound Bible Doctrine.
"...THE Bishop of the Nigerian-based Living Faith Ministries, commonly called the Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo, arrived in Uganda yesterday for a three-day gospel conference. Oyedepo, who arrived at Entebbe Airport aboard a personal jet, was received by a group of pastors and believers. He was driven in a 20-car convoy to Kampala..."Source: New Vision May 14, 2009: Bishop Oyedepo to preach at Africana
Those “small” Pastors might not even afford an economy class airline ticket to Nigeria but at least they have not sold their integrity and faithfulness to Jesus Christ and His Church. Those “small” Pastors deserved to be encouraged rather than ridiculed by a Nigerian Prosperity Gospel Kingpin flying with all pomp to bully poor Ugandan Pastors.
Besides his prosperity gospel and pomp, Bishop Oyedepo has built schools, clinics, and a University in Nigeria and many have benefited from his generosity by gaining a free education. However, Bishop Oyedepo should remember that you cannot separate the Cross from Charity and the Gospel from Giving. It would do Ugandans well to tell us that first we are sinners who need to repent rather than give out handouts and take the true Gospel away from us.
Yet Ugandans crave for accountability and are tired of corruption of both Politicians and Pastors – for the Priest, Prophet, and King are corrupt in Uganda and Bishop Oyedepo seems to wink at them...
