Bishop David Oyedepo, founder/General Overseer of Living Faith Church also known as Winners Chapel has given reason for sacking 40 pastors of the church.
This came shortly after a certain Pastor Peter Godwin of the Winners Chapel, claimed that the church sacked him and about 40 other pastors in Ekiti State for failing to grow their respective parishes.
He said he was employed on August 28, 2020.
In a letter that has been trending on social media, which is dated June 25, 2021 and signed by the Executive Secretary of the church, Adebisi Aboluwade, the pastors were asked to evacuate their official accommodations and hand over their identity cards to their respective area pastors.
He said that he was invited with about 40 of his colleagues by the state pastor on July 1, 2021, but was sacked for failing to grow the income of the church.
The pastor said that, on July 1, he received a call that the state pastor wanted to see him, and that he was amazed to see about 40 other pastors when he arrived.
Godwin said, “When I got there, I saw other pastors too, over 40 of them. So, I joined them.
“A few minutes later, we were [each] issued a letter. I opened the content of the letter to see what was there and I saw that it was a sack letter.
“So, I called the management the next day to find out what happened since I wasn’t involved in any dubious activity or evil act. I was told by the management that the church doesn’t operate at a loss.
“They also told me that the total income that is being generated from my station should be able to cater for my welfare and accommodation, so as a result of low income, I’m hereby dismissed.”
But the Church has reacted to claims that it recently sacked some pastors for having a church growth index that falls below expectations.
Bishop Oyedepo during a church service on Sunday, July 11, stated that people are confused about the organisation’s ministry, insisting that the sacking of the pastors was done in adherence to the commandment of God.
Oyedepo, speaking to his congregation, said the pastors recently sacked by the church were unfruitful and blatant failure.
He dismissed the allegations that the pastors were sacked because they did not generate enough income into their branches.
The clergyman said: ‘’People are confused about our Ministry. I learnt some fellows said, “you know, they are not bringing income, that is why they asked them to go.
“We asked you to go because you are unfruitful. Unfruitful! Blatant failure. Doing what there? We have no patience with failure here.’’ No employee of the church is owed salary.
The clergyman questioned why there was no buzz on social media when the Living Faith Church employed 7,000 people at a time.
He pointed out that the church has more employees on its payroll than most of the states.
Oyedepo stated that no employee of the church is owed salary. Sacked pastors fell short of certain standards.
In another news, Bishop Oyedepo has revealed that he loves all ministers of God but he can’t be a friend to all of them.
The Bishop in a sermon shared on the official Facebook of the church stated that it’s not possible because he can’t be friends or hang around with people who say nothing can work in Nigeria.
However, a popular media personality, Morayo Afolabi-Brown, has urged the sacked pastors to take their grievances to God.
The TV host made this known on her verified Instagram page @morayobrown on Sunday, following the report on the sacking of pastors at the church.
She wrote, “God is the real MD (Managing Director) of any Bible believing church. If you get ‘sacked’, take your grievances to Him, not the media. Only He can compensate you, not the rabble rousers on social media.”
