Despite his much-acclaimed spirituality, the Founder of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, is also an intuitive individual whose actions are almost always predictable if you assess him without sentiment.
However, I’m still surprised that those who are supposed to be his close associates for several decades still manage to read him wrongly some of the time—as was the case with his 85th birthday, which fell on Saturday, June 6, 2026.
I recall a funny event at his 80th birthday five years ago, I think it was on a Sunday. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) and his then Akwa Ibom colleague, Udom Emmanuel, were in church to felicitate the church leader.
While Pastor Kumuyi was dressed in his usual blazers and matching ensembles, his august visitors were in flowing white agbada and were the cynosure of all eyes.
The Sunday worship service went on as usual, without any special recognition for the birthday.
Whenever august visitors, such as state governors, visit the church, their presence is always acknowledged, and they are allowed a few minutes to address the congregation. So, that Sunday, five years ago, was no different.
However, after the two governors had addressed the church, an obviously hired trumpeter stood up, perhaps on a cue, and blasted the first line of the ‘Happy birthday’ song. Almost immediately, the moderator of the worship service arrested the church’s attention by announcing the next hymn, which obviously served as a warning to the intrusive trumpeter to stop it, and the church service went on as usual, with no recognition of what is generally regarded as a major milestone.
So, when some church leaders decided to hold a special prayer for Pastor Kumuyi between 2 PM and 3 PM on Saturday, June 6th to mark his 85th birthday, the octogenarian cleric sent a well-circulated urgent message advising the leaders to stop it.
In his self-effacing explanation a day later at the globally-aired combined worship service in Gbagada on Sunday, he told the church that his refusal to have special prayer meeting held for him on his birthday was to prevent a precedence that might erroneously end up becoming a church doctrine, unwittingly putting the church in the hands of Herod, the birthday champion who used the occasion of his birthday to be.head John the Baptist.
If anything, the aged pastor’s proactive measure will be remembered long after he might have gone, and one can only pray that those coming behind him will hold on to the torch of the Gospel with the same sincerity and ruggedness.
Happy birthday, Pastor Kumuyi!
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