3 Nigerian Churches That Were Almost Torn Apart Due To Leadership Struggle

3 Nigerian Churches That Were Almost Torn Apart Due To Leadership Struggle 

One thing that many people expect and really ought to be is that in the household of faith,there shouldn’t be any haggling over who leads or not. But alas that is not so. And that also maybe due to the fact that churches are also made up of human beings who it must be said can fall victim of the cares of the flesh.

Infact many churches leaders are nothing more than simple human leaders who take majority of the decisions that they take simply the way the issue interest or favours them.

In this article, we highlight five churches who have almost gone under due to leadership tussles between top hierarchy and which in some instances even led to a break up and fictionalization of such church.

Foursquare Gospel Church:

Known for its deep rootedness in the word,the church was shaken to it’s foundation when it’s then General Overseer, Rev Wilson Badejo wanted to by all means retain power after having spent the stipulated number of years by the Church’s constitution as General Overseer. He allegedly tries to bribe his way through the election but was strongly countered by a larger number of the churches leadership. God eventually had his way and the church was able to ride through the leadership storm and emerged even stronger. Back then,Rev Wilson dragged the church to court but God prevailed eventually.

Celestial Church of Christ

Founded by the late Pastor Samuel Bilewu Joseph (SBJ) Oshoffa, the Celestial Church of Christ has indeed contributed to the spiritual landscape of Nigeria and even West Africa.

History has it that just like the great prophets of old, he had a 40-day divine revelation in the forest of Dahomey (now Republic of Benin), where he was commissioned for a great era of signs and wonders. 

Even though he was just a local carpenter by training, his prayers of deliverance healed the sick, raised the dead and liberated the oppressed.

But this was tragically disrupted when he died in September 1985 without leaving behind a clear successor.

This threw the church into a very long and protracted leadership tussle with intrigues and different new detours at each stage. This tussle interestingly involved members of the board of trustees and even later on his own children.

It would appear that the Celestial Church leadership tussle will go down in history as one of the longest leadership tussle as parties are still in court till date restraining each other from acting as the Supreme leader of the church. In the meantime,as the Bible says that the gate of hell will not prevail against the church,the Celestial Church of Christ continues to wade forward with the hope that soon enough all of the wiles of the devil will be quashed.

Assemblies of God Church

This is another church whose leadership tussle at the top is almost threatening to tear the church apart.

The tussle over who becomes the General Overseer has been on for a while now with different factions and individuals claiming to be the legitimate leader.

The church is still in court over who should be the General Superintendent (GS), even while the Christian bodies in Nigeria have reportedly tried to intervene in saving the face of the Church. AGC may not be indigenous as it was established in August 15 1989, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States by George O. Wood, but it is one of the known Nigerian Pentecostal churches. 

With these tussles,it makes many wonder if the church of Christ is really following Christ’s example of servant leadership.