Deeper Life Bible Church

   The Deeper Life Bible Church is one of the leading examples of the success of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement in sub-Saharan Africa (see Africa, sub-Saharan) in the last decades of the 20th century. It was founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1973 as the Deeper Christian Life Ministry by William Folorunso Kumuyi (b. 1941), a former Anglican who joined the Apostolic Faith Church after receiving the baptism of the Holy SpiRiT.In 1975, he was expelled from that church for preaching without being credentialed. He continued his independent ministry, which in 1982 became the Deeper Life Bible Church.

   The church experienced spectacular growth, drawing in half a million members during its first decade. Much of this growth can be attributed to the support of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea, and the adoption of its model of intimate home-based fellowships. Kumuyi's congregation is the largest in all of Africa. Deeper Life is a Holiness-Pentecostal church with an emphasis on holy living.

   The church has spread throughout sub-Saha-ran Africa and then to the United Kingdom, from where branches were developed in western Europe, Russia,India, and North America.

   See also Nigeria.

   Further reading:

   ■ Allan H. Anderson, African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth Century (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2001)

   ■ Matthews A. Ojo, "Deeper Life Bible Church of Nigeria," in Paul Gifford, ed., New Dimensions in African Christianity (Nairobi, Kenya: All Africa Conference of Churches, 1992).