Kumuyi revises Deeper Life marriage restrictions, says some of the old rules are not biblical

• Pastor William Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, has announced changes to the church’s marriage rules, stressing they are administrative, not scriptural.

• Speaking at the 2025 Global Family and Marriage Conference, he said the six-month courtship period and the ban on visits between intending couples were no longer compulsory

• Kmuyi explained, urging Christians to distinguish between God’s commandments and church traditions.

The General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has announced major changes to the Church’s marriage rules, stressing that many of them were administrative guidelines and not scriptural commands.

Speaking at the 2025 Global Family and Marriage Conference on Sunday, August 31, Kumuyi revealed that the rule which previously barred a lady from visiting a man she intended to marry had been scrapped. According to him, intending couples can now visit each other during courtship, provided an elder accompanies them.

He also clarified that the six-month compulsory courtship period introduced by the church is no longer mandatory, describing it as a human arrangement rather than a biblical instruction.

“We just felt you need some time to know one another. And then we said one month will be too short, two months too short. So, why not six months? But it is not from the Bible,” Kumuyi explained.

The cleric emphasized the importance of distinguishing between divine commandments and church traditions. “As a Christian, you need to be so mature that you know the difference between the law of God and the principles in the church. Six months is all right, but it’s not something inflexible. If we change it to three months, we’re not changing the Bible, because six months is not in the Bible,” he said.

He further clarified that the church’s marriage committees were established only for guidance and not as replacements for biblical authority. “There’s no marriage committee in the New Testament. We created it to help you, not because we can give you a chapter and a verse. It is church administration,” Kumuyi stated.

Cautioning church leaders, he warned that marriage committees must not overstep their bounds, adding that they should never exercise authority beyond what is written in the scriptures.