Pastor William Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, has announced changes to the church’s long-standing marriage rules.
He spoke during the 2025 Global Family and Marriage Conference.
The adjustments, made public on Sunday at the three-day programme, include the cancellation of the rule that prevented a lady from visiting a man she intended to marry.
The General Superintendent said that couples can now visit each other in courtship as long as an elder is present.
He also explained that the six-month compulsory courtship period is no longer binding, stressing that it was an administrative guideline created by the church and not a biblical requirement.
According to him, the time frame was originally designed to help couples know each other better, but it was never drawn from scripture.
Kumuyi urged Christians to clearly separate God’s commandments from church traditions, warning against giving human-made rules the same weight as the Bible.
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He pointed out that church marriage committees were introduced for guidance and administration but should not be seen as having scriptural authority.
He said: “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.
“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.
“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.”
