The General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM), Pastor William Kumuyi, has announced changes to some long-standing marriage rules of the church, clarifying that they are not scriptural but administrative guidelines.

Speaking during the 2025 Global Family and Marriage Conference, Kumuyi said the ban which prevented a lady from visiting a man she intended to marry has been cancelled.

He explained that intending couples may now visit each other during courtship, provided an elder accompanies them.

The cleric also stated that the six-month mandatory courtship period introduced by the church is no longer compulsory, stressing that it was a human arrangement and not a biblical command.

“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,” he said.

Kumuyi emphasised the need for Christians to differentiate between God’s commandments and church traditions, warning against treating human regulations as divine.

“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 added.

He further explained that the church’s marriage committees were created only to provide guidance and not to replace 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,” he said.

Kumuyi cautioned leaders against overstepping their limits, warning that marriage committees should not exercise authority beyond what is written in the scriptures.

The development comes as Kumuyi continues to review several practices of the church which, according to him, were introduced for administrative purposes and not rooted in the Bible. (The Guardian)

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