Category: K.P. Yohannan

Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability Terminates Gospel for Asia's Membership

Just today the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability posted notice that they have terminated Gospel for Asia from ECFA membership due to failure to comply with multiple ECFA standards.  GFA was a charter member of the ECFA, having joined in 1982.
The reasons for termination are listed on the ECFA former member page:
ECFADropsGFA
This is a major development in this story and represents enforcement action one rarely sees from the ECFA.
GFA told Mark Woods at Christian Today that the ECFA review of GFA would be done sometime in October and that GFA would then answer all outstanding questions.
The lack of compliance involves the following ECFA standards:

Standard 2 – Governance

Every organization shall be governed by a responsible board of not less than five individuals, a majority of whom shall be independent, who shall meet at least semiannually to establish policy and review its accomplishments.

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Standard 3 – Financial Oversight

Every organization shall prepare complete and accurate financial statements. The board or a committee consisting of a majority of independent members shall approve the engagement of an independent certified public accountant, review the annual financial statements, and maintain appropriate communication with the independent certified public accountant. The board shall be apprised of any material weaknesses in internal control or other significant risks.

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Standard 4 – Use of Resources and Compliance with Laws

Every organization shall exercise the appropriate management and controls necessary to provide reasonable assurance that all of the organization’s operations are carried out and resources are used in a responsible manner and in conformity with applicable laws and regulations, such conformity taking into account biblical mandates.

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Standard 7 – Stewardship of Charitable Gifts
7.1 Truthfulness in Communications
In securing charitable gifts, all representations of fact, descriptions of the financial condition of the organization, or narratives about events must be current, complete, and accurate. References to past activities or events must be appropriately dated. There must be no material omissions or exaggerations of fact, use of misleading photographs, or any other communication which would tend to create a false impression or misunderstanding.
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7.2 Giver Expectations and Intent
Statements made about the use of gifts by an organization in its charitable gift appeals must be honored. A giver’s intent relates both to what was communicated in the appeal and to any instructions accompanying the gift, if accepted by the organization. Appeals for charitable gifts must not create unrealistic expectations of what a gift will actually accomplish.
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I am surprised that Standard 5 was not also mentioned since GFA has not produced an audited financial statement for 2014.
Additional Information:
GFA’s charter member profile on ECFA’s website (Google cache)
GFA’s characterization of the meaning of ECFA membership (Google cache):

The ECFA seal is tangible evidence to donors that a ministry is complying with the highest standards of Christian ethics in its governance, fundraising and financial accounting and reporting.

Gospel for Asia to Calvary Chapels in 2014: We Are Just Like You

As facts have emerged in the United States about Believers’ Church in India, Gospel for Asia leaders have scrambled to respond to worries that Believers’ Church is not evangelical. In 2014, Believers’ Church worked on a response to questions coming from within Calvary Chapels. Historically, this movement has been supportive of GFA financially and otherwise.
Thus, in the summer of 2014, an assistant to K.P. Yohannan drafted a letter under his name and reviewed by top management to address rumors about the governance and practices of Believers’ Church. I have obtained a copy of that letter. My source for the letter does know for certain that it was sent and so I am calling on Calvary Chapel pastors to read this and let me know if such a letter was ever received (remember GFA won’t respond to my questions and haven’t since May).
Even if the letter wasn’t mailed, it contains talking points geared to Calvary Chapel stakeholders being used in the present and provides an insight into GFA’s stance regarding Believers’ Church. Yohannan makes the surprising claim that Believers’ Church practices are similar to Calvary Chapel polity. Recently disclosures regarding ordination rituals (ring/hand kissing), liturgy, and Communion practices cast doubt on the claims that Believers’ Church is thoroughly evangelical.
The letter in a draft form:

Dear ___________,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. In the recent weeks, a few of our Calvary Chapel pastors and friends told us of some misinformation someone was spreading around, saying K.P. Yohannan and his ministry had become Catholic, etc.
This letter is to say we are not Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, or any such denomination in faith or mission. This rumor was originally started by a few Pentecostal brothers who wanted to discredit us for their own gain.
For the sake of the work of the Lord, and to continue the outreach to the most unreached, we had to choose a form of governance that is accepted by the governments in the Asian countries where we work known as “constitutional episcopacy” (this is not the same as an Episcopal church with their        , but rather it is the governance of the church). This is exactly what is described in the Calvary Chapel Distinctives book by Pastor Chuck Smith. The church is ruled by episkopos (bishops) and presbyteros (elders).
In order for our pastors to conduct weddings and other legal matters for the church, each one must be licensed by the Magistrate from the judicial system, or be ordained by a bishop of a church within the constitutional episcopacy.
Thus, when we ordain our pastors, sometimes 100 or 200 at a time, the bishop that does the ordination is required to wear a certain attire/uniform and head gear that makes the ceremony authentic, much like is done during a college graduation ceremony here in the west. The wearing of the head gear is only done when he pronounces the statement, “By the authority vested in me, I decree you are now an ordained minister in the church of our Lord.” The wearing of the cap is only for a few minutes during the entire two hour ordination service.
Someone has taken one of these pictures of me in my formal dress as the senior bishop of the church, performing the ordination service. That person is using the picture to try and mislead others by accusing me as Catholic or Orthodox, etc.
We are NOT Catholic, nor are we Episcopalians, nor Anglicans, etc., etc. Rather, we are a Spirit-filled, evangelical church, born out of obedience to Christ’s Great Commission commanded to make disciples in all the world. We are radically evangelical both in our doctrines as well as in our spiritual lives. Please read more information about Believers Church on the page we have on our website.
If you have any further questions, please call me, or you can ask Pastor Skip Heitzig or a host of other  Calvary Chapel Pastors that have gone to the mission field with us to teach God’s Word..
Thank you again for taking time to read through this letter. It won’t be long before we stand before Him. Like you, I am longing for that day, for the sake of two billion that wait to hear our Lord’s Name.
For the unreached,
K.P. Yohannan
KPY/sck

Note the appeal to board member Skip Heitzig as a way of addressing concerns with this group. More recently, CC pastor Damian Kyle has been added to the board, probably for similar reasons. Some in the CC world are questioning the practices of Believers’ Church.
The BC liturgy, particularly regarding Communion appears to be dissimilar to what I know of Calvary Chapel. Certainly the ordination service seems more high church than CC. Yohannan has denied he allowed people to kiss his ring. This video seems to contradict that claim. Watch:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHoh6xMEkM[/youtube]
If you are a CC pastor and you received this letter, please let me know either in the comments section or via email.
 

Calvary Chapel Pioneer Rebukes K.P. Yohannan's Church Rituals

GFA HQ Front
Gospel for Asia HQ, Wills Point, TX

Last night, Phoenix Preacher posted audio of Bill Gallatin, a pioneer in Calvary Chapel circles, rebuking the hand kissing rituals of Believers’ Church recently brought to light here and by former staff of Gospel for Asia. At the Northeast Senior Pastors Conference going on now in upstate New York, Gallatin said during a speech:

and you got a man in India who says he’s a Calvary Chapel and he’s wearing robes like the pope and he’s even having his own people come up and kiss his hand…and no ones even blinking.

You can hear the full audio at this link (at about 30 minutes in).
Those familiar with Calvary Chapel are telling me that Rev. Gallatin’s statement, while brief, is significant. As this kind of sentiment bubbles to the surface, it makes me wonder how long GFA will remain silent, even in response to donors and supporting churches.

Gospel for Asia Adds Board Members

According to a former staffer in a position to know, Gospel for Asia added Frances Chan (Crazy Love), David Mains (Chapel of the Air), and Damian Kyle (Calvary Chapel – Modesto) to their governing board.
The addition of these men makes GFA’s silence all the more troubling. It seems fair to call these men into accountability for the questions which GFA has refused to answer about their financial and other dealings.
These new members join founder and CEO K.P. Yohannan, his son Danny, his wife Gisela, Chuck Zink, Gayle Erwin, Robert Felder and Skip Heitzig as board members.

K.P. Yohannan Told Gospel for Asia Staff He Didn’t Allow Ring Kissing, Video Appears to Contradict His Story

In May of this year, I posted a video of a Believers’ Church ordination service which appeared to show ministers kissing the ring of Gospel for Asia Founder and CEO K.P. Yohannan. Yohannan has denied allowing anyone to kiss his ring during rituals of the Believers’ Church. The following video makes it clear that those being ordained are doing something in the vicinity of Yohannan’s hand. If they aren’t kissing his ring, I think any observer could be excused for believing they are.

In an over two hour staff mega-meeting held on May 14, 2015, Yohannan again denied that ring kissing has any place in the church. This meeting took place before the video became available but the audio where K.P. offers a full-throated denial of the practice has not been made available before.
Here is the audio followed by the transcript.

(Listen on the website hosted by former staff of GFA)

Transcript:

David Carroll: There is one question that I think is on many of your minds and has been I think batted around a bit among us and that is, it’s asked a lot of ways but I’ll just ask it from this question plainly: Has ring kissing ever been a part of the Believers’ Church clergy ordination ceremony? Or I’ll just add: or any, is ring kissing is it required anywhere or is it still part of any of those things? Has it ever happened and if it has, if it used to be something that we did in some ceremony, are we still doing that? Kissing the ring?

K.P. Yohannan: What’s wrong with you? (Laughter) I kill you! (more laughter) Danny, I asked you, what is the meaning of kissing the ring? I thought about finding out what it actually means and obviously there’s submission to you or whatever. Now, if somebody said, ‘I saw somebody kissing the ring of our bishop or my ring, I would not tell that person, you are a liar. But if somebody asks me in your conscience and knowledge, you had taught or asked or has anybody kissed your ring, I would say as God almighty is my witness, it never happened, I never allowed it.

As a matter of fact, the most common, when this rumor started spreading, some Calvary Chapel pastors supposed to go to India and met some disgruntled person who left our ministry and started telling, you know, they’re teaching about kissing the ring. I remember that story came to me and immediately I contacted the field and said, ‘please, you know, we don’t want to be seen as belonging to some other church teaching, please don’t do it, if there is any like that.’ They said, ‘no, we never teach or practice that.’ But then I started wondering why somebody think this. So my thinking is you know the most common thing in China, India, all these countries when you see elders, especially spiritual leaders, what they do basically is they touch the feet, you can see that. And then I basically walk away from that. It has nothing to do with Christianity. It’s just culture. But then what the answer is, no, we don’t practice that, we don’t teach that, we teach against it so that we don’t get labeled by some other denomination but even today when you go to the mission field (unclear), what happens is when you meet the Metropolitan or the bishops and what they do is basically and they start doing this, they take the hand and do like that, and it’s not typically everywhere be like that, in most places, the actually touch the feet and express their honor, their respect.

When people are ordained, this the standard thing and by the way, let me say this to you. I fortunately, unfortunately, I like or not, I’m two human beings. I’m brother K.P., hi, K.P., yo, dude, all that here, people call me by all kinds of strange names. But you know when I bought the flight and land overseas, many have seen me a million times, I don’t look like this, I have a cassock, and I’m the Metropolitan of the church and the spiritual father of 2.7 million baptized believers right now. And when you ordain people you whether I like it or not I just submit to the church; that is, there’s a chair, the Bishop’s Chair, that I sit on. If it’s not me then it’s Bishop  _______ or Bishop ____________ and then people are ordained they come and they kneel to get the blessing, and they’re anointed by oil and make the sign of the Cross, and I tell them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now you are ordained minister of the church and that is done, that always be done. There’s not going to be any change in that; all cultures do that, I don’t know how it is done here, but they don’t fall prostrate before anyone or anything like that.

There is an odd near admission at the beginning (“I wouldn’t tell that person, you are a liar”), but then he clearly denies it and provides a narrative that makes the idea seem very far from the church. Given his description of the ordination at the end, I wonder why he didn’t explain what the newly minted minister was doing with Yohannan’s hand. In any case, no explanation has been given for the video.

It is hard for me to imagine how staff at GFA can watch the video in light of this denial. Clearly, some explanation is needed for this.