EGN NEWS DESK
(CP) Okay.P. Yohannan, the founder and director of Gospel for Asia and the metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church, has died of a cardiac arrest on the age of 74.
Gospel for Asia introduced Yohannan’s demise in a press release, noting that the influential Indian Christian chief died on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Dallas, Texas.
Yohannan was struck by a automobile whereas taking a stroll the day earlier than. While on the hospital recovering from the accident, he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.
“We reward God for permitting His servant the energy to run his race faithfully and with a lot endurance to the very finish,” GFA acknowledged within the announcement.
“Millions of lives are without end remodeled due to his tireless ardour and repair unto his Savior. May God obtain him into the embrace of the saints. Christ is risen! May his reminiscence be everlasting!”
Yohannan is survived by his spouse, Gisela; his son Daniel, daughter Sarah and 7 grandchildren: David, Esther, Jonah, Hannah, Lydia, Naomi and Noah.
Yohannan was born in Southern India in 1950 because the youngest of six sons, reportedly in a village the place St. Thomas the Apostle had planted a church within the first century, in accordance with his on-line obituary.
Inspired by the instance and friendship of missionary George Verwer, Yohannan entered the ministry and acquired a theological training at Criswell College within the Seventies.
Yohannan based Gospel for Asia in 1979. He turned metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church in February 2003. BEC identifies as Evangelical, nonetheless it adopts extra excessive church worship practices and apparel.
A prolific author, in accordance with GFA World, Yohannan has had round 250 books revealed in Asia and 12 books within the United States.
From 2008 to 2022, Yohannan contributed a couple of opinion columns to The Christian Post, the final of which was revealed in May 2022 and titled “How can we reclaim this ‘vanishing technology’?”
“I consider we have left an entire technology floundering as a result of — regardless of all our educating supplies, church packages, and actions — they’ve by no means had a real encounter with the residing Christ. Instead, we have been led to consider the smartphone technology wants fixed media bombardment,” he wrote on the time.
“Our misplaced emphasis on fast-moving media and rock-concert quantity has changed the much-needed timeless self-discipline of searching for God in quiet meditation and reverent silence. As a consequence, our worship companies have centered on efficiency somewhat than coming earlier than God.”
In latest years, Yohannan and Gospel for Asia have confronted authorized battles amid allegations of economic misconduct relating to their dealing with of donations.
In one lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that hundreds of thousands in donations earmarked for charitable functions have been as a substitute used to run for-profit companies and construct private residences and a headquarters in Texas.
In 2019, the ministry reached a $37 million settlement over the allegations, with Yohannan and GFA’s Chief Operating Officer David Carroll denying any wrongdoing.
Among those that have come to Yohannan’s protection after the settlement was introduced is in style Crazy Love preacher Francis Chan, who served as a GFA board member. Chan stated he employed a monetary professional and went to GFA’s Texas headquarters to research the claims of misappropriation.
“After cautious analysis, our conclusion was that there was no cash misappropriated and that every one funds have been channeled to the supposed areas,” Chan stated in 2019.
However, GFA was expelled from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability in 2015 and from the National Religious Broadcasters in 2016 over the controversy.
In November 2020, the Indian authorities, which over the past a number of years has cracked down on foreign-funded Christian mission organizations amid an increase of Hindu nationalism inside the nation, accused BEC and Yohannan of “siphoning out” tax-exempted funds for “private and different unlawful bills.”
BEC spokesperson Fr. Sijo Pandapallil advised CP on the time that the matter was being misrepresented and “wildly mischaracterized on social media.”
In 2021, Greg Zentner of Nova Scotia filed a $170 million class-action lawsuit towards GFA, accusing the ministry of defrauding hundreds of Canadians and church buildings through the use of funds for “improper functions.”
In 2022, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a movement to certify the grievance, concluding that the plaintiff “failed to indicate some foundation the truth is for his allegation that the defendants deliberately misappropriated donor funds in a fashion that had no connection to any purported charitable goal.”
© The Christian Post
