The introduction of landlord shepherds into Celestial Church was as a result of endless bickerings between elders of the church who were non prophets and prophets of the church. At beginning of the church, there were no evangelists nor shepherds as a group of elders just work intimately with Reverend SBJ Oshoffa, says Senior Evangelist S.O Odeyemi and Evangelist Adewale Shittu in the book, “The Theory and Practice of
These elders who were non prophets, were later named as the head of parishes, as shepherds. While prophets played important roles in the development of the church as a careful study of the church’s constitution will indicate the role played by them as they were moved by the Holy Spirit as they helped in the delivery of the series of hymns and the revelation of the church’s mode of worship.
“The prophets functioned prominently in the working of miracles and in healing exercise. These speedily grew the culture of admission of members into the church. This involved prophetic service to the new members immediately after sanctification. Sanctification of houses would not be complete without the presence of prophets in the sanctification group. This made prophets grow quickly in popularity,” the duo of Odeyemi and Shittu wrote in the book.
Suddenly the two groups of elders, now shepherds and prophets became jealous of themselves, as the elders said the prophets popularity has overshadowed the elders who were the shepherds of parishes. The prophets too grew jealous of the shepherds saying they would not be under the leadership of any shepherds, as some of the prophets became members before these shepherds.
This became a challenge to the Pastor Founder, as prophets in Benin Republic and later in Nigeria, were engaging in insubordination against the order of the shepherds and Oshoffa. “A certain prophet even set himself as equal or even greater than the Pastor Founder, the authors wrote. This made these set of prophets and those of this day to always set up their own parishes.
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