K. P. Yohannan
K. P. Yohannan is the founder and president of Gospel for Asia, a large non-profit missions organization with a focus on India and Asia. He is also the founder and current Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church with the religious title and name of Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I. He is the pioneer in establishing one of the largest child care projects in India called Bridge of Hope. K. P. Yohannan has authored over 200 books on Christian living and missions.
Biography
Early life and education
K. P. Yohannan was born in 1950 and raised in a St. Thomas Syrian Christian family in Kerala, India. At age 8 he became a follower of Jesus. He was 16 when he joined Operation Mobilization, an evangelical missions movement, and served with them for eight years on the Indian subcontinent.Through an invitation from Dr. W. A. Criswell, K. P. Yohannan moved to the United States in 1974 for theological studies at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. He graduated with a B.A. in Biblical Studies, becoming the school’s first international student to graduate. He eventually was also conferred an honorary degree of divinity by Hindustan Bible Institute & College in Chennai, India. Though his degree is honorary, he often uses the title of "doctor" when in the United States.
Ministry
Six months into his undergraduate degree, K. P. Yohannanbecame an ordained clergyman and served as a pastor of a Native American Southern Baptist church for four years near Dallas, Texas. In 1979, K. P. Yohannan and his wife Gisela started an organization known today as Gospel for Asia, which resided in Carrollton, Texas until 2014, in which year it was moved to Wills Point, Texas. In the first year, they helped provide financial support and training to 24 missionaries. In 1979, he resigned from his church to devote his attention full-time to mission work. In 1981, he started a chapter of Gospel for Asia in Kerala and in 1983 created an Indian headquarter in Tiruvalla. GFA supports more than 50 Bible colleges in various countries.Family
K. P. Yohannan is married to Gisela, who served with him in Operation Mobilization. They met in 1973. In 1974, they were married in Germany, Gisela’s country of birth. They have two children, Daniel and Sarah.Name change
In August 2018, Believers Eastern Church announced that the bishops and leaders in the church would take up "ecclesiastical" names in church duties, and K.P. Yohannan would now be known as Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan Metropolitan in relation to church duties. Across the United States and the Western world, he continues to go by K. P. Yohannan as an author, speaker and missionary statesman.Believers Eastern Church
is self-described as "evangelical in nature and outlook, oriental in worship, democratic in function, and orthodox in governance and character" and claims to have congregations and parishes worldwide. The church has an episcopal governance. Believers Eastern Church is an "Ancient-Future Church" and as such, is considered by some to be heretical. The church holds Christ as the head of the Church ; hence it is governed by a committee of Bishops, the Synod, with one central Bishop holding the honorary title of "first among equals". Believers Eastern Church is administratively based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. In 2015, the church reported it was re-organized into 33 dioceses; a decrease from the 36 dioceses reported by Smith in 2009. According to Believers Eastern Church, its membership consists of more than 3.5 million people in 10 countries speaking a hundred languages. The Church currently has 30 Bishops, and the current Metropolitan Bishop is Yohannan. Bishops and ordained clergy are required to vow allegiance and submission to the metropolitan and all of his successors.Print and radio
K. P. Yohannan is the author of 39 books published in the US and has authored more than 200 books published in India. His books include Revolution In World Missions.K. P. Yohannan's radio broadcast "Road to Reality" is heard on over 900 radio stations in the US, Canada, U.K., and Australia. He has also been heard on the Athmeeya Yathra daily broadcast for the past 25 years. This is broadcast in 14 nations in 113 Asian languages. Athmeeya Yathra now includes a television station and print media.
Gospel for Asia
is one of the largest missionary organizations in the world, adhering to K.P. Yohannan's belief in the efficiency and efficacy of “national missionaries”, or missionaries that are native to the nation or culture being served. The organization’s primary mission fields are those people that live in the “10/40 Window”, referring to longitudinal coordinates consisting of areas in west Africa, India and east Asia.K. P. Yohannan credits his early work in his native India as inspiration for his focus on the poor and underserved in this region. He states: “In my head I knew all the answers, and Bible became the tool of the trade for me that I would use to teach and preach and I was doing very well. People liked my sermons, but finally I said to myself, ‘I’m not the same person I was when the Lord called me to serve Him. I’m not the same person that I was that walked on the streets of North India weeping over the lost and perishing millions and stayed up all night praying and weeping over a world map. The Lord was gracious enough to talk to us very lovingly, and I realized that he wanted me to go back to America and speak to the ‘Body of Christ’ about the possibility of seeing countries like India, Burma and Bhutan, turn to Christ if only they would become unselfish in praying and helping these brothers by becoming senders.”
From its inception, Gospel for Asia has held to K.P. Yohannan's conviction of the use of national missionaries. The ministry discourages direct missions from outside countries or people-groups, but rather trains and equips missionaries from within distinct cultures. In order to accomplish this, Gospel for Asia claims to have over 56 Bible schools in 10 countries, training over 9000 ministers. In all, Gospel for Asia claims to have trained over 16,000 national missionaries.
In addition to training national missionaries, Gospel for Asia incorporates several other ministries such as Bridge of Hope, Jesus Wells, Bible translation, radio and television broadcasts, disaster relief and refugee camp aid.
Controversies
Court rulings in India
The operations of Gospel for Asia and Believers Church were scrutinized after Believers Church purchased a rubber estate in Kerala, India. Opponents claimed the church had diverted foreign funds to amass land for itself and for uses other than declared purposes. Further, it was alleged that the rubber estate, which Believers Church purchased from Harrison's Malayalam Ltd., was on leasehold from the government and not saleable. Hence, Believers Church was accused of illegally holding government land. At a later time, Harrison's Malayalam was accused of forging their land title, leading to continued debate about the legality of the sale.Former Ernakulam District Collector Dr M G Rajamanickam, who was appointed as the Special Officer of the government to confiscate the illegal and excess estate lands under the custody of various companies, had issued an order in May, 2015, confiscating the 2,268 acre of land from Believers’ Church." However, this ruling was appealed and now there is further complication because the local government wants to build an airport on this estate. News outlets are reporting that the local government wants to buy the property. However, it is also reported that "The government does not need permission from K P Yohannan to set up airport in the Cheruvally estate, BJP national executive member V Muraleedharan said."
K. P. Yohannan says that the claims were politically motivated and that the workings of Gospel for Asia and Believers Church are transparent. Further, the rubber estate is an investment to help fund social services among underdeveloped communities and not a personal land grab as opponents have claimed.
The controversies regarding the purchase of estate have been cleared by the Kerala High Court. The findings pointed out by Dr. M G Rajamanickam in his report have been completely rejected by the court. The court came down heavily on the government and the officer for playing "robin hood" with the owners of the estate. A long standing controversy for Believers Church comes to an end with a clean verdict from the high court of Kerala.