By Matters India Reporter
Dallas, May 8, 2024: Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan (formerly known as K P Yohannan), head of the Bishop of Believers Eastern Church, died May 8 at Dallas in the US. He was 74.
The Church leader was hospitalized the previous day after he sustained serious wounds in a car accident.
A press statement from the Church headquarters said the death occurred due to a sudden cardiac arrest.
The accident happened around 5:25 pm Indian time.
An unidentified vehicle hit him while he was out for a morning walk. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, a Church spokesperson said.
He used to go for morning walks at the campus where the Texas headquarters of the Believers Eastern Church is located. But on May 7, he went outside the campus. He had come to the United States only four days ago.
He was born on March 8, 1950, in a Mar Thoma Syrian Church family in Kerala, India.
He was the founder and president of the Gospel for World, earlier known as Gospel for Asia, a large non-profit missions organization with a focus on India and Asia. He was also the founding Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church (Earlier Believers Church) with the religious title and name of Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I.
He married Gisela, a German who served with him in Operation Mobilization, in 1974. They have two children, Daniel and Sarah.
He had authored more than 200 books on Christian living and missions.
The Church leader’s radio broadcast “Road to Reality” was heard on more than 900 radio stations in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
He broadcast daily the Athmeeya Yathra (Spiritual Journey) for the past 25 years that reached 14 nations in 113 Asian languages.
I miss you Dear Metropolitan
K.P. Yohannan was born in a very ordinary Syrian Christian family. At the age of eight he became a follower of Jesus. He was 16 when he joined the Operation Mobilisation (OM), an evangelical mission movement. With the help of Dr W.A. Criswell, OM’s founder, Yohannan moved to the US in 1974 for theological studies. There he met Gesela, a German, who became his future wife and partner in his missionary work.
After his studies he served the native American Southern Baptist Church. In 1981, he returned to India and started a chapter of Gospel for Asia (GFA) in Kerala. GFA is now among the world’s largest missionary organisations, adhering to Yohannan’s belief in the efficiency and efficacy of “national missionaries”, or missionaries that are native to the nation or culture they serve.
The ministry discourages direct missions from outside countries, instead training and equipping missionaries from within distinct cultures. To accomplish this, Gospel for Asia claims to have over 56 Bible schools in 10 countries, training over 9,000 ministers. In all, GFA claims to have trained over 16,000 national missionaries.
In 1993 Yohannan founded the Belivers’ Church and became its Metropolitan Archbishop taking a new name as Athanasius Yohan in the Orthodox Christian tradition and in honour of his beloved patron saints, St Athanasius, the defender of Orthodoxy, and St John (Yohan), the Apostle. Under his leadership, the church has grown over the last two decades, with more than 12,000 parishes established in Asia and Africa.
Yohannan is now considered a controversial religious leader, accused of diverting funds collected for charity. He is believed to be the richest evangelist in Asia.
Every time Yohannan had been in trouble, he was quick to shrewdly use his political and religious influence to get away from public accountability. In January this year, about 25 Christian leaders came forward to vouch for the ‘credibility’ and ‘integrity’. They lauded the evangelist for serving the Lord ‘faithfully’ in 18 South Asian countries.
In his defence, Sermon Index founder Greg Gordon claimed,
“I have seen firsthand the work in Asia, the training of ministry leaders, churches, and Bridge of Hope centers. Frugality, simplicity, and godly wisdom are obvious in all the work. Everything is done for an eternal purpose with the longevity of a church in mind where millions are experiencing Christ’s love who have never heard the name of Jesus. Dr. KP Yohannan has emulated this example of sacrifice and commitment to Jesus.”
Rest in peace, K.P. Yohannan.