The claims Medicine and therapy
Does Go Church tell members to stop therapy or medicine?
No: Go Church told VRT it gives members no instructions about therapy and does not expect them to stop it. Bishop Dag Heward-Mills is a medical doctor who built a hospital, and he writes that God gave the wisdom for medical science.
What the documentary said
Go Church seems to attract mainly vulnerable young people. Some of them are already in therapy when they get to know the church, until Go Church finds out.
Go Church lijkt vooral kwetsbare jongeren aan te trekken. Sommigen van hen volgen al therapie wanneer ze de kerk leren kennen, tot Go Church dat ontdekt.
They were like: “Do you really think therapy will help?” That’s a thing. Those are government things. Those are worldly things. Those are bad things. Those are devilish things. Eventually, they really convinced me to stop therapy.
Ze waren me aan het uitlachen. Denk je echt dat therapie gaat helpen? Dat zijn dingen van de overheid, dat zijn wereldse dingen, slechte dingen, duivelse dingen. Uiteindelijk hebben ze me overgehaald om te stoppen met therapie.
Go Church encouraged [her] to stop her professional therapy.
Go Church moedigde [haar] aan om te stoppen met haar professionele therapie.
Watch VRT at this point · VRT NWS Pano20:28 (opens the recording on YouTube at 20:28)
Go Church’s written answer
Wij geven leden geen instructies en verwachten ook niet dat zij stoppen met psychologische begeleiding. Als er specifieke beschuldigingen zijn dat iemand hiertoe onder druk is gezet, zouden wij graag voldoende details ontvangen om te onderzoeken wat er is gebeurd en een dergelijke klacht in behandeling te nemen, met inachtneming van de privacy van de betrokkenen.
Go Church written reply to VRT (published on vrtnws.be, 21 Oct 2026). VRT broadcast one sentence of the reply. Read the full reply in Dutch and English.
What the film left out
In English: Go Church gives members no instructions about psychological counselling and does not expect them to stop it. If there are specific allegations that someone was pressured to stop, it asked for enough detail to investigate. VRT had this before the broadcast. On air, the narrator turned one account into a statement of fact about the church.
Go Church’s safeguarding policy, sent to VRT, says: “Pastoral leaders are not substitutes for professional healthcare providers.” It tells leaders to encourage people to seek help from qualified psychologists, therapists and doctors.
Bishop Dag Heward-Mills trained at the University of Ghana Medical School and qualified as a doctor in 1989. He describes free clinics at his crusades and a hospital he built to operate on the poorest cases free of charge. A search of 105 of his books found no passage telling anyone to stop therapy or medicine.
The record: his own words, across the years
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2008
Seattle, USA, Interview
Asked by an American interviewer about his crusades, he describes the medical work that goes with them.
We have a clinic, a huge clinic… a large team of medical people… And then we give drugs free. Everything’s free. We give drugs until our medicine is finished, and until the time is gone. And then when there are certain really bad cases which we can help surgically, we bring them to Accra, because we have a hospital that we built, to operate on them and look after them free of charge, and send them back.
Watch · Seattle, USA, 200839:11 to 39:58 (opens the recording on YouTube at 39:11)
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2010
Bournemouth, UK, Conference sermon
Two years later in England:
I’m giving my training, my medical training. I use it to build a hospital. I use it practically when people are not well. I run clinics.
Watch · Bournemouth, UK, 201024:14 to 24:23 (opens the recording on YouTube at 24:14)
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2022
Accra, Ghana, First Love Center, sermon on faith
Preaching on faith, he told his congregation to use psychology:
If you are struggling at home with your father, your mother, your relationships, whatever, financially, it’s good for you to use psychology, and other things you are using, it’s nice.
Watch · Accra, Ghana, 202234:00 to 34:14 (opens the recording on YouTube at 34:00)
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2025
Accra, Ghana, FLOW Sunday service on healing
On mental health, in a 2025 sermon:
At first, you know, I thought of healing mostly as healing of the body. But just as they are finding [that] mental health is a big issue now, you know, Jesus said he heals your broken heart. Your broken heart.
Watch · Accra, Ghana, 202529:03 to 29:23 (opens the recording on YouTube at 29:03)
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2021
Online, Healing Jesus Campaign Pastors’ Conference
To pastors, on being both a doctor and a pastor:
I went to medical school in 1982, in the University of Ghana Medical School, and I was in the medical school for seven years. I qualified in [1989] as a medical doctor. So I’m a medical practitioner apart from being a pastor. All right? So I could be a doctor, a good doctor, and I could also be a good pastor.
Watch · Online, 202129:02 to 29:25 (opens the recording on YouTube at 29:02)
In his books
God is not trying to replace hospitals and doctors with pastors and evangelists. God gave the wisdom for medical science. The two streams of healing are ordained of God and are not contrary to each other.
As a doctor, I believe in medical science. Thank God for medical science and for doctors. We cannot do without them.
Realize that depression is frequently biochemical; seek medication if you have to.
There was a time that taking medicine was considered a sin by self-righteous people.
The scripture
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Jesus took for granted that the sick need a doctor. Bishop Dag, himself a doctor, teaches the same.
…and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
In Jesus’ parable the Good Samaritan treats the wounded man with the medicine of his day and pays for his care. Free crusade clinics and a hospital that operates on the poor free of charge do the same work.
Luke, the beloved physician
One of the four Gospels was written by a doctor. Bishop Dag has made this point himself.
The verdict
The documentary says the church talks young people out of therapy. His record shows a doctor who built a hospital and calls medicine God’s wisdom.
Questions people ask
Does Go Church have a written policy on therapy?
Its safeguarding policy, sent to VRT before the broadcast, says pastoral leaders are not substitutes for professional healthcare providers and should encourage people to see qualified psychologists, therapists and doctors.
Does Bishop Dag Heward-Mills run hospitals?
His ministry runs hospitals in Ghana, including St Gamaliel’s. In a 2008 interview he described bringing the worst cases from his crusade clinics to a hospital in Accra to be operated on free of charge.