@ Carmelily,

u can buzz me on IM. Would have attached it here but i need paulipopo's permission.

@naomijt
that is copyright theft i would instituite legal action against you

Kunle,

I can't remember our lecturer appointing you as anything here.

@noaomi
Well the course is meant for "holybusiness men" and not "holy business women" i suggest you wait for the women's version of this course instead of plagiriazing this one on MS word. Besides, i am already negotiating with the lecturer for the marketing rights to the upcoming book it would be bad for business if the pirated edition is out in the market before we publish the approved version.

At the end of the day, who is the good pastor? I ha ve no doubt that the poster has made a good research, but

what hope do xtians have .

I hope all those contributing are good xtians. Its not all about criticizing pastors ( and enjoying the sensationalism). We

will all stand b4 the judgement seat and give account for what we do. By the way, we have to be sober, and vigilant.

Take heed that no man should plunder you with their vain philosophies(Colosians2). Make evry effort no to go to

extremes. The devil wants us to be extemist

this is inherently a controversial topic as it involves the word religion.
I agree with one of the posts who cautioned against the use of names as it has tended to trivialise the issues raised by the OP.

This affects not only pentecostalism and christianity but even other faiths and cults.

The post has self professed that he is a christian, I guess his faith is his and his only, I would however recommend he takes a writing course and comes up with a play/satire detailing the life of a 'super holy bizman'

on the issue of name calling of certain individuals i feel that may be treading on shaky ground as you do not know the nature of God's calling in their lives so remove that and let us enjoy your satire.

nice post overall aside the name calling and seeming focus on xtianity

my own opinion ,

so this thread hasn't been removed yet, eh?

@paulipopo,

People are 'caution-ing' you to desist from these nonsense and you still persist, well, you're on your own o!

I once heard a saying that "those the gods want to destroy, they first of all make mad"

I am not a pastor but I know what this can cause you, a word is enough for the wise.

All these your 'ardent students' will not even be there for you when you start to reap what you're sowing.

@ tinard,


[table][tr]However, I do have a question for you. Is this something you are considering employing yourself or have you recently been fired by your partner in crime that you therefore decided to reveal the secrets of an holy {business}[/tr][/table]

I merely recognised the value I placed on this particular question which happened to come from you.
Funny how you got that confused.
It was not an invitation for like minds or like abilities to congregate, offer of tutorship or an admission into my school of thought.
Which leaves me wondering at the rationale behind your posts to me.

Anyways, nice play of words though.

bodsibobo:

so this thread hasn't been removed yet, eh?

No.
Personally, I think it is important to give a voice to the different views of christianity. Of course everyone is still entitled to and responsible for what they choose to believe.

And of course discussions like this must not get personal or disciplinary action will be taken.

it is not like that. That someone believes anything about christianity or Pastors
is obviously not a threat to anyone's christian beliefs. So there is no reason for anyone to get personal.
I personaly, have a concern for pple reading these messages because from my understanding, they posses the potential
to hurt the reader, especialy where a church or pastor is being condemned unjustly. I believe there is a curse in that.

I digress of necessity, please

CGKing:

it is not like that. That someone believes anything about christianity or Pastors
is obviously not a threat to anyone's christian beliefs. So there is no reason for anyone to get personal.
I  personaly, have a concern for people reading these messages because from my understanding, they posses the potential
to hurt the reader, especialy where a church or pastor is being condemned unjustly.

You are right. It is not a threat but may be considered an insult. Some may find it offensive. And thats why they sometimes take it personal.

Part III Module 2

3. Requirements for this trade



A. a business plan

Ideally when embarking upon a major project, a feasibility study is needed to inform us about the viability of an identified opportunity and therefore state the feasibility or workability of such a venture. But in our case there is no need for that. Many holy businesses have existed before us and many others are still existing or joining in the trade showing that this opportunity is viable.


What is a business plan?


It is a document that outlines the strategy or techniques an individual or organization must apply in order to achieve a desired objective or goal in the form of profit, expansion or growth, competitive advantage or even raising capital to fund the operations of the business.

Your business plan must do the following:

1. Keep you focused on your goals which are profit and having a competitive advantage i.e helping you gain and retain customers etc.
2. Enable you practice sound management principles
3. Successfully steer you towards easy financing whether for expansion, maintaining operations or promoting yourself.

Keep in mind that you need a business plan to succeed because the lack of it is the number one cause of failure for budding entrepreneurs. Any body going into business should consider that there is always the need to be ahead of competition or at least to be relevant within your target market. A business plan is your best guide in this regard.

Since you are in the business of buying and selling in God’s name and God is not a physical commodity it therefore follows that you are principally a merchant or a service based businessman rather than a manufacturer. Therefore you will not need the following items:

1. A factory
2. Machinery
3. Equipments
4. Distribution chain
5. Nafdac Registration Number
6. SON certification and accreditation
7. Labour whether casual or regular.
8. Vehicles etc.

But instead you will need the following:

1. An office space

• Such as any warehouse,
• Halls (located in fast food restaurants such as Sweet Sensation or those in hotels such as Eko le’meridien or even the MUSON centre. Please note you only need these types on Sundays only),
• A specially rented 2 or 3 bedroom flat is also not bad
• If you lack funds you can also use half completed buildings or open spaces such as primary school grounds, or the back of your compound or friends’ compound or even your living room.

2. Office equipments could include:

• Loud speakers especially the noisy type that will prevent people from sleeping fine.
• Micro phones
• Giant size bill boards or banners
• Chairs especially plastic chairs
• A mini podium that could serve as pulpit
• Not also forgetting the noisy, smoky and environmentally unfriendly generator, you know you cannot rely on PHCN. Those people they will just put san san for your garri.
• Stationery such as handbills showcasing your business, location and time of service. Please do not forget they should also show your face boldly on them, and
• Of course a bible which you must be ready to read and use selfishly by quoting out of context.

3. Start up capital

This could be in the form of savings, borrowings, investments from financial partners, pledges and donations etc.

Your business plan should be summarized in the following way for easy access and consulting:

1. Executive Summary
2. Market Summary
3. Financial Summary





Executive Summary

This aspect of your business plan must endeavour to state in clear terms the reason for starting i.e your mission statement as well as your vision, the very nature of your business; its products and services. Your intended market as well your projection within the next say 5 years. For instance;

Mission Statement

1. To be among the best 10 run holy businesses in Nigeria.

2. The eradication of poverty for ourselves by becoming rich first then hope our customers will also become rich so that they can pay fat tithes and offerings as a testament of God’s work more in our lives than in their lives.

Vision

To have at least 100,000 active tithe paying members within the next 5 years

Description of business

1. Providing special services such as commercial and permanently unverifiable miracles (through the use of miracle services, crusades and revivals which enjoy the patronage of tithe paying, seed sowing, offering giving, money donating, gullible miracle seekers). This service can also be carried out through the use of seat booking in advance which are not free of course. Although it is essentially unscriptural since miracles performed by Jesus Christ and his Apostles were not only PROVABLE, but were done totally free of charge without any need for the recipient to give money or gifts to a JUST and LOVING God, however who are we to imitate the works of the apostles of Jesus Christ. We are businessmen who usually rent stadia, open air spaces, or buy and build up massive structures from which as a necessity we must be adequately rewarded bountifully in terms of naira.


2. Sale of cleverly packaged messages lacking spiritual depths in Audio cassettes, VCD/DVD, mp3 formats, e-book format, book format whether soft cover or hard cover etc.


3. Sale of money spinning daily devotionals with the face of the holy businessman or better still Church Proprietor/CEO and maybe his wife, that may be RHAPSODIES or simply episodes which appear to reflect REALITIES, but in totality is merely an avenue for lining their pockets.


4. Use of crafty methods for collecting illicit donations such as offer to be paying partners in the sale of daily devotionals, healing schools and going electronic with requests for monetary donations for ‘God’s work’ which can only be defined by us, and also making empty promises of divine blessing.

Let us see a credible example of this: in the words of Christ Embassy “The beauty of this kind of partnership is that its reward is not only in heaven but right here on earth. Firstly, the partner is a partaker of the anointing and grace upon the Man of God and this anointing causes him to experience the same results in life and ministry as Pastor Chris.

Partnering with Rhapsody of Realities also secures the life of the partner against poverty, sickness, disease, failure, death and infirmities because he is a provider of salvation, deliverance, and hope to the lives of others.”

http://www.rhapsodyofrealities.org/home/rorpartnership.htm


Knowing that only God can give hope, salvation and deliverance to man, a partner of Rhapsody of realities automatically becomes a divine being equal in status and power to God. A message like this is powerfully effective to make us serious money.




Please bear with me. Part IV will be on tomorrow.

God bless

Wow, this is interesting.

Instructor, I actually clicked on the link to check the credible example you gave and I am beginning to get this training. For anyone to believe that, because you buy a book on someone's behalf, you are now immuned to diseases and stuff, that is the height of brain washing and deceit.

I will keep reading and make sure others come to read too. Time people woke up from their slumber.

I really think the poster lacks accurate understanding of how God works and
what the intent of the message in the link he provided is. And as I have always
said, your message is just as misleading as the messages you are attempting to
discredit because the source and authority that backs up your argument is your mind.
However, even though not well put, i can see where the writers of Rhapsody of Realities
are coming from.

Even if the poster cannot read the bible, at least one would have expected you pose
questions to the authors of that website, and then let the world benefit from your reall
findings and not your personal opinion.

You have only done what any ordinary mind would have done: except for the creative packaging, you have just
fed everyone with more gossip.

But you know some (not everything) of this gossip is kinda eye-opening.

The ROR stuff seems wrong but I understand where they are coming from. I hope you hear it from their own mouths.

Notwithstanding we shall love all men as Christ loves them.

CGKing:

I really think the poster lacks accurate understanding of how God works and
what the intent of the message in the link he provided is. And as I have always
said, your message is just as misleading as the messages you are attempting to
discredit because the source and authority that backs up your argument is your mind.
However, even though not well put, i can see where the writers of Rhapsody of Realities
are coming from.

Even if the poster cannot read the bible, at least one would have expected you pose
questions to the authors of that website, and then let the world benefit from your reall
findings and not your personal opinion.

You have only done what any ordinary mind would have done: except for the creative packaging, you have just
fed everyone with more gossip.

To say this implies that you know how god works, correct? Is so, we would be much obliged if you could inform us how he works.

How else would you expect the church to grow and belief in god to persist if the apologists of god did not use deception, calumnies, frauds and downright lies to promote their cause and of course, their own personal goals. This behaviour is nothing new. It dates backs to the very start of the christian movement and is even documented in the bible. So what you are see in Nigeria is nothing new. In fact, that is essentially how the Catholic church grew to be so wealthy.

I could say I have sympathy for the ignorant and gullible people they fleece to amass such wealth, but I can't. In these day and age, with all the means of education and access to rationalism and skepticism, people who are thus exploited deserve to be.

In fact, any crooked pastor worth his crooked salt should really not be in the business of pastoring if he cannot take advantage of the vast pool of the gullible, and particularly so in Nigeria. The gullible will continue to think that their pastor is doing the work of god, while their pockets are emptied of their hard-earned and usually meagre wealth, and at the same time instill fear and superstition into their minds.

Ecrasez L'infame -

Dear Poster,
I have read your interesting expose on the similarities between distorted modern day 'Christian ministry' and timeless business enteprises. That man has made of divine estate a selfish venture is a fact too obvious. Your arguement is logical,your dexterity in expression is admirable and your depth in the Word courts suspision. Your maturity in handling derails is enviable. Reacting will only suggest an equation of your intelligence to that of the derailers.
As i read through your lessons i sought for the voice behind the text(something akin to the Spirit behind the letter) asking myself questions like to what intent are you embarking on this voyage and if you are a Christian as you claim to be then are your actions in the interest of Christianity,decimating the little faith in the fledgling newborns or stregthening the arguements and arrogance of the Christian skeptics. I arrived at the conclusion that your topic is a direct opposite of your intent.
I however stumbled upon another topic posted by you in this same segment. This seredipitous event led me,otherwise conservative and largely terse,to write this and take your 'lessons' with a pinch of salt. Your objectivity is at the risk of being diluted by your continued reference to a single ministry indicative of a grouse againts 'it' at a subliminal level. Your insistence on name calling and direct references further strenghtens this fact and your points are being obscured by these persistent references making me believe that the original intent is birthed by some personal vendetta or you are a dissident of that Ministry.
These 'lessons' would have been perfect otherwise but will your intents have been met? Please search your conscience at each line you post asking yourself if what you are doing glorifies God or like the 'Holy Businessmen' self-glorifying and ego-soothing,obviously not for financial reasons else you would have published and sold a book even though some motivations are deadlier than mere avarice.
I am an objective reader and a professing Christian,i adhere to the doctrines of no man in particular save Christ. I am no proponent of any Ministry,neither am i a critic of any but a crusader for godly conscience.
Ultimately,Let God be the final Judge-Remember the consequences of trying to hold God's ark from falling.

Sk8erBoy-strictly an alias.

sk8erBoy:

Dear Poster,
I have read your interesting expose on the similarities between distorted modern day 'Christian ministry' and timeless business enteprises. That man has made of divine estate a selfish venture is a fact too obvious. Your arguement is logical,your dexterity in expression is admirable and your depth in the Word courts suspision. Your maturity in handling derails is enviable. Reacting will only suggest an equation of your intelligence to that of the derailers.
As i read through your lessons i sought for the voice behind the text(something akin to the Spirit behind the letter) asking myself questions like to what intent are you embarking on this voyage and if you are a Christian as you claim to be then are your actions in the interest of Christianity,decimating the little faith in the fledgling newborns or stregthening the arguements and arrogance of the Christian skeptics. I arrived at the conclusion that your topic is a direct opposite of your intent.
I however stumbled upon another topic posted by you in this same segment. This seredipitous event led me,otherwise conservative and largely terse,to write this and take your 'lessons' with a pinch of salt. Your objectivity is at the risk of being diluted by your continued reference to a single ministry indicative of a grouse againts 'it' at a subliminal level. Your insistence on name calling and direct references further strenghtens this fact and your points are being obscured by these persistent references making me believe that the original intent is birthed by some personal vendetta or you are a dissident of that Ministry.
These 'lessons' would have been perfect otherwise but will your intents have been met? Please search your conscience at each line you post asking yourself if what you are doing glorifies God or like the 'Holy Businessmen' self-glorifying and ego-soothing,obviously not for financial reasons else you would have published and sold a book even though some motivations are deadlier than mere avarice.
I am an objective reader and a professing Christian,i adhere to the doctrines of no man in particular save Christ. I am no proponent of any Ministry,neither am i a critic of any but a crusader for godly conscience.
Ultimately,Let God be the final Judge-Remember the consequences of trying to hold God's ark from falling.

Sk8erBoy-strictly an alias.

Why didn't you wait till the end of the course before arriving at your submission?

Plus it will interest you to know that more than one ministry will be mentioned in this very write-up. May I know what exactly you wish to state? Part IV of this same module which is the next submission will show this to you.

You should also search your conscience and ask yourself if you personally do not feel offended by the veracity of all the stated facts.

God will always be the final judge whether I like it or not and no amount of human effort (that includes mine) can change that.

Truthfully some others who have criticized me for name calling are not blinded to the fact that more than one ministry will be mentioned.

Hope you will honestly and sensibly analyse your argument before claiming to see the spirit behind the text.

Hmm, poster, poster. I read your posts with the intention of trying to understand what you're getting at. Whilst common sense is a factor that must be displayed in the quest to having a successful ministry or business, the true principles underlying any successful enterprise (be it ministry or secular business) are basically the same. That one is a pastor or has been called to ministry, doesn't mean he should be a mediocre; he could be as successful as the one who decides to go into oil and gas, nothing wrong with that (if done with right intentions). He should exploit all necessary but just means to attain success at his calling. The parable of the ten talents give credence to that. Moreso, he said "Do business with it till i come". God expects us to live fulfilling lives, maximise our talents here on earth, know our purpose (or calling) and give it our all. It's one thing to run with the vision, it's another thing to just know the vision and not do enough. The seed of greatness is in us all.

One opinion i noticed some have is seeing tithing in today's modern world as obsolete and a tool with which most of these men of God use to get at the finances of their members. I have read what other posts say concerning this isue and have undergone personal study as well, and came to a conclusion that not tithing will not make you go to hell, but it is God's commandment for prosperity (although we know you can still prosper outside of that).

Heb 7:1-28 talks about the new testament position on tithes. Heb 7:8 says that "And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth (that's Jesus Christ). Abraham, the first tither, gave tithes to Melchizedek, King of Salem (a man with no record of ancestors nor descendants, nor beginning of days nor end of life) Heb 7:1-3.

It goes on to say that Jesus Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek (vs 17). Priesthood changed from d levitical priesthood to that of the order of Melchizedek (vs 11). With the coming of Jesus Christ, he came to give us a better testament (vs 18, 19, 22), cos in the old days priests that were not holy themselves (vs 27) offered tithes, sacrifices and offerings to God .

Jesus Christ is the one we pay tithes to today, he is the high priest who receives the tithes from us. Even in the old testament, God never came down to earth to collect the tithes himself (apart from the Melchizedek/Abraham incident), it was those priests and levites that collected them, and it was used for the work of the Lord, for the welfare of the priests, as well as for distributing to the widows and orphans etc. Jesus himself also commanded us to go into the world and preach the gospel to all the ends of the earth (Mt 28:18-20), he commissioned some into ministry, which we have today in churches and as they do God's work, the same blessings tied to tithing in the old testament, is the same order of blessings available to any tither today.

So those making cases, saying that tithes are no longer necessary since they were specifically meant for the levites, one of the twelve tribes of Isreal in the old testament, need not say so. Also remember Gal 3:13, 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (vs 14).

Also verse 29 of Gal 3 says that "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise".

Remember the genealogy is Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - (His twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Isreal). So how are we absolved of paying tithes in today's moern world, when Jesus Christ has connected us to the Abrahamic order of blessings?

In a nutshell, churches that ask members for tithes are not extorting the members. It's for those who want to connect to God's blessings, not that they levy members compulsorily (in my church they don't), and its up to your conscience. That's not to say there are no pastors who capitalize on this to defraud their members and enlarge themselves. If the pastors eat up the tithes or use it however they want, it's their own cup of tea, but it would be registered in heaven that i paid my tithes and i'd be entitled to the blessings attached to the covenant of tithing. Let me stop here for now, it's already getting to long.

@ sleekymag

Your words are exactly what the poster is trying to teach people. Quoting a few Bible passages to justify your answer just to meet your gain. If we want to follow the Bible intently, then all gay people would be stoned to death and most women would have been beheaded. To explain the passage you quoted, {i} you do not know what sort of talent was given to the servants. {ii} the same proverb went on to say"if you had put my money in a bank, it would have yielded interest". I really do not have the time to explain to you because you are sort of blinded by faith and will seize to be objective about the topic.

@ sk8erboy

As much as I enjoyed the beginning of the topic as I had the same anger towards most "men of God", I have become reserved as the lesson progresses. I'm willing to wait until the end before I raise any more topic. However, I'm with you on the fact that paulipopo's anger might make this series a bit biased which at the beginning was probably not as clear as daylight{that's not to say daylight is clear in London but you know what I mean}

@ paulipopo

Again I say this, some of us have also studied pastors for ages but what sort of anger prompted you to write what i can only call a book. And as I said earlier which was also confirmed by sk8erboy, you've got a vendetta against a{or some} churches You have some inside knowledge that you want to share and the way the story is going, I'm afraid that by the time you actually share it, the scepticism would have crept in ans the story will become unbelieveable. As in people will question not only your motive but also the truthfulness of your worlds. Also the fact that you decided to make it all free not even as a copyright on a privately owned website fuels my scepticism a lot more

tinard:

@ paulipopo

Again I say this, some of us have also studied pastors for ages but what sort of anger prompted you to write what i can only call a book. And as I said earlier which was also confirmed by sk8erboy, you've got a vendetta against a{or some} churches You have some inside knowledge that you want to share and the way the story is going, I'm afraid that by the time you actually share it, the scepticism would have crept in ans the story will become unbelieveable. As in people will question not only your motive but also the truthfulness of your worlds. Also the fact that you decided to make it all free not even as a copyright on a privately owned website fuels my scepticism a lot more

I am quite sure common sense will inform any discerning mind that inside knowledge about how things work can be obtained from observation and personal investigation.

Wait till the concluding commentary if you are truly interested in finding out the truth.

Becoming sceptical at this stage could also be misinterpreted as being disturbed by the findings.

Once again wait till the end of the course and Judge for yourself the motive behind this course not book like you want yourself to believe.

Anyone else getting a Trials of Brother Jero vibe with this?

huxley

To say I know God is not a thing of pride and it's not a state of mind that
belittles everyone else as compared to me. God Himself wants us to know Him, He has said is too many times.
In one instance He said: "They that KNOW their God shall be strong and shall do exploits"
Getting to know God and how He works is simple, JUST get a copy of the bible and study it. You dont have to be a christian
to do that, you are a scholar and what you want is facts. You will be amazed at what you'll find.

There is no basis for all this too much write ups and talk because the poster has not DONE extensive research
on the whole subject by including bible as a key source of facts. Because when you do, you will find reasons why
personal givings to a church exists and how it came to be. Adhering to paulipopo's teachings in a way pitches one's self
in confrontatiion to God's authourity. Why? Because God instituted the giving of offerings and tithes and all other kinds of givings.

These lectures are biased and are guided to one direction as the poster pleases. As wise scholars we ought to
consult an authourity that can throw more light into this matter rather than resort to what one man thinks. If you
truly believe God exists, you ought to do your own research to ensure you are in the right standing with Him while using
the teachings from this lecture.

My chief concern in this matter is the implication of the poster endangering other
persons just because of his own personal views concocted from his mere grieviances.

Things are not always the way the seem, so dont take them at face value, find out why these ministries say
what they say and do what they do. The poster as a christian ought to give us bible references to buttress his points.

And please God is referred to as God not god - these have different meanings

@paulipawpaw
your posts are way past being long winded
we all know there are fake pastors around who fake miracles.
i personally have my reservations about many well repsected pastors in the xtian community. However, if im going to labell any pastor as a fake on a blog such as naialand i d better have concrete evidence.
oga, give us ur evidence of falsehood on the part of the pastors you have named or shut up already.

don't mind paulipopo, its obvious the guy has tried his hands and lost out at many of what he's accusing pastors of. He may have been a trustee in a church and was expelled or voted out, or even prayed out!

If only we could find out his pedigree, I'm sure we'd be amazed that he's tried his hands on some of this "holybusiness principles" he's teaching, and FAILED too!

Sisikill:

Anyone else getting a Trials of Brother Jero vibe with this?

Who is brother Jero?

PART IV MODULE 2

5. Not forgetting monetized spiritually unsound sermons such as “let’s talk about sex”, in seminar style. The ideal thing here is to make them pre-booked with registration fees clearly stated in the adverts as Mathew Ashimolowo will often do.


Target Market

If you sincerely hope to meet your goals then you must know your market. You should be able to ask and answer the following questions:

1. Who are your customers? For instance you could work by segmenting people into classes such as sex (Men, women), age (youths), income level (business executives), marital status (single, married etc), employment status (job seekers, self employed or businessmen) geographical location (high brow areas preferable or slums which are more realistic in our present economic state). The answer to this question should determine your approach in capturing your niche.

2. What are your customer needs?

• Single men and women usually want life partners
• Married women want to have their own children
• Young and upwardly mobile people want success and prestige in the form of financial independence, promotion in their places of work, victory over rivals whom some may term enemies
• Businessmen want business breakthrough
• Ignorant, fearful and superstitious people want assurance and protection etc.


3. Where can you find your customers?

• Usually women searching for life partners fall between ages 22 – 30. These women can be found in campuses, workplaces, churches etc. Just as the single men looking for life partners are usually between ages 25 – 40 and are mainly employed or businessmen.
• Upwardly mobile people are more sociable and could be found in relaxation spots such as prestigious social clubs, restaurants, hotels etc. usually in high brow areas. Setting up your business very close to places like these is very convenient if you intend to specialize in prosperity and success gospel.
• Also financially insecure and excessively ambitious people need a doze of prosperity gospel. Some of them are either hardened spenders who are always in debt or people born with wooden spoons in their mouths. You might find most of them in slums and middleclass neighbourhoods.
• The superstitious, fearful and the ignorant are mainly illiterate, un-informed and poor people who are used to superstitious and un-informed beliefs. Majority of these people reside in the suburbs.

Overall, your target market should be arrived at after you have done an extensive market research.

Market Summary

In this segment of your business plan, you need to consider the overall market size, your competitors, your share of the market etc.

1. Overall market size.

There is no exact figure of Christians in Nigeria, since the NPC only broke down our national population into men as 71,709,859 and Women as 68,293,083.
Using CIA fact book about Nigeria the population of Christians is approximately 56,000,000 but for the sake of being conservative let’s stick with 52,000,000.

Note, the task of ‘soul winning’ should be targeted at Church goers or Christians and not unbelievers such as pagans, and other sectarian zealots most of whom have not heard about Jesus Christ and who in any case ought to attract greater priorities from true Christian missionaries. It is much easier to win over a church goer or weak Christian mind than a person born into paganism or you know the other religion which is intolerant to infidels. You cannot afford to waste time in this business because time is money. The more time you save the more money you make for yourself.

2. Your competitors.

Note that the existence of competition is another thing that can force you out of business. You must know your competition; their strengths and weaknesses, their manner of approaching prospects, the reason behind their success or failure, how long they have been in existence, compare your own plans with what many of these businesses have been doing and see whether you have a real chance of challenging them. In conclusion make sure you do a SWOT analysis yourself for your intending business. Note SWOT means Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

3. Your share of the market.

This booming industry has a lot of potential if properly harnessed, and only the eagle eyed, savvy type will be smart and fast enough to make the much needed break. Our target ideally should be for an impressive 100,000 members in 5 years. You must apply management principles like I stated earlier to enable you device a blueprint that will see you through to your intended goal.


4. Market strategy

This includes knowing your customer groups and developing products and services that meet their needs.

There are two ways to group your customers:

1. According to need
2. According to class

We have seen that people fall into different segments such as group based segments i.e age, sex, marital status, occupation, geographical location etc. But there also exists need based groups such as the insecure, fearful, superstitious, egotistical, selfish etc.

You should aim to device the right product that meets the needs of the identified groups, and ensure that they are superior to what your competitors have to offer. Make sure you capitalize on the weaknesses of your competitors or you will have yourself to blame. For instance your strategy should include making promises and inviting people from other churches to come and see the ‘power of God in action’, through the special anointing working through you, God’s anointed. Promise that the power of the Holy Spirit will flow “yafun yafun” like The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ltd led by one Lazarus Muochukwuka uses in some of its marketing campaigns. NB: Obviously to them the Holy Spirit is a stream of water they tightly hold on to in their reservoirs. What a serious discredit to Christianity. On a more light hearted note: if this business had been a little faster in seeking SEC and NSE approval, would have successfully conducted its private placement before coming out with its initial public offering in order to expand and take its rightful place among all these holy businesses.

Also make promises that will target every possible group by stating “no matter the problem you are going through bring it to the Lord’s feet and your life will never be the same again”. Never let them know that we do not serve God to get want we want from him, but rather to glorify him and that most people who come to experience the power of the Holy Ghost like you claim will go home disappointed (except of course for the few ones whom you would have compensated financially to testify on your behalf about the “goodness of the Lord”). And if you are challenged on this make it look like the disappointed ones lacked faith as a way of saving face for yourself and your business.

Use eye catching slogans that will attract many to your business. For instance use slogan immediately after business name like in the following examples;

• KICC ….………….raising champions

• Christ Embassy ……………….giving your life a meaning



Financial Summary

This segment of your business plan should provide details of your financial information, Start up cost, Statement of income and expenses.

Financial information

Year Income NO Total Total
Per head of services Customers Income
Per month
1. 2000 52 1000 24,000,000

2. 2000 104 2000 48,000,000

3. 2000 156 4000 96,000,000

4. 2000 208 8000 192,000,000

5. 2000 260 16000 384,000,000



Start up Cost

Complete Band Set: 200,000

Microphone and Loudspeakers: 120,000

500 plastic Chairs: 500,000

2 years Rent: 800,000

Generator set: 150,000

Others: 800,000

Total: =N= 2,570,000



Statement of income for first year

Tithes from members: =N= 24,000,000

Illegal Offerings and seeds: =N= 18,000,000

Donations and gifts: =N= 14,000,000

Others: =N= 10,000,000

Total: =N= 66,000,000



Statement of expenses for first year


Advertisement I (Outdoor signs and handbills): 1,000,000

Advertisement II (Use of print and electronic media): 3,000,000

Recurring costs such as Salaries, rent, utilities etc: 6,000,000

Selfish needs such as Luxury car, tastefully furnished house etc: 25,000,000

Contingency: 10,000,000

Other Expenses: 10,000,000

Total: 55,000,000

For brevity sake I will refrain from giving bit by bit detail.


Statement of profit and loss for first year

Total Income – Total Expenses = Profit

66,000,000 – 55,000,000

Profit = =N= 11,000,000

Retained profit for the year transferred to personal reserve (account)



B. A registered business name.

You need to know that there are three types of businesses namely; Sole proprietorship, Partnership and Limited Liability Companies. Let us look at them one after the other.

1. Sole Proprietorship: in this case you founded the business on your own, and have total control of the business. You are more appropriately termed Church Proprietor/Chairman and CEO. The ideal thing here is to constitute a board of trustees that will be your rubber stamp. The need to constitute this board is so that Federal Inland Revenue Service will see you as a non profit making organization and thus exempt you from taxation.

2. Partnership: here you and one or more other persons combine forces to own a business together. You could have the gift of speaking fine, while your partner may be a gifted administrator. Your responsibilities will be delegated according to ability in the following order:

• You as senior pastor or general overseer
• Your partner as director or administrator etc

There are different types of partners. Some will only contribute funds to the flourishing business and leave out the rest. So know this before going out to start.

3. Limited Liability Companies: these are companies in which the liability of every investor is limited to the amount of financial contribution made by each person. In order words the owners are share holders in the business and in the event of indebtedness, cannot be made to sell off personal properties to meet obligations with creditors.


In all cases you must have a registered board of trustees as a method for tax avoidance.


Depending on the kind of business you are going into, choose a name that truly reflects the products and services you wish to sell. The naming convention for your business must be right or else you will have a hard time selling to your customers. For instance, a mega business such as Living Faith Tabernacle Ltd uses an alias in the form A.K.A Winners Chapel as a way of describing the services and offers awaiting those who join and belong to the fold of that business which at face value implies success, victory and triumph. The result of this is a mammoth sized patronage from the targeted niche which the business founder seems to know only too well.



End of Module II

A_K_O:

Seeing the figures just cracks me up; I havnt even read the post yet.

This guy u get time oh!!

_{Oya let me go and read.}

Bros abeg no vex o!

Na course I talk say I dey prepare o!

I get plenty time like 2 hours a day to spare.

Please remain open minded like you have been through out.

Thank you

I do not wish to test anybody's patience but please remain open minded as you read through.

Thank you.

Paulipopo,

I have enjoyed reading most of your post on this thread and mus commend the effort and zeal you have displayed in not only understand this "business" of religion, but also exposing it as the exploitative charlatanry that it is.

It must be galling and heart-rending to a follower of any of these ministries, the likes of which you have so eloquently described, to read your post and see the veil slowly but sure lift from their eyes.  That would be the sensible ones, of whom they are the minority.

The majority will protest, calumnise, throw tantrums, accuse you of ulterior motives, castigate you personally, etc, etc.  These will be those in denial and upon learning the TRUTH will turn around and point fingers at the bearer of such TRUTH.

More grease to the old elbows and Keep it up.

paulipopo:

Please remain open minded like you have been through out.

Here's a little joke:

Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out!