argent:

I dont know if you are a xtian or not and if you are maybe you dont read your bible or maybe you read and dnt have an understanding.

argent:

I still maintain that if truly RCCg acquired an aircraft worth 4bn naira, then it is a shame that they dont have their piorities right.

argent:

The reason being that the only reason why God asks for 10% of our income is for food to be in his house coz the poor will always be among us.

argent:

If the money that is meant to take care of the poor is used to purchase vanity then something is wrong somewhere. I will use the example of Jesus when he was with the multitude preaching to them. He had compassion on them coz he knew they had been with him for a long time and will be very hungry, while his disciples decided to send them away to fend for themselves, He instead looked for food for them and he fed them. Am not a pastor neither am I a preacher, but that singular act of Jesus is enough for anyboy to know that God wants the needy to be taken care of and if the church is not taking care of the needy, then theres a big problem.

argent:

The food in the house of God is for God? Please dont make me laugh.

argent:

Will God come down from heaven to come and eat the food or spend the money? Maybe you know better, please enlighten me. Money donated to red cross is for them to do carry out their work better, so if they buy a car it is not out of place. But a church buying a private jet, for what? For the futherance of the Gospel or for their lust after material things?

Do you have proof to back up the claims made above? Isn’t it a huge leap to assume that the church does not have its priorities right when the people who you claim are barely above to afford to put food on their tables are the same ones who danced up to give that money to the church in the first place?

Ovamboland:

Quote from Kobojunkie yetserday
Kobojunkie,
Do you think the goverment is right to chase cocaine and 'igbo' peddlers about? Why not leave them alone afterall the consumers happily and willfully purchase a dose from the peddlers. Infact they use their hard earned money[b](some of course earn the money by stealing) [/b] not the goverment's money to buy the drugs. And if they go crazy it's to shame of their family not the goverment, wetin concern goverment sef?

Ovamboland:

Do you see the analogy here?

Ovamboland:

why are other christian, non redeemed members complaining, wetin concern them for this matter? Am sure you heard some christian now steal to assuage the crave (sound familiar? drug crave) to donate to church causes having exhausted their own legitimately earned income. The issue is that because of the sensitive nature of religion it is difficult for goverment to intervene in similar way to the drug issue.

Ovamboland:

Do you think the goverment is not aware that most religious riot in the north usually occurs after a friday mosque service, but its hard for the goverment to control what the imams say to the faithful.

Ovamboland:

It is left for you and me to condemn what is reprobate behaviour whether we have direct interest or not or our money is involved or not. It is a shame when as christians we attempt to outdo unbelievers in conspicous consumption and we use the worldly people as a barometer to guage our activities.

Ovamboland:

Are you aware the US goverment has asked business executive of firms being bailed out to do away with some perks of office of which private jet is a major component. It is said the jets does not potray frugality, it an irony that it is now our own men of God decide to acquire one. The standard in responsible behavour should be the preserve of christians.

Ovamboland:

I will not bother to respond to your quotes one after the other, your response shows that approach is futile as your thinking is only 1-dimensional.
My response is mainly for the benefit of other forumites who may be carried away by your many words which lack indept, introspective, deductive reasoning.
I am not at all suprised shallow minds like you fail to see a connection between addiction and religious zealotry (check meaning online). Long ago some philosopher described religion as a kind of Opium -see the connection now? Remember the Guyana tragedy of Rev Jim Jones infamy where he talked people into WILLINGLY giving up their very lives? What of Davig Koresh? read the details if you care. That just illustrates how unbridled religiosity can lead to doing irrational things.

If Imams incite faithfuls to kill infidels in their sermon i guess it's me you need to blame

Also even where people are free to donate FREELY to charities, it is still goverment perogative to monitor the spending pattern of such charities that it is not misapplied. But yes this is religion and the goverment is handicapped b'cos of our recent politics and history.
But Kobojunkie, the church SHOULD be self accounting and not found making questionable purchases just because it is THEIR money.

As unbelievers take advantage of the poor regulatory structure of our giverment systems, christians should not be found joining in the fray but setting a higher standard of conduct. An example  in the recent experience of Matthew Ashimolow on UK where he was fined for misuse of charity(as  churches are categorised) funds

Just b'cos an activity is lawful does not make it christianly, their is something called morals and ethics.

JJYOU:

i am always surprised to see people who are not afraid to lie in an open forum. can you copy and paste here where you read pastor matthew was fined in the charity commissions report. how many times do you repeat a lei for it to become true?

i dont attend his church or adeboyes church but i find it sad you guys have no qualms throwing the baby out with the water. if these guys are as corrupt as some of you are insinuating, can i suggest that it is because they are nigerians. there is something wrong with our psyche that needs to be addressed before we self destroy on a massive scale.

Financial irregularities

The charity behind Kingsway International Christian Centre is The King's Ministries Trust. This was investigated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales between 2002 and 2005. A report of the inquiry was released in October 2005.[1] The report concluded that there had been serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. At an early stage in the investigation, it was considered that the charity's assets were at risk, and control was removed from the existing trustees and placed in the hands of an independent external company (the accountancy and management consultancy practice KPMG), who regularised the charity's affairs.

The report found that:[1]
there was serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the Charity (section 21)
he was responsible for approving payments and benefits to himself and his wife, Yemisi, totalling more than £384,000 (section 11)
he and his family received benefits from the Charity including:
free accommodation for himself and family (section 4)
an £80,000 car (section 12)
he had made personal purchases using the Charity’s Visa card, including the purchase of a timeshare apartment in Florida for £13,000 (section 18)
over half a million pounds was paid out to Ashimolowo's private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity (section 15)
Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity (section 4)

He was ordered (section 34) to repay £200,000.

But in a subsequent debate in the House of Lords, Lord Swinfen questioned the running of the Charity Commission's running of this investigation. He acknowledged the technical breach, but highlighted its openness, "This unincorporated trust has for some years been remunerating its trustees for various services and doing so quite openly. It made the mistake of not realising that it should have altered its constitution explicitly to allow that to be done." He then questioned the cost of the investigation "With some advice from the commission and the use of the charity lawyer, the trustees of this charity could have affected these changes for some £12,000—one-hundredth of the sum the commission has already spent." He added "The commission believes, understandably, that the future success of this charity is assured by the charity having new trustees".[2]

JJYOU:

how does denial spell in islam?

Pastor Ashimolowo to repay GBP200,000
Contributed by News Features
Friday, 07 October 2005
, after buying Florida timeshare on church Visa card
By Ruth Gledhill, The Times UK
Charity watchdog criticises church for lack of control over millions of pounds
THE pastor of an Afro-Caribbean church will have to repay £200,000 after an investigation by the Charity Commission
found “serious misconduct and mismanagement” within his church.
By Ruth Gledhill, The Times UK Charity watchdog criticises church for lack of control over millions of pounds
THE pastor of an Afro-Caribbean church will have to repay £200,000 after an investigation by the Charity Commission
found “serious misconduct and mismanagement” within his church.
A £120,000 birthday party was among benefits received by Matthew Ashimolowo, the pastor of the Kingsway
International Christian Centre. He was also able to use his church’s Visa card to buy a timeshare apartment in Florida.
The organisation, a registered charity, is the fastest growing church in Europe and a proponent of the “prosperity gospel”,
which equates faith with material abundance.
The commission’s report, published yesterday, shows that some of the church’s trustees were being paid as employees of
the charity. Mr Ashimolowo, 53, and his family were living rent-free in a house owned by the charity and the pastor also
had an interest in a company operating from the premises in Hackney, East London. He had also been given an £80,000
car.
The commissioners said that charity trustees should always ensure that personal interests did not conflict with their
duties as trustees and make sure that assets were used only to further stated purposes.
Further, the trustees had delegated almost all control of the charity to a pastoral board that included the pastor and his
wife Yemesi and had the power to spend up to £1 million at a time. Over eight years, to 2002, Mr and Mrs Ashimolowo
were paid £384,600.
They were also given £141,400 from weekly collections. Mr Ashimolowo also had several private companies selling his
books, videos and tapes in Nigeria, advertising them free on the church’s website.
Kingsway was started 20 years ago with a congregation of 17. It now has 12,000 regular worshippers and is expected to
reach its target of 25,000 members by 2010. In 2001 its income was £7.3 million.
Churches such as Kingsway promote wealth as a reward for hard work and living a godly life. They use the opening text
of the third letter of John, in which the apostle prays for his friend’s prosperity and health, and other texts espousing the
abundance of harvest reaped from the well-sown seed, to support this view.
A prosperous pastor is seen as proof that prosperity preaching — known to its detractors as the “blab-it-and-grab-it gospel” —
works. Vast sums are generated by the congregations of these churches, where “tithing”, or donation of 10 per cent of net
income, is common.
Kingsway was placed in the hands of receivers in 2002 after a routine visit by Charity Commission officials led to
concerns about governance and the benefits granted to trustees.
The commission investigation found that hundreds of thousands of pounds had been transferred overseas with little
documentation to explain how these payments furthered the objects of the charity. The report says that when
investigators visited the church in September 2002, they “noted boxes containing finance papers being loaded into a car”.
These turned out to be invoices, cheques and cash related to that financial year. The investigators concluded that this
incident showed “at the very least a serious lack of control” by the trustees.
The commission claims in its report to have safeguarded nearly £20 million of charitable funds and the charity was
allowed to regain control of the church in March, though restructured as a charitable company rather than a trust.
Kingsway said yesterday that the commission had made clear in March its satisfaction that the church had a new
structure. It said: “Six months on, the church is moving forward and we remain committed to our vision for growth.”
The inquiry has not halted the ambitions of Mr Ashimolowo, a Nigerian-born convert from Islam, whose new contract of
The Nigerian Village Square
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 11 March, 2009, 05:56
employment with the charity stipulates that he must repay £200,000.
He wants to build an arena for 10,000 people to house the church on the 9.5-acre site presently occupied by the church,
which is at the heart of the land needed for the 2012 Olympi

Matthew Ashimolowo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Matthew Ashimolowo (born 17 March 1952 in Nigeria) is the Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in London.

His Winning Ways programme is aired daily on Premier Radio (London) and Spirit FM (Amsterdam) and on television in Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, TV Africa, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and Europe on The God Channel and Inspirational Network.[citation needed]


[edit] Financial irregularities
The charity behind Kingsway International Christian Centre is The King's Ministries Trust. This was investigated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales between 2002 and 2005. A report of the inquiry was released in October 2005.[1] The report concluded that there had been serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. At an early stage in the investigation, it was considered that the charity's assets were at risk, and control was removed from the existing trustees and placed in the hands of an independent external company (the accountancy and management consultancy practice KPMG), who regularised the charity's affairs.

The report found that:[1]

there was serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the Charity (section 21)
he was responsible for approving payments and benefits to himself and his wife, Yemisi, totalling more than £384,000 (section 11)
he and his family received benefits from the Charity including:
free accommodation for himself and family (section 4)
an £80,000 car (section 12)
he had made personal purchases using the Charity’s Visa card, including the purchase of a timeshare apartment in Florida for £13,000 (section 18)
over half a million pounds was paid out to Ashimolowo's private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity (section 15)
Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity (section 4)

He was ordered (section 34) to repay £200,000.

But in a subsequent debate in the House of Lords, Lord Swinfen questioned the running of the Charity Commission's running of this investigation. He acknowledged the technical breach, but highlighted its openness, "This unincorporated trust has for some years been remunerating its trustees for various services and doing so quite openly. It made the mistake of not realising that it should have altered its constitution explicitly to allow that to be done." He then questioned the cost of the investigation "With some advice from the commission and the use of the charity lawyer, the trustees of this charity could have affected these changes for some £12,000—one-hundredth of the sum the commission has already spent." He added "The commission believes, understandably, that the future success of this charity is assured by the charity having new trustees".[2]


[edit] References
^ a b "The King’s Ministries Trust (Registered Charity No. 1014084)". The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales. http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/investigations/inquiryreports/kmt.asp. Retrieved on 2008-10-24.
^ "Lords Hansard text for 8 Nov 2005". UK Parliament. 2005-11-08. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo051108/text/51108-25.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-21.

[edit] External links

over half a million pounds was paid out to Ashimolowo's private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity (section 15)
Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity (section 4)

He was ordered (section 34) to repay £200,000.   is this what you call the fine?

But in a subsequent debate in the House of Lords, [size=13pt]Lord Swinfen questioned the running of the Charity Commission's running of this investigation. He acknowledged the technical breach, but highlighted its openness, "This unincorporated trust has for some years been remunerating its trustees for various services and doing so quite openly. It made the mistake of not realising that it should have altered its constitution explicitly to allow that to be done." He then questioned the cost of the investigation "With some advice from the commission and the use of the charity lawyer, the trustees of this charity could have affected these changes for some £12,000—one-hundredth of the sum the commission has already spent." He added "The commission believes, understandably, that the future success of this charity is assured by the charity having new trustees"[/size].[2]

He then questioned the cost of the investigation "With some advice from the commission and the use of the charity lawyer, the trustees of this charity could have affected these changes for some £12,000—one-hundredth of the sum the commission has already spent."

am always surprised to see people who are not afraid to lie in an open forum

Lagosboy:

@JJyou

honestly you should own up and accept in the light of overwhelming evidence the pastor was ordered to pay £200,000 this is what some people term as fine. In the UK the case could go to the house of lords and that is the next stage where the other lord was talking of 12000. The bottom line is there were financial malpractices by the pastor and he was rebuked by the charity commission.

Your quote is now going against you "how does denial spell in . . . . . . "

JJYOU:

there you go. how did you know why the honourable Lord was talking?

i repeat once more if they are theives like you guys want us beleive they are they steal because they are nigerians. you will not find me supporting buying of private jets but what i will not do is allow a lie go unchallenged.

you are claiming ordered to pay the wickipedia report your freind posted earlier said he was ordered to repay. how does that equal a fine in your books.

once more i ask that you go and read the charities commision report and read their next 2 yrs report to see what was put in place as a result of the noble lords outcry over this incident. sad thing is because of this stupidity the charities commission cannot now investigate churches as the law allows because they openly showed unfair bias in their work. i think it is not worth it and that is what precisely the noble lord was getting at. the CC just finished their review sadly they have lost control of many of churches and faith based organisations. you can sit in lagos and think it was worth it but most people in the know think it wrong. whatever. . .

Ovamboland:

JJYOU is now into denial mode.
Simple truth is just say 'sorry i was wrong 'he keeps on pontificating.

If you have a problem with my intepretation of the payments as a fine why did't you say so calmly in your post rather that dubbing it 'lies on an online forum'?
Simple misinterpretation if any can't be offhandedly called lies. If he was asked to repay fine. The bottomline of my post and quotation is in the context of misapplication of charity funds, a simple correction would have been appropriate.

jay bee:

Remembered going to a church here in UK about 8 yrs ago and was told we could use our credit card to pay for tithe. The lent this people will go to fleece common man is just unbelievable

That is not right to be honest!

Whoever directs anyone to pay tithes using the credit card is heartless, greedy, callous and stupid!

JJYOU:

you are still repeating the lie. there was no fine to pay or repay. if you know what his and other trustees salary is today you would know what i am talking about. but looks that doesn't matter to guys like you.

you should be the one saying sorry for telling untruth. he was never fined.

jay bee:

Peeps need to seriously wise up. Most nigerians r just too gullible. Whats wrong with praying to God yaself, giving to the poor if u can?
If you search well most nigerians probably pay tithe because they want one thing or the other from God rather than doing it as a sign of appreciation