₦airaland Forum

wickyyolo:
I didn't say every man on the pulpit is a man of God.
Don't mess with a True man of Gof

How do we know who a true man of God is?

bezimo:
Oh the prosperity gospel is fake and it is your own gospel that is the real one.. I see.!!
you see how this idiot keep appealing to the senses of the online social media pharisees and saducees by the fake garbage he dishes out to feed them from time to time. but we are not surprised. He is one a mission as mandated by hell.

He should ask questions, were are they which criticised before him because he is not the first, they are in Oblivion. he is not the first to criticize and speak again and will not be the last. Bishop Oyedepo was mandated by God in 1986 while in the States specifically..."get back home and make my people rich". there is no name he wasn't called when he started ..but today he is a full proof of the mandate and the gospel just as many who bought into that truth.

Make people rich or himself rich? 6.5 people are drifting into extreme poverty in Nigeria per minute. Stop listening to what they are saying and just look around even in your church. Every 4 out of 10 people you see in your church on Sunday are in abject poverty. (i.e less than $1.25/day, this money can't buy a cup of black coffee).

Just look at this statistic and be ashamed of your statement, we need to own the responsibility of our poverty and look for ways to get out of it. Prosperity teaching has definitely not helped us and will not.

princechurchill:
Like i said its working for me

Yea, but it not working for millions of poor Africans. While 43% of all Pentecostal Christians live in Africa, it is still the poorest continent in the world. Also, so you may know, another 30% of Pentecostal Christians live Latin America (another poor continent).

Mariangeles:
There's nothing satanic about prosperity, Freeze is so confused.
Why pretend you don't want something when you know you need it..."ask and it shall be given unto you"

And why are we so poor in Nigeria or in Africa for that matter, if more than 43% of Pentecostal Christians are in Africa?

Goodness4525:
as a result of xposing the wrong teachings which the sheeple cannot detect themselves

Abi?

So you guys believe Noah put all the animals, in this world, in a boat?

... or not

Photo of the memo will be nice

Hahaha

petra1:
pastor that are rich are blessed of God. the put principles of the bible to work and it works for them also. God supply you financially if you have vision.either you're a pastor or member. pastors are hard workers

Your logic also works for yahoo boys.

If the source of your wealth is from the hope and fear of poor and sick people, you definitely deserve to be criticised.

asuustrike2009:
Basically there is no minimum or maximum hours of prayers. It all boil down to the individual, if he or she chooses 3 hours to pray,he should be consistent with it. What God watches is your consistency in prayers not necessary the hours spent. But again if you spent more time in his presence, you get more results

So God loves to watch you pray hard and sweat before He grants your request? I don't do that to my kid, sometimes I grant his requests before he even asks.

See poverty...

This kind of poverty is enough to cause mental disorder.

asuustrike2009:
He is highly anointed. He ate the Bible very well

Great!

She used the money for MMM. Many of them have gone this way, it’s just not in the news.

aolawale025:
A transaction between a bank and it's client is a civil matter. EFCC is only involved in criminal matters.

It becomes a criminal matter when you forge bank documents to clear goods with the customs.

This article exposes the secret methods certain pastors use to get rich off God’s people. Have you ever wondered how some pastors start a church and then become wealthy living in flash houses and driving luxury cars? Well this article exposes how they do it, extracting money from their congregations to fund their lifestyles. Here are the secrets they definitely do not want you to know.

Important Note: As you read please remember that very few pastors use the techniques you are about to discover. The great majority of Christian pastors do not earn much money even though they work hard at their jobs. Most Christian pastors would find these techniques repugnant. Please do not make the mistake of tarring the many good pastors with the brush reserved for the spiritually corrupt few.


Introduction
Like Judas reaching into the money bag, the sad reality is that a small minority of Christian pastors steal from God’s people. As Christians we hate to face this truth, but I believe we must, because it is our duty to protect our less aware brothers and sisters – keeping them from these thieves.

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. – 2 Corinthians 2:17a

Here exposed are the secret techniques used to fleece money from God’s people. Don’t be naive thinking that these schemes have spread throughout the world by accident. These techniques are talked about and shared behind closed doors by the clique of pastors who employ them.

It’s big business. Some of them laugh at us like con-men laughing at their marks. Seriously, if you don’t believe that there are men like that, then watch the 1972 documentary Marjoe. You’ll soon realize that these wolfs in sheep’s clothing have been a blight on Christianity throughout its history.

I will start by outlining the primary pattern that underpins these modern schemes. Then I will drill down, listing each technique one by one, exposing how they work. Finally, at the end, I will outline the biggest monetary scam of all.

First let’s discover the primary pattern behind their methods…


The Multilevel Marketing Pattern
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up toJerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” -John 2:13-16

We’ve all been approached at some time by a friend caught up in the hope of multilevel marketing. The business they are pushing is simple, sell toothpaste or web sites or whatever, and then recruit people under you doing the same, taking a cut from their sales. Soon you will be so rich that you can buy a flash European car and give stacks of money to Godly causes.

That is the dream. The proof the dream works is embodied in the wealth of the dream’s leaders. Do you see how rich our leaders are? They made all their money by following the dream, proving that you can too. Except, that it’s a lie.

Coming up is the key to the pattern, are you ready? These leaders did not become wealthy by following the dream, instead they became wealthy by building up a group of people who believe passionately in the dream, and then selling dream-promoting wares to this captive audience.

I will say it again, because you need to understand this pattern. They did not become rich by selling toothpaste; they became rich by hyping dream-promoting books, tapes, DVDs, and conferences to their own private market of dream believers.

This same pattern is practiced by some Christian leaders and their churches. The dream is the prosperity gospel. Their captive market is their congregation. The products are, well you guessed it: books, tapes, DVDs, and conferences, and t-shirts, and most ominously spiritual rewards and the prevention of spiritual punishments.

These leaders use their faked “success” to promote a distorted gospel which basically says: “tow the line obeying the leaders buying whatever we tell you to buy, and donate money whenever we tell you to donate, and then God will pour riches into your life.” They tell us that they became successful by following this dream, but in reality they became rich by sucking money out of those caught up in the buzzing environment where this distorted gospel seems real.

Let’s drill in and discuss some of the products and techniques they use to line their pockets with money that ought to have stayed with God’s people or gone to legitimate good works. You are about to discover how these spiritual vampires feed…

Tip: A clue that you are caught up in one of these churches is if you hear things like, “This is your spiritual home, you can’t go to another church. You must be loyal.” They are very jealous about protecting their market, and do not want to lose one of their paying customers to another church. Some even try to prevent their patrons leaving by making them sign contracts or “covenants”, like a mobile phone company locking you into a two year term. But the Bible does not teach that Christians are bound to their local church organization, this idea is foreign to Scripture.


Books
The first product is the leader’s book (often ghostwritten and fraudulently claimed to be authored by the leader). Let’s be honest, many of these books are below par. Like bad business books they have one good idea, if that, and then are padded with motivational sayings and anecdotal stories of how the leader obeyed the dream and so God hosed him down with wealth. The theological content is basically non-existent. These books would tank on Amazon or in a real bookstore, but hyped to their captive market they sell like hot cakes.

Your Counter Strategy: Buy the book if it’s got good reviews or if your friends have read it and liked it. In other words treat it like you would any other book. Avoid buying it if the pastor or speaker has hyped it during his talk and especially if there is a lot of peer pressure from the group to buy. Be aware that conferences and seminars are designed to emotionally hype these products. If you’ve ever been to a high pressure time-share sales session, then you will know what it’s like. If you’re feeling the hype, then cool off for a few days, buying the book later if you still want to.


DVDs
Next comes the ever popular DVD. Most of which are videos of the leader preaching in his church on a certain topic. Let me ask you a question, is it ethical for a leader who has been paid by his church to prepare and deliver a sermon, to then take that performance and sell it back to his own church members for a healthy profit? I’m not talking here about paying for reproduction costs or the money going into church funds. I’m talking about DVDs being sold at the same cost as a movie DVD and the profit going into the leader’s own pocket.

And like the books most of these DVD’s are awful, not worth the money paid. Minimal content with gallons of fluff. Some are so bad that my friends and I have been in hysterics, like the preacher whose proofs for his latest invented doctrine is to slap the bible he’s carrying and say, “It’s bible, it’s bible!”.

But, these DVDs are hyped and hyped, and the captive audience buy stacks of them. In the worst money hungry churches you’re expected to buy them, and it is noticed if you don’t.

Your Counter Strategy: The same as for a hyped book. Is it good? Do you still want the DVD after the hype has dissipated? Then buy it, otherwise save your money.


Hyped Conferences
The hype for these conferences start months before hand. Other church members look at you strangely if you are thinking about not going. What, you can’t afford the huge entry fee? What’s wrong with you, don’t you love God? Don’t you want to be blessed? Don’t you want to be successful and wealthy? Don’t you want to be part of us? Because you won’t be, unless you go to THE CONFERENCE!

Each speaker is completely amazing. The next best thing to the second coming.

He’s built a church up from nothing to one with thousands of people. She’s the most Godly woman in the universe who is the best wife ever with the best kids and the best lifestyle, and she’s the pastor’s wife too. He’s from overseas. She’s a corporate CEO. Wow. It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be triple awesome! It’s going to be mega massive triply awesomely awesome!

The spiritual reward for going is implied to be life changing. The conference fee is nothing, compared to the fire-fighting-bomber worth of blessings and wealth God will dump on your head from upon high.

And Jesus had conferences too, don’t forget, like the Sermon on the Mount, where He charged, oh, he didn’t charge anything for that spiritual teaching. In fact it was free wasn’t it? Hmmm. Well, often the first-movers can’t figure out how to monetize their success, we can’t blame Jesus for that, can we? Gosh, if only He had some books to sell at the back…

Understand, I’m not against conferences. I’m against overly expensive hyped conferences that deliver hardly any lasting value to their attendees; Conferences that are linked to your standing in your church, and supposedly what God thinks of your commitment to Him.

And why are they so expensive? Where does all that money go? Well, in the next section you’re going to find out…

Your Counter Strategy: Hire a hotel room, and sit there reading your Bible with a few Christian friends – trust me, spiritually you’ll get more out of it and it’ll cost less. Realize that you don’t need the sugar high of a conference to get closer to God. De-program yourself from the idea that conferences are like a spiritual hot-point you just have to be at. See the hype for what it is. Be led by the Spirit to conferences, not pulled by the fear of losing your church friends and God’s blessing.


The Christian Speaking Circuit
If you have a big market (congregation) and are willing to let others come and sell there, then your fellow pastors will invite you to come and sell into their markets (congregations) too. The bigger your own market, the larger the markets that will open their doors to you – as long as you are willing to reciprocate. Quid pro quo.

There is a Christian speaking circuit, just like there is a motivational speaking circuit. The circuit has no formal structure like say a football league, but rather is like an exclusive network or an old boys club.

Young speaking-cubs sweat blood to be allowed into the circuit. These wannabes practice hard and desperately seek in-circuit patrons because the financial rewards are significant. Revenue flows in four ways: from sales of products, from special “love offerings” taken for the speaker, from various perks, and from the formal payments (honorariums) for speaking.

Not all visiting church speakers are on the circuit, the difference is in the amount of money their visit extracts. There is nothing wrong with a speaker’s flights and accommodation being paid for, along with the speaker receiving a fair payment for his time. But if the amounts are excessive and the perks extravagant, then that is an unacceptable waste of the Lord’s money.

Some speaker’s egos are so ripe that they demand business or first class flights, expensive chauffeured cars, five star hotel accommodation, gourmet dining, and the right to bring a small entourage along with them (at the church’s expense). Their fees can be enough to buy a family car, and then they have the audacity to expect a special “love offering” to be made for them. The sales of their books and DVD’s are carefully planned, and the hosting pastors are expected to hype their products.

Of course the hosting pastor will then get the same treatment later at the visiting speaker’s church, including his own big fat love offering. If the visiting speaker does not have a church, then the hosting pastor will expect a cut from the speaker’s product sales.

These Sunday service speaking engagements are the bread and butter, to the glamour and super-liquidity of the hyped conferences. Only the true speaking-circuit superstars get to keynote at these hype-fests. The speakers at these conferences are like sharks in a feeding frenzy, seeking to boost their profit margins with the over inflated prices of their products. Their speaking fees and perks are why these conferences cost so much, and can sometimes even run at a, ahem, cough, “loss”.

It is unbelievable what some of these speakers expect from the Body of Christ. I would not like to be in their shoes when they finally meet our Lord, or for that matter anywhere within the blast radius.

Your Counter Strategy: Don’t go to these conferences. Demand transparent accounting to the whole church of all costs of visiting speakers, and for that matter transparency about any income your pastor is earning while speaking at other churches and conferences. No pastor earning reasonable fees from away engagements would have a problem with this, assuming of course he is on leave when he speaks and not double dipping.


Pastor Owned Businesses that Feed Off the Flock
Another way bad pastors extract money from their captive market is to set up a business, and then get their congregation to patronize their business.

Businesses like: bookshops, counseling, gyms, production firms, computer consulting, cinemas, business coaching services, supermarkets, building firms, music festivals, music studios, real-estate firms, and many more. The bookshop is the most common, often located inside the church itself.

Members in the church who show loyalty to their pastor’s businesses are rewarded, often with increased standing in the church. Members who refuse to use the pastor’s businesses are frowned upon.

Your Counter Strategy: Don’t frequent these types of businesses. Ask questions about who owns them, and where their customers are from, if eighty percent or more of the customers come from the pastor’s church then that indicates where its marketing is targeted.


The Honor The Pastor Scam
Money focused churches tend to be run on cultic patterns. One of these cultic patterns is the division of the church into exclusive rings: the all-powerful pastor perched at the center, the inner-ring of sycophants around him consisting of the pastor’s lieutenants and the church’s privileged class (the rich, the famous and the very pretty), and the outer-ring of the ordinary folk who would love to be in the inner-ring, but are not.

The power of those in the inner-ring is determined by the amount of favor the pastor bestows upon them.

To get more favor the inner-ring will employ many favor-currying measures, one of which is a scam called “Honoring the Pastor”. It works this way, the inner-ring will figure out what the pastor would like, say for his birthday. Then the inner-ringers will squeeze the outer-ringers for the money to buy this item.

Using this method pastors have been “given”: diamond rings for their wives, cash gifts, jet skis, luxury cruises, motorbikes, cars, holidays, boats, and a myriad of other expensive luxury items.

Are the pastors complicit in this game? Of course they are. They couldn’t demand the gift openly themselves, but seek plausible deniability by having their inner-ring lieutenants do the work. Of course they could refuse the gift when it is presented, and make it clear that they don’t want the Lord’s money spent on such things again, but they never do. These pastors exchange their favor, for cash from their congregation.

Your Counter Strategy: Unless it’s something reasonable like a bunch of flowers for the pastor’s wife, don’t give to this sort of fund raising.


High Pressure Offerings
Another way the pastor uses his inner-ring to extract cash, is via high pressure offering talks in the church services.

One of the church’s inner-ring will take the Sunday offering, which in these money focused churches can turn into a mini-sermon. These inner-ring members are competing against each other’s past high scores. At stake is their standing with the pastor and hence their standing in the church. If they rake in the cash then their position is secure, but if they score low then no matter what excuses they have they know the pastor will blame them.

In the extreme money focused churches it is made known who gave the most and who gave the least, and in these churches the giving will not be in secret but people will be expected to come up the front so that everyone can see how much they give. Or people will be watched to see if they put anything in the offering container as it is passed down the aisles.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7

Your Counter Strategy: If you feel you are being compelled to give then don’t give a penny, no matter how much pressure is applied.

lonelydora:
Let ne teach you bible a little. You can only do what Deuteronomy 14:22-29 says ONLY IF where you are to pay tithe is very far from you. Is your church far? Is POS or ATM transfer far? Go and understand the bible before you speak what you don't know. You can't use 1984 Jamb syllabus and read for 2017 jamb examination.

Is that what you understand from that passage? Or is that the interpretation from your bible?

Omuneizzy6:
Most often i hear people debate on tithing and offering. I feel like wow, though its really an end time controversy but viewing tithing and offering based on my perspective it should be always personal.
I believe too well that tithe is a covenant between God and Man, the main reason we argue on this is because of the ignorance towards tithing and offering... Why not read, study and know more on tithing. Some argue based on what others says while others argue because they only view it as money alone...
I remember all the people that tithes in the bible were rewarded... Or you think your tithe of 100 can buy private jet for one man? Please lets our tithe should be personal don't argue on what others argue on tithing and offering.

There is nothing personal about tithe, it is Jewish law. The instructions on the types of tithes, what to give as tithe, how to give tithes, who to give the tithes and what to do with the tithes are clearly stated in the Bible. Anything contrary to this instructions is going again God’s commandments.

smulti:
Both the government and the pastors are operating in the same frequency

which is scam !!!
.

They are even worse than the politicians.[left][/left]

$8.44/day? Wow! That’s even less than the minimum wage per hour and you call that middle class. If those ones are categorised as middle class, God help the low class earners. Why I am surprised at a country whose residents believe more in miracles than in hard work and creativity.

Treasure17:
Smh.. I pirry you. Hope you don't learn in a hard way .

This is why Africa will always be backward. See fear tactics....... Mental slavery, with this thinking you will always be a slave to your Pastor

livinbygrace:
You mean responsibility,for children of a family to graduate with good grades and all children remain Jobless and useless till the grow old?Pray you don't encounter such experience ,else you will be the first to shout it louder than your voice.House wickedness real and it's happening life .They must die by fire

There are only few jobs available in Nigeria, good grades are not enough for you to land a job cause it is competive. Teach those children to develop the requiste skills or better still innovate or start something on their own. Stop attributing people’s failure to enemies, they have to take responsibilities. I have seen families divided because of these beliefs, children don’t speak to their parents cause they have been told they are responsible for their failures. The moment you recognise your failure and your short comings that’s when you begin to solve them. Africa arise and stop foolish thinking.

donbrowser:
Daddy Freeze is talking because he is not using his degree to push wheelbarrow. If that was the case, he would say amen to that prayer even before Adeboye finished.

No one is blocking your way. It is only when you accept responsibility for your failures that you begin to look for ways to solves them. One of the main reasons Africans are poor today is because they don't accept this responsibility and always blaming others. The church is not helping by not telling the truth but selling them HOPE.

ivoryfile:
He is our father. Ruth 1:16 NIV

Ruth 1:16New International Version (NIV)

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

New International Version (NIV)

Are you not a Christain? How is the Bible verse you provided related to my question?

danieljoel759:
The founder of salvation ministry, and trevangelist Pastor David Ibieyeomi was present at the shiloh 2017 to mark the day 3 "a new dawn"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLhQ_SYz4M




cc; lalasticlala, mynd44

See story... all because of offering. Wetin co-sign rod and money?

ivoryfile:
Amen to that! Cause we are being made rich by his God...
Join us tonight for another night of encounter.

www.Ivoryfile.com

His God? Why not your God?

Wetin dey happen for there? Tithe gathering?

bezimo:
Defending which stupid things..You are are the one confused. you are not a christian so pointing things out is just a futile waste of time because you are not in a position to understand. There are poor folks in the Canada and dont attempt to downplay the existence of the poor folks who lack food and are homeless yet magnifying the poverty in Nigeria and holding church as responsible.. your logic is upside down. you mean church carering for the needy in Canada but not in Nigeria. You are super ignorant.there is no point even going further.

I am sorry my brother, I can’t help you.

xtivin:
Tithing is not for carnal minds. And it sounds stupid but spiritually wise.There is a covenant in where you put your money for spiritual purpose. Pay to satan and loose the rest,give to God (the church) and have plenty.this is a spiritual wisdom. But the truth is pastors should not emphasize on 10 percent but the more you give the plenty you have.

Is that in your Bible? To me, the bolded words sounds like ‘you don’t understand the ideology of MMM’ used my Ponzi promoters to scam innocent people.

bezimo:
There is poverty everywhere..Dont think otherwise..i live in the West and you will see some white folks who are poor and begging for money from you..some of them are homeless.They hardly show that in the media
You will be suprised.There are many reasons that can be attributed to the poverty of majority of Nigerians..that a discussion for another day.
So poverty has no respect for Nation.
Just like in Nigeria, In America there are christians who do what christians in Nigeria also do..so i dont get the recent controversy and its aim.Its not a godly aim..i will think.

Stop defending stupid things, I live in Canada. Even if you work minimum wage, you can pay your bills. You can only be homeless if you do drugs or make some terrible fininacial decisions. About 45% of Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, Nigerians don’t even understand what it means to have constant power in their homes for a week. If you are in the west as you claim and attend a white church, you should know that many of the teachings in the African churches are false and are just for enriching the pastors. They brainwash human beings and make them do foolish things that can be equated with slavery. I volunteer in a charity organisation run by a church that feeds the homeless and provides accommodation for them, for free, daily. Stop defending what is improverishing your people, it’s your duty to humanity!