Church Is Business, Poor Pastors Are Fake --Uma Ukpai

The founder of Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Association, Uma Ukpai, insisted
that church is a business adding that pastors "approved" by God cannot
be poor.

Nigerian Bulletin reports that Ukpai explained his point while
speaking with Daily Independent .
"Jesus calls church business. He said, 'I am about my father's
business'. He called church work business and what is business?
Business is investment plus gain, minus loss. In church planting, no
pastor can collect offering without giving account and survive. Every
church has elders and the job of the elders is to make sure that
account is given; it is not even publicly but given internally but the
account must be given."

He further continued about how the business worked in church saying
that the "gain" was not in money, but in people.

"Church is all about investment and the gain they make is not in money
but in people; that is the gain they make. People also can be called
money because for instance, if a pastor's ministry can cause 20 women
to get pregnant; those women will not forget the pastor. If a pastor's
ministry can produce one of the richest 10 men in the country, those
men will not forget the man who made them what they are."

The association founder expressed confidence that the clerics who can
make miracles work are blessed. Therefore they, who changed people's
lives for the better, are "in money".

He also urged Nigerians to worry not about the clergymen's wealth but
about those not truly called by God.

"When you are into ministry and you have what we call anointing, you
have become profitable; you begin to touch lives; you begin to bless
people; you begin to change the stories of families and your own story
will change also because the man that waters others shall be watered
by God. There is so much misinformation about the church. It is not
all about money. If your pastor has anointing that can make the blind
see, cripples walk, leprosy to disappear, that pastor is in money.

"The only man you can worry about is a man who has no anointing; a man
who God has rejected; a pastor who God has not approved what he is
doing. God does not bless what he does not approve. If God approves
what a pastor is doing, he will have more money than he can spend. I
am an example."

It would be recalled that Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living
Faith Ministries, aka Winners Chapel, has been recently called world
richest cleric, with an estimated net worth $150 million.

Reacting to the report, Oyedepo expressed surprise over the figure. He
also stated that the donations made in his church were used for
building schools and and serving other needs of the society.
--infonaija