Private Jets And Other Matters : In Defence Of Nigerian Pentecostal Bishops And Pastors

“Nobody kicks a dead dog”---Dale Carnegie.

I have been sick and tired of the lampooning of Bishops and Pastors over the acquisition of private jets and other material things by writers in the media that are obviously members of old generation churches or if you like orthodox churches and their atheist collaborators that I am forced to make an intervention on behalf of fellow Pentecostals. As a commentator I try to stay away from religious controversy as much as possible, but those that have left other national issues and dwell on Pastors dragged me into this. I am happy to make this intervention for the edification of the body of Christ.

 In his highly rated personal development book entitled: “ How To Stop Worrying And Start Living”, the author, Dale Carnegie advised those who are disturbed about  continuous  criticisms from their adversaries to ignore them, noting that the reason they were being attacked was because they have succeeded in achieving something worthwhile. Carnegie reckons that when you are nobody and you have failed to make something out of your life, it is okay. But once you raise yourself above the pack the attackers will naturally descend on you. Dale Carnegie was right: “nobody kicks a dead dog”. Before the emergence of the father of Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria, late Bishop Benson Idahosa who revolutionalised the genre, Bible believing Christians were erroneously made to believe that to serve God is to accept poverty. He brought a new revelation on the secret of prosperity as embedded in the Bible. Today we have in our midst a prophet of prosperity, Bishop David Oyedepo, whose mandate is to rescue the people of God from poverty based on the scripture. Idahosa and Oyedepo among others have made evangelical Christians to be reckoned with. We will get to that later.

Remember the famous saying: “as poor as a church rat”. Before now some people erroneously believe that the church of God is a place of poverty. It was probably that kind of mentality that led a highly cerebral writer like Dr. Eddie Iroh to write an article in Thisday of Nov.2, 2012 entitled: “ ‘Bishop’ And The Rest Of Us”, where he asked: “What is the theological agenda of Oyedepo and his fellow ‘pastorpreneurs’? Are they businessmen and millionaires or are they followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who had ‘no place to lay his head;’ who rode not on a gold-plated chariot or white stallion, but a donkey, the lowest form of transport of his age? One has to ask, which Christ are we following, the one that commanded his apostles:’You have received without paying, so give without being paid’?  As pastors and priests, are we following in the footsteps of the apostles who ‘left everything’ and followed Jesus? Are we following in the example of Peter, the first apostle, who, before he healed the lame at the entrance to the synagogue, declared ‘silver or gold [or private jets] have I not, but that which I have I give to you...’and what he had was the power to say ‘...in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’ Are we preaching prosperity of the pocket or of the spirit?”

But the valid question that Eddie Iroh and those that think like him should have asked: do we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in this day and age on donkeys because that was the way that Christ did it or are we to adapt to modern ways of communication? If I remember very clearly Christ charged his followers to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth before the Son of Man returns in His glory. How do you spread it in this day and age without money, without airplanes? Eddie Iroh was the former DG of Radio Nigeria, while he was there and till date, is the airtime in radio Nigeria free for preachers who need to spread the gospel? Eddie being a journalist is in a better position to know that airtime in NTA or AIT or in any media does not come cheap. In fact it cost several millions of naira to buy air time to preach the gospel. It is the responsibility of pastors and Bishops to raise the money to sustain the preaching of the gospel.

I find it strange that if the people of the world, like Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola etc buy  private jets it is okay, but dusts are raised when somebody working in God’s vineyard buys one. Are they saying that Dangote’s work is more important than the work of God being done by Bishop David Oyedepo or Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the others? Just as Dangote fly around the world looking for investment opportunities, so also does Bishop Oyedepo needs to fly round the world planting churches, winning souls for Christ. If Dangote needs to acquire a private jet to make his work easy,  Oyedepo does not have to use commercial flight as God has blessed him to make his work easy by flying using private jet.

Very often those complaining about the acquisition of planes and fancies cars by pastors and Bishops are not members of the congregation in question.Many of them have never paid a tithe in their life or sowed any seed in any Pentecostal ministry yet they are complaining. A case of crying more than the bereaved. I know that lawyers like to call such people ‘busy bodies’ that have no legal right to interfere in a matter that does not concern them. Often the critics of the pastors query the rationale for acquiring a private jet when they could have used the money to feed the poor. Those who parrot this holier than thou attitude when you ask them how many poor people they have helped in their neighbourhood, they have none to point to. I have also discovered that those who think that tithers are fools are not better off financially than tithers. That is why most tithers are not bordered by the living standards of their pastors that is of concern to none tithers and non-givers.

“Anyone who has read the expose carried in the British Mail on Sunday newspaper on October 21, cannot but shudder at what the paper had to say about “Bishop” David Oyedepo and how his Winners’ Chapel ministry had stretched its tentacles to the United Kingdom and into the wallets of its British congregation which is made up of largely African and Caribbean under—class”, writes Eddie Iroh. The former DG was writing about a report written by an undercover reporter of Mail newspaper in UK that alleged that Oyedepo’s UK church, run by his son David Oyedepo Junior, had “exploited its British congregation” to the tune of more than £4 million in 2010 alone; nearly double its takings the year before”.

If we are to believe Eddie Iroh, the “largely African and Caribbean under-class”, contributes over four million pounds in 2010 alone for Oyedepo’s ministry and he still calls them under-class.  I know friends in UK who hold advanced degrees and work in multinational companies in UK and pay their tithes and other kingdom investments regularly and they are not “under-class”. This view that it is the poor and the irrational that pay tithe and sow seed is a fallacy. In United States the Bible belts that gave President Barack Obama a run for his money during the last presidential election are the evangelical Christians many of them from families that have old money-millionaires of several generations- dating back to the time of slave trade. These people are regular tithers and givers. They are multi-millionaires who are against welfarist state because they are rich and they want others to work hard to create wealth and not depend on handouts by federal government as being championed by Obama. The founder of coca-cola company in 1889, Asa Candler was a renowned tither and the result is that today, besides its namesake coca-cola beverage, coca-cola currently offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries or territories and serve over 1.7 billion servings each day. In 2011 coca-cola generated $46.542billion. John D.Rockefeller(1839-1937) was once the richest man in the world. He was the founder of Standard Oil(Exxon Corporation), the world’s first oil multinational company.His biography reveals that he started tithing at the age of 20 at his Baptist Church. He was the financier of the research that led to the invention of penicillin, the drug that stopped syphilis from being a killer disease like HIV/AIDS. The presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the last United States presidential election Mr. Mitt Romney is a tither in his Mormon Church and he is worth over $200m. Even Warren Buffet, the third richest man in the world in 2011 with an estimated net worth of $46billion in 2012 is a tither    and  so also are many other millionaires and billionaires that they have created business empires that have outlived them. So don’t tell me that it is the poor that pay into the ministries like that of Oyedepo.

While it is easy to point to Oyedepo’s private jet, but what cannot be disputed is the many lives he has transformed by teaching them about the renewal of their minds and the secrets of seed times and harvest times that have transformed ordinary people to millionaires and multimillionaires that are today big donors for the spreading of the gospel. I find it hard that the critics of the bishops and pastors have failed to notice that even as their criticisms grow louder, the founders of the churches and their members are growing in prosperity and the number of the congregations keep on swelling.

  “One has to ask, which Christ are we following, the one that commanded his apostles:’You have received without paying, so give without being paid’?  As pastors and priests, are we following in the footsteps of the apostles who ‘left everything’ and followed Jesus?” Iroh asked.

 In Mark 10:28 the Bible says:”Then Peter began to say unto him, lo, we have left all, and have followed thee”. It was this verse that Iroh excepted while asking the kind of follower of Christ, Oyedepo was? But he conveniently fails to cite the preceding verse 29 and 30. Mark 10: 29-30 says, “And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospel’s (30) But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children and lands, with persecution; and in the world to come eternal life.” I can guess why Iroh fail to cite verse 29 and 30 because that is the verses that God made it clear that nobody who left everything for him will ever go unrewarded and it goes contrary to the philosophy of Iroh that those who serve God need to be in penury while the unfaithful live in luxury. And the hundredfold increase that God promises those who left whatever they possessed for Him is the reason why Ministers will never be poor and those who support them in their work will also never know poverty.

The Bible says in Psalm 37: 25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread.” If you believe this verse then you will agree with me that Oyedepo or any minister for that matter who knows his place in God’s plans and purposes can never play subservient to Dangotes and Adenugas of this world. If Dangote has one jet, God can make available two or more for the one that serves in God’s vineyard. There are many ministers of God like Dr. Paul Enenche of Dunamis Church, who is a trained medical doctor who could have been at home or abroad practicing medicine and raking in millions of naira, but has left that to work for God. And as he enjoys his hundredfold blessings, those who are not even members of his congregation will be complaining as if it was their salary or allowances that was being used to sow seed in Dunamis Church.

Having said all these, it is not to say that there are no bad eggs in the ministry who put money first before the gospel to the extent that some unrepentant 419ners are today pastors. But we must learn not to use the same brush to paint all ministers of God.My final take on this is that, judgement is of God. Allow ministers to do their thing, if their actions are not for God they will soon fizzle out, but if God send them, you may be acting against the Holy Spirit- and the consequences is dire.