Apostle Johnson Suleman, senior pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, has sparked controversy online by discussing his opinions on money, church initiatives, and what he considers to be a minister’s real success.
During a sermon, Suleman made the case that a ministry’s worth should be determined by the number of lives it benefits rather than the size or cost of its church edifice.
The priest compared the size of Aliko Dangote’s refinery to Bishop David Oyedepo’s church edifice, which he called the most costly church in Nigeria.
He claims that company executives in charge of much bigger investments seldom take pride in their accomplishments.
“Pastors are bragging. A pastor will build a church and say, ‘People have been asking me, how was this done?’ Sir, what have you built? What did you build?”
“The most expensive church in Nigeria is The Ark Legacy, Bishop Oyedepo’s church, and it’s 200 million dollars. Dangote refinery is 20 to 23 billion dollars when stretched. The man makes 49.3 million dollars every day. He has over 30,000 staff. Outside the Federal Government, he is the largest employer of labour. He has not given testimony.”
Additionally, Suleman contended that those who are truly wealthy are frequently less likely to brag about their wealth.
“People who really have money don’t talk about money. All these prosperity preachers, materialistic preachers are broke. They don’t have money because those who really have money, they don’t even remember they have money.”
He went on to say that Walmart, a corporation with millions of workers, does not continuously brag about its accomplishments.
The cleric insisted that a ministry’s true success should be determined by its humanitarian efforts rather than by its physical infrastructure.
“The bragging rights of a church is the poor people they are helping. The bragging rights of a man of God should be the poor people he’s helping. We started business for this. We supported this. We helped this. We built house for widow. That is a man of God’s bragging right, not, ‘I built a massive church. You are not really rich until you reach out to people. When I see people who God has blessed helping people, that’s what I say. So if you are rich and you’re not helping anybody, you are rich for yourself.”