Christ Summit: entrepreneurs pay up to BRL 10,000 – 06/08/2023 – Market

If Abraham, with so much gold, cattle and land he had, could, why can’t you? “God wants you to get rich, yes”, says Janguiê Diniz, the owner of the Ser Educacional group and the mind behind the Christ Summit.

The businessman opened the convention of Christian entrepreneurs on the 2nd. He is a little defensive when he advocates applying biblical principles in the quest for financial bonanza.

In the weeks leading up to the event, held in a space in Alphaville, an elite enclave close to the capital of São Paulo, he got a lot on social media.

“The evangelical community is in an uproar, questioning the high demand and compatibility of these values ​​with the Christian principles of equality”, summarized a post on the Fuxico Gospel portal, which spoke of tickets of R$ 7,900 for two days of lectures that promised the way “for an abundant life”.

It wasn’t quite right. On that date, it was still possible, with R$718, or 12 installments of R$59.85, to buy the bronze credential. It gives access to chairs at the back of the Convention Coliseum and no coffee break. But there was a discount for passes purchased in advance — the report paid BRL 600 in April to be silver, with better seats in the audience.

There are also the gold and diamond modalities —”the top”, as one organizer describes. This one yields white armchairs in front of the stage and a day of mentoring with Janguiê, Pastor Josué Valandro Jr., leader of Michelle Bolsonaro’s church, and other guests. It leaves, on the day of the meeting, for R$ 9,467.

thousand degrees

The Attitude Ministry, with musicians from the church of Valandro, plays the evangelical hymn “Mil Graus”: “The sound of the party will go up / His glory will go down / A new hallelujah sound will be heard”. What you hear next is techno music. Flashing lights bounce around the room, adding to the clubbing aesthetic.

Edu Santos, the master of ceremonies, says that the “plate will heat up” and repeats jokes that associate the division of chairs with the political fight. There’s the wing on the right, the center and, well, “the left is kind of stopped”. He announces the entry of the boss in the sequence.

Author of “Seja um Fodido Obstinado”, Janguiê encourages Valdirene, a diamond spectator, to say that she will be the first billionaire in the family, just like “an unstoppable warrior”.

Well they tried to stop the Christ Summit. Many people accused him of using the name of God in vain, admits the businessman. “For a long time, being poor was beautiful, and being rich was linked to a bad thing.”

The goal is to deconstruct what he defines as “inadequate interpretations of the Bible”. His books, by the way, are full of examples of zillionaires — see Abraham. For him, many Christians misread Matthew 19:24, which says it is “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.

From Janguiê’s perspective, it’s like this: to enter ancient Jerusalem, you had to go through a hole in the wall so narrow that only a camel could fit through. Hence the metaphor, because whoever was attached to material riches, excess baggage, would be left out.

It’s the parable of the rich young man. Jealous of the divine commandments, he got on his knees before Jesus and wanted to know how to proceed to achieve eternal life. He was advised to sell everything he had, which he found tricky.

Pastor Cláudio Duarte sums up the moral of the story: “Gain the land without losing the sky”. The Bible doesn’t forbid anyone to have money, he says. It’s just not worth putting it above God’s plans for you.

Now, if living in poverty is what the Lord wants for humanity, we wouldn’t have examples of very rich biblical characters, he argues. “On our turn, are we going to chip in? I don’t know where they got this madness.”

prosperity theology

“We were indoctrinated to think that wealth is a sin”, scolds Pablo Marçal. One of the most famous coaches in Brazil, who in 2022 was almost a candidate for president, he electrifies the Christ Summit audience.

Hello, would you have a minute to listen to the word of the Christian entrepreneur? “You can’t say for a minute that someone is going to talk about Prosperity Theology, they’re going to call you a rich young man.” They got it all wrong, he says.

The book of Revelation says that New Jerusalem, the city that God will make for believers, will have streets of gold. The message is clear, according to Marçal: “Wealth has to be mastered and kept under your feet”. The important thing is not to be like someone who tithes but does not give 1% of his heart to the divine work. “God is not kale for you to mix in your food, you can’t take God out of anything.”

Prosperity Theology has become a negative label in the minds of many Christians, laments Valandro, the mind behind Mordomos Mastermind, a mentoring program for those who want to “overcome limits”. All thanks to a conceptual confusion, as if this theological line defended that the person is worth the possessions he has. Nothing to see. “But we cannot dissociate that prosperity is also money.”

Theology is associated with neo-Pentecostal churches, such as Universal and Renascer, although it spills over to more denominations. It preaches that financial blessing, once seen as a sin, is a desire of the Creator.

Valandro identifies nearly 3,000 verses about money and material possessions. Solomon alone received 23 tons of gold each year, not including tribute. “You see what an enterprising mind he has,” he says, recalling that Israel’s king asked God to be wise. “He who asks for wisdom is on the way to wealth.”

A lion a day

Presented as the one who “pierced the evangelical bubble”, Cláudio Duarte is one of the most pop pastors in the country. Right away, he warns: “Today I come to talk about something that is very difficult to talk about in such a religious environment, which is prosperity”.

Let’s move on to practical tips: the Christian who wants to undertake needs to know his size, instructs. There are cats, jaguars and lions in this life, and the cat that thinks it has a mane is going to get hurt. And vice versa. Simba, the protagonist of “The Lion King”, did not see himself as one and almost missed the boat of his story. “Find out the size of your business.”

It can be colossal, like Solomon’s, the one in the temple that Universal emulated in a replica in São Paulo. He had 700 wives, 300 concubines and a thousand mothers-in-law, almost a branch of the Butantan Institute, jokes Duarte, mocking the commonplace that the spouse’s mother is a snake.

In short: “I just came to tell you to be very happy and earn a lot of money, and if you don’t like money, then I’ll send you my Pix”.

it was never luck

Investor João Kleper pairs the biblical Law of Sowing with the business world. The entrepreneur who sows and reaps with both hands makes a mistake. The right thing, he says, is to plant with two hands and reap with one. “What do you do with another one? Keep planting, keep investing.”

Kaká Diniz, married to the sertaneja Simone, former partner of Simaria, credits the devil with “so much they fought for this event not to happen”. Now it’s time to turn the page and learn how to “unblock prosperity”.

No one is going to get anything for free, he says. “God does not show the process, because if he shows you, you give up”. He did not anticipate to David that he would have to kill a lion, for example. “You will need to go through the pain because it teaches.”

The season is open for catchphrases, delivered with a sentimental soundtrack in the background.

Kaká ends his speech by saying that “it was never luck, it was always Jesus”. Natália Beauty, from the beauty sector, starts hers like this: “First they’ll call you crazy, then they’ll ask how you did it”. André Fernandes, from the Lagoinha church, jokes that “everybody thought Noé was stupid until the first drops fell”. There the ark he built at the behest of God seemed visionary.

Judge William Douglas, who was quoted by Bolsonaro for the promised evangelical seat on the Federal Supreme Court, proposes: imagine a patient who arrives at the emergency room with two shots, one in the chest and the other in the hand.

When we talk about the Bible, “the shot in the chest is knowing where you’re going to spend eternal life”, whether in heaven or in hell, he says. “But today I came to talk about shooting in the hand, which is secular life.” That is, the main thing is to take care of the spirit, but then it is good to treat the wound that can prevent you from living a full life.

Author of a bestseller with tips for passing contests, Douglas, who was approved in first place in several, says that insisting on a book initially rejected by publishers made him go far. It even gave him income to buy an 800 square meter penthouse overlooking Guanabara Bay.

He downplays the popular maxim that it is better to be poor healthy than rich sick. Envious thing, he says. “I want to be rich healthy and happy.” God is more.