BALANCING BUSINESS & MINISTRY
Pastor Samuel Joshua
Entrepreneur Pastor Relishes His Experiences
Who is Pastor Samuel Joshua Okon?
By God’s special grace, I am a man brought from the streets to become somebody, simply by having the privilege of working directly with Bishop Dr. Gabriel Nkenang of Word Tabernacle. God has used him to change my life.
Apart from your calling as a pastor, you are an entrepreneur too; can you tell us about your brand?
Before I became a pastor, I worked with a federal parastatal but I was not too satisfied, as I wanted to do more and be of greater usefulness for humanity. It was then the idea of bread-baking came up while praying. Also, while reading my Bible, I discovered where it was talking about bread. It was then I shared the idea of bread-baking business with my wife. I didn’t have any knowledge about bread business; I studied geology at the University of Calabar before I got a job with NEPA.
One day, I was actually looking at the life of David, when he ran to Ahimelech, and then he was hungry and needed to eat something. And Ahimelech told him there was nothing except shrew bread. The priest explained to him that the shrew bread was not for commoners, especially people who have not refrained themselves from women but David told the priest himself and his men have stayed away from women for three days. So, the priest gave him hallowed bread.
As I was relating this experience with my wife, I told her, ‘let’s start bread baking business and brand it, Hallowed bread. That’s how we started. The vision was birthed in 2020; interestingly also, that season marked the beginning of the stay at home during the COVID. And since then, everything has been fine, because God gave us the vision.
How has the journey been so far?
It’s been amazing, there have not been much challenges; every day we keep learning. The journey has been smooth, it has been good, as the day goes by, we see other things coming and we’ll go back to the drawing board and pray, get the confirmation. The beauty of it is about people appreciating what you are doing and patronizing it; this encourages you to keep doing what you are doing and keep going on; building the body of Christ, building your life.
How do you combine these two – ministry and business?
One of the advantages I have in bread production business is that as I recruit people into the factory to work, I’m already recruiting you into the ministry; because we hold devotion also at work. Some people say I am selfish in doing that, my answer is simple: my staff need to listen to the message I listen to, you need to get the vibes I get.
You need to understand my vision, so two of us can work together. So the advantage we have is that our workers are also in the vineyard. We create time for work and worship.
We have no conflict about work and worship because we have allocated time for both; God has his own place and then the work has its own place. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the work will go, but Jesus will remain, so we cultivate this understanding in our workers and prepare them for eternity where all of us will eventually experience.
The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, is a Pastor and an entrepreneur. How do you assess his performance so far?
The best thing that has happened to Akwa Ibom State is God giving us a pastor that knows a lot. The Scripture says when the righteous is at the throne, the people rejoice. Today, you can also affirm and attest to the fact that Jesus has come to stay in Akwa Ibom State. The fact that the affairs and government is controlled by a pastor, means that Jesus is directly with us, and of course, with the introduction of the ARISE Agenda, all what we need to do is tuning into the ARISE Agenda policies.
The Governor is God sent, and then we must begin to support him, both in prayers, and then support the things he’s doing. He is doing a lot for the State, He would say, ‘Let’s go for a town hall meeting…,’ He sits down with the people to put things in proper perspectives. So, I don’t know what God would have done to Akwa Ibom State more than giving us this kind of a man, and he is so humble, he talks well with his people. He’s not looking down on people.
One of the things that shocked me most is that he has time to go to church despite how busy he is, he still has time to go for worship and time for prayer. So, I would say the best thing that God has done for Akwa Ibom is to enthrone a pastor, we appreciate God for giving us this kind of a man; his policies accommodate people in business, and we are supporting him.
What advice do you have for people in business?
Recently, our Governor is encouraging entrepreneurs with business grants, we need to also begin to tap from the benevolence of our Governor; we need to go closer. My advice would be, as a business person, don’t shut your ears to politics. You must be involved in what is happening within your locality.
Christendom does not mean people should begin to leave politics for other people. As far as you are in business, you should get involved, be involved in your ward, be involved in your local government area. This is how you can access assistance from government, maybe from referral. So, the beauty of it is that, as a business person, get involved in what is happening. When you get involved, then you are sure that over time the dividends will come.
