J efferson runs an unusual ministry. Deeper Life recruits among the people no one else wants: the homeless, addicts, petty criminals just out of jail. They're pressured to tithe to the church and make additional offerings with whatever they have. In a number of cases, people give as much as 50 percent of such things as government assistance checks, records show.

BOD: They also undergo a rigorous 30-day indoctrination that requires them to memorize a list of 50 Bible verses. If they're ill, they're encouraged to throw away their medication and trust their health to God, a number of former members say.

When their indoctrination is finished, they're presumed to be rehabilitated. Many are then sent out to raise money for the church, for which they get paid $10 a day. It's called going ``on donations,'' and to judge from available evidence, the practice is enormously fruitful.

Dixon and another former midlevel church leader, Darrin Rich, say that over several years, they sent millions of dollars back to the mother church in Tampa from fundraising trips, usually addressing it to members of Jefferson's immediate family.

Public records show the church owns more than $4 million worth of real estate in at least five states including Florida. Jefferson and his immediate family appear to control all of it through the church. And, although the luxury cars are titled to the church, Jefferson and his family control them, too.

``This is an organization where nobody has a job,'' Dixon says. ``That's real hard to swallow. Where did [Jefferson] get this money from to buy a car? That money couldn't have come from tithes and offerings.''

Much of it came from donors who contributed to Deeper Life solicitors, Dixon says.

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