Dr. William Folohunso Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, has advised Christians to give their offerings to the poor and unemployed in their communities instead of the church.
In a viral video, Kumuyi told his congregation not to only spend money on building churches but also to help their less fortunate neighbors who struggle to meet basic needs.
Kumuyi shared a story about a preacher who encouraged his members to give their offerings to those in need.
It is worth noting that Daddy Freeze, a controversial OAP, has criticized some Nigerian pastors for their extravagant lifestyles while their followers live in poverty.
Freeze was quoted to have said, “When I started going against tithe, there’s no Nigerian pastor that didn’t respond. I just came and read the bible to them: Deuteronomy chapter 14, if you read from verse 22, it said, ‘Eat your tithe by yourself.’ I read it.
Kumuyi emphasized the importance of building the church but also reminded Christians to consider their neighbors who are suffering from hunger.
He said, “Look at all this offering we’re collecting, this church has silver and gold. I learned of a preacher somewhere who was having their church service. And he said, Now we’re going to collect the offering. If you have 10,000, N20,000, or N50,000, raise your hand, and they will be faithful.
“Then he stood up and said that N10,000, 20,000, and N50,000 go to the poor in your community. All the offering is not just church, there are poor, unemployed people around. There are indigent people around. We will build ours, but while you’re building, your neighbours are dying.
“Your neighbour, who does not have anything, your sisters, and your brother have nothing to send their children to school. We built DLICC (Deeper Life International Conference Centre) with all the offerings we could build. And we can now be at ease and allow our members to die of hunger and to be destroyed because they have nothing and we have the money.
“And what if this church, like we used to do in the olden days, in the good old days that we reserve some amount of money for charity? That we allocate some amount of money for building DLICC, and the district church, and the people we’re building for are dying of hunger, malnutrition, and starvation.
“Let’s budget part of the money, millions of our currency to take care of the people. Which one comes first when your house is leaking, and your mother is dying? How will you spend it—mending the leaking room or taking care of your mother?
“We should give priority to members of our church, even those who are not members. We know them, and we can contact them.
“We should not spend all our money on a building of a church that will not be raptured when Christ comes, because Christ is coming, he noted.
