Doctor William Folohunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, has advised Christians not to give their contributions to the church but rather to the destitute and unemployed in their community.
Kumuyi, who made the statement in a viral video, was heard urging his church audience that Christians should not spend all of their money on church construction but rather aid their needy neighbours who cannot buy basic necessities.
Kumuyi recounted how a preacher directed his congregation to donate money to the destitute and unemployed in their community.
Kumuyi stated that when building the church, Christians should remember their neighbours who are dying of famine.
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, reserved some amount of money for charity? 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 the building of a church that will not be raptured when Christ comes, because Christ is coming,” Kumuyi noted.
