Hardship: Pastor Kumuyi advises Christians to shun church and use their offerings to feed the hungry and jobless.

Doctor William Folohunso Kumuyi, the general superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, has counselled Christians to donate their offerings to the underprivileged and jobless in their local communities rather than to the church.

According to Sunday Vanguard, Kumuyi made the remarks in a video that went viral. He was heard telling his church members that instead of focusing all of their money on building churches, Christians should assist their impoverished neighbours who are unable to pay for their basic necessities.

Kumuyi told the story of a preacher who had told his followers to donate money intended for the underprivileged and jobless individuals in their community.

Remember how controversial OAP Daddy Freeze had criticised certain Nigerian pastors for leading ostentatious lives while their flocks were living in extreme 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 noted that it is good to build the church but while building, Christians must remember their neighbours dying of 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 N10,000, N20,000, or N50,000, raise your hand, and they will be faithful’.

“Then he stood up and said ‘that N10,000, N20,000, 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.

Just recently, it was reported how one of a family of six died after eating poisonous ‘Amala’ made from cassava pills.

Similarly, a popular online news medium reported how a father macheted his son over a portion of rice.

These sad incidents are coming on the heels of economic hardship facing the country, which has greatly impacted the cost of living and rising inflation figures in Nigeria.