Kumuyi tells Christians to shun church, use offerings to feed poor amid hardship

The General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Doctor William Folorunsho Kumuyi, has urged Christians to give their offerings to the poor and unemployed around them rather than taking them to church.

As captured in a video that has gone viral online, Kumuyi gave the advice while addressing his church congregation regarding the current hardship in the country.

He drew an example from how a preacher had instructed his members to give monies meant for offerings to the poor and unemployed people around them.

Nigeria is currently bedevilled with a three-pronged challenge of hunger, rising cost of food items and eroding purchasing power.

The economic hardship is pushing the people to the edge, with pockets of protests already springing up in different parts of the country.

On Friday, March 1, 2024, hoodlums attacked a BUA truck conveying cartons of spaghetti at the Dogarawa axis of the Zaria-Kano expressway in Kaduna State, carting away the content.

Similarly, some hoodlums hijacked trailers loaded with food items in the Suleja area of Niger State about a week ago, stealing bags of rice, among other foodstuffs, amid the widespread hunger crisis in the country.

Amid the unsettling times, Kumuyi pleaded that Christians should not spend all their money on building churches alone but also reserve some to help their needy neighbours afford basic things of life.

He stressed that even though it's good to build the church while at it, Christians must remember their neighbour who may die 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.