Offering up confusion.
A Detroit pastor is under fire for ridiculing a worshipper who attempted to gift $1,200 to the church instead of the $2,000 he had requested during a fundraiser — as the minister defended his now-viral stance on giving.
Perfecting Church’s Bishop Marvin Winans was caught on camera sneering at a woman’s charity in front of her face as she delivered the large donation to the church during the congregation’s “Day of Giving” on Oct. 19.
“I, Roberta McCoy, give in faith, and stand in unity with the vision of Perfecting Church with sowing this seed of $1,000, plus $235 in receiving the blessings to come to all that participate,” McCoy read to the full congregation.
Winans created the event and asked congregants to donate $1,000 and raise $1,000 towards the completion of the church’s new cathedral.
Winans interrupted and scolded McCoy, saying she didn’t follow his directions and was short of the $2,000.
“Now that is only $1,200,” Winans said. “Y’all not listening to what I’m saying.
“If you have a thousand plus a thousand,” he began to say as McCoy argued she was going to “work on getting” the other $800.
“That ain’t what I asked you to do,” Winans said as murmurs erupted throughout the congregants.
Winans had asked people who were giving over $2,000 to step up and announce their donations, but some went against his rules — one church member announced they were giving $1.62, according to ABC7 Detroit.
The interaction between McCoy and her pastor was captured on a livestream and has since gone viral, garnering millions of views on social media.
Winans defended his infamous moment and revealing he was calling the congregants up by amount.
“I was calling because the whole church was giving, and it was our day of giving, and the whole church was coming, and we didn’t want people standing, the mothers and all that, so I was calling them by increments,” Winans told the outlet.
“And we had someone that had given out of order, and I corrected it, and I told everybody to listen and come when you call, and that’s all that was.”
McCoy held herself responsible for the mix-up.
“He absolutely did not rebuke me. Now there’s a difference. There was a correction because let me clearly state that pastor gave instruction on the lines to get into,” she said.
The worshipper revealed she has been the target of online threats since the video went viral, and wanted to clear the pastor’s name.
McCoy says Winans personally apologized to her after the service and will continue to give to her church as she has done since 2013.
Winans began the $23 million project two decades ago with the hopes of building the 3,200-seat Perfecting Church Cathedral in a few years.
The project stalled in 2008 after funding dried up because of the recession.
The 168,000-square-foot structure was abandoned until 2023, when the city of Detroit sued the church, stating the incomplete building was an eyesore.
Church officials proposed a new plan for the cathedral and construction resumed in August 2024 with plans to open the building in June 2026.
“We’ve been working. This is 2025, we been having folk in and out since we started back up, you know, it has been a continual grind, slowing some areas, some things, our long lead items where you have to place the order months and months ahead,” Winans told ABC7.
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