Pastor David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries in Port Harcourt has sparked widespread conversation online after a video of him preaching about money, offerings and the link between giving and prosperity made the rounds on social media.
In the clip, the clergyman made a series of bold financial disclosures from the pulpit, telling his congregation that he gives a minimum of $12,000 every Sunday as an offering, and no less than $2,000 on weekdays. He added that this commitment holds even when he is travelling and not physically present in church, saying his offering would still be deposited in his absence.
He used the disclosure to make a pointed argument to his congregation: that his wealth has nothing to do with them. Whether they give to him or not, he said, is entirely irrelevant to his financial standing.
“If you don’t give your offering, I will be rich, stinkingly rich. I know how to move the handle of God. I am not depending on your money. If my birthday is coming, get angry and don’t give me any money. This guy will be stupendously rich because it is not coming from you. It is coming from my covenant work with God,” he said.
He then turned the message toward his congregation, offering what he described as the reason many of them remain in poverty. In his assessment, stinginess is the root cause of financial lack, and generosity is the path out of it.
“You know why you are poor? Stinginess is the gateway to poverty and giving is the gateway to prosperity. Make your choice. Every poor man is stingy,” he said. He went further to challenge members who spend freely on entertainment but bring minimal offerings to church, asking how someone could spend twenty thousand naira on personal enjoyment and then give two thousand naira to God.
The video has generated significant reactions online, with opinions divided between those who agree with his theology of giving and those who have raised questions about the messaging and its implications for congregants of modest means.
Watch the video below.
